Thinking...

   Now that we are home from India, where do we go from here? I don't mean do more traveling right away I mean, how do we respond to what we have seen, what we have experienced? A passion has grown inside both of us to see all the Dalit (untouchables) children get educated.  The leaders of the school we visited stated that if we could get more and more Dalits educated the caste system would be gone within 20-30 years. This would be amazing. The DEC's are run by Christians but the Hindus and Muslims want their kids there anyway because the educations is so much better than the government run schools where the higher up caste send their kids. We need more children sponsored so more kids can go. We will be sending a link to let you know how this can happen.

Home with India

We have made it home after about 30 hours of traveling. We have brought India home with us. We would like you to return to this blog over the next few weeks/months (or longer?) to hear more detailed stories about our time in India. I am encouraging you to join us in prayer and practical loving actions that we can do together to bring more hope and love to the people we met and to many others who we have only heard about. Please stay tuned... we will try to keep it interesting and we will do our best to bring India home to you too. Thank you for your prayers and support!

Relationships

Janice and I have had a great time getting to know the teachers and children of the Good Shepherd School. We have been teaching at the school daily for the last week and tomorrow is the last day of our visit with them  before we travel to other places in India. I am amazed at how close we have become in such a short period of time. We will miss them and it will be hard to say goodbye.

Medical Camp

It is 3 am... Exhausted but can't sleep. We saw hundreds of people in our medical clinic today from the village where we have been teaching in the school. My mind is racing with all the stories I heard and all the questions they have about health and life in general. Can't stop thinking about the women who think it is normal that they get beaten. With my arm around their shoulders and tears in my eyes I pleaded with them to know that they are valued and created for a purpose.
Thank you to all who donated eye glasses. There were hundreds of pairs.  Chris is our team optometrist. He was energized as many were fitted with glasses and left with big smiles on their faces.

Teaching...

Hello from India! We were finally able to get on the internet at our hotel. It shuts down a lot.

These last few days have been incredible. We have been having a great time teaching at the Dalit Education Center. This school has been started for the children who have been denied education due to the caste they were born into. We have fallen in love with them. They are so well behaved and eager to learn. Chris has been teaching Math and I have been teaching health and nutrition. There are about 150 kids in grades K-6. We play lots of games with them and they try to teach us their games and laugh when we don't understand the rules. Monday was a national holiday... Kite day!! The whole city shuts down and thousands of kites can be seen in the sky. We flew kites with the kids and had a blast with them.

We have been eating lots of curry and everything we eat is very hot and spicy. Lots of chicken and rice. The weather has been in the 80's and very nice.

I taught health and nutrition at a womens meeting where the majority of the women there were HIV positive. They had lots of questions for me. I really enjoyed interacting with the women of the village. They were so open and told us sad stories of the abuse and rejection in their lives.

Today Chris shared at a men's empowerment meeting. He realized the men who attended have a deep desire to have a better life for their children and are willing to work hard for this opportunity.

We are exhausted after long hours and traffic that is out of control. 

We love you!!! Janice and Chris

This man wanted to show us his talent!

It is a national holiday here in Gujarat, India. It is kite day. We saw thousands of kites in the sky and in the trees as you can see behind the building. Everything shuts down and people are all together flying kites. We are in the city of Ahmedabad, a very busy and crowded city. Lots of sights and sounds to see. The streets are full of kids, buses, rickshaws, bikes, wild dogs and sacred cows.

Off to India

Yes, we leave for this foreign land tomorrow(Jan. 13th). As we do our last minute packing (which, by the way, I always leave packing to the last minute, I don't like that I do that, but I do), I contemplate my motives. Am I going because of my own desires or to "help people", or to get recognition or why am I really doing this? Some people ask us why we go to a land that is inconvenient, uncomfortable and full of sickness and risk.  Even though this is a dream of Chris and mine to serve God in this way together I still don't think this is the motive to go. I see more and more that this life is not about us and all about God. He alone has put it on our hearts to love the unlovable, the forgotten, and be His hands and feet on this earth. We are compelled by His love to share this with others. We are compelled to follow the call of God above our own personal safety and personal preferences. Finally, we are compelled to not avoid the call of God in the name of safety and comfort. I know this is only for 2 and a half weeks out of our life but only God knows where this will lead us as we travel along with Him as He opens the right doors for us on His path. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Dalit ... what does it mean?

Janice and I will be spending much of our time in India visiting a Dalit Education Center in Gujarat State. The word Dalit is defined on the website Wikipedia as a self-designation for a group or groups of people regarded as lower class and unsuitable for making personal relationships. You may have heard the term "untouchable" For more information please visit:
                 Wikipedia's entry on the word Dalit

As we have been learning more about the realities of the caste system in India we have been compelled to share the love of Jesus with the marginalized people of India. We pray that we can help the readers of this blog to be more informed and join us in prayer and take steps of action to help combat this injustice. Please stay tuned our trip begins in just over a week.