Time Continues!

Another week down. Monday my mom and Debbie arrive! All the kids know already (don't ask me how) and each one asks me about her every time they see me. "Brooke! Your mom is coming? When, monday?" Even though I know they already know this... They are excited for some more foreigners to arrive, and so am I! We already have two meal invitations from different families. I'm thinking we should have visitors more often!

Pramila :)

Yesterday was our sister Prim's birthday. It was kind of supposed to be a secret, because they hadn't planned any meal or cake for all the staff (which is expected). But......the secret kind of got out. I may not have helped when I went and asked our neighbors if I could use their microwave to make a cake for her. Unfortunately, the microwave option didn't work out, but they decided to announce to the whole school that it was her birthday! I felt bad, so I went a bought a cake in town and we shared it with all the staff. The day was saved, no problem. :) 

But, since I couldn't make a cake for her, I decided to make the next best thing that I could decorate, a pancake! Topped with some peanut butter frosting and candies, I'm pretty sure they enjoyed it, especially little Nancy, who is addicted to sweets already at a young age of two. 

Her middle name should be sugar

This Sabbath flew by. In the afternoon we led Bible study as usual and then we hosted a game night for the kids. We have a bunch of gifts for kids, but not enough for everyone, so we had to come up with some creative ways to give stuff away! It was kind of a long night, but they had fun, and so did we. It's crazy how much a small gift, such as an eraser, can make a kid so happy. I think the most popular new game he introduced was the one where you race eating a donut that is dangling on a string (only we used Jelabi, deep fried sweets that are somewhat similar to donuts...). It was a hit!

The same girls quiz me every day, "what is my name ma'am?" and every day I tell them their names...again. Today I decided to let them know that I will never forget their names. I will remember forever! Maybe they will finally stop asking, but I doubt it. :)

I have been stuck on a thought all day that I read this morning: 

We learn to trust God with our future when we remember what He has done for us in the past. So when we are thankful for all that God has done and is doing, we not only gain joy, but we grow in faith. 

It's so interesting how many places in the Bible express that we should 'give thanks' that I have never noticed before. It can be a real challenge to be thankful sometimes...I try not to be cliche when thanking God, but sometimes it ends up that way. I just need to remember that the little things should be my focus, making the familiar become unfamiliar and thanking God for it. A verse happened to appear in the Bible study lesson I did with my kids today... it was Colossians 2:7

"Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with THANKFULNESS."

There it is again, the Bible sneaks in some thought about giving thanks... it's everywhere! Our faith will grow strong in the truth we were taught. So the truth from our past. We see what God has done for us, thank him for it, and we know he has a will for us in the future that is good and pleasing and perfect. [Romans 12:2] I think that's a good enough reason to trust.

One of the cutest people on this planet!

Sun flower fields in full bloom.

***

What you don't know won't hurt you

I have been reading about thankfulness and gratitude. I received a book from an amazing person that is very inspiring. It's called 'One Thousand Gifts' and is written by Ann Voskamp. She talks about her search for joy by making a list of things she loves or is thankful for, not just the usual list like 'my family' or 'my friends' or 'a roof over my head,' but the simple things in life that usually go unnoticed. The small things that are gifts from God but we normally don't even think about twice. So I've been trying to notice these things and be thankful for the simple and small things in hopes it will bring me joy.

When we first got back from our trip, I was so happy! Our apartment was so homey and I had missed our friends here. I was in such a good mood. It's silly that a mood can change so quickly... The past couple days have been frustrating and a struggle to be thankful. As much as I don't feel like being nice to people who frustrate me, I have told myself I have to kill with kindness. I will admit, I complain and grumble to myself about how generous I am being with nothing in return when I definitely should not... But it is irritating! I don't want to be nice when someone comes and TELLS me to give them my ziplock bags. Or when I'm told I can bake away (my therapy) with the oven I usually borrow as soon as it's fixed and then go to the work of hunting down someone to fix it, only to have it taken and sent away as soon as it's finished! I ask myself, why do I share my cakes and cookies all the time with people who seem to selfishly hoard theirs?

I guess there are always those people in life that you won't get along with. They will frustrate you and drive you crazy but if we got along with everyone, what would be the challenge of life? I think about how I should be thanking God for all the small gifts and be happy regardless of those challenges. I read, not only in the book by Ann Voskamp, but in another by Ravi Zacharias about Appreciative-love. "Thank you" is the highest form of love. He writes that this is how we worship God and use our love and gratitude together as powerful weapon.

I found it funny that in a two day period, the books I'm reading emphasized the same point. It makes me think about how God speaks to us. I don't think I've ever really felt that God has spoken to me personally, but maybe its because I just don't notice it? Maybe I need to notice things like this and take note because it could be God making a point for me to remember. That must simply be the way He works, but I guess we won't know until we get there. It's like a train in India. You ride the train for hours, really having no idea where you are on the map and not knowing exactly when you will arrive at your destination. You can ask people around you and they will tell you some amount of time, but really they are just guessing and are often very wrong! No one really knows, not even the conductor, because things always happen along the way that cannot be predicted. But that is the mystery of it all. That's the excitement, the wonder and awe! We don't know how God works. He does it, and we live. If we knew everything about the end and all the wonders of God, we would lose interest. When you finish a good mystery book or movie, you don't keep reading or watching it over and over because there is no way to have that feeling of excitement or wonder every again. You know how it ends, so its not as fun to experience the story again! I think God made our lives a mystery on purpose. And I am glad that we don't know how things work or why things happen. Otherwise life would be unbearably boring. So I truly thank God for not telling me where or when because anticipation is what fuels our lives. I can plan as much as I want, but it will never turn out exactly as I think it will. Our lives are just like the books, and what would a good story be without some conflict or pain or confusion? If the main character always had it together or always knew what was coming next, would they enjoy their part? Nope.

The mystery and wonder, the questions and confusion and struggle to make decisions, those are blessings. And I thank God for those things because life would be robotic without them!

Travels and more travels

I did not know what I was in for when we set out on our Christmas journey on December 9th. We stepped onto our first delayed sleeper class train at 1 in the morning and shared two berths because only two of our tickets were confirmed. The first people we encountered were a group of about ten bald guys who spoke loudly, laughed a lot, and smoked their cigarettes late into the night. It was a shock. But over the course of the last month, we have gotten comfortable jumping onto these gross trains where the mice run freely and the berths and walls look like they haven't been washed in 20 years. There is always someone playing indian music loudly from their cell phone and some guy walking down the aisle with his canteen and tiny cups yelling "chai coffee chai coffee!" (They always seem to pause a little longer at our berth...just checking us out). It is an experience I will never forget.

We have traveled a complete circle around India. I am currently sitting on our first AC 2 Tier class train that we decided to upgrade to for our last 20 hour train ride (let me tell you, it is plush!!!). In about two hours, we will arrive in Vijayawada where we jump on a bus for 10 hours that will take us back to our school! I honestly can't wait to get back. 

Our trip was a lot of fun. In summary, we started by spending a few days at the beach in Goa on the west coast of India. Here we cruised around on rented scooters and enjoyed the sand and the sun. Evan met up with us here. We then headed north to Mumbai for a day and a half where we saw the Elephanta caves and did some exploring of the biggest city in India. Then we headed to Jaipur in Rajasthan and saw the Amber fort, Jantar Mantar observatory, some camels, and some more cool Aladdin looking architecture. We continued on the golden triangle to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, then up to New Delhi. From Delhi we got on the longest train ride of our lives that took us to a town that was a few hours from the Nepal border. The train was six hours late to the station, so we didn't end up leaving on it until about 3:30 in the morning. This 12 hour trip turned out being about 21 hours long and we finally arrived at 10 pm where we crammed eleven people in a jeep and took off for the border where we woke up the officials (since it was the middle of the night) to get our visa and got on the first bus leaving for Pokhara, Nepal at 3:45 am in order to avoid the strike that wouldn't let buses through later that morning. Nine hours later, we FINALLY arrived in Pokhara, exhausted. Pokhara is great because its on a lake, and you can see the mountains. We spent Christmas here and even did small trek into the hills. We headed off on another long bus ride to Kathmandu for New Years and the next day, an even longer bus ride to the eastern border of Nepal. We weren't so lucky this time and got stuck in the strike creating another crazy long journey to reach the mountain town of Darjeeling, Inida. We made a nice German friend named Philip along the way and ended up hanging out with him for our time up in the hills of Darjeeling where we went to a tea plantation, a tea festival, tasted tea, bought tea, and then left in order to catch our train to Kolkata where Evan would fly home (Darjeeling is famous for its tea in case you were wondering). From Kolkata, Trevor, Sid, and I got on our last train and are almost on the last leg of our journey back to the farm land of Andhra Pradesh. 

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the small town that we are living in. The big cities are cool to visit, but being based in a little town out in the middle of nowhere is a blessing. 

The lonely planet was our best friend on this journey, but we wouldn't have been able to do it without the good friends we made along the way who helped us get from place to place. I learned a lot on this trip, but I am excited to be almost back. I have missed our friends and family at the school and can't wait to see them... Over the past month I have been reminded of how blessed we are to be surrounded by our Indian families during these seven months away from home. It's good to have a place to be taken care of. I spent about a week of our time traveling sick as a dog and wishing I could stay in one place and be taken care of. Now I can really appreciate all the pestering I get when I'm sick at the school when everyone wants to come and visit me or make me "porridge" or tell me to drink hot water (haha)... Friends and family are GOOD! And I love them. :)

More photos of our trip will be coming soon!!!

I don't know what the plan was for this photo!

Scootering in Goa :)