I was born to kiss your feet

Oh my goodness gracious, 1st quarter is donzo! I have three days left until my much needed 2 week break. I think I might die if it was 9 months continuous of inductive study. Although, word on the street is after 3 months of book after book after book with no rest, once you have rest you do not even know what to do with yourself and you get pretty bored pretty quick.

I feel like sleeping all day every day, so I know it is time for a break.

I am done with Paul's letters. I am actually sad to see him go for my SBS life at least. I got so used to writing his name in my interpretations, I don't know what I'll do when it's never going to be him as author again! We had a good run, Paul and I. He will be missed, and I cannot wait to meet him in heaven! That's going to be so great. Can you imagine writing letters to friends and churches and thousands of years later people are still reading them and God is speaking through them? I mean I always think of me writing a letter to my soul-mate and then, people reading them even one hundred years later won't understand, besides I do not write letters like Paul. I tried once.

I am really going to miss these SBS girls while I am gone. I am so glad they'll all be here when I get back. I will be freezing it up in Nepal and they'll all be in Delhi pretty much. I want to go to Delhi sometime while I am here so I can see the Taj Mahal.

Since my first quarter is coming to a close, I will reflect on thoughts throughout...

I remember when I first arrived here I hated this country and did not like this base solely because no one welcomed me here and I did not meet any of my SBS staff for the first 11 hours I was in this country.

During the first 3 weeks of the inductive study method seminar I felt the school get harder and harder and did not know if I would survive.

Slowly getting to know the other students and realizing how little time I really have for relationships was quite a new experience. I know that after my first 3 months of DTS I knew everyone so well, and in this school there are less students, but I don't know them as well at this point. It's a whole different ball game than DTS. I think I went from the easiest school, which doesn't seem so easy until you do another one, to probably the most intense school YWAM has to offer. What was I thinking?

Something I realized was that I don't know if I ever actually read the Bible before this school! Every book we have done has been like a whole new book to me! Even ones I claimed were some of my favorites!

I am more honest here and open and have told many struggles to people that I never even shared with close friends at home.

God speaks to me through every single book we do. This always comes as a joy and sometimes hard thing to hear.

I don't know if I'll ever want to come home because things in this country are so cheap compared to uh-marica.

I remember being so excited Obama was elected. That was a good day in November.

Slowly falling in love with this country over the last 3 months has truly been a blessing and a funny sight to see. I did not think it would happen.

I realized I have been spiritually oppressed in one area of my life, which actually leaks into all areas of my life, ever since I can remember. That's a hard and huge thing to realize now as an almost 23 year old.

I watched the entire season 3 of The Office in one month here.

It has been so interesting actually getting to know the authors of these books of the Bible and getting to know the audiences of the letters or books. I feel like I actually, personally know Paul. I also feel like I personally know Timothy, and that he is actually my twin brother because we both struggle with the same things. It has been so amazing the last 24 hours studying Matthew. I really feel like I know Jesus more than I ever did, and I think Matthew is my favorite gospel so far. It makes Jesus seem like a real person to me and I think I know more about Judaism now than I ever have, but I haven't even started the Old Testament yet. Oh my goodness. I am in for a treat.

My final highlight...I have grown accustomed to eating more spicy foods than I have ever eaten in my entire life! I love this country! You can't help but acquire a taste for them if that's the only food you're offered. Otherwise I'd starve to death.

Okay, enough reflection. Now onto the future. Tomorrow is our SBS Christmas party and also Sarah's birthday party. I was hoping they'd forget or overlook my b-day, but I was wrong. Also, tomorrow is the day Lottie and I dress up in red Indian dresses and Santa hats and run around this town taking pictures of ourselves everywhere and anywhere. It will be the most fun ever. I tell you what. I will put all the pictures on here once we've finished our day of spreading Christmas cheer in India. Chikki-yeah.

Friday is HIS graduation night (School of Humanities in Science)! It'll be sad to see those guys go on Saturday, but I also get to go on Saturday. To Nepal! I am so excited to see another new country and spend my golden birthday there. This year couldn't get any better. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures of the mountains of Nepal and the shenanigans that happen while there.

I hope you all have a happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year! I don't know if I'll write again before next year. I cannot believe it's almost 2009. These years are flying by. Thank the good Lord we have not only this life to look forward to but life beyond what we know here. Living in the fullness of his kingdom!

May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all as we celebrate his birth, and my love is with you all.

Take me away, a secret place, a sweet escape, take me away

Even though I myself am white, I find myself staring at other white people in this town just like how the locals stare at me every single day. It fascinates me to see other whiteys here. I want to know why they are here, for how long, where are they staying. Pretty much all the questions we are not supposed to really answer when the locals ask us. Today some random man was asking me why I was here and where I was staying. I had to say I am a tourist and I'm staying at some place around here. Ha cha cha. We need to be safe you know (as I write all about this on the internet of all places).

2nd Corinthians has turned out to be more a favorite of mine than 1st Corinthians. Also, God is stirring up desires in me that I never even considered because I was so opposed to it that I laughed at friends who have been sucked in to these desires. I will share more when and if I ever feel comfortable to share to all. Just know that God might be asking me to do something crazy, and I really don't want to think about it, but He keeps reminding me of it. That's the way he works. He always turns my desires toward his and even though I pray for that to happen most of the time I am never ready for it.

Hebrews is wonderful. I love this book, and after being incredibly angry and frustrated with the fact that we have only 1.5 days of actual work time to complete this rather large book, I realized I'm being a baby, or an infant (as it even says in Hebrews). It is kind of obnoxious though to finally get a book that I actually want to study more in depth, but then have this book be the only one I have no time to do that with. Also, Melchizedek is no small topic, or rather, person.

I am getting so exhausted here. I have two weeks left of this quarter. Time has sure flown by! I keep telling myself, "In 2 weeks I will have time to sleep, in 2 weeks I will have time to relax, in 2 weeks I will have time to breathe." Don't worry, I am not suffocating here. Homework can be overwhelming at times and I hardly ever find time to do the Psalm assignment. I don't know how I will make it through two more quarters of this. Even so, I just keep trucking because in 2 weeks I will get a break. A lengthy break at that. One where I don't have to be in India for a while and can clear my head and not even have to think about charts and structure and builds. It sounds like heaven. Ya'll don't know how lucky you are to have no idea what I am talking about! But, let me just say that I am SO glad I am here right now at this moment and would not want to be anywhere else with anyone else. God is stirring up new ideas inside me and he is healing my heart which I need more than most things right now. More than food and shelter even.

I will miss my fellow class-mates while I am in Nepal trekking around the mountains. I am very thankful I will get to see them all again come January when class starts again. However, I am not happy that the DTS students will go on outreach while I am gone and when I return they will still be on outreach and a new DTS class will start. I love this DTS class and don't want to open my heart to new students, but wait, I will not only get to know a new batch in January-April, but I will get to meet even another DTS class in April! I will go from knowing one half-Indian because he is my cousin, to knowing one billion Indians (yes, the entire population of India) in the span of 9 months.

It will be so strange to be home again in July or August and be surrounded by whiteys wearing scandalous clothes. Oh-merica, you are like the bad boy that I know I should not like, but I can't help but fall in love with you and let you influence all of my life.

I should start listening to Christmas music even though it does not feel or look like Christmas here. Not that Christmas should look white and feel cold, but it is what I am used to.

Blessings to you all, and keep the campus here in your prayers as a lot of change is happening soon with Christmas break and the DTSers going on outreach. That is going to be very challenging for them, so if you think about it say a prayer for the DTS students about to get dirty and about to experience real work for the Lord! HA ha ha ha ha. I am excited to hear their stories when they come back from outreach.

You have her pictures everywhere

Those are all from local outreach. Sorry the first one of me in my Salwar Kameez is blurry...that's all I got.

And also some from the Princess Party, Romesh and I (fellow SBS students), and an elderly begger in Pune.

I feel like I am watching everything from space

Last night we had a Princess Party! All the girls were able to be princesses for one night and wear sleeveless dresses, and show some leg! Ha. It was a lot of fun. We danced for a long time, ate a lot of good food, and watched a funny movie, then danced some more! All in all, it was a really fun night filled with laughter and love. It was nice to not have any guys around so we could just have fun and not swim around in self-conscienceness. We were confident, beautiful, and attractive, without men telling us so.

I wanted to put up pictures of my local outreach, but the uploader is not working at the moment, so I'll just describe it for you. The last few weeks we have been able to go to a new part of the area we were in. It is actually quite far from the rest of our group, but it is in a literal "slum". This was my first week going to this new area and it was very um...eye opening, or I don't really know what word to use to describe it, but the best I can do is say that my heart drops in my chest a little bit and I am instantly filled with compassion and sorrow all at the same time. These people are living in what looks like tents, but they're made of sticks, tarps, and random cloth they have. There are entire families living in these small tents. We also could not really communicate with the children we played with. They all spoke Marati which is the state's language that we are in right now. India has a bunch of different states like the U.S. and each state has its own common language and in some states the different tribes even have their own language, Hindi is the whole country's common language, and with these children only one spoke Hindi and he was too shy to translate for us to the rest of the kids, so it was a little difficult, but they had fun playing Duck, Duck, Goose with us and we taught them a few Hindi songs even though they have no idea what they're singing (nor do I).

You all must be wondering where exactly I am located in regards to Mumbai. I am a 2 hour drive away, and it is quite frightening to think that all that terror is happening a mere 2.5 hour train ride away. One of the attacks was at a train station I will be going to in 3 weeks and all in a city I will be in 3 weeks from now. This kind of thing has been happening often throughout the past decade or more but they say this time it was a lot more thought out and planned. Pray for India, that as awful as this is it would bring the country together and unify the people of different states and tribes. Also, pray for the terrorists that their hearts would be softened and they would give themselves up even if that means they will be killed.

1st Corinthians a.k.a. The Book of Love, or as I titled it, "All You Need is Love" is quite a difficult letter to interpret. There are a million different interpretations for pretty much every paragraph, even every verse in this letter. It's a nice letter though because the Corinthian culture is probably the most closely related to our culture and so all the applications are pretty true to us today. What I have learned from Corinthians? Repent! Repenting is a hard thing to do. It's easy to confess your sin, but to actually repent, turn around, walk the other way from your sin, that is most hard. Usually I confess yet continue walking in the same direction I have been traveling. Also, of course, God showed me my lack of love in certain areas of my life, toward certain people in my life.

This week I was informed of some pretty intense news of family back home. It is hard to be here during this time when it seems like it would be so much better to be home with my family, but I know God has called me here, now, for His purpose. It is like I am forced to apply Jesus' quote, "whoever leaves father, mother, brother, sister for me etc..." Not that I am abandoning my family by being here, but I truly am putting Jesus in the top spot in my life. Needless to say, I have had a small blow to my eagerness to do my homework this week, but no worries, I did complete all of it, except for the Psalms homework, that is a difficult predicament. I don't set aside time during the days to read a Psalm a day (pretty pathetic, I know) then, on Saturday I have to read 5 psalms and meditate on them all and basically it boils down to doing it because it is an assignment instead of doing it to hear God's voice, so this week I am choosing not to do them. I am not here to get good grades.

Here I am at the local hot spot for coffee. Cafe Coffee Day. Unfortunately, there are no Starbucks in the whole of India. Although I've heard rumors there could be one in Delhi, but no one knows if that is a fact. So far, my experiences in India have only been growing in goodness, and in the spirit of Thanksgiving I think I will make a list of all the things I am thankful for here, now:

My mother, she is completely supportive of everything I do and always encourages me more than anyone I have ever known.
My dad, he loves me no matter what I do, even when I get my nose pierced without telling him. He has a giant heart.
My brothers, yes, all five of them. I could go into specifics with each one, but I will say that they all look out for me and I know they got my back no matter what.
American boys in my school. Especially the Titus staff. I think that if they weren't here I would have gone home by now.
My beautiful English friend, she is an inspiration and quickly has become an old friend.
I am thankful that I have girls here I can spill out my insides to and they will surround me and lift me up and sit with me in the dirt if that's all I need.
Rickshaws, they are so amazing!
Stray dogs everywhere that remind me of Peaches the wonder-pet.
Staff that encourage me to not focus on the grade, but ultimately apply what I have been reading and listen to the Spirit.
DTS students that seem to be more mature than me. It is humbling, which I need most all the time.
The familiar staff of Coffee Day. They are so friendly, and the only Indians that don't think I'm out of place here.
God's provision, even when I am not looking for it or praying for it, He continues to bless me and I do not deserve it.
Forgiveness.
My new mobile phone even though it won't receive text messages from Airtel.
Michael Scott, Jim Halpert, Pam Beasley, Dwight Schrute, and all other members of Dunder Mifflin. They are the only ones keeping me sane here!
God's heart for this country. I think it's rubbing off on me.
Milk in a box on the shelf in the store! That's right.
Cool nights and cool mornings.
All in all, I am so thankful that I am in India of all places, studying the inspired words of God with all these wonderful Indians and foreigners. I do not feel out of place at all. In fact, I feel like I belong more than ever. I am thinking I could live here as long as I am with someone I love. I could live anywhere as long as I was with someone I loved.

I cannot believe there are 3 weeks left of the first quarter! I thought this school would take forever, but looks like time seems to have sped up since I have been here. I only hope that it slows down so that I have more time for homework and more time to pass out from exhaustion. Not even physical exhaustion! I cannot believe how tired I am all the time. It is surreal.


Pray God begins to direct my desires to his desires. I want to know the next step after this school, and I have some ideas but I want them to be his ideas. Also, I am struggling with forgiveness and fear right now. I do not even understand my own self all of the time.

Wow, this was long. This is what happens when I don't write for awhile and finally I have a long length of time to update.

I found a hair the length of yours on my sleeve

I love India most of the time, but sometimes there are moments that make me dislike India more than anything at that moment. I am not going to go on a complaining spree right now, so I will spare you the details, just know that sometimes India is annoying.

Yesterday I travelled to Pune with two Norwegians, a Brit, and a Goan. I spent the entire day with the Norwegians and we did some Christmas shopping and also ate burgers at Burger King. Now, this is not the normal Burger King you are all familiar with, this is a small restaurant owned by a Persian man that sells burgers. Hamburgers, steak burgers, chicken burgers, and of course Veg burgers. I was SO excited to eat a cheeseburger that I ordered the "big" one. He asked if I wanted small or big and I said big. Little did I realize the "big" or "king" burger as they called it was HUGE. It was bigger than my face and I could barely eat half of it along with the french fries he thought I needed.

All in all, shopping in Pune was fairly productive. We spent a lot of our time in rickshaws trying to get around from place to place, but it was fun and even somewhat exciting to go around the city without a native. I realized that I could travel around a big city like Pune alone. Not that I ever would, but I could. I don't know if I could or would attempt the local train alone, however. It is almost getting to the point where I cannot handle the beggers here. They are either beautiful, elderly people who can barely walk, or small, small children dressed in rags. It is hard to ignore them, and we found out yesterday that if you do give them something they'll only try and get more out of you. I do not know what to do in these situations. I know we are to remember the poor and help the orphans and widows and make poverty history and etcetera. BUT, this is almost ridiculous. I want to see Jesus here in Pune and see what he would do in these situations so that I know what I should do. It is very hard for me. I think it is the most difficult thing about India.

I don't know if I will ever feel well rested during SBS. I am about to collapse as I type this and the day is just starting. I have to print out some music, practice with our small SBS band for worship on Monday morning, clean my stuff in my room, read 1 Corinthians out-loud in one sitting, make paragraph titles, finish the rough horizontal, clean my whole room thoroughly, then I might have to finish my rough horizontal if I did not get it done before cleaning the entire room, after that I think I'm free, but it'll be roughly dinner time and THEN I can go to bed early...maybe, only to wake up early and have all the stress of leading the entire base in worship. Just perfect! Oh, how I can't wait to relax at Christmas time which actually, probably, won't even happen if I am going to be climbing up mountains for 7 days.

I am somewhat developing post-SBS plans in the far, far back corners of my mind. Please pray that God would make it clear what I am supposed to do, if anything, after SBS.

God is really working on my heart in the area of forgiveness. There is one person in my life that is the absolute hardest person for me to forgive, and for some reason God keeps reminding me of this person, not through little things that remind me of this person, but through the Bible! Never have I ever been reminded of a person because of words that I read in the Bible. Granted they are words of forgiveness and other things that aren't necessarily good words to remind you of someone, but they do, and so there I am with this thought of forgiveness in my head, yet remembering exactly what this person has done over and over again. That is a hard process of thought. Forgiveness is a hard thing to do with some people.

This week is Thanksgiving week! It is my favorite holiday of the whole year I think. Well, second favorite next to Christmas. I actually get to go have a Chicken dinner at the DTS leaders' home with most of the Americans on base! I am quite excited about it!

Santa Claus is coming, hear the banjo strumming

There are only 2 weeks left of November! How time flies when you are knee deep in Biblical texts. Thanksgiving is next week and I am excited because I was invited to eat at the DTS leader's home that evening for their own "Thanksgiving for the Americans in India" dinner! We'll most likely be eating Chicken, but hey, it's close enough for me. Praise God I was able to eat Thanksgiving Dinner before I came to India. As much as I hate the NFL I do miss Sunday afternoons taking a nap on the couch with the soft sound of the Football announcers on TV and my Mom screaming at the TV in the background.

What God has shown me from Romans cannot possibly be contained in this blog, but I shall attempt to reveal to you the mysteries revealed to me through this letter of Paul to the saints in Rome.

I will start off with the very thing God showed me before I even really dug into this book. You already read my previous entry about how I realized, I mean really realized I am not any different than any other human being that has ever lived. After that revelation and after finishing all my assignments I saw that this very point is included in Romans (14:10-12). The entire topic of judging actually hit me pretty hard this week.

I think the major thing God showed me though is something he revealed to our teacher this week, Sam, during his SBS in Montana. God does not want us to even desire sin. Sure, it sounds simple enough, but I guess I never really thought about this or even tried to desire the things of God, the things of the Spirit, things that are good for Him, not for me.

I mean, I always felt like I would always desire sin and as long as I don't act on those desires I was okay, but now I think God gets hurt when I desire sin and not Hims. Even if I don't act on it. It's like a husband telling his wife that at work all day he desired to be with so many of the women he saw on the street and in the office, but he wanted to remain faithful to his wife so he did not act on any of his desires. I think God is like the wife in this situation. She'd be angry, jealous, and upset her husband shared this with her, and she would want him to only desire her, not all those other woman! Who cares if he didn't act on his desires!!


The whole of 13:1-7 reminded me of our new president and many "Christian's" horrible attitudes and lack of submission to the new governing authority. Paul wrote this passage when Nero was Caesar! Can you imagine? Nero! "Submit to the governing authorities, they are God's servants, instituted by God." He was telling these Christians to submit to Nero, the guy who persecuted Christians like crazy. And also, what is so bad about sharing everything anyway, have these "Christians" even read Acts or heard of the Year of Jubilee? Why do people assume our country is going to become socialist all of a sudden? Every year people get so upset over the new president. Well, read Romans people. Who are we to judge our brothers and sisters?

Okay, enough about that, I am really falling in love with India. I feel like I write about this topic every entry, but it is what I am seeing and feeling and experiencing here. I love every minute of it. I really know this is where I belong at this season in my life. India is my home. God really blessed me today with some amazing news that I was not expecting, and now I can live out the rest of my day praising His name and thanking Him for being a provider!

I had another revelation during work duty on Friday. God often shows me things while I am sweeping the driveway. I remember reading in The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne, that whenever a box of shoes would come in as a donation for the people she worked with she would go through all the pairs of shoes before anyone else and pick out the smallest, most uncomfortable pair and keep those for herself so that no one else would have to wear them. Now you are probably thinking, "what does this have to do with sweeping the driveway?" So I am going to tell you! We have been sweeping the driveway for 1.5 months now and the brooms, which are just a bunch of long sticks tied together, are falling apart and losing sticks, so some are worse off than others. I realized after I started sweeping and seeing my friend struggle with the worst broom, that I should have taken that broom first so that no one else had to use it.

Here I am listening to Christmas music and wishing I could be home for Christmas. Having a white Christmas would be so wonderful, but perhaps in Nepal there will actually be snow in the mountains! That would be nice, but you'll probably hear on the news, "23 year old woman found dead, buried in the snow in Nepali mountains. Friends say a 7 day trek was too much for her."

Happy Mid-November! I hope you all remembered, remembered the 5th of November.

I won't mistake you for problems with me

It is so bizarre to see little boys walking around carrying cricket rackets or bats, whatever you call them. I see them and immediately think they're baseball bats, but no, it's a cricket paddle. I'm not sure what they're called, but you know what they look like.

We are studying Romans this week. Let me tell you that after my first out loud reading of it on Sunday afternoon I immediately realized God is going to speak to me immensely through this book and I am not even ready for it. I am almost afraid to dive in because I know He is going to say a lot and it might hurt a lot, but I know I will need to hear it. All things he says to me will work together eventually for good. (Romans 8:28)

I challenge you all to count how many times the word "law" is said in Romans. Try to do it for "faith" and "sin" also. This is just one of the million words Paul repeats in this book. It is crazy. Welcome to the life of an SBS student.

It is really funny that God told me he was going to speak to me a lot through this book, because at the beginning of our class today the teacher put a quote on the screen by FF Bruce and it said this: "there is no saying what may happen when people begin to study the letter Romans, so let those who have read thus far be prepared for the consequences of reading farther: you have been warned!" This is in a commentary's introduction to Romans! It is like God repeated his warning to me. Not so much a warning, but an FYI.

Also, this morning, the DTS speaker shared a small devotion with us and the only thing I remember, that really stuck with me was that there are two major things that block the joy of the Lord, and one of them is self-pity. I thought, "welcome to my life!" when she said that. Why should I think I deserve better than anything I am given? I don't even deserve the small things I get. I am not better than anyone else in this entire world! I think Sufjan Stevens says it best in his song "John Wayne Gacy Jr." for those of you who don't know, this guy Sufjan wrote the song about was a serial killer. He would dress up as a clown and pick up men or boys in his car, bring them back to his house and kiss them, you get the idea, then he would kill them and put their bodies under his house. Under his floorboards. So, in the end of Sufjan's song the lyrics are as follows:

He took off all their clothes for them,
he put a cloth on their lips,
quiet hands, quiet kiss on the mouth.
And in my best behavior
I am really just like him.
Look beneath the floorboards
for the secrets I have hid.

I am no different than John Wayne Gacy Jr. I am no different than Barack Obama. I am no different than George Bush. I am just like Saddam Hussein. I am just like Mother Teresa.

I really have fallen in love with this country and the people here, although I am a little wary of going on local outreach still. Even though last week was fine, and I actually don't have to do much because they only speak Hindi and I cannot do this. I am uncomfortable there, but what I learned today is that I cannot have a self-pity party about my uncomfortableness! I am here for a purpose. I was placed, and still am placed, in this small town for a reason. It's not just coincidence that I am here, that I have met these new friends. I already have lifelong friends here. I already have changed here. I have just begun to be an instrument in this country. I am looking forward to looking back and seeing how my heart has changed and healed. A lot of healing needs to happen and a lot of forgiveness needs to happen, but I am actually looking forward to digging into these hurtful situations because I know something better, and more beautiful will be put in their places.

All that to say, ya'll should read Romans this week. I've already read it twice, and I'm about to go for a third! It is life changing, much like the entire rest of the Bible, but it would be awesome to change lives together on separate continents through the same words.

Pray for me this week that I receive what God wants to show me with openness and joy. That I would not feel depressed like I did last week. It was debilitating.

His truth is marching on

Some long awaited photos, one of a begging boy at the train station, one of a beautiful sand art thing on the ground during Diwali, one of me with a little Hindu woman who invited Lottie and myself in her shop on Diwali, one of three of the girls on the train to Pune, and one of myself with my new permanently straight hair with my new scarf from my parcel.



Today could not have been any better than it was. I slept in, I got banana bread from the canteen (the little store on campus that's open during chai times), usually they rarely have banana bread. It is even home-made banana bread! I spent all morning waiting for the polls to be closed and the votes to be counted and rejoiced in the news. The United States of America has their first black president! I am excited to see how things go with Barack in the office. I pray people's hearts soften towards him and that he can handle all the pressure that is now on him.

After finding that out and then finishing my assignments 1.5 hours before the deadline, I found out that finally there was a package for me in the office. Three weeks after the scheduled delivery date. Why it needed to be in Indian customs for 10 days I'll never know, but it is here, it is safe, it is beautiful. All the chocolate was melted and then re-hardened, who knows how many times, so it doesn't look dark, but it tastes dark and that is really all that matters. I am so happy to have my Wheat Thins as well. As annoying as it was to wait almost two weeks longer to receive this parcel it is good to finally have it and even I would say well worth the wait. I appreciate the things in it more than I would have most likely.

Tonight is the first night the "foreigners" get to go on local outreach. I am nervous. Outreach has always scared me and pushed me way out of my comfort zone. God is telling me that I'm starting to get comfortable here in India, so here's one more thing to make your life uncomfortable. I'll give you the thing you think you dislike most in the world.

I just finished Colossians and learned it is all about Christ's Supremacy (even though it doesn't even say that word in the book). Basically the people in Colossae at the time this letter was written were gnostics which meant they thought knowledge leads to salvation, and they thought anything physical, material, earthly was evil. So their bodies are evil and either some punished their bodies by hurting themselves and starving themselves, or else the other extreme was that because their body is evil, anything you do with it doesn't matter, so give it as many pleasures as it wants! A lot of people also believed in mystery religions and appeasing gods, rulers, authorities of heavenly spheres that surround the earth. So, basically, Paul writes this letter to say that Christ is seated above all those things and in him you can have all wisdom and knowledge.

We start Phillipians tomorrow. I am excited for this because my favorite verse of the last 5 years is in this book. 4:8. I'll leave it up to you to read it. I already know what it says.

It does not seem like November to me because here the sky is always clear, blue, and sunny. I haven't seen a cloud in one month probably. I am so used to this time of year being cold with leaves off of trees and snow should be starting soon, but none of this is going to happen here. It's going to be the day before Christmas and I won't even know it.

I hate how certain songs and musicians remind me of certain people. Mostly I love it actually, if it is a good situation and a good person, but if it is the opposite of that, then I hate it. Especially when the song is really good and I can no longer enjoy it because it is tainted. I realized today after Colossians I have some un-forgiveness in me I need to deal with. I need to let go of grudges and bitterness. I need to also forgive myself. I don't know how to forgive people close to me. People who were close to me that is. I don't know how God does it over and over again. I just am forever grateful that he does. I guess he made it so that he doesn't have to do it over and over again, he just did for all time. He doesn't have to keep forgiving us because he just did it all at one time. I wish I could do that. I wish I could forgive everyone who ever hurt me and my family and my friends and everyone who ever will hurt me, my family and friends, so when the time comes they are already forgiven and I won't have to dwell on any sort of bitterness or hate.

Confusion never stops, closing walls and ticking clocks.

Mom and Dad, brace yourselves for this fact. I have been studying for the last 5.5 hours. Doing homework that is. Observing, interpreting, and writing out applications. My hand is about to fall off and my brain has almost finished packing. I needed to take a short break in order to write some more, fancy that, in my blog.

A few nights ago it was Diwali, the festival of lights here in India or even at home if you're Hindu! The people here shoot off fireworks and firecrackers continuously for a week at least. So far it has been going on for one solid week. Apparently this is the first festival in a series of festivals through March where people awaken the gods who they say have been sleeping April through October. My wonderful English friend and myself took a walk to the market on the night of Diwali to see the sights and buy some ice cream from a street vendor. Safe? Probably not. Good? Heck yes it was! I am slowly getting used to this small town and all it has to offer. One thing I thoroughly enjoy about India is the fact that you can open and examine everything before you buy it. I'm talking everything here. If you wanted to examine a roll of toilet paper, fine! If you wanted to examine some printing paper for the computer, fine! If you want to sample any food before you buy it, okay! One could get used to this kind of life.

Sunday will be another day in Pune, fortunately I won't have to sit in some crazy lady's salon for 6 hours getting my hair straightened. I'll get to go to a grocery store!! My first one since I left home! We might even go to a pool I hear, but the for sure stop is the cinema. We don't know what is playing, but we don't really care. I am trying to get more acquainted with the train system here. We discovered the wonders of online ticket purchasing. Who knew India could be so advanced?

Today was IG day meaning Income Generation. That translates to staff and students selling services or food they made for a price. Even games you want to play and lose money at. It was all kind of like a carnival where you waste your money at home, but this wasn't wasting because all proceeds when to either the particular student leading the game or making the food, or their school. It was fun and I got to eat a brownie with ice cream! You cannot ask for anything better than that here on campus.

I must get back to doing homework. I have one chart left for tonight before I am allowed to pass out. If you are of the prayerful heart, please pray I will be well rested in the coming weeks. This is a lot of work that I wasn't anticipating and my roommates are wonderful but noisy although I'm sure they think the same of me. Also, I am leading worship on Tuesday morning and I am a little nervous about it because I feel during worship through song I do what I want to do and so many of these guys are Spirit-led and I have no idea what I'm doing in that area. So I guess I need confidence, but mostly I need to allow God to use me and ease my worried mind. Pray for no distractions too. I am here for one reason, to get to know our beautiful Creator more than ever before and let Him stir up my heart.

It ain't me babe, no, no, no, it ain't me babe

It has been just about one month since I left you all back in chilly Minnesota. A lot has happened in one month here in hot India. I pretty much have given up the idea of getting a good night's rest. I have yet to fall asleep very easily since I've been here. I get sick about once a week, not majorly ill but a little stomach bug. My feet are never clean. I don't think they will be for the entire time I am here. Mosquito bites here are 10 times worse than at home, and 10 times larger. People stare at me anywhere I go in public. People even take pictures of me and my friends with their phones. I don't understand why. I know these Indians have seen white people before. I don't understand.

Despite all of these things, I cannot complain. I am just stating facts. Despite all those facts I truly love this country and am looking forward to spending the next 8 months of my life here.

Yesterday I went to Pune again, and the train ride home totally redeemed my previous local train experience. We found the woman's carriage and it was amazing. No worries. We almost missed the train, but God sent an angel at the front of the ticket line to let us in ahead of her then follow her, running, to the train. She was a miracle. The queues were SO long, we would have waited for at least 3 hours if we went to the end of the line.

I got my hair permanently straightened, no pictures of it yet, but ya'll have seen me with straight hair, so there's nothing to see, except that I cannot wash it for 7 days! Ay carumba. I cannot even get it wet. I cannot even put it up in a pony. I hope it's not too hot this week. Otherwise my hair will get sweaty and ruined.

I did not take any pictures in Pune because I was sitting in a salon all day, but I took some good pictures at Lonavala train station, so I'll put those up as soon as I feel like it.

Today we are studying Luke. We only have one day for Luke. No horizontal or vertical charts for this book, praise the Lord! We just have to do a BRI which is a paper answering some questions like, "what is the historical background of the book? What was the culture like?", "who wrote the book?", and "who is the original reader?" Things of that sort. I actually enjoy the BRIs for the gospels because they do not require as much information as they do for epistles.

Tomorrow we start Acts and I have to finish it by Saturday morning because we're going to Bombay for the weekend! It's two of our "leaders" birthdays on Saturday. Same day! Bizarre.

I think my favorite Biblical relationship is that of Moses and God. I was thinking about this the other day, and I have always loved reading about Moses. My favorite fact of their relationship is where it says that Moses and God had a relationship like close friends, they had a face to face friendship. I have always asked God for this kind of relationship with Him. I would love to just go somewhere alone and be able to see God, granted I would die if I did, but perhaps then Moses was hanging out with Jesus all those years ago. Jesus is God after all, and if Moses had really seen God he would have died.

Oh my gosh, I love Ben Folds. He just came on my iTunes and I am so glad I got a bunch of his music before I left. He is like the Elton John of my generation. Yeah, I said it.

My Christmas plans are up in the air. Please pray that something works out for me to leave this country over Christmas. Right now Nepal is looking like the best and cheapest option, so that really is the plan, I just didn't have time yesterday to go to the travel agent and book my ticket, so that will have to wait. Pray the flight prices don't go up. Oh India, why must I leave you after 6 months?

This was quite the random blog entry.

Oh my gosh! I just remembered I have laundry that's been soaking all night! I must go and tend to this matter. I really don't mind hand washing all my clothes, it just takes so long and then to dry takes even longer, and sometimes they smell worse after I wash and dry them than they even did before. Sick.

I will write a better blog entry perhaps next week sometime, since I'll be scrambling to finish Acts this week. I am swearing off facebook and skype just through Sunday. I will only check my e-mail. I won't have time to reply to anything this week.

Is your bed made? Is you sweater on?

Last night I fell in love with India. I was riding in a rickshaw "home" to the campus and it really did feel like I was going home. Sitting in a small rickshaw at night with my English friend, looking out the side of the rickshaw at people walking on the street and dogs laying in the middle of the road, that was the moment my heart melted for India. My heart grew 10 sizes that day. Like the Grinch, you know? I think I really was like the Grinch the last three weeks. Lazy, yet thinking of ways to ruin everyone's Christmas. Getting frustrated with honking cars, barking dogs, train horns, children begging. What's with all this noise, noise, noise, NOISE!

Last night I was able to go to one of the part-time SBS staff's home. She is from Australia and married an Indian man 10 years ago. They have a beautiful 4 year old daughter who is lively as a fish first out of water, only she doesn't eventually run out of breath and just lay there. She's always running around asking you to come up to her room and play with her. We got to watch CNN and BBC and find out the world is in some sort of financial crisis, also that the election is in three weeks, and I am actually wishing I had registered for an absentee ballot. Funny how three weeks over here is making me concerned about my country's leader for the first time ever in my life. Anyway, we got to do our laundry at B's house. Her name isn't really B, but I'm just going to call her that. She has a washer AND a dryer! I was so excited. Then we watched our first Indian film. We being the Norwegians, the British, and the American (a.k.a. myself).

Next week we are going through Mark. I just read it out loud today with the Norwegians. It only took about an hour. Can't wait for Isaiah's out loud reading. Or Psalms! Ay carumba!

Plans for going to Nepal seem to be way more complicated. I mean, I could get there fairly easily, but it's tricky once I'm over there, and I refuse to go alone, and the Brit can't necessarily come with because it's looking to be more expensive than originally intended. I mean, it's not that expensive, but she literally has NO money, and her parent's are not helping her in any way. So, if she can't go then I can't go because I am not riding a 30 hour train by myself to Delhi to get on a plane by myself to Katmandu to get on a 6 hour bus ride by myself. Pray she can go please, give money, whatever God puts on your heart. I really want to do this with her. We were going to go Trekking for 7 days in these beautiful mountains and this would work out well for both of us to make use of our visa agreement of only being in India for 6 months at a time. It would help us a lot.

I'm not feeling like myself lately. Physically. I feel sick a lot of times, randomly, and I don't feel like eating most of the time, although I still eat at every meal even though I don't feel like I can fit any more food in my body. It's so bizarre! I don't think I'll eat dinner tonight though, unless I'm hungry. Maybe I keep getting sick cause I'm eating even though my body is telling me not to.

Our first exam was on Friday morning. I don't know how well I did yet, but I am pretty confident I got at the very least a "B" on it. Three weeks ago I could not have told you what the main idea of Titus was, or why Paul wrote Philemon, or who Onesimus was, or what the culture of Ephesus was, but now I know it all! Crazy, crazy, crazy.

It hasn't hit me yet that I'm in India. I look around at this tropical environment full of Indian people and dogs and cows and trains and garbage, yet I still am not fully aware of my surroundings. I am not fully aware of what I have gotten myself into. Last night I wast talking to a DTS student and she simply asked me what my plan was after SBS and I told her music and she talked for maybe 20 minutes, but I don't think she was talking. God was talking through her. She said some really encouraging things and some things I never considered, or things I thought weren't for me so I never gave them a chance to grow or develop. She said I needed an open heart and mind for these things to grow in me. It was a lot to process,and I'm still processing it. I most certainly was not expecting God to show up in that room at that moment, but BAM he was there.

Okay, I could most definitely write a novel today, but I must stop and get yet some more rest before kitchen duty at 4. Having weekend work duty is actually pretty fun and I find myself wandering into the kitchen to hang out or help even if it's not my day. It's fun working in the kitchen with all the SBSers. I love life here. Right now I'm sitting outside on the internet writing in this. There is a cool breeze and I'm sitting in the shade of the classroom building/boys dorms. I can see a giant coconut tree in front of me. The coconut trees here look nothing like the ones in Vanuatu. Who knew there were even different species of coconut trees?

I found a guitar I am able to use quite regularly, and love, love, love when the DTS students are gone and I can just go into their classroom and sing. The reverb in the room would make even cookie monster's voice sound like an angels. It truly is amazing.

You have her pictures, you have her pictures everywhere

Galatians is due at 6:00 PM tomorrow and fortunately we have no class tomorrow, so all day until 6 is free and open for homework time. My plan is to get done by lunch tomorrow so that I can have a nap or do laundry tomorrow afternoon.

The pictures should be as follows...
Dining hall
A truck on the walk into town to go to our favorite study spot
Rickshaws!
Coffee Day (our favorite study spot)
The life of an SBS student
Laundry room, yeah, handwashing...not my strong suit
Some of the boys on base playing Rummy 500
My new good friend Karen and myself
Some other boys playing some crazy game

All taken on my wonderful Canon Digital Rebel XT that was formerly broken and God fixed it miraculously!

Pray for finances if you think about it. I still need to purchase a ticket home eventually and pay for my third quarter of school. Each are between $700 and $800 dollars.

As for Christmas break, Nepal is calling my name and hopefully I will be able to find a cheap flight. Pray for that as well, online they're looking quite spendy, but I'm hoping via travel agent it will be cheaper. Taking a train and bus is not an option, it's cheaper sure, but it will take too long and I won't get ANY rest before 2nd quarter if I take the train.

It's in the photograph, it's in the photograph, it's in the photograph of love.

God is so amazing! As some of you know the amazing camera Kristy gave me to use in India died the night before I left and it turns out they could not replace it the morning I left, so I took it with me to India and was going to call some number to get another number in India to find some shop nearby to hopefully fix it or replace it. This I was nervous about, being new to the country and not understanding people very well because of their poor English and my non-Hindi speaking. Today I thought I'd try charging the battery fully and put it in and see if it would work, so I prayed and put the charged battery in but it did not turn on. I was ready to call the number, I put money on my Skype account so I could call this number to get another number and probably another one, all this hassle to find somewhere near here to fix the dang camera. Right before I put the number in I said a quick prayer and tried turning it on one last time and the screen came on and it said there's no memory card in it! Before nothing came on, nothing happened it was just like being off in the "on" position! So, I put a memory card in and started taking as many pictures as I possibly could! It works! I don't need to take it in and now I have an amazing camera to capture the beauty of India! I am so thankful to the Lord right now! I can't stop smiling! God is SO good! This was my first miracle. I truly believe it was a miracle.

Go away from my window, leave at your own chosen speed.

The foreign girls were given a more personal and informal orientation yesterday about Indian culture since the large base orientation didn't cover anything for foreigners. It was eye opening and I understood things a lot better.

Today I am having stomach problems. I didn't think I'd get sick, but here I am. I'm about to go have a nap, but I wanted to post some more pictures before I lay down. I went to the market today with Lottie and on the way back we ran into some friends from campus, so here you go!

Life inside a music box ain't easy

Oh! Here are some pictures finally, none of which are necessarily "Indian"

Two Norwegian sisters, my new English friend and me, my new Indian friend and me, and then there's the SBS classroom.






Almost done with week 2 of the three week SBS seminar! We unfortunately had to say good-bye to the newest Lil' J addition to my life, Justin. He is going home to the states to staff DTS. He co-led our first week and a half with the other two American boys, but now his Titus outreach is over and he is going home.

Okay, so we are almost done with the book of Ephesians. I have finished my horizontal and first two vertical charts. I am putting off starting number three right now by writing this, but that's okay for now. We will be having ample amounts of time to work today. It is going to be very hard for me to manage my time to do work after this seminar when we're all on our own and will have nothing but open time to study. I would explain horizontal and vertical charts to you all, but you wouldn't understand, and I don't want to give too much away as to the secrets of studying the Bible. All I can say is this inductive method is amazing. I'll tell you the difference between deductive and inductive. This I can do! Okay, so most Bible studies are done deductively. Which means that you already have your own idea or opinion about something and then you go to the Bible to find verses or passages that prove your point. That's how 98% of Bible studies and sermons are lead I would say. Next, there is the inductive study method, which is what we are all busy doing here in India. The inductive method would be to lay aside all your ideas and opinions, all your cultural, educational, family influences on what you think and FIRST you read the Bible and observe, interpret, and then apply what you read to your life. So, read first, then form an opinion whereas deductive is first have an opinion, then read to prove that opinion correct. Ba da bing, ba da boom. Just a glimpse of what is swimming around inside my head right now (figure of speech). Okay, so enough about studying!

I can say that I am very blessed to have these Americans leading the first three weeks. I don't know that I would have understood everything if they hadn't been here. I am very thankful for them to be here. Plus, showing how small your world gets when you join YWAM, they all know a girl from my DTS who is, right now, on the base they all did their SBSs at.

I am slowly getting to know pieces of different students and staff here. It's really fun always sitting with new people at meals or in class. Indian people love to talk. That is one thing no one warned me about before I came, but it's completely true. They love asking questions and most of all they love sharing their testimonies. Sometimes it can get a bit overwhelming, especially when I have homework to do and I feel bad to interrupt them, but I better get used to it.

Hopefully it stops raining here so that I can walk up to the local coffee shop to study later. I don't know what I'd do without this nearby coffee place. You all will hate me, but I get the equivalent to a small iced mocha here for $1.25 whereas in Minneapolis it's around $4.00! That's right. You should all come to India!

I am loving the food here. Curry, chai, curry, chai, curry, chai. Basically that's what we have every day. It's more like chai, chai, curry, chai, curry. With mango pickle here and mango pickle there. I have begun to eat with my hand only for dinner. It's the way real Indians do. I think I am falling in love with this country as much as I hated it when I first arrived. It grows on you. I am more comfortable with it now.

I really want to take a nap, but I have no time for sleep here. Speaking of no time, I better get back to my builds which are on my vertical charts. Ahh, the life of an SBS student. I haven't even begun to taste SBS yet.

Blessings to you and yours! I hope it's not too cold for ya'll yet. Send me some snow if you think about it.

Where I walk now, oh where I walk now

Yesterday I traveled to Pune. Pune is nothing like I thought it would be. The girls here on campus are correct in saying that we should go to Pune when we want to shop, because that is what you do in Pune. You shop. All the foreigners in our SBS went on the local train. Four guys and four girls. The way there was pretty okay. It wasn't too crowded at first, but by the time we arrived in Pune people were packed into this train. If you are sitting you have 4 or 5 to a bench that fits only 3 comfortably. Then, there are people standing in the aisles and even in the aisles without handles to hold on to. It's really hot too and all those bodies don't help. There are all these beggars that come onto the train to beg for money or food while the train is stopped and they are mostly small children, like 5 or 6 or 7 years old and they come up to you and hit you and will not leave you alone. You have to just ignore them mostly. We gave away a lot of food this day to child beggars. Then we have the transvestites. They mostly beg to the men and I've heard some interesting stories from the guys of their first experiences with transvestite beggars on the train. Oh man. It's so sad to see all these small children begging and selling small things for money. They are so persistent and it makes me wonder if they have time to just be a kid. If they know life outside of begging or selling maps or books. Right now India and I have a love/hate relationship. Once we got there we ate some Indian food in the train station on the platform. I was excited to have Naan, but they don't have it until the evening, so I had to wait quite a few hours to eat it.

Our first stop was a nice semi-authentic Indian gift shop. It is a good place to buy gifts for friends and family back home, but not authentically made by Indian people. It was called Either Or. After that we went to a nice coffee shop called Barista. It is always good to have coffee here. I miss having coffee all the time at home. Be grateful for what you have coffee drinkers! After coffee we went to a mall. I didn't have too much fun there. I'd much rather go to markets and bazaars than a mall. Especially when the mall has stores you can find in America and when the prices are similar to America. No thank you! I was able to pick up a nice punjabi dress and am looking forward to wearing it tomorrow in some underground place. India is so cool. You can go to most small shops and pick out a fabric pattern you like, then bring it to a tailor and have them make you a Sari or Punjabi dress. All for you, fitted for you. Just for you! I didn't do that, but I got a really cool punjabi dress and got a good deal on it too! The small shop we went into was awesome. The man there spoke very good English and when I tried on the top with these really long leggings I came out and he wanted to take a picture of me he loved it so much. Then I went back into the changing room and Russell (the leader of TITUS project and the first 3 weeks of our SBS) came into the shop, not knowing I was there, and he was asking if they had pants for the other girls and the guy said that they did have pants and showed them the picture he had just taken of me in this punjabi dress and it was really funny to hear this later because Russell wasn't expecting to see a picture of Sarah in this tiny shop on some strange man's phone. Oh man. Good times.

After the mall we got into 3 rick-shaws and went back to the train station around 6:30 PM. We were going to catch the 7 o'clock train back to campus, but it was delayed one hour, so we just went back to that food cafe in the train station for coffee. After awhile we went back to the platform to wait for the train and there were so many people rushing to get on the train when it arrived, we were trying to push our way through the men and the guys we were with were behind us girls pushing and making sure we were safe. One man started grabbing two of the girls and then this fight broke out and we finally made it onto the train after that craziness. Once on the train a few of the Indian men who were sitting stood up for the girls so we could sit down, but that crazy man kept looking at me, but he was far away from me fortunately. Unfortunately, he kept moving through the crowded train closer and closer and finally he was standing right next to me and Lottie asked where he was because she previously told me to watch out for him 'cause he was the guy grabbing her outside the train. I told her he was standing right next to me and she stands up and yells at him "No!" "Get away!" and then all of a sudden all the men around us grabbed him and started hitting him and kind of kicked him out of the train. It was very scary for me. He didn't touch me thank goodness. After one more stop the guys we were with were able to move next to us girls and then I felt safe. We never saw that little man again for the rest of the train ride. Apparently there is a specific woman's car at night on the train. Next time we will definitely ride there, or else take a car and avoid the train altogether. Too much fright for one night!

By the time we finally made it back to campus I was so exhausted I took a shower and went straight to bed, falling asleep immediately. Next time I'm going with a local to Pune, a girl at that, and we're taking a car most likely. Or maybe take the train there, but a car back.

It's good to be back in a small town, and now this place doesn't seem so intimidating anymore.

Won't someone stop this train?

There are train tracks right next to our campus and I swear to you a train rolls by every 30 minutes. Chances are one is about to pass by as I write this. The horn blasts as the train rattles on past. It doesn't matter what hour it is either. 3 o'clock in the morning? No problem. Horns blasting. Of course it isn't as loud or as long as during the day, but they still blow their horn.

SBS is going to be the most stressful thing I ever do in my life besides get married. We have to do so many things with each book and, depending on the book, we have to do more or less with the historical background and culture stuff. It's really awesome though because we are training ourselves to read it as it is, a book. It was not originally written with verse and chapter numbers. The books were not named what we know them as today. First and Seconds were just one giant book or letter. During SBS we get to rename every book as to what we think the title should be, or mostly a title for us to remember the book by. We also have to title each paragraph and then split up paragraphs into different segments and split up segments into different sections and split up sections into different divisions. We get to map out every single book many different ways. I really am going to read every book at LEAST 5 times. I swear I've read Titus 148 times in the last two days. When I am done here my Bible will look like a clown sneezed on every page. I am beginning to notice sentence structures even as I write this blog. There's a time element, there's a simile, there's a connective, a mood word. And so on, and so forth. Those are just a taste of the things I am required to look for and mark somehow in my Bible.

We finished our first book, Philemon. It is only 25 verses long, but what a huge message! First of all, it's Paul's plea for Onesimus (Philemon's former slave who ran away and maybe stole from him). Paul meets Onesimus while he is most likely in house arrest because people can visit him and come and go freely. Onesimus gets saved and most likely either tells Paul his story, or Paul knows because he's friends with Philemon. Anyway, in the time this book was written it was a good thing to be a slave in Rome. Everyone wanted to be slaves. Why you ask? Because if you were a slave you had rights, you had to be treated a certain way, you had shelter, food, money, and a purpose in life. All these things provided for you. 80% of the population then were slaves. Too many times our American history taints our opinion on slavery. We see it as a horrible thing no one ever should be forced into only because our country did a horrible thing a few hundred years ago. But thousands of years ago things were different. Anyway, Paul writes a letter to Philemon and appeals for Onesimus. He says he could command Philemon to take Onesimus back as his equal, but instead he appeals. Paul hopes and trusts Philemon will listen to the Lord and make the right decision. In those days if your slave ran away or stole something the punishment was death, so Philemon had the right to kill Onesimus when he came back to him, but Onesimus had changed. Paul calls him his child, and tells Philemon to welcome Onesimus and he would welcome Paul. It's a wonderful book of forgiveness and equality. Even though Onesimus was a slave, Paul tells Philemon to treat him as a brother, an equal, because Onesimus was once useless, but now he is useful which implies he knows Jesus, and Paul said he'd pay for anything Onesimus owes Philemon which also implies that he may have stolen something. Also, the letter itself is written to the church but during it Paul only writes to Philemon and this is so that the church can hold Philemon accountable to what Paul is asking him to do, so the book is also about community and accountability.

Whew! And just think. That book was only 25 verses long! What's going to happen when Genesis comes along, or Psalms for that matter?

We finished our second book also. That's two down, 64 to go! Oh yeah.

Today me and some of the girls and guys will be taking the train to Pune. This I am excited for as there is ample shopping in Pune. We also may get to see a movie! Granted the movies in theaters here will be movies I probably already own back home. The U.S. is even 6 months ahead of England when it comes to movies released in theaters or DVD. One of the staff here last night was telling me he cannot wait for Wall-E to come in the theaters and I informed him I had already seen it three times.

After these first three weeks of just the seminar laying the foundation to the rest of the nine months I won't have any time for anything but maybe to eat and sleep for a few hours here and there. I will literally wake up, study, eat, study, eat, study, eat, study, sleep, and do that whole routine all over again.

My wet hair takes almost all day to dry here. It doesn't seem like the air is that humid here, but apparently it is. My hair is the same as after I took my freezing cold bucket shower 1 hour ago! Sometimes we don't have water and sometimes we don't have electricity. Things are never certain here. Nothing is constant except that we must be in class on time or else we're in trouble.

Last night a handful of us were invited to one of the major leader's house. She lives a few houses down from campus and we had coffee! My first real coffee since I've been in India. All we drink all day long is chai, chai, chai, chai. Don't get me wrong, I love the Indian chai, but it's nice to have coffee once in awhile. This woman was so funny and I can see her becoming like an Indian mother to me while I am here. She is beautiful and has a huge heart.

Sorry I haven't put up any pictures yet, I haven't felt comfortable enough with people to take any yet, but I'll for sure take a lot this weekend in Pune. If I remember... I desperately need a backpack. I didn't even think to bring one. I only brought my huge one. That doesn't work for day trips to other cities! Perhaps I'll buy one in Pune.

Well it is time for me to see if my clothes are finally dry after hanging for 3 days! It'll be nice to get these Indian clothes because they will dry a lot faster than a t-shirt or jeans. I don't even want to think about washing my jeans. It would almost be easier to send them home, have my mom wash them and dry them, and send them back. I should do an experiment. Wash one pair of jeans here and hang them up the day I send another pair home for washing and sending back, then we'll see if it arrives before my other jeans dry.

There'll be love, love, love wherever you go

I am finally given access to the internet! Oh man, India is intense. I think that I would rather die than have to drive a vehicle here. Let me recap:

My flight landed on Friday night at 11:45 PM in Mumbai and I went through customs very swiftly. I was amazed. I got outside and saw hundreds of Indian people waiting for friends and family to arrive plus at least 50 signs with names on them, so I had to go through and scan all the signs for my name. I see a little scruffy Indian man holding my name and I point at him and he follows me around the gate and brings my bag to his small taxi parked in the back of the lot. He tells me that another boy is coming in at 1:30 AM and we have to wait for him, so I fall asleep in the back of his cab until they both come. Introductions, Bryan is the taxi driver, Joel is the boy from the States (I can't remember which one at the moment) but he's been in Germany the past year or so with YWAM. The drive to the campus is 2 hours and even though it's 2:00 AM when we leave the airport there are tons of people in the streets driving, walking, riding. The rickshaws are parked in long lines with drivers waiting outside or inside their small vehicle to take someone somewhere. If I had been driving that night I would have gone home reporting I almost got into 156 accidents, but that's the way they drive here. They honk their horn almost constantly, but it's a polite thing here. It's like saying excuse me, same goes for flashing their high beams. It was crazy. Absolutely crazy. I got to my room at 4:00 AM and went to bed. I was the first girl in my room. My first night in India I was all alone in an unfamiliar place with strange sounds outside my window.

I woke up around 10:10 AM, got dressed and went downstairs (my room is on the third floor, I will have amazing thighs and butt when I come home) on the way down I met a few DTS students. I walked outside only to really find no one and so I walked around the building I am staying in trying to find the offices or someone who was on staff. Everyone I talked to was a student. I made my way back around the building and found a man named Jonah who was staff! Finally! He asked if I had met the SBS staff yet and I said I hadn't then he told me lunch was at 1:00 and I was sure to see one of them there, so I went back up to my room and once I got there had somewhat of a melt down because I'm in this strange place with no roommate yet and I had no idea where anything was or what time anything was at! I wrote a desperate journal entry all about how I just wanted to go home and maybe India isn't for me. After calming down I re-read what Jim Reck told me before I left. He said that I was like Peter stepping out of the boat to walk on the water with Jesus. He was terrified and it was really uncomfortable out on the water, but he knew that he could do it with the help of Jesus and even when he did fall Jesus caught him and held him up. That was very comforting and a perfect time to remember it. I think Saturday morning was my sinking into the water moment, one of many I'm sure I will have here, but reading some of God's promises helped pick me back up.

I ended up going to lunch at 1:00 and met a few cool people there. Christian who's from the states and has been here since January doing a DTS and now another school, then there are a lot of people I cannot remember their names because they're Indian names and quite hard to remember for me. I did finally meet one of the SBS staff named Shivu. He seems like he is a very funny guy. After lunch Joel and I were going to meet up at 4 to walk into town to find the internet cafe, but upon meeting we found out we had an SBS meeting at 4, so we went to that and I was able to meet all the SBS students who are here so far. Three guys and two girls. There are supposed to be two more girls coming in my room, but I think maybe only one of them is coming from the UK, but not until tomorrow. We also have these three guys from the states who are going to teach our first three weeks of SBS. It's like the first 3 week Seminar or something. They're all really cool and it was a relief to have more Westerners in my midst. I met the school leader, Prabha who is awesome, and another staff named Hudson. We took a tour of the campus so now I vaguely know where everything is here!

My first walk into town happened Saturday night. It's a small town, but very crowded and a little intimidating to walk on the road, even more intimidating to cross the street. There's a cool coffee place that's fairly new in Lonavala called Coffee Day. I spent most my time there since the internet cafe was closed at the moment. I was talking with the three guys from america who are facilitating our first three weeks and they completed their SBSs in Montana, which is the one I was originally looking at. They all hated school and studying and one of them hates reading just as much as I do, so I felt less worried about getting my work completed. The one who hates reading also procrastinates as much as I do too. I feel confident that I can do this, and I do know that it will be completely different because I actually desire to learn the Bible, unlike classes in school that are required.

Since my breakdown Saturday morning things only got better. I am very thankful for that. By the end of Saturday I was thinking that I could see myself loving it here. The weather hasn't even been that unbearable. I mean I guess it is getting into their cold season, and I'm glad I brought my blanket, I almost didn't. It is needed at night. By the way, here's how I sleep at night: First there is a sheet of plywood, the size of a twin bed. Next, there's a mattress on top of that. Lastly, the mattress is one inch thick. No joke. I'm totally not exaggerating. It is like I'm sleeping on a piece of wood. Also, I did not even think to bring a travel alarm clock. I am in desperate need of one of those.

For meals so far we've had curry every time. Well, it's maybe not all curry. they have different names for it all. I call it curry because it's a sauce you put on rice, and for breakfast we have chai tea and it's amazing. Food with breakfast also, but one morning it was good rice stuff and the next it was white bread with jelly.

Saturday and Sunday were free all day days, and I wish I knew what to do with myself then cause I pretty much spent it sitting in my room writing and reading before all I was able to read is the Bible.

I actually do regret not bringing my guitar. It's going to be hard to give that up for nine months. There is a guitar here, but it's missing a string. I just might lose my callousses! How awful will that be. More like how painful is that going to be when I come home and start playing again. There's also this worship band, or just "band" here called 24/7 and they led worship Monday morning. They had a guitar that maybe I could use if I got to know the owner very well!

Monday was our first official day of class. We had orientations all morning and afternoon, then our first SBS lecture at 3:30. Our schedule for the first three weeks is somewhat like this:
Monday - 7:30 breakfast, 9:00-10:00 campus worship, 10:20-1:00 lecture, 1:00 lunch, 1:40-3:00 work duty, 3:30 - 6:30 lecture, 7:00 dinner.
Tuesday - 7:30 breakfast, 9-1 lecture, 1 lunch, 1:40-3 work duty, 3:30-6:30 lecture, 7 dinner
Wednesday - 7:30 breakfast, 9-10 campus intercession, 10:20 - 1 lecture, the rest is the same as other days
Thursday - same as Tuesday
Friday - same as Wednesday except it is just SBS class doing intercession.

Not a whole lot more to tell than that for now. This is a lot of information for one blog entry!

Sorry I haven't taken any pictures yet. I will hopefully this week and post some up soon. We'll see.

Love you all!

Please pray that God would provide an opportunity for me to leave the country for Christmas or in March after 2nd quarter so that I can re-enter the country and obey their visa guidelines of a maximum stay of 6 months at a time.