The weekly // 27

I've officially been in India for a full week and, as predicted, the hard times have come. 

But thankfully so have the good times. Yet I am equally, if not more so, thankful for the hard times too, for it is in the hard times that the Lord is so near and teaches me so much. 

Monday we went to Ujjain, which is one of the five holiest Hindu cities in India. First we went to a temple where we saw people praying, bowing down to, and offering gifts of flowers and milk to statues of Hindu gods. There is one main room with the main god, and then you walk out into a court yard where there are multiple smaller temples that people can go to. In the middle of the courtyard, there is a structure with a god in it. As people walk in they ring bells in order to wake up that god, get his attention, etc. 

This experience made the stories and warnings against idolatry in the Bible extremely vivid to me. 

In America, I struggle with idolatry for sure. I idolize myself, boys, others' opinions of me, my schedule, etc. But there is never a point in my entire life that I have physically bowed down to an object that "has eyes but can not see and ears but can not hear." To see someone physically do that is, honestly, mind blowing and heart breaking all at the same time. And yet, when I idolize any intangible thing, practically, I am doing the same thing in my heart. That's the real horror in it all. 

Then we went to a river in the city where people go to physically try to wash their sins off. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but there was a ridiculous amount of people there. 

It was the most overwhelming day here so far for sure. 

We finally started into somewhat of a routine Tuesday. 

For the most part, during the morning some of us will go help out at a special needs school. Then, during the afternoon we are free to go out, meet people, learn about the culture, etc. 

The first day I did not want to go out. Like at all. None of the girls really did, which left me in a place of having to spur them on to do something I didn't even want to do. 

In those beginning moments I knew in a real and deep way that it would be impossible for me to lead these girls apart from walking closely with the Lord. 

So I started pressing in hard. Real hard. 

I'm learning a lot about what it looks like to abide in my Savior in the midst of spiritual darkness you can acutely feel and see. I'm learning what it looks like to wake up in the morning and arm myself with the truth before stepping out into a place with a message that no one wants to hear. 

Mostly I feel that the enemy is attacking us physically, through exhaustion and complacency but also through sickness (I'll spare the details there). 

And yet He has been so faithful. Praise His name that He is stronger than the powers of this world! In only three or four days of going out, many have heard the truth. In addition, all of our hearts are growing in the desire for more to hear and believe, which is a sweet gift from the Father. 

The sweetest part of this week for me was getting to see a dear friend from last summer. I got to hang out with her multiple times last summer and pray that this is only the first of many times that I will get to see her this summer! 

In other news, this team is incredible. 

Thursday we had the great privilege of celebrating Megan and Annabel's birthday! 

We had a mini celebration for them that morning with cupcakes, streamers, silly string, party hats, noise makers, and gifts!

The guys all bought them really hilarious and random gifts (when in India, right?). In addition to the awesome animal posters pictured below, they were given a mango, a bamboo plant, tomato juice, wash cloths, coloring books, a tape measure, and, last but not least, Huggies diapers from Logan because they are, quote, "the youngest on the team and were having 'problems'". 

Needless to say, we were all rolling with laughter during the present opening. 

And, our sweet hotel made them a birthday cake. I love the staff here and I love these sisters. 

Happy Birthday girls! 

We had a great lunch as a team filled with some American food and desserts. 

I love Indian food but it's good to occasionally have a reprieve. 

We then went to help with a youth conference. We'll be doing this a couple more times while we are here. These youth (ranging from age five to mid-twenties) have, for the most part, grown up in Christian homes and are apathetic to the truth, much like many American youth in the churches. 

So, for about five hours, we are playing games with them and walking through the book of Colossians, since that is what our team is also studying this summer. 

These girls are so beautiful! Just look at em! 

Pray that we would be able to build deep relationships with them, that they would see the hope of the truth in us, and that that would cause them to desire a deeper relationship with our Savior and Lord! 

We ended the week with a very rainy and windy team adventure day at Mandu, an ancient city. 

People stared at us a lot and asked to take pictures every other second, but overall it was a great day! 

Please note the goats hiding under the bridge to avoid the rain. This cracked me up. 

This was our bus driver's son. He tagged along with us as we walked around. He was precious!!

I love this team. A whole lot. There was definitely a temptation for me to compare this team to last year's team, or be unhappy with this years team because I loved last year's team, but the Lord has been gracious to surround me with eight amazing brothers and sisters who are hilarious and deeply love Him, each other, and me. The guys have done a fantastic job of looking out for and serving us, and the girls have been a great encouragement to my heart. 

I'm thankful for the opportunity to spend another two weeks here with them!!