So, I was walking to work today, and I passed a pickup truck that had some sort of wheel dolly in the back of it. It reminded me of childhood gym classes. What is the connection you might ask? Well, I started to think back about this and other fond (and strange) childhood gym class memories at good ol' Morgan Township Elementary School.
Despite the fact that there is NO way in the world any of these things would pass modern safety standards, they all seemed fun at the time.
So, let's start with the dolly...We used to have these little 4-wheeled dolly/palette-like things. We had all kinds of races with these things: laying on our bellies and scooting ourselves with our hands (lots of swollen fingers from this one), laying on our bellies and having another person hold our legs and push us (again many swollen fingers), obstacle courses, scooter-style races, and many other fun things in which these fun little carts could slip out from under us or run over fingers.
Then there was "tumbling." To back up a minute, I forgot to mention that our elementary school principal was always our gym teacher. Well, during the latter half of elementary school, this was a very tall man who, coincidentally, was my mom's drivers' education instructor! "Tumbling" basically consisted of spreading out a mat and then running up and flipping over Mr. S's knee or his back, if he was on all fours. Not a lot of focus on form. Or safety (notice a theme). Yeah, so it is hard to believe that children flipping over a grown man's knee, but I promise it was totally harmless and a great deal of fun!
In fifth grade, we divided into boys and girls for basketball season. All boys played basketball, and all girls practiced cheerleading! Augh. Anyway, there were two of us girls who didn't want to cheerlead, so we would play basketball with the boys. Inevitably, Mr. S would forget and assign one of us to the "skins" team.
Dodgeball, parachutes, basketball, presidential fitness tests, basketball, kickball, lots of throwing things and running around...and oh yeah, did I mention that growing up in the Hoosier state meant lots of playing basketball? Ah, fond memories. I think gym class was a lot more fun when they weren't all concerned about safety standards and lawsuits! We all survived and have a lot of stories to look back on fondly. Good times.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Life Within
Well, I find myself understanding life within in a whole new way! Baby Snowden is actually growing inside of me! It really sort of blows my mind!
Sometimes it hardly seems real. I'm no excited to get all big and fat, but in some ways, it would feel like there was outward evidence of what's going on.
I feel unbelievably tired so much of the time! That's a hard adjustment for me. I'm not used to just hitting the wall and having my body just stop. My body has no regard for my to-do list these days!
Thankfully, though, I really haven't been sick. Minor nausea. Significant food aversions at times. No eagerness whatsoever to eat South Indian food again anytime soon after the phase I was in when I was there! Also, a bizarrely heightened sense of smell. Not always a blessing. Like when traveling in India--LOVE India, but there are a LOT of smells! Even here at home things just smell so strong sometimes. It's weird.
I'm very excited! All I feel tremendously motivated to do lately is sit around and read books about pregnancy, babies, nutrition, etc. If anyone actually reads this and has any book recommendations, I'd love to hear them.
For now, I'll end with our first look at Baby Snowden. Can't wait to meet the little one in August!!!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
India Log
While a bit late (now that I'm back) and quite long, I thought I'd post all of the updates I wrote while in India...
January 8
So, it has been a significant stretch here to begin the trip withoutemail or phone access. When they said the conference was in Chennai,that was a bit of an approximation. :) It was in a rather remote areacalled Mahabalipurim about an hour and a half outside bus ride fromChennai. So, internet and phone were not so easy to come by.
Anyway, I am here in Dehradun now, and John and the team are alsohere. It is great to see them! I am also very thankful to be in oneplace for a stretch of time, as I figured out on Sunday evening that Ihad spent almost equal time in India up to that point in various modesof transportation as I had doing anything else! To sum up my travels,I had a flight from LA to London (around 10 hours), a layover inLondon (9 hours), flight to Delhi (9 1/2 hours), afternoon break,train ride to Chennai (33 hours), waiting in station (2 hours), busride to Mahabalipurim (1 1/2 hours), and then after the conference,the return bus ride back to Chennai, a few hours in the train station,the return train trip to Delhi, a metro ride to the bus terminal, abus ride to Dehradun (8 hours). Whew! Glad to be done with that.Hindsight being what it is, it would have been nice to fly directlyinto Chennai! :)
The travel felt very tiring to me this time, and it seemed to take mea little longer to get oriented to what in the world day it was! Itwas really great to be at the conference with those from the Vineyardsfrom all over India. I was privileged to join all of the pastors fora couple of afternoon discussions and further vision and plans werebeing discussed and are taking shape. I also had many wonderfulconversations and times of connecting with various people. Iparticularly enjoyed sharing a room with my sweet friends Alotoly andAtoli (sisters of pastor Sunny's wife Vika), though our other tworoommates amused us quite a bit.
On the last night of the conference, there was a talent night. I justhave to share a few highlights that stuck out to me as a Westerner.The first was a song. As the girl got up to share the song, theperson who was introducing her, said she was going to sing a song fromIndia's favorite English movie. I sat there wondering what it couldbe and would everyone actually have one collective favorite. Sheasked the group what the movie was, and without hesitation and inperfect unison, everyone shouted, "Titanic"! Wow, really?! Maybe I'mbiased being from LA, but I think we've put out a lot of good moviessince then! Anyway, she proceeded to sing "My Heart Will Go On" withwhat was a strange combination of an Indian accent and an attemptedAmerican accent that came off as Southern. Interesting.The second was, not one, but TWO solo dance performances to "Move YourBody." Not actually sure if that is the name of the song, but it is arather, um, crass rap song that I am fairly certain shocked many ofthe people in the room, and the ones who weren't shocked probablydon't speak English. The particularly amusing performace to me wasfrom a boy from Mottrawalla (a very small village outside ofDehradun). This boy barely speaks any English, has rarely been pastDehradun in any travels, and yet was up in front with an Avril LavigneT-shirt (unconnected other than being American, I guess), doing theserap guy moves with a little gangsta' attitude on his face!Unbelievable! Apparently, the kids in the village there gather at onehouse to watch MTV! So strange.
We took the team yesterday to two Hindu holy cities to get a betterunderstanding of the culture here and the dynamics of the religion.One of the ladies from the church here accompanied us and brought herson. As he was drinking a juice box, one of the many wandering streetcows passed him and made a sudden movement that knocked him over. Hehit his forehead on the rough stone pavement and instantly had thisgigantic knot forming on his head! After much confusion and somedisagreement from the locals, we got some ice to put on it. He seemedfine by last night, but please pray he will not have any trauma oranything from it.
Tomorrow we will spend the day in the village, visiting homes and thendoing a children's program (not planned ahead of time, so a bit ofscrambling today to prepare).
Please continue to pray for health for the team. The weather is notnearly as cold as last year, but the air quality is quite poor. Weare all doing well so far, though.
I should sign off as I need to visit the tailor and then meet up withthe team for some dinner and some preparations for the rest of theweek.
January 9
We have actually been ableto now connect to the wireless connection at our hotel on our laptop!It is a bit slow and sometimes doesn't work, but overall, it's veryconvenient! The hotel manager said yesterday that we can pay himwhatever price we think is fair. Not exactly the way we're used tobusiness operating in the U.S.
So, a quick note from my previous email about Abheet (the little boywith the bump on his head)...John and Patrick went to a home group athis family's house this evening, and he is doing just fine! The bumpis barely even visible, and he's had no ill effects. Part of being alittle boy is the bumps and bruises, I guess.
Yesterday, after scrambling to pull together some supplies for thechildren's outreach in the village today, we found out we won't bedoing that until Friday. At least we're prepared. We still went tothe village today. When I talk about "the" village, there is one mainone (Mothrowala), but it is actually a series of home clusters invarious spots. I don't actually know the names of all of them, ifthey even have official separate names. We started at Sanjay's home,who is the pastor of the village church. His is also the home wherewe set up the water purification system last year when we were here.There is one part on the system that just broke, so we will replacethat while we are here, but it seems to be working well. Sanjay is avery charismatic and wonderful guy! We very much enjoy spending timewith him and his family, though there can be some communication gapssince his English is limited, and my Hindi is pre-beginner! Johnasked him this morning, "So, Sanjay, whose homes will we be visitingtoday?" He paused for a moment to think of how to respond in English,and then he said, "All." Hmmm....
Well, we actually did visit more homes in one day than I probably everhave done anywhere. So, perhaps "all" was not that bad of adescription. We went to a more village cluster than I had evervisited before. Sanjay was directing the taxi driver (who is from thecity part of Dehradun) on how to get there, and we basically came tothe edge of a river (small one, but still seemed a bit more than acreek to me). Sanjay was directing the driver to go on, and Ithought, Surely we are not going to actually drive across this water.Wrong. After some skepticism from the driver as well, Sanjay directedhim to follow along certain rocks, and we drove right across. Sanjaygrinned and said, "No water."
After visiting a few homes in that village, we went on to a clusterwhere the majority of the people either are or used to be snakecharmers. (Side note: I hate snakes! Luckily, none of them came outtoday! Last year when we visited one guy's home, he poked the basketwhere the snake was sleeping. He looked up and said, "He angry...Youhold him?" Angry snake?! No thanks!) We visited many homes thereand then ended our time at a home a little ways away where fourbrothers and their families all live that we know quite well.
Every home we went to wanted to give us chai (tea). We had it severalplaces, but luckily, Sanjay told many of them we had to move on, or Ithink we'd all be floating by tonight. In so many of the homes wevisited, many people had "fever." Since most don't go to doctors formuch, they tend to have rather generic descriptions of illnesses, soit is hard to say what was actually going on for many of them. Pleasepray for their health. Most live in rather sparse conditions, so itis hard for them to get over even a basic cold when the weather isless than ideal. Please also pray for protection over the health ofour team as we spent much of the day in small homes with many who wereill. We are trusting God to protect us as we know He was with us, butplease just keep it in your prayers for us to be protected. We reallydid have a wonderful day visiting the homes, and I think the teamreally enjoyed the experience of visiting the homes of these familiesthat live so differently.
Well, I am fading quickly this evening, so I'll sign off.
January 14
So, we're on our last couple of days in Dehradun, and then we'll headto Delhi for a couple of days before returning home on Saturday.Sunday morning, John and Michelle went to the village church whereJohn gave the message, and Patrick, Emily, and I went to the citychurch. I played the keyboard and sang with them for worship, which Ialways enjoy. The worship leader Pinto is a good friend of John andmine and is an amazingly gifted worship leader and just a whole lot offun, as is his wife Mercy. Then I gave the message for the morning,which several commented to me that it was timely and significant forthem, which I am glad about.
Then, Sunny had arranged a trip to the "jungle" for us and some folksfrom the church. Details and communication were rather vague, so wewere all wondering exactly what the experience would involve. A pointworth noting is that the place we went, we would more likely label aforest. Well, there was a comfortable guesthouse there that we allstayed in. There were 23 people, including kids, that all fit inthree vehicles with gear to go there. We also only had 2 bedrooms, sothe whole floor of the main room of the house was covered in sleepingmats and filled with people. Our Indian friends do far more extensivefood preparations than we would think of at a pseudo-campingexperience, so we had several hours of prep for each meal. They wereall very tasty and wonderful, though, so we ate well. We didn't seequite the extent of animals we expected, but we did see monkeys, wildboars, and quite a few deer. Oh, and tons of termite mounds, if thatcounts. Today while we were eating lunch, two of the kids popped upfrom the stoop screaming hysterically. A big monkey had come over andwas closing in on their lunch. Monkeys get rather aggressive here, sothe kids had reason to be scared, but they scared us far more than themonkey did. Pinto kept a baseball bat handy to chase them away asthey kept coming near. :) All in all, it was a fun adventure, and wethoroughly enjoyed some time away with some friends from here.
We're back at the hotel tonight. We have one more full day heretomorrow. John will give a devotion for the staff in the morning.I'll connect with Vika about some things for the Women's Care Project. We all have plans to meet up with various people tomorrow, and thenwe'll have a dinner with the whole core group tomorrow evening. Ithink we may have a little birthday celebration at that time, sinceAbheet (little boy with the head bump) has his birthday tomorrow, andI turn 30 (whoa!) Wednesday. Then we will leave on a train Wednesdaymorning to head back to Delhi. We may try to attend a home groupthere that evening. Then Thursday, the team will visit the Taj Mahal. I've had more than enough Taj to last me a lifetime! :) John and Iwill meet with the staff of the Delhi Vineyard for the day and do someteaching for them. Hopefully, we'll also have some good time to talkwith Rick and Ellen (the leaders of the Delhi Vineyard and key leadersfor the Vineyard in India) about the Vineyard India partnership.Friday will be a free day for some shopping and sightseeing in Delhi,and that will wrap up our time.
January 18
Well, we are wrapping up the trip today, so this will be my last emailfrom India. Our flight leaves tomorrow (Saturday) morning, and we'llarrive back in Los Angeles late Saturday afternoon--gotta love theInternational Date Line when it "gains" you time!
We had a really nice finish to our time in Dehradun. Tuesday we hadtwo friends join us for lunch, Mercy and Lalmony. It was one of theonly times (if not THE only) Lalmony has ever been in a restaurant!She lives in Mothrawala village but came into the city to say goodbyeto us, so we were glad to be able to invite her to lunch with us.Mercy is a dear friend, and I very much enjoyed some time to talk withand pray with her. She is a unique blessing, and I am so thankful forfriendships like this and the chance to deepen them in coming tovisit!
Tuesday evening we had a dinner with the core group for DehradunVineyard. Since Abheet's birthday was that day and mine was the nextday, they got a birthday cake for us that had little race cars on itwith each of us sitting in one of the cars. It was really sweet!I'll have to send pictures when we get back.
John had a rough day Tuesday with fever and stomach problems but seemsto be doing fine again now. We arrived in Delhi Wednesday afternoon.That evening John hunted down some chocolate ice cream in honor of mybirthday. It wasn't exactly the taste we're used to, but it was a funthing to have.
Yesterday, the rest of the team went to Agra to see the Taj Mahalwhile John and I spent the day with our friends Rick and Ellen Coffinand their daughter Amy. Rick is one of the primaryleaders/facilitators for the Vineyard India partnership, so it wasgreat to have some time just to talk with them. Then in the eveningover 20 people from Delhi Vineyard came to the Coffin home to hearJohn give the "Story of the Old Testament." He did a great job, andthey seemed to enjoy it.
The travel back to our hotel that evening was...interesting. We weregoing to take the metro back, and Rick said the metro stays open untilmidnight. We left their home around 10:15. Well, in order to getback to our hotel, we needed to make two transfers. Once we arrivedat the metro station, the guy said, "No, not possible. Too late."Well, since that neighborhood would've been hard to find anautorickshaw at that time, we decided to at least go ahead with thefirst leg of the metro, which we could do and would take us to ahigher traffic area. Well, the basic summary of our experience ingetting an "auto" back to our hotel from there is that four whitepeople late at night have limited bargaining power! :) They wereasking way too much, and while the amount of money doesn't seem likemuch when you convert, it is frustrating to know it is more thandouble what it should cost. I tried to utilize my Hindi, but itdoesn't really hide the fact that I'm white! :) Emily and I startedto get in one auto that seemed to agree to our price, only for us tohave overly friendly hands roaming, realize he was drunk, and stillhave him asking for more money. We quickly got out!!! We finallyagreed with one that we would just go on the meter and pay doublewhatever the meter said. It's ridiculous because they always say it's"night" rate (as if petrol costs more at night) and charge more for"extra" people (though we frequently see autos filled with 10-12Indians). Anyway, we just wanted to get back. When we arrived, themeter said 48, so we gave him 100, and he tried to tell us we owed him30 more! He was arguing all about night rate and all. It was ratherfrustrating. Our hotel, however, is very good to us and took over theconversation with him. They told us we had paid him plenty and tojust go on upstairs and not worry. Ah, transportation in Delhi!
Well, we got an easy start today, spent some time shopping, and hadsome South Indian food for lunch. The poor team hadn't gotten to trySouth Indian yet this trip because I had been rather burned out on itfrom having it every meal during the conference in Mahabalipurim! Idearly love my South Indian friends, but I have to admit that I preferNorth Indian food. :) Dosas and Uttapum, however, are tasty treats,and we got to have some today. Both basically consist of a pancakemade of rice flour. Dosas then are wrapped around filling and arecrispy, and uttapum have the filling cooked into the pancake or ontothe top and are flat.
Anyway, we'll have dinner, some debriefing, and prayer tonight withthe team. Then we'll have an early morning and arrive back home.
January 8
So, it has been a significant stretch here to begin the trip withoutemail or phone access. When they said the conference was in Chennai,that was a bit of an approximation. :) It was in a rather remote areacalled Mahabalipurim about an hour and a half outside bus ride fromChennai. So, internet and phone were not so easy to come by.
Anyway, I am here in Dehradun now, and John and the team are alsohere. It is great to see them! I am also very thankful to be in oneplace for a stretch of time, as I figured out on Sunday evening that Ihad spent almost equal time in India up to that point in various modesof transportation as I had doing anything else! To sum up my travels,I had a flight from LA to London (around 10 hours), a layover inLondon (9 hours), flight to Delhi (9 1/2 hours), afternoon break,train ride to Chennai (33 hours), waiting in station (2 hours), busride to Mahabalipurim (1 1/2 hours), and then after the conference,the return bus ride back to Chennai, a few hours in the train station,the return train trip to Delhi, a metro ride to the bus terminal, abus ride to Dehradun (8 hours). Whew! Glad to be done with that.Hindsight being what it is, it would have been nice to fly directlyinto Chennai! :)
The travel felt very tiring to me this time, and it seemed to take mea little longer to get oriented to what in the world day it was! Itwas really great to be at the conference with those from the Vineyardsfrom all over India. I was privileged to join all of the pastors fora couple of afternoon discussions and further vision and plans werebeing discussed and are taking shape. I also had many wonderfulconversations and times of connecting with various people. Iparticularly enjoyed sharing a room with my sweet friends Alotoly andAtoli (sisters of pastor Sunny's wife Vika), though our other tworoommates amused us quite a bit.
On the last night of the conference, there was a talent night. I justhave to share a few highlights that stuck out to me as a Westerner.The first was a song. As the girl got up to share the song, theperson who was introducing her, said she was going to sing a song fromIndia's favorite English movie. I sat there wondering what it couldbe and would everyone actually have one collective favorite. Sheasked the group what the movie was, and without hesitation and inperfect unison, everyone shouted, "Titanic"! Wow, really?! Maybe I'mbiased being from LA, but I think we've put out a lot of good moviessince then! Anyway, she proceeded to sing "My Heart Will Go On" withwhat was a strange combination of an Indian accent and an attemptedAmerican accent that came off as Southern. Interesting.The second was, not one, but TWO solo dance performances to "Move YourBody." Not actually sure if that is the name of the song, but it is arather, um, crass rap song that I am fairly certain shocked many ofthe people in the room, and the ones who weren't shocked probablydon't speak English. The particularly amusing performace to me wasfrom a boy from Mottrawalla (a very small village outside ofDehradun). This boy barely speaks any English, has rarely been pastDehradun in any travels, and yet was up in front with an Avril LavigneT-shirt (unconnected other than being American, I guess), doing theserap guy moves with a little gangsta' attitude on his face!Unbelievable! Apparently, the kids in the village there gather at onehouse to watch MTV! So strange.
We took the team yesterday to two Hindu holy cities to get a betterunderstanding of the culture here and the dynamics of the religion.One of the ladies from the church here accompanied us and brought herson. As he was drinking a juice box, one of the many wandering streetcows passed him and made a sudden movement that knocked him over. Hehit his forehead on the rough stone pavement and instantly had thisgigantic knot forming on his head! After much confusion and somedisagreement from the locals, we got some ice to put on it. He seemedfine by last night, but please pray he will not have any trauma oranything from it.
Tomorrow we will spend the day in the village, visiting homes and thendoing a children's program (not planned ahead of time, so a bit ofscrambling today to prepare).
Please continue to pray for health for the team. The weather is notnearly as cold as last year, but the air quality is quite poor. Weare all doing well so far, though.
I should sign off as I need to visit the tailor and then meet up withthe team for some dinner and some preparations for the rest of theweek.
January 9
We have actually been ableto now connect to the wireless connection at our hotel on our laptop!It is a bit slow and sometimes doesn't work, but overall, it's veryconvenient! The hotel manager said yesterday that we can pay himwhatever price we think is fair. Not exactly the way we're used tobusiness operating in the U.S.
So, a quick note from my previous email about Abheet (the little boywith the bump on his head)...John and Patrick went to a home group athis family's house this evening, and he is doing just fine! The bumpis barely even visible, and he's had no ill effects. Part of being alittle boy is the bumps and bruises, I guess.
Yesterday, after scrambling to pull together some supplies for thechildren's outreach in the village today, we found out we won't bedoing that until Friday. At least we're prepared. We still went tothe village today. When I talk about "the" village, there is one mainone (Mothrowala), but it is actually a series of home clusters invarious spots. I don't actually know the names of all of them, ifthey even have official separate names. We started at Sanjay's home,who is the pastor of the village church. His is also the home wherewe set up the water purification system last year when we were here.There is one part on the system that just broke, so we will replacethat while we are here, but it seems to be working well. Sanjay is avery charismatic and wonderful guy! We very much enjoy spending timewith him and his family, though there can be some communication gapssince his English is limited, and my Hindi is pre-beginner! Johnasked him this morning, "So, Sanjay, whose homes will we be visitingtoday?" He paused for a moment to think of how to respond in English,and then he said, "All." Hmmm....
Well, we actually did visit more homes in one day than I probably everhave done anywhere. So, perhaps "all" was not that bad of adescription. We went to a more village cluster than I had evervisited before. Sanjay was directing the taxi driver (who is from thecity part of Dehradun) on how to get there, and we basically came tothe edge of a river (small one, but still seemed a bit more than acreek to me). Sanjay was directing the driver to go on, and Ithought, Surely we are not going to actually drive across this water.Wrong. After some skepticism from the driver as well, Sanjay directedhim to follow along certain rocks, and we drove right across. Sanjaygrinned and said, "No water."
After visiting a few homes in that village, we went on to a clusterwhere the majority of the people either are or used to be snakecharmers. (Side note: I hate snakes! Luckily, none of them came outtoday! Last year when we visited one guy's home, he poked the basketwhere the snake was sleeping. He looked up and said, "He angry...Youhold him?" Angry snake?! No thanks!) We visited many homes thereand then ended our time at a home a little ways away where fourbrothers and their families all live that we know quite well.
Every home we went to wanted to give us chai (tea). We had it severalplaces, but luckily, Sanjay told many of them we had to move on, or Ithink we'd all be floating by tonight. In so many of the homes wevisited, many people had "fever." Since most don't go to doctors formuch, they tend to have rather generic descriptions of illnesses, soit is hard to say what was actually going on for many of them. Pleasepray for their health. Most live in rather sparse conditions, so itis hard for them to get over even a basic cold when the weather isless than ideal. Please also pray for protection over the health ofour team as we spent much of the day in small homes with many who wereill. We are trusting God to protect us as we know He was with us, butplease just keep it in your prayers for us to be protected. We reallydid have a wonderful day visiting the homes, and I think the teamreally enjoyed the experience of visiting the homes of these familiesthat live so differently.
Well, I am fading quickly this evening, so I'll sign off.
January 14
So, we're on our last couple of days in Dehradun, and then we'll headto Delhi for a couple of days before returning home on Saturday.Sunday morning, John and Michelle went to the village church whereJohn gave the message, and Patrick, Emily, and I went to the citychurch. I played the keyboard and sang with them for worship, which Ialways enjoy. The worship leader Pinto is a good friend of John andmine and is an amazingly gifted worship leader and just a whole lot offun, as is his wife Mercy. Then I gave the message for the morning,which several commented to me that it was timely and significant forthem, which I am glad about.
Then, Sunny had arranged a trip to the "jungle" for us and some folksfrom the church. Details and communication were rather vague, so wewere all wondering exactly what the experience would involve. A pointworth noting is that the place we went, we would more likely label aforest. Well, there was a comfortable guesthouse there that we allstayed in. There were 23 people, including kids, that all fit inthree vehicles with gear to go there. We also only had 2 bedrooms, sothe whole floor of the main room of the house was covered in sleepingmats and filled with people. Our Indian friends do far more extensivefood preparations than we would think of at a pseudo-campingexperience, so we had several hours of prep for each meal. They wereall very tasty and wonderful, though, so we ate well. We didn't seequite the extent of animals we expected, but we did see monkeys, wildboars, and quite a few deer. Oh, and tons of termite mounds, if thatcounts. Today while we were eating lunch, two of the kids popped upfrom the stoop screaming hysterically. A big monkey had come over andwas closing in on their lunch. Monkeys get rather aggressive here, sothe kids had reason to be scared, but they scared us far more than themonkey did. Pinto kept a baseball bat handy to chase them away asthey kept coming near. :) All in all, it was a fun adventure, and wethoroughly enjoyed some time away with some friends from here.
We're back at the hotel tonight. We have one more full day heretomorrow. John will give a devotion for the staff in the morning.I'll connect with Vika about some things for the Women's Care Project. We all have plans to meet up with various people tomorrow, and thenwe'll have a dinner with the whole core group tomorrow evening. Ithink we may have a little birthday celebration at that time, sinceAbheet (little boy with the head bump) has his birthday tomorrow, andI turn 30 (whoa!) Wednesday. Then we will leave on a train Wednesdaymorning to head back to Delhi. We may try to attend a home groupthere that evening. Then Thursday, the team will visit the Taj Mahal. I've had more than enough Taj to last me a lifetime! :) John and Iwill meet with the staff of the Delhi Vineyard for the day and do someteaching for them. Hopefully, we'll also have some good time to talkwith Rick and Ellen (the leaders of the Delhi Vineyard and key leadersfor the Vineyard in India) about the Vineyard India partnership.Friday will be a free day for some shopping and sightseeing in Delhi,and that will wrap up our time.
January 18
Well, we are wrapping up the trip today, so this will be my last emailfrom India. Our flight leaves tomorrow (Saturday) morning, and we'llarrive back in Los Angeles late Saturday afternoon--gotta love theInternational Date Line when it "gains" you time!
We had a really nice finish to our time in Dehradun. Tuesday we hadtwo friends join us for lunch, Mercy and Lalmony. It was one of theonly times (if not THE only) Lalmony has ever been in a restaurant!She lives in Mothrawala village but came into the city to say goodbyeto us, so we were glad to be able to invite her to lunch with us.Mercy is a dear friend, and I very much enjoyed some time to talk withand pray with her. She is a unique blessing, and I am so thankful forfriendships like this and the chance to deepen them in coming tovisit!
Tuesday evening we had a dinner with the core group for DehradunVineyard. Since Abheet's birthday was that day and mine was the nextday, they got a birthday cake for us that had little race cars on itwith each of us sitting in one of the cars. It was really sweet!I'll have to send pictures when we get back.
John had a rough day Tuesday with fever and stomach problems but seemsto be doing fine again now. We arrived in Delhi Wednesday afternoon.That evening John hunted down some chocolate ice cream in honor of mybirthday. It wasn't exactly the taste we're used to, but it was a funthing to have.
Yesterday, the rest of the team went to Agra to see the Taj Mahalwhile John and I spent the day with our friends Rick and Ellen Coffinand their daughter Amy. Rick is one of the primaryleaders/facilitators for the Vineyard India partnership, so it wasgreat to have some time just to talk with them. Then in the eveningover 20 people from Delhi Vineyard came to the Coffin home to hearJohn give the "Story of the Old Testament." He did a great job, andthey seemed to enjoy it.
The travel back to our hotel that evening was...interesting. We weregoing to take the metro back, and Rick said the metro stays open untilmidnight. We left their home around 10:15. Well, in order to getback to our hotel, we needed to make two transfers. Once we arrivedat the metro station, the guy said, "No, not possible. Too late."Well, since that neighborhood would've been hard to find anautorickshaw at that time, we decided to at least go ahead with thefirst leg of the metro, which we could do and would take us to ahigher traffic area. Well, the basic summary of our experience ingetting an "auto" back to our hotel from there is that four whitepeople late at night have limited bargaining power! :) They wereasking way too much, and while the amount of money doesn't seem likemuch when you convert, it is frustrating to know it is more thandouble what it should cost. I tried to utilize my Hindi, but itdoesn't really hide the fact that I'm white! :) Emily and I startedto get in one auto that seemed to agree to our price, only for us tohave overly friendly hands roaming, realize he was drunk, and stillhave him asking for more money. We quickly got out!!! We finallyagreed with one that we would just go on the meter and pay doublewhatever the meter said. It's ridiculous because they always say it's"night" rate (as if petrol costs more at night) and charge more for"extra" people (though we frequently see autos filled with 10-12Indians). Anyway, we just wanted to get back. When we arrived, themeter said 48, so we gave him 100, and he tried to tell us we owed him30 more! He was arguing all about night rate and all. It was ratherfrustrating. Our hotel, however, is very good to us and took over theconversation with him. They told us we had paid him plenty and tojust go on upstairs and not worry. Ah, transportation in Delhi!
Well, we got an easy start today, spent some time shopping, and hadsome South Indian food for lunch. The poor team hadn't gotten to trySouth Indian yet this trip because I had been rather burned out on itfrom having it every meal during the conference in Mahabalipurim! Idearly love my South Indian friends, but I have to admit that I preferNorth Indian food. :) Dosas and Uttapum, however, are tasty treats,and we got to have some today. Both basically consist of a pancakemade of rice flour. Dosas then are wrapped around filling and arecrispy, and uttapum have the filling cooked into the pancake or ontothe top and are flat.
Anyway, we'll have dinner, some debriefing, and prayer tonight withthe team. Then we'll have an early morning and arrive back home.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Off to India
So, I'm heading out today. Of course, I didn't pack until last night, and I'm still trying to squeeze in a thing or two today. :)
During last year's trip, both John and I got sick with colds and coughs and such due mostly toweather and environment shift. I am praying for good health for us on this trip.
I am leaving tomorrow by myself in order to attend the India National Vineyard conference, which will be held in Chennai this year. I have never been to the southern part of India, so I am looking forward to seeing a whole new part of the country. Makes it a little challenging to pack light since it is at least a consistent 40 degrees or so warmer than Dehradun this time of year. Anyway, I will fly through London (9-hr layover there) to Delhi. I will then spend the afternoonat the Coffins' home, who are dear friends that have graciously offered for me to relax and shower at their home! I will meet up that evening with friends from Dehradun, and we will all ride together on a train to Chennai (34 hours!). That makes for a long stretch of traveling for me! I do love the train, though, and it will be a funtime to connect with friends.
John will bring the team, three other wonderful people from theVineyard, a week later, and after the long train ride back to Delhi and another on to Dehradun, I will meet up with them there. We'll stay in Dehradun from Jan. 6 until Jan. 16, at which time we'll go to Delhi for a couple days. Then we'll return to LA on Jan. 19.
Here I go... :)
During last year's trip, both John and I got sick with colds and coughs and such due mostly toweather and environment shift. I am praying for good health for us on this trip.
I am leaving tomorrow by myself in order to attend the India National Vineyard conference, which will be held in Chennai this year. I have never been to the southern part of India, so I am looking forward to seeing a whole new part of the country. Makes it a little challenging to pack light since it is at least a consistent 40 degrees or so warmer than Dehradun this time of year. Anyway, I will fly through London (9-hr layover there) to Delhi. I will then spend the afternoonat the Coffins' home, who are dear friends that have graciously offered for me to relax and shower at their home! I will meet up that evening with friends from Dehradun, and we will all ride together on a train to Chennai (34 hours!). That makes for a long stretch of traveling for me! I do love the train, though, and it will be a funtime to connect with friends.
John will bring the team, three other wonderful people from theVineyard, a week later, and after the long train ride back to Delhi and another on to Dehradun, I will meet up with them there. We'll stay in Dehradun from Jan. 6 until Jan. 16, at which time we'll go to Delhi for a couple days. Then we'll return to LA on Jan. 19.
Here I go... :)
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Thanksgiving
So, a friend of mine emailed me this morning to ask three things I'm thankful for. Thanks, Michele!
At the immediate moment, I'm just really thankful I finished my paper that is due for grad school today! :) Since that happened around 4:30 this morning, I'm not at my clearest, but some other things I'm thankful for:
#1 ---God is teaching me how to walk in His grace. Sometimes the lesson feels slow, and I have a hard time breaking old performance/achievement/perfectionist/workaholic tendencies! But I can see Him shaping me, and the moments of feeling that grace pour over me and replace my sense of who I need to be are very sweet.
#2--The opportunity to learn and enjoy grad school. I am feeling such renewed passion and vision stirring in my heart through the amazing program I'm able to be a part of. It redeems so much from past educational experiences, and God is using it to just grab hold of my heart for His kingdom in a whole new way!
#3--A loving and wonderful husband. I know it sounds a little cheesy, but I'm so thankful for John. I see so many struggling and truly difficult marriages around me, even in the church, and I am so thankful for the way God has blessed us to really enjoy life together. I learn a lot from John, and I am very thankful to be married to him.
At the immediate moment, I'm just really thankful I finished my paper that is due for grad school today! :) Since that happened around 4:30 this morning, I'm not at my clearest, but some other things I'm thankful for:
#1 ---God is teaching me how to walk in His grace. Sometimes the lesson feels slow, and I have a hard time breaking old performance/achievement/perfectionist/workaholic tendencies! But I can see Him shaping me, and the moments of feeling that grace pour over me and replace my sense of who I need to be are very sweet.
#2--The opportunity to learn and enjoy grad school. I am feeling such renewed passion and vision stirring in my heart through the amazing program I'm able to be a part of. It redeems so much from past educational experiences, and God is using it to just grab hold of my heart for His kingdom in a whole new way!
#3--A loving and wonderful husband. I know it sounds a little cheesy, but I'm so thankful for John. I see so many struggling and truly difficult marriages around me, even in the church, and I am so thankful for the way God has blessed us to really enjoy life together. I learn a lot from John, and I am very thankful to be married to him.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Food Journeys!
So, one of my very favorite things about Los Angeles is that you can find pretty much any kind of ethnic cuisine you can think of. (In defense of the Midwest, the "Old World" immigrant groups like Irish, Italian, Polish, German, etc. are lacking. There are a couple of good places, but the quantity and quality can't even compare to Chicago area.)
Anyway, I really LOVE experiencing a new kind of food from a new place. And, note, it is not just eating but really experiencing the food.
Well, I realized last week that it has been quite awhile since I had actually had a truly new food adventure. I have found new places within familiar realms and have had tons of wonderfully enjoyable food journeys, but there is something very thrilling about a brand new food expedition! Love feeling like a world traveler and, better yet, an explorer, all without leaving the city.
My parents recently visited and are fellow food "explorers"! So, I try to always hit new countries/ethnicities that they haven't experienced before. Well, for this trip, I got to actually experience two that were brand new for me as well! I love it!
I have a dear friend I used to teach with who is Korean, and after 7 years of being in LA, it's actually a little appalling that I hadn't really experienced Korean well. I had Korean bbq, but Michele (the friend) would talk about so much more to Korean food. My Hawaiian friends in college used to offer some yummy samplings (like kimchee), but I needed to really dive in! So, Michele took my parents and I to Koreatown (which I have been around but not ever made the connection to really go and eat there). We went to some tiny little place where my parents and I seemed to be the only ones who didn't speak Korean (love that!). Michele just ordered some typical dishes. It was amazing! I saw them bringing out all these little bowls of side dishes to people, and I thought maybe you had to order some sort of mixed dish or something, but they bring it to everyone! Perfect for someone like me who is not only indecisive but also loves to try a variety of things. You all just use your chopsticks to eat out of the same bowls. Very communal. We had this amazing fish dish (good thing John didn't have to eat with us!). I have seriously never tasted fish that was so flavorful in my life! It was on top of this special kind of radishes and had a delicious sauce. We also had this sizzling rice pot that was very cool and a stew that had tofu and stuff. Then Michele took us for this fruit and shaved ice and red bean dessert, which they served in one big doggie dish (that part's not traditional!). It was really great!
Then, another night, I found an Afghani restaurant online that is in Pasadena. I recently read the Kite Runner (mind-blowingly good novel, by the way) and have been dying to try the food. 
(Side note: Noticed that several of the whole Balon crew are listed on their blogger profiles as living in Afghanistan. What's with that???) Because of a history with so many foreign conquering powers coming in, they have a mix of several influences in the food, but it is still uniquely theirs in a great way. The Moses family joined us as well, which was fun. Love that their kids were up for the food adventure! The food was delicious! I had these dumplings (the name of the dish is "mantu") that were one of the best tasting dishes I've had in a long time!
(Side note: Noticed that several of the whole Balon crew are listed on their blogger profiles as living in Afghanistan. What's with that???) Because of a history with so many foreign conquering powers coming in, they have a mix of several influences in the food, but it is still uniquely theirs in a great way. The Moses family joined us as well, which was fun. Love that their kids were up for the food adventure! The food was delicious! I had these dumplings (the name of the dish is "mantu") that were one of the best tasting dishes I've had in a long time! I could go on and on! I love food journeys, and I realized how much it made me excited to have some brand new ones! Here are photos of the group at Azeen's Afghani restaurant and my mantu!
Friday, October 5, 2007
Already-Not Yet
So, as many people know, I recently joined the masters program John has been a part of this past year. If you have to see me or talk to me, I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot more about it, as I am finding myself really blown away by this stuff! I can understand why John's been so uncontrollably excited about it all, and I find myself unable to even truly express much of it yet. Some of it seems so foundational that I am shocked at how profound and revelational it seems to me! It brings framework for so much! I mean, I've always thought of myself as having a decent grasp on and well-thought through theology, but this is HUGE! Of course, I've always believed in the Trinity, but understanding that deeply and the significance of that as a foundation to all--Wow! And kingdom theology. Truly just consuming everything in me right now as I read and process it. We have a class focused on healing this weekend, and I feel such anticipation for it! There is no way to really talk about healing without kingdom theology.
Still very fresh as I'm just now reading some amazing books on it, but really truly digging into the truth that the kingdom of God has come, is here, and is yet to come is really just grabbing hold of me! There aren't multitudes of phases of history. There are two: the present age and the age to come. And, the age to come is already here, but not in its full consummation as the present age has not yet been fully destroyed. So, we live in the tension of the already and not yet. The kingdom is already here and it is yet to come. Seriously, amazing!
Salvation itself is so much more than we often make it; it is no merely a future condition or destination for our souls. For the Hebrews, salvation was a far more holistic concept. Jesus through his ministry on earth, death on the cross, resurrection, and sending the Holy Spirit at Pentecost established victory over and freedom from every device of the enemy and the powers by which he rules this age!!! AND, He continues to redeem fully all that is lost by the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the world. And, all will reach ultimate salvation and resurrection at the final consummation of the kingdom.
"We are here, almost here, delayed, future people. We are saved, being saved, and will be saved. We are holy, being made holy and will be holy. We live between the times. We are already-not yet people…We are becoming what we already are." Derek Morphew
If anyone is reading this and wants to dig into more of what in the world I'm talking about, you just have to read Breakthrough by Derek Morphew and more specifically focusing on a kingdom theology as it relates to healing, Authority to Heal by Ken Blue.
Still very fresh as I'm just now reading some amazing books on it, but really truly digging into the truth that the kingdom of God has come, is here, and is yet to come is really just grabbing hold of me! There aren't multitudes of phases of history. There are two: the present age and the age to come. And, the age to come is already here, but not in its full consummation as the present age has not yet been fully destroyed. So, we live in the tension of the already and not yet. The kingdom is already here and it is yet to come. Seriously, amazing!
Salvation itself is so much more than we often make it; it is no merely a future condition or destination for our souls. For the Hebrews, salvation was a far more holistic concept. Jesus through his ministry on earth, death on the cross, resurrection, and sending the Holy Spirit at Pentecost established victory over and freedom from every device of the enemy and the powers by which he rules this age!!! AND, He continues to redeem fully all that is lost by the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the world. And, all will reach ultimate salvation and resurrection at the final consummation of the kingdom.
"We are here, almost here, delayed, future people. We are saved, being saved, and will be saved. We are holy, being made holy and will be holy. We live between the times. We are already-not yet people…We are becoming what we already are." Derek Morphew
If anyone is reading this and wants to dig into more of what in the world I'm talking about, you just have to read Breakthrough by Derek Morphew and more specifically focusing on a kingdom theology as it relates to healing, Authority to Heal by Ken Blue.
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