he's dead, pray for his family

So last week I got an email from Compassion saying that my child, Satyaprakash Sona Dayadan, just died from falling out of a tree while playing with his brother. They rushed him to the hospital but it was too late. I don't understand why God would allow this.

Pray for his family. In the pic, Satyaprakash is the one I have my hand around, the rest are his 2 brothers, his sister, his parents and his grandparents.
Please please pray for his family. Do it for real. Pray that they would be comforted by the Father, who is sovereign over his death .

Last Post, Goodbye India

Today we toured Delhi some.

First we started by going to Qutub Minar, some cool tower built by the Mughals in the 1600s. This empire was the source of almost all the cool buildings we've seen, including the Taj Mahal. Then we went to Jama Masjid, which is India's largest mosque. Pretty amazing place to see, it holds 25,000 at its full capacity. After that we walked to Red Fort which was cool. During our touring we actually took about 5,000 pictures with random Indians today. They love the white skin.

We actually got to share a little with one guy who was some businessman who tried to get us to go see some factory or something with him. It sounded a little shady. He showed us the way to McDonald's for lunch though, so that was cool. But he seemed like a nice guy and I gave him a tract. He told me his son studies at a Christian school and Christians are good people. He also said he'd been to church lots of times. He is Hindu though. I gave tracts to a few other people we talked to also, so I pray God uses them. The people that I handed them to all seemed really interested in what they had to say. One guy actually asked me, Tell me about Jesus. He was a Muslim.

From Delhi

So, a lot has happened since I wrote last. We had our last day at Momma T's, got some sweet pics there. It's 10:30 pm here and I haven't showered in about 2 days. That's gross.

We set out to see Satyaprakash on Saturday night, going to the Howrah train station. However, a wreck happened just outside of Howrah about 1 day before. This was bad timing on the Maoists part. They didn't realize I needed to get to Raipur on Sunday morning. So, the train was delayed until about 7 the next morning. So we left then and got to Raipur about 12 am. It was an A/C train so it wasn't too bad. Next day we got up at like 5:15 to drive for 6 hours to see Satyaprakash sona, my compassion kid, in Jagdalpur. This was a pretty amazing experience. I didn't realize how much it would mean to them that I was coming. When we first arrived we were greeted by some cute kids who put lays on us and then we go sit in front of the entire child project (~300 kids). I was like, wow, not expecting this. So, then we met Satya and his entire family (2 bros, 1 sis, gparents, parents) and ate lunch together and saw his home. Then we went to a waterfall and chilled out some more. The day was marked with awkwardness as I couldn't speak their language and didn't really know what to say to them. I tried to come up with questions but they just weren't helping me out much with the whole talking business. After visiting Satya, we slept and got up the next morning to drive 6 hours and get to Raipur by 1 pm so we could eat lunch before our train that left at 2:30 pm. However, we soon found out that the train left at 7:30 pm. Then we found out it left at 9:30 pm. They didn't push it past that, thank goodness. So we got on the train, hoping to get to Howrah station (Calcutta) at like 11 am the next day. We got there about 12:30 pm which was ok but we had to catch a flight to come to Delhi at 4:45 and we needed to go to the opposite end of Calcutta from the airport to get our bags. This was a little bit concerning for a bit but it ended up ok. God worked it out perfectly where we got to the airport just before the flight. Funny how the train delay ended up working out really well. I got to read a lot, at least.

Now we are in Delhi. Tomorrow we see the Taj Mahal. I'm pumped. Time to go sleep now.

Oh, I shared with one guy on the train to Raipur and it was super cool because he was so interested in Christianity. He really didn't know anything about the gospel. Just a 19 year old Hindu who attended college at some school in Varanasi (which is a holy place where old Hindu people go die, in a nutshell). He was smart too. All I really did was bring up religion and he started to fire away at the questions. It was so cool. Anyways, I gave him my email and told him we should be pen pals.

Pray that we hand out our Christmas Hindi tracts well while we are in Delhi. This place needs to gospel. fo sho.

Meeting with New Believers

Ok, so we have continued to do Mother Teresa's and we met a group the other day at Daya Dan (a home for mentally handicapped children) that were from a church in Houston, Texas. Pretty sweet. They were southern baptist and had about 8 in their group. They were almost all older people, which was cool. I feel like it is much harder for the older generation to get out of their comfort zone and go to hard places. Granted, these guys are staying in an A/C hotel, but still. Who cares, they are still here. And that is pretty sweet. They are supposed to bring 40 youth back some time during the summer to serve at Mother Teresa's homes. Lol, I wish our youth could do that. I told the missions pastor that he needed to put those kids under the fans (no A/C in the hotel room) so they could get the full experience. His reply was, "parents."

We went and had dinner last night with Beth, Kyle, and Sarah, as well as some Canadian friends. It was an incredible time to fellowship with the Word Made Flesh staff. It has been awesome seeing them. I love those people. I love SariBari too. I love that it seeks to free women both physically and spiritually. Anyways, I was sad to say goodbye last night. I am terrible at goodbyes.


Ok, now to explain the title of the post. We went to Pastor Kaushik's house the other night (the guy in the front and center of the pic) to talk about the Bible with some relatively new believers. These guys are all interested in the Bible and have tons of questions to ask. We talked some about Hinduism and routes that Hindu's come to have faith in Jesus. It is usually more of a process where the Hindu begins to see Jesus as the main god that they serve, and then they begin to realize that he is the only God. Any way that someone comes to the faith is cool with me. I'm down for using whatever strategy. Anyways, these guys were solid believers who haven't been baptized yet. One of them told me he wanted to clean up before getting baptized. For example, he told me that he wants to look at girls a lot of times when they walk by him, so he wants to quit this bad habit before being baptized. We gave them the answer (and Pastor Kaushik expounded) that our whole lives are a process of sanctification and we are going to always be fighting the battle against sin. We will never fully reach perfection until the next life. I think they got it. We played a very small role in this meeting that happens every week with Pastor Kaushik. It was a cool ministry to play a small role in.

We leave for Raipur to see my compassion kid in 2 days. I'm excited. Pray that we make the most of our time. We have had opportunities to share about Christ and have taken them. I love the Christian life. I love Jesus. I hope I love him more.

Pray for the Charis fellowship church and many churches that meet across Calcutta. Pray that they would be full of the Spirit. Pray for us to continue to use every opportunity to share about Christ in our lives. Pray that the tracts we hand out make a difference in these people's lives. Pray that God would move in Calcutta.

Flesh n Bones

Today at Kalighat (The home of the dying) this guy had a pseudo surgery performed by the nurse. There is a doctor that comes every once in a while, however, the nurse does all of the work. Anyways, today the nurse was pulling crazy things out of this wound. I didn't watch, and the only reason I know is that I saw part of the remains in a dish. She walked by and asked me and Josh to take it to the trash can. It had bones in it! I was like, Josh you got this one. He's going to be a nurse. He can take it. I would have thrown up probably. The poor guy operated on had no pain killers. They are too poor here. I guess he is lucky just to have his foot fixed. It was his foot by the way. I looked at the wound but that is all I could do. He was screaming big time.


This pic is the flower market, it's still going strong. We actually walked through more of it this time that I had last time and it is pretty amazing how much bigger it is than this picture looks. This place is huge. It's primary source of income is Hindu's buying these strings of flowers for their gods that hang in the corner of their homes, as if they are watching over them. bogus.


This is the front of the college library that William Carey helped build. That's about all there is to say about that.


This is the Hooghly river I think. It runs through Calcutta. It is a branch of the Ganges so it is holy. People throw lots of things in this river, including bodies I think. It's holy though so people bathe in it also.
This was dinner last night. Pork. Moa cooked it for us. Big time. Naga food, not Bengali. That means its northeast Indian, if you don't know where Nagaland is. Native food to here is Bengali. The state we are in is West Bengal. Anyways, this pork was money. I had to have way more rice than pork stuff though because it was so hot.

Sari Bari + Momma T's day 2

I forgot to mention yesterday that the day before we got to go see the new SariBari unit in the gach. This is the same building I helped clean out last year. Absolutely gorgeous place for sure. 40 new women are there working now. So now SariBari is up to roughly 60 women. Freedom. I'm going to be bringing some bags back to hopefully sell at Temple. You better buy them. Or else.

I had an awesome time seeing Beth, Kyle, and Sarah. Me and Josh got to go to the flat (same place I went to all the time last year) and eat dinner with a team here. I might have said that on my last post but I can't remember. If so I apologize.

I'm whiped out today. We've been here 5 days now and its taking its toll. haha 5 days. I've lectured Josh too many times already about how different it is for us to come for 2 weeks and if you stay here 4 months. Totally different experience fo' sho'.

We went to kalighat again this morning. It was pretty intense because as we walked up, we were asked to help load a dead dude into the truck to head to the crematorium. I noticed he was fat. Later, I realized who the dead guy was. I took his temperature on Tuesday and he had no fever. Ridiculous. I could tell he was in bad condition though. He ate like 2 bites and didn't really even chew. He basically let me fill his mouth with rice and spit it out later. The sister said it was ok.

William Carey?

So who woulda thought that we'd go see William Carey's college that he founded and a little museum they have for him. I'm inspired now to read his biography lol. It was really cool to see it. Me and Josh went on an epic adventure. We basically went from Howrah station and started with the name of the place we needed to go, knowing we had to take a local train. So I bought a ticket to serampore and we hopped on one of the local trains, hoping to find the right place. At this point I had no clue how we'd find some college in the middle of an indian village outside of Kolkata. We got off at some station named "shrirampur" and I kept asking people if it was "serampore." They kept saying yes. So then we went to some random salesman sitting on the ground and with my terrible bengali skills I said something like, "William Carey where?" He pointed us inside the station area and we saw that there was a plaque there dedicated to him. Pretty cool. But I wanted to see more than that so I was like, "William Carey where?" lol. He pointed us to some rickshaw wallahs and we took a bike rickshaw to the college that he founded. They told us at the gate that the college is not in session right now so we might not be able to see the museum. Luckily, those people were very nice and let us go see the little one room (it had A/C) museum. I touched the desk that William Carey used when he was here. Our tour guide told me that he took it here from England and assembled it. She said that it hasn't been re-painted. And it was in great condition. So I learned that William Carey helped translate the Bible into 35 languages. What a balla'. After seeing all of the cool William Carey stuff, we came back to Kolkata and I am about to arrange for our trip to the taj mahal during the last few days.

I figure we'll do some mother teresa's again tomorrow.

I shared with a guy in an auto rickshaw last night. He gave me the same sort of response that I would usually get on USM's campus during last school year. That would be one of sorta indifference. He didn't seem to care. I don't know what is happening in his heart though.

I can't wait to hang out with my Naga friends some more tonight. Woowoo!

momma t's

Ok, so we are here. We= me and Josh by the way. We are staying alone in a place that is really good I think. It is near where I stayed last time that I was here. We will eat dinner every night with my friends from Nagaland that work with the church here (Charis Fellowship). Nagaland people are the most generous people ever. Or maybe just these few that I know.

It has been incredibly sweet to see these old friends I used to live and go to church with. I look forward to spending lots of time with them over the next 2 weeks. Also, It is confirmed for us to go see my compassion kid, so that is exciting.

We did our first day volunteering at Mother Theresa's home of the dying today. I love that place. I almost forgot how awesome it is. It was cool to see some of the people there too. I was actually remembered by a worker! I only recognized a handful of patients. I guess they only let a few stay there long term. Everybody else comes and goes. Either they get better and leave or they stay there and die. I saw a guy today who had a hole in his chest that was somehow connected to his lung. He could breathe out of chest or something. Pretty crazy.

Josh is doing great. He is doing a lot better than I would have been.

I tried to show a couple of guys John 3:16 in my Bengali bible. It was kinda funny because a lot of these guys its like impossible to communicate with so I can't really tell if they have a clue what I'm trying to get across. One guy told me he only reads Hindi so Imma bring a Hindi bible next time. Woowoo.

Pray for us. That we don't waste any of the time we have here.

packing and stuff

I'm packing right now. I just realized I'm a bit nervous. I've never felt nervous about a trip like this before. I think it's because I've never actually tried to do it without an organization doing all the logistics for me. I hope we make the most of every opportunity. I'll try to update a good bit.

been too long

Sorry guys, I've been lazy lately. I hate putting up honest feelings on the internet, and so it has made me want to neglect the blog.

So a lot has happened since I last wrote. The contract has been signed and some day soon me and the servant team will get to go and clean up the place near the gach. It is pretty much a privilege to get to be a part of that. It is almost a month until I go home. I'm excited. The end is finally in sight. I'm for sure also praying that I will do all that God calls me to here. I want to make the most of every opportunity, and I want to fall in love with Jesus. I need Him. I've spent a good amount of time in the Word the past few days and it has been super good. I've been here almost 3 months and I'll say I'm used to living here at this point. I'm used to seeing a bunch of naked guys at Kalighat. I'm used to living in an extremely dirty, ugly city. I'm used to being around a ton of horns. I'm used to it. I guess there are still good and bad days...days where I want to scream "shutup" to the auto rickshaw driver for honking a ridiculous amount for no reason, and days where I want to just jump around and praise God. That may sound stupid, but it is pretty much true. I'm still continually broken for the unbelief I see here. Calcutta needs revival. Pray for it. India needs revival. America needs revival. I can look at all the little mini-temples that are set up everywhere and as I pass by the people each night ringing bells and saying prayers to their "gods" who are in actuality either nothing or demons. They are wasting their lives...and Americans are wasting their lives worshipping the God of Money and Sex. Good game. Unbelief is everywhere, just look. My heart definitely breaks for America at this point. These same general thoughts came in my head last summer when I was in China looking at all of the buddhism. Satan doesn't really care what you worship, as long as it isn't the God who created the universe. The God who sent his son Jesus to earth. That is the God I praise, not some flipping thing created by man.

Ok how's that for a sermon hahaha. I think I'm just passionate when it comes to this. Maybe also I'm listening to Crowder on youtube, "You Never Let Go," so that is causing me to get all pumped up. Probably both.

So basically, India needs Jesus, just like America does, just like the world does...

born into brothels

I can't remember if I have mentioned this on here before, but there is a good documentary called Born into Brothels about some kids that are....born into brothels in Calcutta. Yesterday was my first day to visit the gach. We went in and met up with a 20 year old fellow who Beth knew because he was the son of one of the ladies there. We went with him and 3 of his friends to the botanical gardens of Calcutta in hopes of playing some cricket. The cricket failed because the guards wouldn't let us in with the bat. So we just walked around and then found some coconut trees to throw rocks at. Eventually we got a coconut down and drank/ate it. It was great to just be a part of something like this. To just take these guys out to have a fun day outside of the red light district that they live was really cool. It was really really frustrating though because I don't know hardly any bengali. So, most of the day I was feeling a little bit useless. Frustrating. Then after the coconut adventure, we went to dinner in town and took them home. It was obvious that they all had a great time, and it's cool to just be able to participate in something like that. Also, I hate language barriers.

The heat is turning up a notch for sure. I try not to know how hot it is...I guess I just don't care to know. All I know is, it feels like June and July in Hattiesburg right now. So, when I get home, it will pretty much feel the exact same. Looking forward to spending 10 days in Nepal during May.

I talked to some guys the other day about what its like to live here and I felt misunderstood. I think it was a small taste of what I will feel when I get home. I'm going to try to explain what it was like here, and then I'm going to look at the people's faces and be like, you don't get it. All I know is, when I get home I will want to spend as much time as possible doing nothing. So, apart from studying school, I think I'm going to sit around in an air conditioned house and eat a lot of American food. haha. It's almost been 3 months here and I can't wait to see Carrie Prior.

Kyle's church

This is a picture of Kyle's church which has about 50 kids that will regularly attend with only a handful of older people. It is very very interesting. Anyways, a girl leads worship with Kyle every week and the pastor is a really cool guy. I've been to this church only a handful of times, I usually go to another church that is closer to my house (how American of me...convenience). But it was really cool to go here on good friday and just think a lot about Jesus and how he died on the cross for my sins.

In the meantime, I have been feeling a lot better physically since my little stomach issue. I am also over a lot of the culture shock. It is just lonely to not have a close friend with me who is a guy and who can understand. I live with the 4 guys from Nagaland but they aren't doing momma t's and they can't really understand what I'm going through and feeling here at all. So, it gets a bit lonely oftentimes.

I'm definitely enjoying Kalighat still though, that place is pretty amazing. I was talking with a friend here the other day and she mentioned how much nerve Mother Teresa must have had to build her home of the dying right by the Kali temple. The Kali temple has many visitors every day that are rich Hindu's going to pay their respects to the gods and so there are a lot of beggars sitting on the road leading to the temple. It seems like Mother Teresa was saying, "ok, you won't do anything about this, so I will." Pretty amazing for sure. I will never get over the Catholic habit of esteeming people (granted I do the same with leaders in the baptist faith or evangelicals in general, look at Billy Graham for example), but they are still so dang obsessed with Mother and Mary and the pope. lol. I personally feel like Mother Teresa did a great work, and was a great person or whatever, but she was still just a person. It is nice to know in all of this that they still look to Jesus as the King. Some of the sisters are definitely amazing people, really all of them are but the ones I've met have definitely struck me as very nice people.

I saw a guy who was moaning every time he breathed today. A few sisters were praying the rosary over him. He was very sick for sure, dunno if he will be there when I go back on Friday.

what a friend we have in Jesus!

Ok, so first, a guy came up to me today as we were walking with the visiting servant team from Nepal and was a beggar and said something like, "Hey, today is good friday, Jesus is good can you buy me something?" I refused. He followed us for at least 5 minutes and I was talking to Karissa, another servant team member, whenever I heard him just start belting out, "What a friend we have in Jesus!" And then I heard him sing the next line, mumbling all the words because he wasn't sure what they were. Lol, it was so funny.

But the past week has been hard. I've had culture shock for sure. I'm just having a lot of feelings of, "get me the crap out of here." and "I am tired of living here" Living in another culture is hard and living in a city that is the least western city of the large ones in India is also hard. I miss my girlfriend and I miss living in comfort. It isn't comfortable when it feels like early summer does in Hattiesburg and there is no A/C to retreat to at home. Last night the fan was on, I had no shirt on, and I was still sweating some in my bed. It is only April 10th. Holy cow (saw some of those today lol, see those every day) this place is really just getting started in the heat. I feel God calling me to stay here and fulfill the commitment I made to go until June. It is just hard for sure. There is no doubt that the last 2 months were very hard months for me and the next 2 will be very hard also. I'm already looking forward to coming home.

hard

I apparently haven't posted much about how hard life is here. These have been 2 very hard months for me. Living here is anything but easy. This place is the ugliest city I've ever been to. That is as far as I'll go there lol. Washing clothes by hand and having food that I'm not really really fond of doesn't make anything easier. And then there is the heat. It is hot here, it feels like mid may does in hattiesburg and the main difference here is that I don't have a car with A/C driving me everywhere and when I get home I don't walk into a room with A/C. We have a fan, and that does the trick at night for sure. But about a month from now its really going to be hot. May is supposedly a terrible month when it comes to temperature. I expect to be laying in bed and sweating all night. It is just how it is, so drink lots of water! haha. So yea, life here isn't easy, just thought I'd say. I'm sure I could say a lot more but I'll spare you.

I was talking to another servant team member the other day and she was saying how she kept trying to describe what things look like on her blog. I haven't done this at all. So here is my best explanation of Kalighat. When you walk in, there is a huge room with about 50 beds and 50 men lying in the beds. There is one curtain, but they never use it. Not quite the same as a hospital room in America. The women are set up the same way, only their room is seperated a little (obviously) so that not too much nakedness is seen by either side. There is also another fairly large room where we do laundry and the dishes. This room always makes my feet itch. I'm not sure why but you needed to know that detail lol. Then there is upstairs, the roof, where we have tea time and hang all of the clothes. It is fun walking around on all the roofs laying the clothes out each morning, but gets hot after a while with the sun beating down on you. Um, in a nutshell this is a terrible explanation of how it looks, but I tried. The men today were wearing red shirts and green pants, Christmas!

sickly...

I would first off like the reader to know that this city is still just as gross and dirty as ever. However, I think my body has adjusted relatively well and gotten used to all of the pollution and dirt. I am really one of the dirtiest people ever while living here. This reminds me, there are a bunch of little ponds by my house and the Indian people that live near will bathe in the ponds and also wash their dishes in the ponds. My roommate, Nokchi, was telling me that after peeing into that pond the day before, he thought this was quite gross. I think I'm going to go ahead and agree. It reminds me of Katrina when everyone said they were bathing in lakes and stuff. Indians have some mad skills when it comes to this topic of hygiene. The people who live in slums will somehow come out of them looking like perfectly normal people. I don't think I could pull this off. I would not be good at taking showers in a public little area as many of them do. They have wells all around the city, obviously a ton of them, this city is big. And a lot of times you will be walking around the city and see a group of guys bathing right there on the sidewalk. This is just how they live. There are a couple of girls here who work for an organization called servants and they have a company called connexions which employs people in poverty to give them a source of income. They live in a slum and take baths with all the women in a public place like the sidewalk. Pretty interesting, and different from American living. I must say, a little less comfortable. I, though, have a shower...and although our bathroom is infested with mosquitoes and spiders, it is indeed not public. So, I am livin large in India. But, this morning as I was using the bathroom, a spider definitely hopped on to my foot, which caused me to give a little yell and kick it off into the squatty potty. Fun stuff....he was huge too. I forgot to mention their size. I can't think of a good size to compare it with, maybe the circumference of a tennis ball. Most of them are a little bit smaller than this. But they look quite scary. Living in India means you will probably come in contact with a lot more instects. This reminds me, at beth's apartment they always have problems with cockroaches, which are exactly like the ones in hattiesburg. So this doesn't phase me, because I lived in the same house for over 15 years and each year we experience a massive attack from cockroaches. But, my dad would spray and then we would have hundreds of dead ones lying around. So, I'm rather used to insects. I'll just say here too, I think its much easier to be a boy and live here. Girls just have to deal with so much more. There is the risk of them being grabbed by some random Indian pervert, and then they have to deal with a bunch of gross things. Typically, I think guys are better at dealing with gross things. So yea, more power to you girls who live in Calcutta. For reals.

Ok the title of this post is sickly because I got sick for the first time yesterday. I talked to a long term volunteer at Kalighat the other day and he told me that he doesn't like a particular resturaunt that I do like because it made him sick multiple times- Blue Sky Cafe. On wednesday, I went to blue sky and had a nice little pizza. And of course, this pizza equaled food poisoning. I ended up passing out and waking up in my bed. The naga guys took very good care of me. After passing out I quit throwing up and began to feel better. Being sick in a foreign country makes you homesick for sure, not to mention I'm almost 2 months in. But I'm feeling a lot better now, Praise God.

love, love, love...

Kristian Stanfill opened with that beatle's song at the Student Life tour...the song that starts, "there's nothing you can do that can't be done..." It just popped into my head and has nothing to do with what I will say other than I am thinking about it 2 months later lol. One of my last memories of home. So I've been going to Kalighat now for a couple of weeks and I'm starting to get the full experience. I'm sure many more intense things are coming, though. Today was cleaning day, which made everything hectic. They moved all the men into a very small area and all the beds out. Then they cleaned all the beds and floors and put all of them back. So, it was a good day for sure. I'm for sure liking Kalighat more than Prem Dan at this point. I think I enjoy the more intimate environment. I guess I like having some semi-familiar faces and I love getting to help some of the guys with ...well rehab basically, just helping them walk and guiding them. It is for sure intense though. These tourists came in today who weren't volunteering but just walked in to see it and there was a new guy sitting there with a huge wound going from his knee half way down his leg. I laughed to myself because I was thinking about how I would react if that were the first thing I saw at Kalighat. I would have flipped out in my mind. But it is for sure a beautiful place.

It is getting hot here, for the record. It is only March, but it is hot. I don't bother checking how hot, partially because they will tell me in celcius, and partially because I don't even want to know. Last night it rained randomly and brought in cool air, which felt incredible. I am crossing my fingers for the same to happen in about a month, when it is really summer time.

crows

The title is crows, because there a bajillion crows in this city. Just so you know, crows are ugly birds. They look like little demons flying around and pooping all over the place.

Ok, so I have officially done two mornings at Kalighat and I pretty much love it. It is so much more intimate than Prem Dan and I feel like I come here to work at Kalighat so I am doing what I came here for. The days will typically go like this: First, we get there are do laundry, hand washing all the patients clothes/rags, etc... and then after hanging up the laundry on the roof to dry, we will go hang out with the patients. This means bringing them water, massaging them, shaving them, clipping their nails, whatever really. Also, for the patients who are recovering, we can help them walk some. Today I got to help a blind guy walk and it was really cool because he was just laying in his bed and he seemed really happy when I got him up to go walking. I guess it was encouraging for me to see that I was making this guy happier by helping him out.

This afternoon I am going to Beth (my leader)'s house and talking about Guilty Without Trial, a book about the sex-trade in Calcutta. Reading that book totally opened my eyes because before this, I always just tucked prostitution into the category of "bad people" and moved on. But now I've been forced to look it in the eye and love it. The truth is (in India anyways) that these prostitutes are not there for the glamour hardly EVER. They are there because of poverty or because of sex traffiking. To know that calcutta is a hub for sex trafficking all over India is pretty disturbing. So, when we visit the gach it is going to be really cool to meet some of these ladies and offer them hope through SariBari because the contract has been given to us! Sorry, I totally forgot to update and say the we got the contract, and this is partially because I haven't gotten to help out any with the building process, and I am doubting that I will because they will just hire some Indians to do it all. Nevertheless, it is extremely exciting to know that a new branch is going to be starting up that targets one of the biggest red light districts in India. I love going to SariBari because I feel like I get to be a very small part of something that is so beautiful.

Kalighat = intense

So yesterday I went to kalighat for the second time in the afternoon, and I will probably head there this afternoon too. Just the walk up to the building is really intense. There are tons of people living on the streets in that area. Also, I think yesterday was much more intense than my first experience, partially because a lot of the patients seemed like they were in a much worse condition. It is really pretty intense for me right now. I also find it funny that I spent a month at Prem Dan and now that I am experiencing the home of the dying I'm going through much different thoughts. Anyways, it is for sure a great experience, and I am glad to be getting to go this afternoon again. Most of the volunteers at kalighat are long term from what I have seen in the afternoon shift, which means that they are much cooler to work with.

40 hour train

Well, if you want to see any photos then you should check my facebook. It is about 1000 times easier for me to put them up there.
But for the 40 hour train ride. These trains do not have cabins, they are quite open aired. In fact, completely open aired. (For the record, I should stop and say that we road in a sleeper class, there is in fact an A/C class with tinted windows. If you come to India, you should take the sleeper class and get dirty like I did.) So, the beds are not really beds at all. We got on the train at a little after midnight and stayed on all the next day, and until about 6 of the following day. So, on day 3, you are guarenteed to look and feel gross. It makes coming back home to a bed quite a nice thing. Anyways, we road all the way through the country of India twice and so after looking out the window, I saw that there are in fact a few random hills in the southern part of India. But much of the scenery looked like Africa would in my mind.

Yesterday it was Alem, my roommate's birthday; He turned 30. We were talking and he told me some about his experience in northern India by the border of Nepal. He used to go to the train station and hand out tracts and try to share the gospel with the Hindi that he knew. Sounds really dang intense, especially when you think about the fact that the group he was targetting was Hindu's who were going to large, famous Hindu temples in Nepal. So, from this he was eventually told by the police that he had to pay them 50 rupees a day to preach there. So, he would pay 50 rupees and preach all day. This was after being chased away by the police multiple times. He played soccer at this time and he went to a tournament and they won and he got man of the match. So, he got his picture with the chief of police on the front page of the local newspaper, and from that point on, the police said he could preach wherever he wanted to. I find this quite funny.

bangalore! and a crazy auto ride

Ok, so I thought I would go ahead and write about my odd auto rickshaw ride that I had home the other day. I get into an auto and I am jamming out to some Robbie Seay (sp) Band and the ride takes about 30-45 minutes. About half way through the ride, the driver turns around and says, "Hey where are you from?" So I say, America, Mississippi. And then he says, "why are you here in calcutta?" I said I was here to serve at Mother theresa's. He replied by saying, Oh so your a missionary? And I said, well uh yea. And he said, I don't understand why Christians have to keep coming here and giving good things to poor people and then forcing the gospel on them (this is obviously a paraphrase). I was like, uh, I don't think it is right to shove the gospel down someones throat, but I do think you should believe in Jesus because there are 2 possible places to go when you die, heaven and hell. He immediatly was like, "NO there is no afterlife!" lol. I am sorry but this was quite comical to me. Really it isn't funny at all, but it was funny at the time, you just had to be there. So yea, the conversation kept going but it never got past that point. He would continually return to the point that he wanted to make of "you can give good things to the poor, just don't give them the gospel." and I would say, well, I want to give them the gospel because that gives them much more than just good gifts. He really didn't want to hear what I had to say so I kindly responded with "ok" and left. But hey, he gave me the rickshaw ride free, I think to prove that Hindu's can be generous too. Lol, I tried really hard to pay but it was no use. Btw we were talking after everyone got out and another rickshaw driver asked to listen to my music and he did and was like, "oh its very good"...sooo, the best thing you can learn from this is, Indian people like robbie seay...not really. This was a kinda cool and funny experience for me for sure.

Anyways, bangalore. I saw the blue sky there and was about to cry because it was so blue and not smoggy like calcutta. I don't think I could live in England or Seattle after having this experience of joy in a blue sky. It was an incredible trip though. We went to Kirubai Children's Home which is run by a lady named Tammy. There are 45 kids there and they are all either going to go to school or are in school. Their ages range to an infant girl with HIV to an 18 year old who is attending college and wants to be a pastor one day. I also talked to a guy named Kiren who is in 12th grade and wants to be a missionary in India wherever God calls him to. These kids were all brought off of the streets or by a social worker. They have terrible pasts and this home is bursting with life. These kids are nothing short of amazing and they offer hope to India. In short, I feel like that place is ridiculous...in a good way. I'm really glad I got to see it and experience it. Tammy said that they pray as a staff, both the Indian host parents and the American staff, before accepting any children. If they don't feel like God is in it, then they will say no. She says they have turned down probably 100 kids and they are currently full at 45. In a nutshell, the place is amazing. We had fasting and prayer on sunday night, which is where the kids don't eat dinner and we spend about an hour praising God to some worship music and praying for different things. We prayed for the 10/40 window and shouted out the names of countries in that window asking God to bring life there. I'm telling you, this place shocked me. The kids in that home are so flipping talented too. We played "Indian Idol" where the kids got up and sang and were "judged" but just seeing them sing was so cool. Some of their voices were so good. And I continually kept thinking, these kids would be on the streets begging me for a few rupees if this place didn't exist. Naturally, my mind then progresses to, "more of these places need to pop up!!!" Tammy never has "raised support" or done fund raising for this children's home. She never asked people for money, she just asks God for money, and he brings it in amazing ways. They needed $75,000 to build the new home that they are currently in, and God brought it. They never told anyone in a mass email about needing this money, it just came, in one big chunk someone gave it. There are a lot more stories that I heard that are similar to this one if not more amazing of where God provided in Tammy's life. She really seemed to me to have a ton of wisdom to offer. She talked about how our first priority in life needs to be to love Jesus and wherever we go its just context. So in India, my first priority is to love Jesus. She was just talking about how so many ministers and people in general get their identity wrapped up in their job or ministry. God looks at you and sees your heart, not your job. I feel like she had a lot of wisdom to offer, and I feel privileged to be able to just see this children's home. The kids were amazing. They had great attitudes and they minded better than most American children that I have seen. I got to play some soccer with the teenage guys on Saturday and they were really good. It has been a while since I've played a good soccer game...so much fun.
So, Bangalore rocked. I am refueled for sure. Btw my birthday was good. Just missed girlfriend and family more than usual. But yea, they got me a cake, which was very kind. Yea though, God is pretty amazing. I think my next blog entry will be on the 40 hour train ride home. I could talk forever about that.