I'm coming home in THREE DAYS!...

A typical day...

So, I realized I haven't really talked about the project that we are working and what we do each day. It's crazy, because for me its just an everyday thing, so I forget to talk about it.

This is a typical day for me:

We start with staff and interns at 8:30 with devo's, singing and prayer time, and we each take turns doing devos. We then start the work day from 9am to 6pm. Our office is a house in which my room is located in the back. The house is located at the highest point of the city and gets very cold in these winter months! We start what is called a bucaree (like a wood stove) to keep us warm during the day. We go down to the shed each morning and get wood and pincones to keep it going. Usually on my way to the wood shed, I step in poo along the way... just a typical day. Then I often burn my hand on the stove while trying to get the fire started... just a typical day. haha! All the work is totally worth it, and the warmth is nice! I often wear my winter coat and gloves as I sit by my computer and work. :)

My room, is the girls dorm (which I have all to myself, since I'm the only single girl) and it's located in the back of the office. The men stay in another building about a 15 minute walk up the mountain to our office. It's been nice to be able to just walk down the steps from my loft and go to work. So a typical workday for me is getting up at 6am, going for a run on the trails in the beautiful mountains, as the sun rises over the mountains (It's a great way to start my day and wake up and enjoy Gd's beauty.) We can only shower no more than every other day. A "shower" for us, is what you would call a bucket bath. Many interns go for a week without showering, but I prefer to take mine as much as I can. ha! Then I get ready for work. The work atmosphere is like working in any other architecture office, except we have several visitors, many interruptions, and breaks for chi time. We have an Indian cook who cooks for us everyday except on the weekends. She is soo sweet, I feel really spoiled sometimes, because she knows I don't like chi, so she will make me some garrum dude (hot donkey milk) with sugar and bring it out to me while I'm working. I love donkey milk! (And I think I'm the only one that does here) It smells really bad, but I love it! YUM! haha! So, we have weekends "off", from the office work. On weekends we have gone and volunteered at different schools, villages, and peoples homes to share the good news! Several amazing opportunities! I wrote about some of them in previous blogs.

Anyways, right now in the office, there are two projects that us interns are working on. One is a children's school for m1ss1onary kids, and the other, which I am working on, is guest houses and seminar hall for a chrch in North East India. We are designing a whole campus for the chrch. We have been working on it from the very beginning of my time here and our plan is to publish next week! My team consists of one civil engineer intern and one architecture staff member. I have been working on the architectural plans, elevations, renderings, etc. and it's been such a great experience! It's so cool to think that I can do what I absolutely love, while also serving and doing it for the Lrd! It's fun because there is also a family that lives here and they have three little blonde kids, who are so cute! So every once in a while, while working, the kids come in and "help" us with our work. And on our lunch break we sometimes go outside with the kids and play baseball. Great fun! A typical meal for us consists of rice, doll, subsee (vegtables), chapoti's (like pita bread). and panee (water). To be honest, I am actually getting quite tired of it, but despite the dislike, I still eat it, and I think now when I go back home I won't complain about food again! haha! We have also eaten some pretty sketchy food and have eaten in some pretty sketchy places, and amazingly I have only gotten really sick twice from the food! The crazy thing is that the longer I have lived here, the more I am like, "Oh well" and you just expect that you probably will get sick, and that you just get over it!. ha! In fact the other day some of us interns were making oatmeal, despite the bad smell we continued to eat our oatmeal, but we wondered what the smell was from and soon found out there was poo on the brown sugar bag that we had been using. Despite our findings, we still continued to eat the oatmeal and enjoy it too! haha! Oh man, there are so many other great stories like this. Despite all the smells and the cleanliness, I love India, and I can't believe my time is almost up. I really don't want to leave! It really has been an amazing time and I can't believe we only have two more weeks! eeeks!

This weekend is filled with good bye parties and the following weekend as well, while we wrap up our project during the week. Just this past friday night after work, we had a party at an Indian family's house; the wife taught us Indian dance and prior to the party, went with us to get Sari's (indian dress) to dress up for the party. It was fun!

...Two weeks! It's really exciting to think I'll be home in two weeks, but I'm also very very sad to leave such an amazing place with all these amazing families and people that I have formed great relationships with. I really don't want it to end!

FINALLY ANOTHER BLOG UPDATE

Had a very eventful week/weekend! Let me tell you about it:

Thursday we went out to eat at a south Indian restaurant after work to have a going away party for Deb, one of the interns here, and afterward we got Indian sweets! YUm! ... one problem though....

Friday morning I got sick... (from the south Indian restaurant most likely.) ha!

Didn't get any work done; spending most of the day in the bathroom. But was ready to head out that night and go to Delhi, because us interns had planned on going to Delhi and Agra to see the Taj Mahal! We planned on taking the night train to Delhi so we could sleep the whole night on the train, but that plan failed. We soon found out that we were wait-listed and instead of having a bunk for each of us, we had two bunks for seven of us. Ha! We first just all sat squeezed in the two bunks and tried to sleep sit, but when tiredness hits... well let's just say you don't really care about cleanliness. So three brave souls slept on the floor of the train! Let me just tell you, this isn't just any train, this is a train in India... you see cockroaches squirming about, rats running around eating the garbage strewn across the floor, chi and masala spilt all over, and where millions of people walk and each one of them most likely has poo on their shoes. Yea, well those three slept on the floor while the rest of us tried to share two small bunks. My head ended up by Deb's feet, and when I woke up some ones hankerchief had fallen on my head from the bunk above. ugh! Ha. Not so much of a great time, but a great memory at that. ha. We were all so tired and our necks cramped by the time we finally arrived. (Oh and I'm sure we smelled great too!)

So saturday we kind of just chilled and went and saw Humayuns tomb.

On Sunday I ran the Delhi half marathon! It was chaotic, but super fun! ha! I've always wanted to run one, so it was fun to say that my first half marathon was in India. Me and two other ladies had been training for it, running every morning in the mountains of mussoorie, so our lungs were strong. Running in Delhi, in a lower altitude, with no mountainous trails made the flat 13.1 mile run seem easy. It was fun! And I'm really glad I was able to experience something like that. You can check out my pictures from the race on the marathon website if you want:

http://www.Marathon-Photos.com/scripts/event.py?event=Sports/CPUK/2010/Airtel%20

Delhi%20Half%20Marathon;match=6276

(I stuck out like a sore thumb with my chicken WHITE legs compared to everybody else's dark skinned legs.)

This weekend us interns also decided to go to the Taj Mahal and make a full weekend out of it. Mine and Deb's legs were tired after the run, but we didn't want to miss out on the Taj. (You can't come to India and not see the Taj. :)) It was awesome! We got some great pictures too. And had several people come up to us asking if they could get a picture with us. I felt like a famous person, everyone asking for a photo like every 3 minutes. We started telling people that it would cost them to take a photo with us and then they would leave us alone. There also was one lady that kept squeezing my checks she thought I was so cute. ha. They must not see white people too often. Anyways, it was very eventful and fun! Now we are back in the office working on our projects.

We all should be finishing up with our projects soon, so that's exciting. It's also sad, because that means our time here is almost up. It's going by so fast, but I've really enjoyed my time here and continue to enjoy it!

Before I end this weeks blog, I wanted to share an amazing encounter with Gd that I experience in chrch a few Sunday's back (I was going to write it earlier, but sorry, it's been busy, and I haven't written a blog in a while)

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Anyways, we started the service off with singing and then followed by a time of prayer and meditation. The pastr was praying and then said, "let's have a moment of silence." During the moment of silence, my mind was so consumed with thoughts and distractions. My mind was going in every direction. Usually when there is a time of meditation I feel as if I must confess my sins during that time and I feel that I must talk and reflect on all that I've done wrong and ask for forgiveness... it was a vicious cycle of my mind wandering. After quite some time of quietness and praying, the pastr said, "I was going to stop this time of prayer and meditation now, because we are running short on time, but I feel that someone here needs more time with the presence of the Lrd." After he said that, again my thoughts began to wander... but just then, the pastr said, "Gd loves you so much, and He wants you to be in His presence, He is taking your head and holding you tightly to His breast." As soon as he said that, my distractions stopped and I felt the Lrd's arms wrapped around me! I have never experienced Gd like this before! (Awestruck!) I realized that the Lord doesn't want to hear my speratic "please forgive me's" in a way that i'm just doing it because I know it's right; The Lrd took me in His arms and held my head to His chest and said, "Quiet my daughter." And for several moments i was silent just resting upon Gd's chest, not saying a word, not thinking about what I was going to do this week, just resting in His Peace and Love in the stillness of the moment. When i got to that moment it was an amazing experience for me to be in the presence of Gd like that, it was like the Lord was saying to me, "Be STILL and KNOW that I AM GD!" Then the Pastr said, "He is now stroking your hair back gently showing his love for you." I felt like the Pastr was talking to me, and when he said that, i truly felt the Lord's presence! An amazing, amazing experience! I was then reminded of the times at home, when I was little, and would sit on my mom's lap and lean my head upon her chest and would just sit there, not saying a word, just sitting. Still knowing and pouring out our love for one another in the silence and stillness as she rocked me back and forth. And I realized this is exactly what Gd wants! He wants that intimate time with me, where I just sit in His presence and warmth, in awe of His holiness and unconditional LOVe for ME!! WOW! I hope that all of you some day can have an experience like this! It was an experience I will never forget! There has been so many amazing stories with my time here, where Gd has really spoken to me so clearly, I wish I could share them all, but this blog would be super long, so I will end at that.

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Also this week we have been having trouble with our internet network at work here. There was a bad storm last week and ever since that our network has failed to work for us. Our projects have been delayed a little as some of our work is saved on one of the networks and we can't access it. Please pray that we will be able to get it fixed and get back to work soon to finish our projects.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK:

This week was an interesting one. We had intern holiday, which meant we had a week off to visit and do whatever we wanted in India and get a break from the office. We all had decided to go on a four day trek in the mountains. Usually the interns do it every year, so we were going to as well. The crazy part about it was that I really wasn't looking forward to it and I really felt like I shouldn't go. I've always wanted to do something like that, and I'm always up for an adventure, so I don't know why I was hesitant about going. I really didn't know what to do, because everyone was going on the trek. So I pryed about it and said, "okay Lrd, I'm going on the trek, but if I get sick the night before then I'll know I'm not suppose to go." Bad pryer to pray...why... BECAUSE I GOT SICK THE NIGHT BEFORE! The crazy part about that too, was that the week before we were talking about the power of pryer in our morning devos, I had been questioning why Gd doesn't answer my prayers with a clear answer. Well...let me just tell you, that was crystal CLEAR! ha! And you know what, I was so glad to have not gone. Even though I missed out on some amazing views in the mountains, Gd blessed me with other opportunities. Let me share:

First off, the week started off with me being sick for two days laying low, but actually I really needed that. The Lrd knew that my body needed rest, and the only way it was going to get it was if I fell sick. Also, the Lrd provided some staff members that didn't go trekking and they took care of me. It was so awesome because they asked what I wanted to eat and all I asked for was a

banana... well pretty soon someone else heard that I wanted bananas and told someone else, and by the end of the afternoon I had 20 bananas!

It got pretty boring around the office, without everyone else; I wanted to do something. It was so awesome because a man from the village had asked us interns earlier if we could go with him to a nearby village and help out with a program they

were putting on for the kids, it happened to fall on this week and so I went. It was so awesome to experience! The only way to get to the village was to walk an hour and a half along a narrow rocky pathway, that winded down along the steep mountain side. When we finally arrived to the village, we found that we would have to walk another fifteen minutes or so to the school. We brought snacks and goodies for the kids and the man we were with brought medicine and things for the village people. When we got to the school, they asked me to tell a story. ahh! So the only story that came to mind, was the story of Jonah. Someone translated it for me as I told. It was so encouraging afterwards, because the teacher started exclaiming something to me in Hindi. I asked for it to be translated; she was so excited, saying, "the kids are learning about

obedience in school this week!" ... the guy said it was so encouraging for them to have a real life chrstn example to hear, because the kids definitely don't hear that in school. That was encouraging.

Afterwards we went into the village. Somehow the guy we were with knew where the sick people were, because he found them along the road or inside the village and gave them medicine and talked and pryed with them. We met a 92 year old man who, with his frail, weak body, walked down a flight of steps to see us. We also met a child who was miserable with a very bad cold. It was so awesome to be able to witness this and be a part of this. I hope to go back again soon when he goes on another village visit.

Also the rest of the week I decided to go to Delhi with another staff member to experience a little more of India. In the three days that we were there, I got to go to a movie theatre, see the lotus temple, experience an Indian wedding, celebrate a child's birthday party, meet up with a friend, and experience several rickshaw rides (one of which, I almost fell out of) ha. Anyways, it was a very restful and fun week, all of which I am very thankful for!

Indian Thread Newsletter

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Oh, guess what! This picture I posted in my previous blog below got selected for the office newsletter! So if you go to www.emi2southasia.org, you'll find my picture and story to go with it. Also if you click on the picture and then download the Indian Thread pdf you'll find a pic of me and the other interns as well as a brief synopses of a project we are working on here. Check it out!

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I think I'm going to start sharing a favorite pic of the week; here's my first:

No Power...

I haven't updated this blog in awhile...we've been busy, but it's been great!

Today we didn't have any power.... and it finally came back on at 6pm. We found out that we won't have power during the day, for the next three days. So we will probably be working at night. I think we all were craving the internet, because we all are still in the office, even the staff, and it's like almost 10pm. The good thing about all of it is, we still have water! Praise the father!

So the past couple of weeks we've been busy working on our projects! It's been great to be using my degree of architecture, using the gifts Gd has given me, doing the stuff I love, and serving Gd all at the same time! AND working in an amazing chrstn environment, designing for my Father's glory! PLUS... getting to M!n!ster to the people here as well! Amazing opportunity!

Two Fridays ago, two of my team members and I were asked to go pry for this man in the village. He has been in a coma for a year now. He was a milk walla (seller/carrier) a

nd was traveling down the mountain trail and fell off the side of the mountain! One lady that goes to the chrch I've been attending has been going to tis man's house every month, prying for him and sharing the word with him. She asked me to go with, and a couple of the other interns came with me as well. My heart was so heavy, it was so very sad to see his family still grieving over him. You could really see the love they had for him. The family is not chrstn, but I see Gd working through this lady in the chrch, as she shares her time each month. The father seems to be responding to Gd's love, and this lady's words that Gd gives her. Please pry for this family and this lady that is willing to go each month to share. Also, as we get more opportunities in the following months to go, pry that Gd will give us the words to say to this son and his family, and that this family's eyes will be open to the truth!

Also these last couple of weeks i have been sooooo encouraged by all the snail mail I got! WOW! Thanks to all who sent letters! It's been such an encouragement; Gd knew I needed that! I have a letter drawer that is filled! Thanx!

Oh and I conquered my fear of big nasty spiders! I'm so proud of myself! Hahaha! I've had several humongous spiders in my room. I always see the spiders just as I'm about to lay down for a good nights rest. Then I can't sleep until I finally squish them... Well, last night I saw a big one, I tried to smoosh it, but it got away... and usually I can't sleep and stay awake until it crawls out again, Haha... but this time I thought, serously, what do I have to be afraid of? The worst it could do is crawl across my face at night, and well... I guess that's not that bad! haha! So I'm not scared anymore. :)

my new fear:

CHILDREN

SATURDAY:

Today, on our day off, we helped out at a school. The kids came to school today, just for us. They all got dressed up in their uniforms and were very excited to see us white people. The teachers and staff showed up as well.

The leaders of the school started the school as a m1nistry. The kids are all from Hindu families and only hear about the “good news” from school. Even the teachers are from Hindu backgrounds and they too are not chrstns. We told the kids the story of Joseph and taught them some songs and played games with them. I was so excited to help out at the school; I had been hoping to get the opportunity! Now hopefully we will be able to go more often now that we have the connection.

[The picture at the top of my profile is from the school. The kids were so sweet; they presented each of us with these flower necklaces when we first arrived. ]

JUST UPLOADED 3 NEW POSTS FROM THE LAST WEEK WHEN I WAS GONE ON MY PROJECT TRIP. CHECK 'EM OUT BELOW:

HEADING BACK:

Again on the way back our journey was exhausting… four days of traveling to find out our last train home was cancelled! And our train prior to that was 4 hours late. There was major flooding and several roads were blocked. Gd worked it all out though we were able to get a ride back from someone else, who know alternative routes. It was totally Gd that orchestrated our whole trip back. We had several run-in’s that were quite an experience! First off… we had two cars, one of which was borrowed and was only 2 months old. Well that car was having all sorts of trouble. Let me tell you the fast version of the whole adventure: First off they got lost, hit a man pedaling a fruit cart, dented the car big time, man and fruit went flying, paid him 600 rupees, drove off, found our tire was punctured, changed the tire, car almost drowned in a huge puddle, got attacked by an angry Sikh mob, door was kicked in adding to the already big dent, got in several traffic jams, got caked in mud, and finished the ride off with a car wash under a wonderful waterfall alongside the mountain. All of which should have taken less than 9 hours, and ended up being a 14 hour car ride. I love India! :D I thought it was a really fun adventure (I was the only one that thought so) ! Through it all, we all got back safely, maybe a little exhausted, but safe… minus the 2 month old borrowed car. Eeks! Haha! This is a normal travel experience in India I think. Ha! It was a great experience for all of us to remind ourselves to rely on Gd during our travels. He provided! And he continues to provide! Thanks for your pryers!

Here is a pic of how far we traveled:

THE PROJECT:

I woke up to the rooster crowing this morning… good thing, because I forgot my alarm. We started the day off with devos and pryer. We talked with the clients today, talking with them finding out what they wanted us to design for them. Again, there were 13 men and then me. We talked about what their views were… they wanted several guest houses for miss1onaries, a seminary hall, kitchen, dinning, dormitories, etc. We got to visit the potential site and talked with the chrch leaders. Then the engineers started surveying the site and us architects started the programming. Our office the first day was in a small hut, it was really neat. The women pampered us, serving us sweets and chi as we worked. We worked all week, starting early in the morning at 6:30 and working till late in the night.. We were to present something for them by Friday!
The rest of the week our “office” was a living room.
We had some fun times and our team really bonded during this time. The whole neighborhood enjoyed our late night singing as we worked… (I think that’s why they asked us to sing in church on Sunday. Haha.)
Thursday night we ended up staying up until 2pm working and finishing up. The next morning we ended up going to the chrch to present. The whole chrch board was there, along with some of the women. I helped present… who knows if they understood what I was saying, so I used a lot of hand gestures to keep them intertained. Haha!

That was a great experience, I felt like I was in school working on a project, except this was for REAL! And it wasn’t for a grade… this was for Gd’s people! It was awesome to have that perspective that this was for expanding Gd’s kingdom! And to think that he wants to use me! Amazing!

TRAVELING...

I’m am back “home”! I was gone for a week and a half on my project trip to Meghalaya, and now I’m back at Oaklands in Mussoorie …it feels like home. So I wanna tell you about my trip! Wow, it was the best experience ever!
The night before I left, the interns and staff all celebrated my birthday, they made momos for dinner, actually we all helped make them! YUM! All of us crammed in the kitchen and stuffed these dough bread things with meat and vegs. They also made me a chocolate cake! And all the interns got together and got me gifts, so sweet! I was so surprised! It was the best birthday ever in India! (…later I found out, what Indians traditionally do on their birthdays is that the birthday person is suppose to treat everyone else. Haha! It was nice they did an American birthday for me! ;)
…So we (four of us, 2 interns, one volunteer and a project leader…with me being the only girl!) left on Thursday…and didn’t get to our destination until SUNDAY! Wow, it was a mixture of Taxi rides to trains, from trains to rickshaws, from rickshaws to trains, from trains to sumos, from sumos to other sumos. (sumos are these big SUV like cars that can handle any kind of road in India, great for traveling the mt. roads) haha!
So I spent 23.5 hours of my birthday on the train! Haha!
My journal entry:
“It’s Saturday, and we’ve been on the train forever! We were supposed to be off by now, but the train is 9 hours behind! We were only supposed to be on for 29 hours, but we will be on for 38 hours! Crazy huh! I spent my whole birthday on the train, except for the first half hour of it. Haha! I spent the majority of my birthday sleeping, watching a few movies on someone’s ipod and playing cards to pass the time. We played cards with some men in our cabin. They didn’t know how to speak English, so our project leader had to translate as we played. Fun!”
We then took a sumo from the train. We had some interesting things happen along the way, we stopped at a gas station and tons of people started swarming our car… they wanted to ride on top. Then along the way I had to go to the bathroom, now let me remind you… I was the only girl on this trip…so not so easy for me! :D Luckily I never had to go in the bushes.. but I got to use some pretty interesting squatty potties. Haha. We stopped for dinner… but the place looked kinda shady… and none of us wanted to get sick the beginning of the trip… so we all bought chips and more chips. Great healthy dinner. Haha! It was getting really late, and our driver was falling asleep so at 10ish he stopped and got chi alongside the road…and then along the way he kept sticking his head out the window to wake up, and he was eating something…some kind of nut/drug to keep him away. Haha.
When we got to our first place of rest at like midnight, the family fed us and kept calling me sister. “Sister, would you like more food.” “Sister you sleep here.” Haha! Later on they started calling me sister Katherine. I felt like I was in a nunnery.

They were so hospitable! I soon found out that the whole Meghalaya culture was like that! Everywhere we went they were treating us so well.
So we woke up early the next morning and went to chrch. One thing from chrch that stands out to me was: there was a tithe box on the front steps before you entered the chrch… and around the box people were putting these bags… I asked our leader what it was, and he said it was their tithe… they were bringing 10% of their crop (rice). WOW! That was amazing too me.. I had never even heard of anyone doing a tithe other than money, except from the bibl. Wow! That was very neat! These people were very giving!
The following day, we headed out to our project site, which was going be another day drive in a sumo. It was awesome, because there was like 9 macho Meghalaya men, (4 of my project members)…and me… one small girl… but these men were soooo nice. They looked really scary but were super nice. I felt like I had 9 body guards. (Later on, I found out my mom had been prying for my safety and prying for Gd’s m1ghty warr1ors to surround me!) They were all from the chrch we were working with. I felt very safe and protected. We listened to slow contemporary Christ1an music. It was so funny to see all these macho men put in a cd of contemporary christ1an worship music like Rebecca st. James, Jackie Velasquez…. With the bass up. Haha! They made sure to find the good squatty potties for me too along the way and paid for my bathroom toll. Haha. And it was really cool, because these men stopped along the way so we could see some fun sights and eat some unique food. It was great! pretty much every 15 minutes we stopped. What should have been like a 3 hour trip ended up being way longer. The man that was driving kept asking if I was doing okay. (I guess the local women here usually get sick riding in the cars on the windy roads, because they aren’t use to it.) They drive really fast and the roads are really narrow… if you make one mistake, your falling down the mountain! Eeks! But I figured if Gd got me this far, if he was gunna take me now, I was ready! :D
Our first meal at the house was different. All the women that were serving us, stood around watching us eat. We ate first, and then everyone else could eat after we were finished. And if we didn’t eat everything on our plate, they got really offended and if we finished one thing, they would add more to your plate, it was stressful. Haha! I was so full by the end of the trip! I realized you need to eat really slow so they don’t refill your plate, but not too slow so that they don’t get offended thinking your struggling trying to eat their food. Haha. We went to bed that night pretty late and prepared to wake up at 6:30am the following morning to start our work! Yeah!
(I have more to talk about of coarse… but this is getting pretty long… Another blog of the “good stuff” about the trip is in process… :D)

Project Trip Tomorrow!

I’m really getting excited about my project! I think I’ve finally gotten over jetlag! Whew! I haven’t been waking up at 3 every night now! …Except the other night I had a nightmare and was up from 3:30 until 7am. The dream had these people, I couldn’t tell if they were male or female and their faces were painted white. When I woke up from the dream at 3am I saw two of the men standing by my bedside. I was so scared and immediately started saying jc’s name and PRYING and reciting BBLE verses. The faces were so vivid. Ahh! Satan is present, but God is more powerful and the other night I felt God’s protection over me! Thanks for all your PRYRS!
Then the night after, when I was all excited to get some sleep because of the night before I hadn’t gotten any, I found two huge spiders by my bed! The one crawled on my bed and on the wall behind my pillow! Eeks! I couldn’t find it for awhile so I stayed up waiting for it to come out … and plus the power went out, so I had a bunch of candles and my flashlight… finally it crawled out and I squished it!! Hahah!
Anyways, tomorrow I leave on my project trip to Meghalaya. We are going to be traveling for three days, mostly by train and taxi. I’m sure I will have lots of fun stories when I get back. :D Anyways our office is splitting into two teams, one of which is going to south India, and my team, which is going to North East India. There will be 5 on my team, two interns, two volunteers, and one project leader. Which means there will be only two architects (including me) and two civil engineers. We are working with a CHRCH designing a guesthouse for MSSNARIES. We will have 5 days to make up a conceptual plan and 3d drawings for them¬, it should be exciting! I’m so excited! I get to meet with the clients and we’ll discuss what they want. It’s going to be such a great experience because I’ll get to see how the whole design process plays out, instead of just being in an office. I’m so excited to go and serve! I can’t wait to see how God is going to use our team! Thanks for your PRYRS and please continue to PRY for health and safety. Most of our team is sick with the common cold right now, so please PRY that we will all get well and rested before we begin. I will hopefully have an updated blog when I get back in about a week and a half!

Poverty, Idolatry, sickness, rancid smells...

I’ve been super busy here, there’s so much to take in. We’ve been having an India orientation before we start on our projects; Learning about India architecture, learning about cultural differences, etc. Last week we went to Rishikish and Haridwar. They sent us on a scavenger hunt to help us know how to travel around India by ourselves. They wanted us to experience India by traveling, eating the food, finding a place to stay, talking to locals, seeing the idol worship, the poor, etc. Experiencing Culture Shock 101! Wow! That was an experience I’ll never forget! Not a good experience though; Poverty, idolatry, sickness, filthy streets, flies, fecal matter, rancid smells, dirty water, and garbage piles in which people call home. I have never seen anything as bad as this… my heart was so heavy. We walked along the Ganges River, which was super filthy and there where people washing their clothes in it, bathing in it, and worst of all drinking it. We met up with some people that were by the river and they told us they believed that the Ganges is holy water and that by bathing in it they will become purified, as long as they come every year to purify themselves. Sad. I’ll never forget this. …

8/25 The Journey:

Today was so amazing! I’m finally here in India! I can’t believe it! On Monday my trip started off with about a 45-minute car ride to the Denver airport, then a 3-hour flight to the Chicago airport, then a four-hour layover in Chicago, followed by a 15-hour flight from Chicago straight to New Delhi, once in New Delhi a 30 minute taxi ride, followed by a 1-hour wait at the train station, followed by a 6-hour train ride, followed by about a 3-hour van ride up winding roads, and finally ending with a trek up a steep hill to Oaklands… the place I will be staying for the next 4 months. Phew!.. It’s Wednesday now… and I started all this on Monday. Wow, I am sooo pooped! It was very exhausting, but very exciting all at the same time!.
First impressions: wow the India airport was amazing, it’s new, and it’s the best airport I’ve ever been in…. but I soon was pushed into the world of India, when I had to use the squatty potty, and while entering outside the airport I breathed in, but chocked. I got the taste of the Indian air: hot, muggy, and hmm smelling oh so “good.” I loved it though! We all hopped into this small car with our luggage; some stuffed in the trunk, two luggage just barely hanging on the top, and the rest pilled on our laps all the way to the roof. We were all sweating miserably! But seriously, I loved it! And I’m not being sarcastic. Haha! Ireally did enjoy it, buzzing through traffic, barely missing other cars and people, music blaring, horns honking (wondering if this is how I’m going to die? Just kidding). The train ride was even more of a culture shock! We each got our own “beds”: A 2.5’x2.5’x6’ fold down cot. I ended up sleeping next to a family with two little babies… the dad sleeping right across from me. And there wasn’t enough room for all of us to put our luggage underneath at the bottom, so I ended up sleeping with all my luggage… meaning now I only had a 2.5’x2.5’x4’ space. Haha! What an experience! Then in the van, I got to ride in the front seat, and absolutely loved it… there was so much to take in… all the sights, the people, the poverty, the cows, the monkeys, the mountains! Wow! It was too much! Driving was crazy here too, because the roads were windy, back and forth, barely slipping past people and cars and the sides of the steep mountains. Once at Oaklands, I was so exhausted, but we were finally here. We started off with breakfast; the day had just begun. Yikes! They wouldn’t let us sleep either, because they didn’t want us to have jet lag, so we all moseyed around the rest of the day as we had orientation and introductions, waiting for dinner to finally come so we could go to bed. :D And now finally, SLEEP!

Hey all! I'm soooo excited! I'm leaving bright and earlier this morning! (ah!) I fly with my team of 4 tomorrow to Chicago where we will then meet up with another teammate. From Chicago we head straight to Delhi, India, a 15 hour plan ride! This weeks team building/orientation weekend in Colorado has been amazing! Last night we had testimony night! Wow! We went on for the whole night with everybody's... I didn't want it to end! It's soo amazing how our Father has placed each of us here for a reason! It's also amazing to see how HE has worked in each of our lives! Tonight was amazing too! We had a worship night, it was AWESOME! ..with a backdrop of the mountains, the stars up above, surrounded by my new friends! I'm going to miss all these people as they each head off to their different offices. But it's exciting to see us all going different places. ...FOUR MONTHS IN INDIA! YIKEs! GOODBYE U.S.A, HELLO INDIA!

In Colorado right now! LOVIN' IT! No sleep though. :) The team bonding and lessons are amazing! I'm getting so anxious though, I just want to go already! :) But I'm not leaving until this coming monday, so a week more of training and bonding. FUN TIMES!

I can't believe it is finally here! I am leaving on Sunday for Colorado Springs, CO and will be there for a week of training. It's all happening so fast! I can't believe I'm actually going! I'm soo excited! After my week of training I fly with my team to India, which is next Sunday and will be arriving in New Dehli Monday the 23rd!

INTRO: What, When, Where & Why

I am so excited to tell you about an amazing opportunity that God has placed on my heart. This fall God has opened up an opportunity for me that he has put on my heart for a couple of years. While rooming with my friend Tanya from India for the last two years, she brought up an opportunity that she thought I would be interested in. It was a ministry that involved architects and engineers designing hope for the poor. The beginning of this year India kept coming up (by no coincidence). I started praying that if this opportunity was meant for me, that God would make it “crystal clear”. This year that opportunity became a reality as God was calling me to apply for an internship at Engineering Ministries International (EMI). EMI is a non-profit “Christian ministry that designs facilities that serve the poor in developing countries. These facilities (including hospitals, orphanages, schools, clean water projects and more) directly impact communities by meeting physical needs and communicating God’s love in a practical way.” Since 1982, EMI has designed over 800 projects in more than 85 different countries! They have offices in Colorado Springs, India, Uganda, Costa Rica, UK, and Canada. As an intern, I will be assisting professional architects and engineers in the design process in India. I am leaving AUGUST 15th and will be in India for FOUR MONTHS! I start out in Colorado Springs for one week of training and from there I will head out with my team of five to Mussoorie, India, which is located at the foothills of the Himalayan mountains. I am extremely eager to see how God is going to use me; I am willing and ready. It will be very challenging but I know this is where God wants me!

I'M GOING TO INDIA!