Anna has recently informed me that the local people whisper, shout, and sometimes exclaim "foreigner!" as we walk down the street together. Good to know I am blending in well...
This past weekend has been packed full of activity. We had a wonderful family of seven come and stay at the guest house and I enjoyed all the activity. Sometimes it gets lonely in the house by myself especially during mealtimes. All five kids were wonderful in their own ways and made me feel a bit old. The oldest child is 16 and she and I bonded a lot. She is intelligent, passionate and sweet. The middle child, also a girl, is 12 and loves One Direction. When she saw my 1D cup she ran to sit in front of me, stared me in the eyes and after about 20 seconds said, "I bet you are one of those stereotypical Harry lovers." Caught me red-handed. She then stared at me again and stated she was going to guess my favorite color. She nailed that too. I am kindred spirits with a 12 year old. What else is new? I enjoyed all the kids, but the girls were my favorite.
Saturday morning Anna, Mark and myself went to the tea gardens to try and find the name of a little girl that my church wanted to show a picture of. We also went because I will be unable to go for another two weeks and I wanted to see the kids before I left. During my time here I have not been particularly drawn to the tea gardens and sometimes I feel like it is just something to do, but whenever I get there and start talking to the kids I feel at home. There are two little ones that I am drawn to. The first is a girl about 9 years old who always wants to hold my hand and the second is a 7 year old boy named Joy who has proven to be quite clever. I shared the gospel in color and told them they were beautiful. One little boy wanted to show off his fast running so I made sure to make him feel like an Olympic athlete by the time I left by showering him with praises.
That night we had worship with all the families and movie night. This week was my week to share and I felt the Holy Spirit leading me to Psalm 22:1-5 and Joshua 4:1-9. I shared that in the Psalm David feels like God has forsaken him and that he is alone. However, he reminds himself of what he knows...that God is Holy and has never abandoned him before. This fact brings us to Joshua where God commands the Israelites to set up 12 stones from the Jordan river which the Lord had led them across to memorialize what He had just done for them. God knows that we are quick to forget His goodness to trust in our temporary feelings. I told the group of how my dad and I often let ourselves get overwhelmed so we have set up physical monuments to help us remember. If you have been to my house, my dad has rocks all around our scenic backyard that represent the times in his life when God was faithful. To top it off we have a boulder in our driveway that reminds my dad that God was faithful all throughout his depression and that God never left him. Mine is not nearly that big. I wrote all the times that God was faithful on the back of my college diploma. He was faithful in my friends, my roommates, my jobs, my grades, my internship, and that I graduated debt free. I then basically made everyone go around and share "a stone" from their lives. I think it encouraged them. It is very easy to forget God past faithfulness here in this dark country.
The next day we went to a jungle and explored a bit. Two of our volunteers were chased by monkeys here this summer, but no such luck for me. I only saw the tame ones. We then went back to the tea gardens where some Muslims had set up the cattle auction for Eid Corbani on Wednesday. I will give more detail on that after the day. All you need to know now is that these cows days are numbered. Shannon took me to see the Hindu temple that was decked out for Durga Puja, the festival that honors a Hindu goddess. The Hindus make a little clay sculptures of the goddess and throw it into a river where it dissolves representing rebirth and new life. Somehow these extremely poor people were able to get a stereo system for the holiday and were blasting music. When they saw us walk up they changed it to "One less lonely girl" by Justin Bieber. It was weird. We then headed to a cafe of sorts where they are famous for their seven layer tea. It is so secret that they make the tea in a separate room with the doors locked. Kathy made a comment that this fact should be a bit disconcerting considering the health standards of a third world country, but whatever it was so good.
After lunch Anna and I went to one of our parlors, but our lady there was too busy getting women beautiful for the holidays so we left. It takes a few tries for us to get a rickshaw home because it is quite a haul, but after three tries we got a guy. This guy was super cute. He looked like a boy that I went to college with that my roommates and I dubbed "clean skin boy" because of his flawless bronzed skin. Original right? Anyway, this driver looked like the South Asian version so I gave him a really big tip and called the day a success.
As the time gets closer to Eid my spirit becomes more and more unsettled. I am ready for this week to be over. Please pray for these people as they are blinded to truth and believe that the sacrifice of a cow will earn them merit and will atone for their sins. More and more bulls come into our city everyday and each one serves as a reminder of just how hard our work is and constantly brings me to what I know. My wonderful friend shared this verse with me this week: "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9. With this verse in mind I will keep fighting the good fight trusting that God will do work in His own time.
This past weekend has been packed full of activity. We had a wonderful family of seven come and stay at the guest house and I enjoyed all the activity. Sometimes it gets lonely in the house by myself especially during mealtimes. All five kids were wonderful in their own ways and made me feel a bit old. The oldest child is 16 and she and I bonded a lot. She is intelligent, passionate and sweet. The middle child, also a girl, is 12 and loves One Direction. When she saw my 1D cup she ran to sit in front of me, stared me in the eyes and after about 20 seconds said, "I bet you are one of those stereotypical Harry lovers." Caught me red-handed. She then stared at me again and stated she was going to guess my favorite color. She nailed that too. I am kindred spirits with a 12 year old. What else is new? I enjoyed all the kids, but the girls were my favorite.
Kathy broke out her Pampered Chef skills and we showed two of our Muslim friends how to make pizza. They had never tasted its goodness.
Joy is on the far left in the plaid and the girl on the last row wearing orange is the one who wants to hold my hand.
How Anna keeps cool.
The next day we went to a jungle and explored a bit. Two of our volunteers were chased by monkeys here this summer, but no such luck for me. I only saw the tame ones. We then went back to the tea gardens where some Muslims had set up the cattle auction for Eid Corbani on Wednesday. I will give more detail on that after the day. All you need to know now is that these cows days are numbered. Shannon took me to see the Hindu temple that was decked out for Durga Puja, the festival that honors a Hindu goddess. The Hindus make a little clay sculptures of the goddess and throw it into a river where it dissolves representing rebirth and new life. Somehow these extremely poor people were able to get a stereo system for the holiday and were blasting music. When they saw us walk up they changed it to "One less lonely girl" by Justin Bieber. It was weird. We then headed to a cafe of sorts where they are famous for their seven layer tea. It is so secret that they make the tea in a separate room with the doors locked. Kathy made a comment that this fact should be a bit disconcerting considering the health standards of a third world country, but whatever it was so good.
I was incredibly car sick at this time so that explains why I am looking rough.
As the time gets closer to Eid my spirit becomes more and more unsettled. I am ready for this week to be over. Please pray for these people as they are blinded to truth and believe that the sacrifice of a cow will earn them merit and will atone for their sins. More and more bulls come into our city everyday and each one serves as a reminder of just how hard our work is and constantly brings me to what I know. My wonderful friend shared this verse with me this week: "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9. With this verse in mind I will keep fighting the good fight trusting that God will do work in His own time.
Family bonding.
I am enjoying reading all about your travel. I saw your family this week at Seth's first scrimmage game. I still can't believe he is in college. He is doing well though. We miss you and pray for you often. <3
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