Finished Program

It's Saturday morning... yesterday we finished the children's program in the slum area. It turned out that only Aaron, Janelle, and I could go yesterday because Dawn and Becky were very sick. But other than that, it was so fun to see the program come to a close. The kids were so excited to share their memory verses with us, perform a skit, and sing songs. They kinda got to take over and lead he program. It was very fun.






Last night we went to this dance show. It was a Jazz dance thing that Dawn wanted to go to because the girl she met in the cafe was performing. It was very interesting though. The show was set up like a history timeline. One of the major markers was the death AND RESURRECTION of Christ! The announcer even said something like "when the Christ was killed for the sin of all people...." It was very interesting, the markers they chose to use throughout history.

Today is a pretty relaxed day. Of course! It's Saturday!
...but how crazy to think we are half way through out time here.
...and then we have to get back on that darn plane.... eh!
Happy Saturday!

Signing off,
Ready for the Weekend

Photos from India

Today we went to the slum again to work with the children. While we were there the electricity went out (which is fairly typical) and so the fans turned off. It got sooo hot! I could feel sweat dripping down my back and front side as if water had been poured over my head. It's was pretty extreme.

Last night we didn't get to go to the Big Chill, so we went for lunch today. YUMMY!



Last night we went to Cafe Coffee Day and Janelle and I met some really neat girls. Hopefully on Saturday we'll get to go with them to the ISKON temple. One of them worships there so she said she'd show us. I'm pretty excited about it.

Now we're about to have a team meeting. SO......

Signing off,
Just signing off :)

Time in the Slums

Today and yesterday have been very encouraging. Both days, we went to a slum with Janaman. We've been telling Bible stories to the children and done coloring pages with them. We've also played some games with them. They've seemed to really enjoy it.

I'm very proud of my team too. They've done so well in getting involved with the children. I have to admit that Aaron's anxiety about teaching children made me a little nervous. I thought he'd basically refuse to do anything with them, but he's been AMAZING. I love to watch him singing the worship songs and doing the hand motions. He gets all into it and it makes me so happy!

-interjection: all that I have written so far has been thought out in an Indian accent and I apologized for the awkward sentence formation... I'm not sure I can help it right now -

I hope that maybe tomorrow I can take some pictures and post them here. I think it would be fun for many of you to see the things we are doing while we are here.

Tonight we will be going to some coffee houses in hopes of meeting some friends. We would like to begin conversations about culture and religion with them. (For those who know Delhi-) I think I am going to take the team to Saket; to the Cafe Coffee Day (or whatever that coffee shop is). Then we will come back for dinner because Kheem is cooking... and then... THE BIG CHILL! WHAT WHAT!

The first couple days were rough, but as time goes on it is getting better. Praise God!

Signing off,
Ever so excited about the Big Chill

Purses, Postcards, and Elephants, Oh My!

Today we went to the market again and bought purses, wall hangings, key chains, and all that junk that only Americans waste money on, I mean, buy. It was a lot of fun though. We bought some pretty cool stuff. The team seemed to really enjoy the experience.

For lunch we went to Pizza Hut. I know... we're being very "cultural" huh? HA! Well we were EXHAUSTED by the time we had lunch (3:30) so we just did that. Aaron got all brave on us and ordered and drink called Masala Lemonade. It was the sickest thing I ever did taste. It definitely tasted like rotten eggs. ECK!

Tonight we went to meet with Janaman and we discussed our plan for the week. We are still planning to do VBS Tues-Fri. I think my team will be pretty shocked by what they see. But I am sure it will be a great awakening for them. I'm excited to see the change that God works in them.

Well, I am going to sit with my team and plan out games, so I shall go.

Signing off,
Tired, Sweaty, and Sticky

Just to Say We're Here

We're here in India, it's true. We had quite the flight. It was cramped and very long. I sincerely thought I was going to go insane about 6 hours into the second flight (which was 13 hours). It was just such a small amount of room to be in for 13 hours straight. But we're here and we've had a busy day. So now (it's 11:15pm) we're very tired and ready for bed. Tomorrow I will report more about today's events.

Signing off,
FROM INDIA!

India Time (may also be titled On Indian Time)

CRAZY!

no, seriously... I think that's the only word I'm familiar with right now (well, that and "AHHHHHH!!!" or "grrrrr!!!"). I've been running around like crazy getting ready for this trip to India. We leave my apartment on Friday at 6:30am. We, as in the team. We're having a team "sleep over" on Thursday so that we can all start adjusting to Indian time. It's slightly overwhelming... ok, not slightly... it's overwhelming; knowing I leave on Friday, knowing I'm SUPPOSED to work till 6pm tomorrow, knowing they'll all be here soon after that tomorrow night, knowing that after that I won't come home for two weeks. *sigh*

This trip is so exciting for me, but at the same time it's been such a trial. I've had so many frustrations. Last time I went, I traveled alone and it was pretty casual. This time I had to deal with more administration and had to plan for and train 4 other people (who, as they should, have questions I need to answer, things I need to fix, and money I need to handle). I am SO excited to go, because it means we're going, and because it means I'll soon be free of dealing with the travel plans!
(Disclaimer - Although I'm tired of the travel planning, I've been incredibly blessed by my team throughout the planning process, they've been great. I've also seen God's provision and faithfulness in the planning.)

...By the way, as a side note, or something, mine and Aaron's 1 year anniversary was just yesterday. We celebrated by going to bed early. No, I mean it... we went to sleep at 10pm. We were exhausted from work and preparing for India (told you it was crazy!). BUT, a whole year! Can't believe it's been that long even. Hmmm... it's been an awesome year though.

Now, I think I'm going to read Twilight (it was my goal to finish before we left, but who knows if that'll actually happen).

Signing off, (hee hee!)
EXHAUSTED

and I think I'm happy

It's true, summer has started... know how I know? Jenn came to visit for a couple days! And we shopped for books (as well as many other items we may or may not have needed). And we decided on which books we'll read this summer. They're different than what we usually choose. And because lists are my favorite:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
2. Twilight (Stephenie Meyer)
3. The Time Travelers (Linda Buckley-Archer)
4. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou)
4. The Time Thief (Linda Buckley-Archer)
5. New Moon (Stephenie Meyer)
6. Eclipse (Stephenie Meyer)
7. Breaking Dawn??? (Stephenie Meyer)

Yeah, we expect to read each and everyone. Yeah, it might last into the fall.

And we're watching Felicity. Uh huh... all these things you may or may not have expected from me, definitely mark the start of my summer. And, I think I'm happy. And I think I like it. And I think I like reading... and watching Felicity. And I KNOW I like Jenn.

Shaun and Amanda are finally married. I'm so happy for them! And the wedding looked great!


I was so excited to help. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off. But it was fun. For favors they had a table full of candy and boxes to fill. Each person could fill their box to take home. The night before I made these cute little letters the place on the table.



It was a crazy weekend, but I'm so excited for them and everything turned out so well! Yay for Amanda and Shaun!

It's true, I'm jumpin on the bandwagon. The funny thing is, I started this account like 3 days ago and then reconsidered, but when I saw that Erin and Jennifer we're doing, I thought, "ok, ok... maybe I'll do it." So... yay for the BaNdWaGoN! And for you two, way to be inspiring!

I'm currently at work (@ TeachOverseas). Unfortunately I don't have much motivation to be here right now. I'm very tired and would like nothing more than to sit and read my book near a window (the place where one might admire the cloudy, gloomy, beauty that is today).

Funny story: Last night I kinda hosted a bachelorette party for Amanda... we went to see Wicked (yes, again!) and I drove with Deanna. I've known Deanna for a while because we worked together at CBU and she's pretty good friends with Amanda so we've hungout due to that whole relational network thing. Well, we were talking about new things happening in her life and she was telling me she had been working for a "high end flower company." She was doing this to get into the wedding planning business. Her last day was on Monday and I asked why she had quit. She said it was mostly telemarketing that she was doing and it wasn't what she really signed up for. I jokingly said "oh tell me you didn't work for Javie's Flowers." I said this because they've pretty much stalked me since I was engaged. They got my info for theknot.com. They've called me at least 6 times and each time I said I was not interested and would like to be taken off all calling lists. They even called me a few times AFTER I was married (8 months after, even!) and I knew they knew my wedding date because they had mentioned it in one of their calls! I am definitely annoyed by this Javie's Flowers place! Anyway... I jokingly said that to Deanna, but she said, "YEAH!" She had totally worked for them! She said they do that kind of stuff all the time. They basically call ANYONE they have phone numbers for. Also, she said they have this machine that calls 4 phone numbers at a time and the first person to pick up speaks with a representative and all the others are hungup on! She said some people have been called 8 times in one day because of this dumb system! I got to vent to her about my situation... and needless to say (because we all know that venting does this) I felt slightly justified and relieved.

But now I should probably stop pretending I'm not at work and actually get going on some things I need to do.

...yay for blogging...