Until tomorrow ...

We visited 3 homes today & witnessed the most poverty either of us has ever seen. But we also witnessed some of the most evident Kingdom work that we have ever seen.
AND we forgot our camera in the car so we'll have to wait until tomorrow to post pictures. Since we are tired & things have more meaning when you can put faces with the stories, we're just going to wait until then to share about our day. Thanks for following & continuing to pray for us!
Love,
Andy & Vanessa

"God will provide"

Today we went to Bethany Blessing children's home. It was 4 stories with a total of just over 1,000 square feet. The first floor was the church and the top floor was the roof/boys' bedroom. Needless to say, it wasn't much for 23 people (19 orphans, 2 parents, and their 2 kids). It was also right next to the sewage river for Bangalore, so it didn't smell very good either. But, like the home yesterday, the children had so much joy. They were so excited to sing for us and to play duck, duck, goose with us! We did have a language barrier today, so it was harder to communicate with the kids, but our interpreter, Joshua, was wonderful. We got out the crafts (pictures below) and they had a great time with the paint & glue.

I was immediately drawn to the 3 older girls (ages 13, 14, 15). At dinner last night we talked about arranged marriages and dowries in India. Girls need a husband pretty much to survive here. All marriages are arranged and the bride's family must meet the monetary demands of the groom's family (dowry). I couldn't help but wonder what would happen to these girls in the next couple of years. How could this family afford a dowry? Or to send them to college? What does their future hold? There was one girl in particular (in the pink & white) who kept hugging me and holding my hand and telling me thank you. After a tour of the home, we were talking with Pastor James (the father to the kids) and I asked what would happen to the girls as they got older. He said they would go to college and then get married. I asked how he would pay for that. His response was, "God will provide." I then asked how much it costs for a semester at college. He and Joshua talked for a minute, converting rupees to dollars, and then said "$300." I was speechless. I had to walk away because of the lump in my throat.
First, I was convicted because Andy & I are already saving for our kids' college funds. When we need something, we figure out a way to pay for it. Rarely do we just trust that God will provide. Rarely do we NEED to. Secondly, we (Andy & I) could pay for these girls to go to college. No, we don't make a lot of money on one & a half teachers' salaries, but we could easily save $300 a semester. The tears began to flow as I realized how fortunate & how privileged we are. Also as I realized how often I have to have a plan for things. I'm still processing this, so I don't have a nice neat conclusion today. I'm realizing that meeting people who live in poverty makes a much bigger impact than just reading about it...

Handing out gifts. 

Some of the boys showing off their new clothes! 

Helping the with the pictures - the boy above was born mute.

Andy & a few of the boys - they couldn't get enough of him! :)

 

 

 Showing off their artwork.

 The view from the top floor/roof - the city sewage.

                                             Us with all of the kids at Bethany Blessing

Us with the whole family at Bethany Blessing.

 

 

 

As promised, I wanted to share a little bit more today about Agape. Like I said above, you could hardly call it an orphanage.  It is a home – the children are loved deeply and exude joy.  Agape is a good name.  This is not the kind of orphanage you leave hoping to take the children home to get them out of their circumstance - it is more a reflection of what it looks like to adopt multiple children and take them in as an equal part of the family - a reflection of God's family. The parents, Tonglen and Gloria Diane are a beautiful picture of what it looks like to be a team and to show love to all their children. Andy & I spent the majority of the time we were there playing with the kids - doing crafts, reading books, throwing the frisbee, singing songs, ect. while Thor met with Gloria Diane & Tonglen to talk about more administrative stuff. (The Boaz Project supports them financially & wants to make sure to follow India law in the way that do that.) Anyway, toward the end of our visit I got to talk to Glory Diane for a few minutes. I asked her about the first child they took in and she responded that they got married in 2006 and within a few months had their first 2 children. They got married in 2006. That's 2 years after Andy & I did. Yet, they have taken in 10 children into their family already. They don't have much (as evidenced in the pictures below), but they trust that God will provide because He has called them to care for His orphans. Why do I feel like I have to have my life just the way I want it before responding to the same calling he has placed on my heart? We've known since we got married in 2004 that God wants us to care for orphans as well, but we've been waiting until it fits into "our plan" and "our timeline." Until our own kids are a little older, we have a bigger house, enough money to support a bigger family, & feel like we can handle the chaos & stress of more kids.  Our prayers have been that the Holy Spirit would open our eyes & hearts to His vision for us & our family. We feel like this may be the beginning of what He wants to say to us in our time here…

 Glory showing off the refrigerator that Boaz bought for them.

 Her pantry

 Their dishes... and I complain about not having enough room in my kitchen....

Waving goodbye!

Agape

Today we went to Agape Children's Home. To call it an orphanage wouldn't really be accurate. It's a home of 9 children - all who were at one time orphaned or neglected/abused, but it functions like a family. It was really awesome to see this interaction & the way this couple has truly made each of these children their own. I think we'll post more in the morning (its been a long day & we're still adjusting to the time change) but since that'll be about the time most of you go to bed I wanted to share a few photos. :) Enjoy!

Adjustments

Our first day in India could only be summed up in the title above.  We arrived at 5:00 am, which is 6:30pm in Indiana.  Okay, we knew that, not a big deal.  Next, we rode to our hotel in a minivan-ish vehicle.  Here are the rules our driver obeyed throughout our day.

1. Drive on the left side of the road - most of the time. If someone is going slower than you, just go around them. Try to stay at least an inch from the cars around you.
2. If, by some rare occasion, there is a stoplight or stop sign, obey it.
3. Try not to hit anyone/anycow.
4. Right of way goes to the largest vehicle or to continuous traffic.
5. When there is no stoplight, inch your way forward slowly until you are nearly hitting every car streaming by and you can cut off a vehicle smaller than you.

*Sidenote from Vanessa - I could NOT drive here. About once every minute I really thought we were going to get hit or hit someone else! Also, horns are much more useful here. When someone is in your way, you honk at them. Sitting in our hotel listening to traffic we hear constant horns.

That being said, we will post some nice photos/videos for you to see the rules in action.  I'll let them speak for themselves.

One of the things that I found unique in the best possible way is that reputation is of utmost importance. So, when shopping, the merchants go to great lengths to provide you with the best service possible while still keeping themselves in business.  They actually get out and unpackage the clothes for you and lay them out for you to look at and keep doing so until you are satisfied.  If they don't have what you want, they send someone to another shop to find it for you. At first it was kind of fun to figure out what to buy for the orphans, but after a couple of hours it was getting old. We bought one outfit for each of the 55 orphans we are going to see.  Then after a bunch of haggling via our interpreter, Joshua, we got a very fair price and left with 4 large bags of children's clothes.

As I write this on Thursday morning, I am just anxious to get to the orphanages.  Though we did a lot by finding clothes for the orphans, it all seems like a bunch of waiting.  Please pray for the Holy Spirit to work in and through us today at the orphanage.  Pray especially that we will have enough energy to give and that Vanessa and I can catch a little more of God's vision for us and our family as it relates to caring for the orphans.  Please also pray for a decision about a specific home in India.  One home that we aren't planning to visit is one where they literally rescue baby girls out of the dump.  To get there means a flight instead of a car ride on a day that would otherwise be spent sight-seeing.  However, it was one home that when I heard about it, I thought that I really wanted to be able to go there.  So, pray for wisdom and discernment in that.

Until next time,

Andy

 Andy and Joshua picking out clothes for a girl.

 Picking out boys clothes...stood here for a couple hours.  They did serve us some tea/warm milk and mango juice while we did our shopping.

Money exchange

You can probably imagine how comforted we were when this is where we had to go to exchange money...

Our hotel

Here are some pictures of our hotel room and scenery. Also pictured is the bathroom/shower - yes, the bathroom essentially doubles as a shower. At least this place has a toilet...

We made it!

We made it safely! After 30 hours of travel we made it to our hotel at 7am this morning. Took a nap & a shower & are now planning to spend this afternoon shopping for gifts for the orphans. Not much to report at this point but wanted to let everyone know we made it here! Pray for adjustment to local time & energy - right now we're pretty exhausted! More to come later...

Prayer Requests

Thanks for checking out our blog! We can hardly believe that we leave for India in 4 days! We know how important and powerful prayer is, so below are ways you can support us through prayer while we are gone.

• Travel safety - neither of us have a lot of experience traveling internationally. We'll be by ourselves until we get to London & the whole trip home. Pray that we make all of our connecting flights, especially on the way home (more on this later!) In addition, we will not meet our trip leader until we get to London so pray that we're able to make that connection easily. I (Vanessa) have some anxiety about our safety & travel - mostly related to leaving our kids. Please pray for peace for me as we travel and that we make it there and home safely!
• That God would use this time - both for us to show His love to the kids we will be visiting in the orphanages & for Him to give us a vision for how our family can be more engaged with those in need around the world. Pray that our minds & hearts would be open to whatever He wants to teach/show us through this trip.
• Spicy Food - this sounds silly, but I don't do well with spicy food. Nacho cheese from the concession stand is too spicy for me. And we're going to India. Enough said ;) More importantly though, the orphanages will be serving us their best food and doing their best to make it not spicy so I want to be able to eat what they serve us.
• Our kids - Andy's parents will be staying with them until New Years & then my mom will be with them the rest of the time we're gone. Pray that there's no sickness or injuries, that they sleep well (this has been an issue recently), & are well behaved (especially while it's just my mom with them!) 
• Our transition home - we were originally supposed to get home on Jan 2nd, but now we don't get in to the Indy airport until 12:05 AM on Jan 4th. We're technically supposed to go back to school on the 4th, but we're both taking the day off. This means I work both the 5th & 6th. Andy, on the other hand, is flying back OUT of the Indy airport at 5pm on the 4th. (I know, he's crazy!!) He's going with some other teachers & principals to look at a high-tech high school in Florida on Thursday & Friday. Please pray that he's able to process this extreme change of culture and get over the jet-lag quickly. Pray also for Vanessa & the kids as we'll be home on our own for a couple of days.  

Thanks! We love knowing that we have family & friends praying for us.

Check back often while we're gone for updates! :)