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.
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