Tonight we are updating in a different fashion. Some of our team is home already, and some of us are relaxing in a beautiful resort still in India. We are all well and happy (I think) and I have some beautiful words to share from many of the team members. We passed around a journal the last day and a half we were all together, and I am simply here to type up their words and stories about our adventure.
First is Stefanie--
It's been my dream to travel for years and that dream became a reality this week. But I am reminded again that dreams are different than reality. For instance my shiny idea of India didn't include three days recovery from jet-lag or waking up at 2 a.m. with a splitting headache and nausiated. However, God is gracious to me even in my ignorance because reality is far better than dreams. Jill prayed over me the morning I was very sick and I count it as no coincidence that I was more refreshed than a normal day in about five minutes.
There is an overwhelming amount to experience and take in here. Everyday we took the same route to our work site, but I couldn't stand to look away from the outside scenes. The smells alone overtake you. Everything from mouth-watering cuisine to sewage water that seems as though it was mixed with petroleom and human feces. The streets are littered with trash everywhere you look and traffic lanes seem to serve more of a decorative purpose than anything. It's a crazy and frantic feeling, but oddly mixed with peace.
Seyyamkuppam, the village we worked in, has been the most beautiful, both the people and landscape. The children were most friendly and helped us build friendship with the adults. I think I've learned most by watching them live. They know how to sit down with their neighbors and family and just be in community. Life seems better this way and I firmly believe this is how God intended it.
India is a poor country, but not in spirit. They are strong and vibrant and I am so blessed to have been able to work alongside them and watch them live life.
Followed by Jill--
INDIA MASALA
In the USA we compartmentalize everything. There's work time, family time, down time, friend time. There's the residential district and the food court. Even the churchs seem to line up and down the street (always downtown). Not here. There's a random internet cafe sandwitched between our hotel and another. Tuk-tuks, motorbikes, oxen, pedestirans, and buses all share both sides of the road. Temples blast music into surrounding homes and shops of all kinds. Even shower curtains are kind of a joke in the very uncompartmentalized bathroom. Radient flowerbushes grow out of heaps of trash...
Yet none of the people seem the least bit distracted by what is sensory overload to us. The people are strong and beautiful. They seem to be always aware of where and how the people around them are. They work together on the road and on the houses. The children wait while we work and run to play when we take longer breaks. There were very few people who we really got to know. (And even then - how well can you know someone in a week?)
My favorite interaction was an incredibly strong grandma who I worked side by side with on the second day. She showed me up for sure. But as we both worked strenuously passing bricks and cement and water buckets through the house and up to masons building the wall, we did our best to communicate. But even with very few words, we showed each other our character the best we could. We smiled and respected everyone around us; we worked quick, hard and attentively. We complemented eachother (with gestures and a translator). Maybe this interaction means very little to you as a reader, but between me and this beautiful grandmother named Rajashevvi there was a sweetness almost magical.
TOGETHER SEPARATELY
Our team has a truly incredible and diverse make-up. The most noteworthy diversity was in age. Half the team were my peers (I'm 23) and the other half is my parents' age (including of course my dad and aunt). We came from several churches and several cities. We had totally different personalities and a wide array of different talents. I was so impressed by how hard everyone tried to work together and how focused we were on the always chaotic worksites. By the end of the day everyone was very, very sleepy! I cannot imagine what things would have been like with any of the members missing.
I am so grateful to each of you. This week required great endurance, flexibility, patience, forgiveness, effort, attentiveness, and love. It also brought many smiles, a good bit of tears, and a widened perspective. I really loved it.
I learned sooooooo much about the beauty of people even when stress fights against us. I learned so much about how I can improve leadership in my future. I learned about my family, my friends, myself and all of our world. I have to apologize that I am not ready to share those lessons on a public blog. But for now belive me when I say I have taken these lessons in and will continue to ponder them in my heart so that the Author and Perfector of our faith may have His will.
Next is Roger--
I believe that my most memorable part of the experience is close to my own heart. I chose this page because I have moved from a 'professional' job to one of repair and build. 'Fix this' 'build that' is everywhere materials are recycled and reused. The village was in the past built and maintained by only what you could find in on and around the forrest. The traditoinal roof are palm frons, walls the same if not clay, sand walls. The people try not to waste anything and are offended by any excess or waste. We tried to help build 'permanent' structures - claybrick and reinforced concrete to replace the temporary. Kyle a small boy proudly pointed at his house next to one of the homes we were working on and said in english "my house clean no bugs." [Note: Kyle was actually going to live in the house we were building.] I joked perhaps too soon to say I did the work of one grandma. Later I remembered she is half my weight and still working when we quit and was still working when I ran out of reserve energy by Friday. I was pleased to see the combine and harvest crew to arrive again on our last day in camp and the reverance the workers had for the fields. I.e. don't enter the production area unless you remove your shoes, plus their laughter at my ineptitude running a hand sythe. The operator-owner of the combine was apparently very proud and protective of his machine. The workers could not wait to tell him that I told them that I was raised on a farm and my father had three machines that each were 3x his own and that I operated the machinery as a young boy. After I asked them if there was any chance that he would let me drive his machine.
Billy--
I had no idea what India would be like. Chennai was humid, loud, and a little scary. Pondicherry was a lot more pleasant. Sure the pace was just as frantic as Chennai on the main roads. But there were quiet places too. I'm not sure how this is relevant.
The villagers in Seyyankuppam were so glad to see us. They treated us like family... well, better than family. Working on the houses was rewarding. Experiencing life in the village was just as, if not more rewarding.
This is an experience I will carry in my heart until the Good Lord calls me home.
Dony--
I thank God for providing all for me. I praise his wisdom and humbly accept all his blessings. One at the present being this trip to India. I forever repeat the scripture "We are blessed to be a blessing." I have been truly blessed with this opportunity to experience, serve, learn, grow, sweat, work, learn patience, fellowship, quickly trust others and more that I can't think of at this moment. The team members are the greatest. There are no words to describe them completely so I will humbly try...
Paula - energetic, enthusiastic
Jill - peaceful, faithful
Ron - fun, solid strength
Celia - sister, calming
Roger - knowledge, dad/brother
Billy - supportive, hardworker
Stefanie - strength, impressive
Greg - silly, mediator
Ryan - leader, quiet strength
Misti - aweinspiring, God gift
Dee - musical, tough
Denise - wonderful prayer, thoughtful
Medina - inquisitive, driven
Charly, Jason, drivers- wonderful, and protective, and always there!
This was a great, great adventure I will have cherish memories to relive and tell about. The molding together of the different churches, villagers, Habitat workers, the hotel staff is something I'll always be proud to be a part of and participating in.
I'm still waiting on the Lord to let me know my reason for being here in India at this time. He made a series of events happen for me to be here I just followed. "Light bulb!" with Love and God's Blessing--
Dee--
Wow - what to say, what to say? In just a few words - magical, difficult, fun, heart-wrenching!
To see the gratitude bestowed upon us was so humbling. The strong family system in Pondicherry makes me wish that Americans would work harder in that aspect - the villagers have so little, and yet have so much. The openness of the children - I felt so loved! The hugs and kisses from the older women - I felt so accepted!
I worked harder physically than I imagined I could - and I felt so satisfied at the end of a hot and long day. God truly was with me, helping to persevere.
Ron--
It was a pleasure serving the villagers with our team this week. The villagers were determined to accomplish their milestones and we made sure that they reached those milestones for all five homes that we worked on.
The villagers have so little and the children have so many hurdles to overcome, but you can tell that the people support one another, and you can see that there are a few exceptional children here that will represent the legacy of the village very well as they excel and succeed in the future!
I am only saddened by the fact that we lost our oldest church member at Hamilton Park UMC this past week at 104 years old. Mr. Idious Baker Foote known as Mr. I.B. Foote lived a long life full of encouraging everyone he met and praising God. Hopefully we have continued a legacy of encouragement for the people we served this past week. I love you all!
Celia--
WOW!! What an experience. First being in India. Then meeting and helping villagers in the building of their homes. The team that we travelled to help build the homes were humbled on working with the families. It was amazing that the women home owners put in sweat equity and put us to shame as they were so much smaller than us but would do as much work or more than us. My greatest joy watching and interacting with the children. They were always happy and participated in the opening and closing ceremonies which was energizing. Our team was made up of both young and youthful grownups amazingly we all worked together well considering we all came together just to work on this mission and most of us did not know each other before. I know this is God's doing as who else can get in different personalities to work together without causing major confusion and disharmony!
I can truly say that I am leaving a changed person as I have truly been blessed to have experienced a cultural view with working with Habitat for Humanity, the homeowners, the India home builders, and the Texas team. It's a wonderful time in my life. To top it all off... The Mavericks won the championship and so all is well in the world!! :)
I know God has been in charge as I always look to him to lead and direct my life. I prayed to him to make this time here a time for growth and understanding and to use me and I pray that he will continue to do so as I seek to help where he feels I fit best.
God has done beautiful work in the hearts of many through this trip. We are so thankful to you all for your support and love and prayers. Honestly, I do not yet have the words to describe my experiences here in India. I am grateful, and so, so blessed by the team around me and these days will forever hold a very special place in my heart as "The first mission." I cannot wait to see the work that God does in India and in my own life because of this trip. India is a beautiful place and a world completely different from the one we live in in the Westernized World. We are very blessed.
Jill and Greg are continuing their mission work in India for the rest of the summer, and have decided to use this blog to keep us all up to date. I encourage you all to continue to read here, as Jill is a beautiful writer and I'm sure that the two of them will have many great experiences to share with us all.
Team, you all have blessed me beyond belief. I had no idea such a diverse team could fit together so perfectly. God bless and love to all--
Misti :)
First is Stefanie--
It's been my dream to travel for years and that dream became a reality this week. But I am reminded again that dreams are different than reality. For instance my shiny idea of India didn't include three days recovery from jet-lag or waking up at 2 a.m. with a splitting headache and nausiated. However, God is gracious to me even in my ignorance because reality is far better than dreams. Jill prayed over me the morning I was very sick and I count it as no coincidence that I was more refreshed than a normal day in about five minutes.
There is an overwhelming amount to experience and take in here. Everyday we took the same route to our work site, but I couldn't stand to look away from the outside scenes. The smells alone overtake you. Everything from mouth-watering cuisine to sewage water that seems as though it was mixed with petroleom and human feces. The streets are littered with trash everywhere you look and traffic lanes seem to serve more of a decorative purpose than anything. It's a crazy and frantic feeling, but oddly mixed with peace.
Seyyamkuppam, the village we worked in, has been the most beautiful, both the people and landscape. The children were most friendly and helped us build friendship with the adults. I think I've learned most by watching them live. They know how to sit down with their neighbors and family and just be in community. Life seems better this way and I firmly believe this is how God intended it.
India is a poor country, but not in spirit. They are strong and vibrant and I am so blessed to have been able to work alongside them and watch them live life.
Followed by Jill--
INDIA MASALA
In the USA we compartmentalize everything. There's work time, family time, down time, friend time. There's the residential district and the food court. Even the churchs seem to line up and down the street (always downtown). Not here. There's a random internet cafe sandwitched between our hotel and another. Tuk-tuks, motorbikes, oxen, pedestirans, and buses all share both sides of the road. Temples blast music into surrounding homes and shops of all kinds. Even shower curtains are kind of a joke in the very uncompartmentalized bathroom. Radient flowerbushes grow out of heaps of trash...
Yet none of the people seem the least bit distracted by what is sensory overload to us. The people are strong and beautiful. They seem to be always aware of where and how the people around them are. They work together on the road and on the houses. The children wait while we work and run to play when we take longer breaks. There were very few people who we really got to know. (And even then - how well can you know someone in a week?)
My favorite interaction was an incredibly strong grandma who I worked side by side with on the second day. She showed me up for sure. But as we both worked strenuously passing bricks and cement and water buckets through the house and up to masons building the wall, we did our best to communicate. But even with very few words, we showed each other our character the best we could. We smiled and respected everyone around us; we worked quick, hard and attentively. We complemented eachother (with gestures and a translator). Maybe this interaction means very little to you as a reader, but between me and this beautiful grandmother named Rajashevvi there was a sweetness almost magical.
TOGETHER SEPARATELY
Our team has a truly incredible and diverse make-up. The most noteworthy diversity was in age. Half the team were my peers (I'm 23) and the other half is my parents' age (including of course my dad and aunt). We came from several churches and several cities. We had totally different personalities and a wide array of different talents. I was so impressed by how hard everyone tried to work together and how focused we were on the always chaotic worksites. By the end of the day everyone was very, very sleepy! I cannot imagine what things would have been like with any of the members missing.
I am so grateful to each of you. This week required great endurance, flexibility, patience, forgiveness, effort, attentiveness, and love. It also brought many smiles, a good bit of tears, and a widened perspective. I really loved it.
I learned sooooooo much about the beauty of people even when stress fights against us. I learned so much about how I can improve leadership in my future. I learned about my family, my friends, myself and all of our world. I have to apologize that I am not ready to share those lessons on a public blog. But for now belive me when I say I have taken these lessons in and will continue to ponder them in my heart so that the Author and Perfector of our faith may have His will.
Next is Roger--
I believe that my most memorable part of the experience is close to my own heart. I chose this page because I have moved from a 'professional' job to one of repair and build. 'Fix this' 'build that' is everywhere materials are recycled and reused. The village was in the past built and maintained by only what you could find in on and around the forrest. The traditoinal roof are palm frons, walls the same if not clay, sand walls. The people try not to waste anything and are offended by any excess or waste. We tried to help build 'permanent' structures - claybrick and reinforced concrete to replace the temporary. Kyle a small boy proudly pointed at his house next to one of the homes we were working on and said in english "my house clean no bugs." [Note: Kyle was actually going to live in the house we were building.] I joked perhaps too soon to say I did the work of one grandma. Later I remembered she is half my weight and still working when we quit and was still working when I ran out of reserve energy by Friday. I was pleased to see the combine and harvest crew to arrive again on our last day in camp and the reverance the workers had for the fields. I.e. don't enter the production area unless you remove your shoes, plus their laughter at my ineptitude running a hand sythe. The operator-owner of the combine was apparently very proud and protective of his machine. The workers could not wait to tell him that I told them that I was raised on a farm and my father had three machines that each were 3x his own and that I operated the machinery as a young boy. After I asked them if there was any chance that he would let me drive his machine.
Billy--
I had no idea what India would be like. Chennai was humid, loud, and a little scary. Pondicherry was a lot more pleasant. Sure the pace was just as frantic as Chennai on the main roads. But there were quiet places too. I'm not sure how this is relevant.
The villagers in Seyyankuppam were so glad to see us. They treated us like family... well, better than family. Working on the houses was rewarding. Experiencing life in the village was just as, if not more rewarding.
This is an experience I will carry in my heart until the Good Lord calls me home.
Dony--
I thank God for providing all for me. I praise his wisdom and humbly accept all his blessings. One at the present being this trip to India. I forever repeat the scripture "We are blessed to be a blessing." I have been truly blessed with this opportunity to experience, serve, learn, grow, sweat, work, learn patience, fellowship, quickly trust others and more that I can't think of at this moment. The team members are the greatest. There are no words to describe them completely so I will humbly try...
Paula - energetic, enthusiastic
Jill - peaceful, faithful
Ron - fun, solid strength
Celia - sister, calming
Roger - knowledge, dad/brother
Billy - supportive, hardworker
Stefanie - strength, impressive
Greg - silly, mediator
Ryan - leader, quiet strength
Misti - aweinspiring, God gift
Dee - musical, tough
Denise - wonderful prayer, thoughtful
Medina - inquisitive, driven
Charly, Jason, drivers- wonderful, and protective, and always there!
This was a great, great adventure I will have cherish memories to relive and tell about. The molding together of the different churches, villagers, Habitat workers, the hotel staff is something I'll always be proud to be a part of and participating in.
I'm still waiting on the Lord to let me know my reason for being here in India at this time. He made a series of events happen for me to be here I just followed. "Light bulb!" with Love and God's Blessing--
Dee--
Wow - what to say, what to say? In just a few words - magical, difficult, fun, heart-wrenching!
To see the gratitude bestowed upon us was so humbling. The strong family system in Pondicherry makes me wish that Americans would work harder in that aspect - the villagers have so little, and yet have so much. The openness of the children - I felt so loved! The hugs and kisses from the older women - I felt so accepted!
I worked harder physically than I imagined I could - and I felt so satisfied at the end of a hot and long day. God truly was with me, helping to persevere.
Ron--
It was a pleasure serving the villagers with our team this week. The villagers were determined to accomplish their milestones and we made sure that they reached those milestones for all five homes that we worked on.
The villagers have so little and the children have so many hurdles to overcome, but you can tell that the people support one another, and you can see that there are a few exceptional children here that will represent the legacy of the village very well as they excel and succeed in the future!
I am only saddened by the fact that we lost our oldest church member at Hamilton Park UMC this past week at 104 years old. Mr. Idious Baker Foote known as Mr. I.B. Foote lived a long life full of encouraging everyone he met and praising God. Hopefully we have continued a legacy of encouragement for the people we served this past week. I love you all!
Celia--
WOW!! What an experience. First being in India. Then meeting and helping villagers in the building of their homes. The team that we travelled to help build the homes were humbled on working with the families. It was amazing that the women home owners put in sweat equity and put us to shame as they were so much smaller than us but would do as much work or more than us. My greatest joy watching and interacting with the children. They were always happy and participated in the opening and closing ceremonies which was energizing. Our team was made up of both young and youthful grownups amazingly we all worked together well considering we all came together just to work on this mission and most of us did not know each other before. I know this is God's doing as who else can get in different personalities to work together without causing major confusion and disharmony!
I can truly say that I am leaving a changed person as I have truly been blessed to have experienced a cultural view with working with Habitat for Humanity, the homeowners, the India home builders, and the Texas team. It's a wonderful time in my life. To top it all off... The Mavericks won the championship and so all is well in the world!! :)
I know God has been in charge as I always look to him to lead and direct my life. I prayed to him to make this time here a time for growth and understanding and to use me and I pray that he will continue to do so as I seek to help where he feels I fit best.
God has done beautiful work in the hearts of many through this trip. We are so thankful to you all for your support and love and prayers. Honestly, I do not yet have the words to describe my experiences here in India. I am grateful, and so, so blessed by the team around me and these days will forever hold a very special place in my heart as "The first mission." I cannot wait to see the work that God does in India and in my own life because of this trip. India is a beautiful place and a world completely different from the one we live in in the Westernized World. We are very blessed.
Jill and Greg are continuing their mission work in India for the rest of the summer, and have decided to use this blog to keep us all up to date. I encourage you all to continue to read here, as Jill is a beautiful writer and I'm sure that the two of them will have many great experiences to share with us all.
Team, you all have blessed me beyond belief. I had no idea such a diverse team could fit together so perfectly. God bless and love to all--
Misti :)
No comments:
Post a Comment