happy christmas eve

traditions.
something about nostalgia. its like a fireplace lit in my mind's eye. warming cozy familiar.
we have newly born traditions here in kolkata. like north american christmas eve.
presents and dinner and being together.
celebrating. giving gifts to these girls is one of my favoritve things about christmas. we know one another and finding the perfect gift or three or five...is just too easy and so much fun. there's SB parties my first of many to come i hope. and english turkey dinners to delve into with our friends from around the world, our Kolkatan mosaic family.
but then i think on those deeply seeded traditions. the ones that seem to bleed out of me when this season rings in. lovingly sewn by my family.
there's pj's to open each and every christmas eve.
and communion and the christmas story to celebrate before we head to bed.
there's home baked bread that keeps my mouth watering
and a great fake tree that just refuses to die...
there's the final walk through of the mall with my bro and dad...we like to go just to see the panic stricken faces of all the husbands..."just put something in my bag" they must be saying.
there's waking up to carols floating up the stairs, or more commonly the the synthasizer of Manhiem Steamroller jamming in the morning air...
mom making cinnamon rolls and sausage links
and my dad, like a little kid rolling back the curtains of excitement
he'll walk back and forth from dinning room to living room in quiet expectation
revealing just how much he loves to celebrate...mom, chach, me...and the Savior we worship
armed and ready with camera and some sort of letter or gift bound to make us all cry...
yes, i suppose wherever we are there's traditions to be planted, celebration to be had. a chance to really Be with those we love.
its only unfortunately that i cannot be with everyone all at the same time. so even as i enjoy and worship and celebrate with my family here, my mind is still pulled towards home towards roots that can never be unearthed no matter how far away i wonder.

happy christmas eve.

ps-here's a little glimpse into my family christmas album

the prehamble of sorts.

just polishing off a great diet coke this evening. and yes, there is such a thing between great diet cokes and medocre to not so great diet cokes. said diet coke...great.
but before this tangent continues to string itself into a hole, i'll retreat to my original thoughts.
mainly, that i should try to write a little holiday pre amble. you know a praliday...or prehamble...whatever, here's where my minds been this week.

the tree is done. most presents nicely wrapped. the weather is even getting colder (although yes, just now i killed one mosquito...but they fly slower in the cold season, so they don't stand a chance against my stealthlike prowess.)
and its around this time i funnel my thoughts towards reflection. walking down a year's worth of paths, revisiting lessons learnt, faces and lives that impressed their prints upon my own. a year's worth of life journeyed and laid as a pilgrim's map for the steps yet to trod in the year to come.
and i also think about hope. and thanks to the words of a man i've never met, but would someday like to shake his hand for his preaching that sparked a revolution of sorts in my heart: somethings moving, shifting, catching in my guts again.
i guess the dryest kindling fuels the best fires, so in some ways, my heart's been in the right condition to have a rekindling of sorts. so, Mr David Landt, if you ever read this, thanks for feeding some hungry sheep in Kolkata over this advent season.
hope. if we can't live in hope of Christ's hand moving and His Kingdom coming here, then how could i stand to live here and love among my friends. what could i have to offer.
as advent comes to a close and we culminate our celebretions with a SB party alongside our beautiful kolkata family, goat biryani (and of course the debut of a previously mentioned sparkle-fest 99 salwar suit) i realize again that i get to watch hope lived. hope incarnate. jesus in and among us, working, reviving, renewing, and making all things new. including this lonely desperate heart of mine. he can make us all new. amazing really.

please continue to pray for Imagination, i want to push ahead, whisk her away into a new life. but sometimes we have to wait. and with our friends until they're ready to accept change.

oh and one last random window from today. kristin and i went on a motorcylce trip to the botanical gardens today with two kiwis and two great bengali friends of ours. imagine kristin and i flying through the kolkata streets behind two bengalis! ha! what a sight. i always love a good motorcylce trip, if anyone's up for moving to kolkata simply to whisk me around behind them on a motorcycle you have my permission.

ok more to come, now off to the kitchen for vegetable chopping and partaking in tasty kristin keen original recipe tomato soup.

let me introduce.

greetings from a chilly kolkata morning. hard to believe just five short days before christmas! enjoying any snow where you are??? as i look back over a year's worth of journey, i still shake my head in disbelief, that a year has almost come and gone that i've been back here. but alas this morning is not the time for reflection.
as i prepare my non-accountant mind to do the final budget for my servant team i arm myself with yet another mug of coffee (i won't be able to type straight from the caffiene buzz here soon) some sweet music by Ray LaMontagne floating through my speakers and layers of clothing to battle the cool morning air, here we go...me verses numbers. a battle to the end.

but really, i'm writing this morning for one main reason. to share with you my friend and newest kolkata wmf family member, kyle scott. (see the bottom of my blog to blog stalk his profound thoughts...)
anyways, i want you all to meet him. his time in india fueled some sweet sweet music about our friends here that still rips my face off when i listen to it. he would probably kill me if he knew i was going to write all this on my blog...but anyways, please meet our newest kolkata face ripper and take a listen...
http://profile.myspace.com/kylescottsongs

also, until he leaves for kolkata, he's decided to do some traveling and play the songs he wrote while in india (they're all amazing!) so if you're interested in him coming and playing near you let me know and i can tell you how to find him. he is an advocate for our friends, for the women and children and men here, so i hope you can take advantage of his time still in the states.
and now, off to numbers.
peace.

aforementioned

picture...

introducing my christmas salwar,

pre-taylored.

please do take note of the bling.

a special day.

wowee. the cold is settling in around here. it was at least in the 70's by peak daylight today. chilly folks. this is chilly. i mean, i've got tights, slippers and four layers of shirts on even as i type tonight. really, the nights get cold...well, relatively speaking i suppose. you folks with snow on the ground are just shaking your heads aren't you.

picture will be forthcoming, but tonight was a significant time in a girl's life. any girl's life i suppose, well those females at least that reside in the great india.
yes. salwar suit shopping.
with christmas just around the corner. it is my responsibilty and womanly duty in india to dress for the holiday season. we'll be having all our SB ladies over for a feast and we must dress to match the occasion. but honestly, the salwar suit, though beautiful on the women of india, leave much to be desired on most western gals. so it's all in the picking. it's all in the taylor. it's all in the bling. so for this i have searched far and wide.
but behold tonight with sidekick kristin as my right hand. we found the perfect christmas salwar. it was a christmas miracle.
like roaming far and wide through that snowy forest to find exactly the perfect tree. only, well, not.

in other news, my friend and growing sister, imagination is in need of your sincerest prayers. as she battles life on the street. a healing leg that still disables her from walking. and friends who would seem more like enemies to passersby. i recognize daily the extent of their brokeness, living with wounds that have left them in shreds. they have turned to drink in hopes of mending their deepest pain, only to find a worse situation waiting for them to wake. however soon, she will have the chance to leave it all behind, and head to a rehab center where she could find space to be the imagination she was created to be. she can't go anywhere without making friends, even as we waited in the doctor's office for the morning, she was busy connecting with everyone within earshot it seemed. she truly is precious, Beloved.
tomorrow we're going to get her dressed up and go to a special kid's christmas program in the gach. everyone decked out in fancy saris i'm sure we'll be quite the show...and we're not even part of the program!
it is my greatest honor to serve her and my greatest hope to walk with her into new life.
i'll keep you updated as things progress.

seeing will happen again...

well, today is the final goodbye for yet another herd of sheeplings. bags are being packed, final cha consumed, and possibly silent sighs of relief and they dream of reuniting with their families and friends back home. they've been a beautiful combination, my mosiac of sorts as i've watched them grow and learn and break. certainly they will be missed.


our final retreat was such a sweet time, as we talked of re-entry and the pains and joys of discovering that being outside our comfort zones, our cultures, our economic safety changes and moves us. we feasted with a grand company of irish brothers around their monastic table, that always seemed to fit one more. even in 24 hours of reflection i rediscovered that silence and being is where my sustanance lies. that my first call is and will always be to jesus.


and as this holiday season unfolds i'll take a long breath, and set my hands to the plow, and begin to discover a new season and tune my ears to hear what a new year will hold and how intimacy can shape my heart.



i want to leave you today with my team's thoughts and reflections from the last four months, here are their blogs in the case you would want to catch a glimpse from a fresh pair of eyes, freshly broken hearts.

Jodi: http://bethelove.wordpress.com/

Hannah: http://in-the-intersections.blogspot.com/m/

Josh: http://grape-on-a-vine.blogspot.com/

Lara: http://laracasey.blogspot.com/

Sheila: http://www.xanga.com/shedoggy

Sonny: http://www.xanga.com/lizinko

well, this will be short because i need to shower myself and get ready for our community night outing to the first of the season's christmas programs. but i'm writing to ask for your thoughts and pryers for one of my team members, josh. we've just spent two nights in the hospital. yep, i'm looking pretty rough by this time folks, as if the baggy eye syndrome wasn't bad enough on its own.
anyways, he's in a lot of pain has he struggles through some surprise kidney stones in his last week in kolkata. they leave next friday, and i want him to feel better soon. what a dissapointing way to leave the city.
more to come. promise.
much love to you all.

ps-i'm feeling much much much better. say bye to vaporizers folks! and hello to guests and kidney stones...maybe i should prepare a vaporizor for him, you think it would help pass his stones...oh boy. i better go.

fuzzy shrapnel.

well, i'm unable to see my blog, but i'm going to try and post it anyways, some technical difficulties over on this end of the wire.
as it happens, one of my team members will be heading home early, as in tomorrow afternoon. a bit abrupt, seeing how the remaining 5 have almost two weeks left. it will be sad to see him go, it's always sad to see them go. although i'm tired and sick i still feel sad everytime i say bye. i told them tonight, its like i'm the construction paper and they're all the little pieces that get glued on...then ripped off after four months, so basically they are the fuzzy shrapnel left, post rip. i am a mosiac of fuzzy shrapnel from all those i let myself love this whole world over.
i guess when i put it that way, its not all so bad after all.
but ripping never stops hurting at least a tad in the process.
as for the sickness, my knees and joints are doing better. walking hurts by the end of the day, but i'm getting around better. i mean, i HAVE to be better in a month, for my bro!!! we have some adventures to partake in. period.

well thats all for this evening friends.
goodbyes and shrapnel. and cooler weather, oh and i got a lamp, which makes my room all warm and cozy now. life is good.
i'm homesick and body sick. but alas, life can still be good in the midst of sad real life feelings.
and now, goodnight.