south india here we come.

well, tonight marks the beginning of an interesting adventure.
with four team members and three bengali staff in tow we'll set out for south india for the next week.
painfully early tomorrow morning we'll be flying to bangalore to visit a childrens home and then jumping on a train to chennai to visit the WMF projects there. a home for kiddos with HIV/AIDS and a home for disabled kiddos.
and then, a 30 hour train ride back to good ol k town.
i know our staff are excited about the trip...none of them have flown before and travel isn't a dream they entertain either.unlike me, always planning where i'll go next.

so anyways, south india here we come.
they won't know what hit em...

in other news, its amazingly hot here. yesterday 104. w/lots of humidity. i've never loved cold water...or cold diet cokes quite as much i do here. even if it only lasts the few seconds when you pull it from the fridge.
we've also had a number of things happen in the gach with different girls. i'll try to be brief...

*our friend w/HIV continues to work the line, we are still working to get her two sons into a good boarding school. the other night on our way to small group we saw her working on the main road and stopped to talk for a few minutes, she pulled us aside and told us to get close to jesus and pray for her. incentive to pray, i sure think so...

*another girl we know has visited freeset with us (freeset is another business in the sonagachi area that employs women from the trade) however she's battling not staying because her mom won't let her leave the trade. her family lives off the money she makes working the line. the first day she went to freeset she snuck out without her mom knowing but she later told us she is so scared of her mom that she won't be able to leave. however freeset is willing to work with her and help her slowly leave the oppressive hand of her mother. please pray for this precious one, who doesn't believe she has any right to her own dreams, desires, or love.

*we have a friend who is the grandson of the owner of one of the largest brothels in sonagachi. a horribly dirty and oppressive nepali brothel. where four to five women share a room and swing a curtain across their bed when a customer comes. our friend is such a sweet compassionate boy and we're learning so much about the other side of the trade...from the owner's perspective. he studies in london on the backs of these women. but there's an element of shame that covers the red light district whether you're a girl on the line or the owner of the biggest brothel...not even our friend can tell people where he lives. and after talking with him we realize just how deep the roots of the sex trade go...and how surface level we are sitting...

well, anyways, thats enough for now. please pray for our trip to south india, and my translating skills for our bengali staff. yikes!

peace.
oh and if you want to know more about freeset i think you can see it on
www.freeset.com

the talk on the mount.

the mornings are beautiful here and it pours into the day. when i grab the moments before the real day begins to sit, strong mug of starbucks in hand, and focus myself in prayer, on the words of Jesus, on where i want my heart steadied.

today it anchored on luke. and the beatitudes. i was trying to make it to john, but jesus' words on the mount captured me, as they should i suppose.



"but i say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also, and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either.give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back..."



these words are exciting and revolutionary, until the taxi driver rips me off in the middle of the afternoon. then i'm not wanting to give anything except a few choice words...

and then i begin to remember my morning with the mount talk.
and just how offensive jesus' words really are. or really should be. loving enemies, offering more to those who take from us.

and i wonder if jesus ever got ripped off. did he bargain at the market for his bread and wine? he probably didn't let things like taxi drivers ripping him off cause his afternoon to spoil eh?

i see that i have yet so far to go in loving my enemies. in stepping into second place and putting others above myself. in giving past my abundance.

sarah prayed today that our hearts would literally burst within us out of love for jesus.
and i'm continuing to see how transition of living for myself to living a life focused around my savior is a great battle within.
its what will change my life. and the lives around me.

snapshots.

snapshots. the moments in life we long to capture. to remember.

i feel like i have millions to store. as i'm sure you do.



somedays are just too enjoyable here.

when i'm not in a hurry, when i walk places with a stroll. and look at people. really look around me. i see so many things i love. people make me smile here. kids playing on the sidewalk. men bathing at the sidewalk water pump (not so enjoyable but always quite a scene). honest taxi drivers. folks who compliment my bangla (ha, i have them convinced i'm a pro...) i love watching out the window of the bus, seeing folks drinking their noontime cha, bargaining for a kilo of fruit, taking a little snooze. a guy on my team said this week that kolkata might just be his favorite city in the world. i might have to agree. life simply explodes here. and i might add, i had the best mango lassi of my life this week. and that in itself is enough to brighten anyones week. unless of course you're allergic to the stuff....



however as enjoyable as this place can be, the warm weather brings its own set of problems. sometimes the fan just can't shake off that wool blanket feeling. but alas, when else can a person get ripe mangos the size of small children. or litchi fruits. and there's probably no other time that i appreciate a good soaking rain like may in kolkata...except maybe june in kolkata...



many times i'm too busy, too annoyed, too tired to let this place touch me. to look around. its a discipline i think. to stroll. and take snapshots. and enjoy.

its been an intense month, w/one of our friends and her daughter finding out they have HIV. our landlord for the sari bari building telling us we have four months to find a new place to work. two of our three bengali staff members recovering from malaria and typhoid. and a number of other day to day pressures that just add fuel to the fire.

in some ways it seems as though we've been trying to just keep our head above water, gasping for a breath when we can, and continuing on. but this is no way to live.

and basically, we know it comes down to time carved out for jesus. time in prayer. a mind and heart and schedule submitted to him.

we are transformed by our interaction with jesus.

how desperately we are needing his touch. and stillness. and peace.

so if you think of us this weekend, please pray for that peace that passes understanding to flood our hearts and minds like the sweeping monsoon rains.



and i wish i had a picture to offer you of my glorious mango lassi or the termites that ate my bangla folder or the sign on the bus that said "first air box" instead of first aid... but here's sarah and kristin and i on sarah's birthday...itsn't she beautiful! its a close second place...



any of you have any snapshots of your life, wherever it is you are? i'd sure love to hear a story or two. come on, give it a try, you never know where a good stroll will take ya.

a wee little update.

just a little update, the little guy we took to mother teresa's is doing well. up and walking around, eating, even a little rascally i hear. so thank you for your concern, your prayers, your interest.

i'm never ceased to be amazed at how goodness comes through here. even in the most depraved situations.

offensive...

***i simply must say in response to the last update...i understand that we all come from different levels of convictions on cussing, and on many other things i'm sure. and i do understand i could have chosen any other usage of words. but i needed my description to match the offensiveness of the injustice i saw. i apologize if my use of words overshadowed the message i was trying to bring***

we will see good overcome.

this is a difficult to write and i've been composing and recomposing it all day, trying to get the right words to squeek out. my feelings are still fresh and tears are still available. but i'm in need of a good processing.
today sarah and i went for our every-other-daily run...but today, of all days, we were walking instead.
approaching the last leg of our route through the early morning city suddenly we saw him.
a little boy of maybe 10 or 12. emaciated, wounded, starving, covered in his own shit and thus attracting flies. balancing on his toothpick legs, he clung to the small swatch of fabic around his waist to serve as pants. looking horrified and completely lost. this starving terrified boy stood frozen in the middle of the sidewalk.
frozen in the middle of our path.
with his mother and father dead it appeared that he had been cast out to fend for himself or die. the latter had chosen his fate...
but slowly and carefully we took him to our house to get a taxi to mother teresa's home. and it was amazing to see our neighbors gathered around to help, and yes to stare, but they were kind, they were concerned. and it was redeeming to see this sincerity in a city where i often see only a survival mode and often i strain to see any sign of genuine concern...

even now images of this small boy, this frail skeleton of life fills my mind. the injustice that surrounds me, is full of faces and lives. and still it becomes more real to me. even when i do not choose it...
when we brought him in to the mother teresa home, with one look the sister thanked us telling us in two more days this boy would have surely died.
i don't have compartments for these types of experiences.
i was just going for my morning run. thinking about the marathon we're running . thinking about our weekend. about sari bari. about a million things. and then...
little boys who are about to die stand across our paths. and we're faced with a choice to step out to reach and touch and carry bodies to help...or to run past. we could have missed him. he could have died.
but tonight, he's not on the street. he's clean and fed and sleeping in a bed with folks who will care for him and love him.
simply from the volumes his weak little body told, i cannot imagine the horrors this little one has experienced to arrive him here.

and still, sarah reminded me just the other day...do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
this is what i cling to tonight. in the midst of tears i cannot shut off for a suffering world, a suffering country and city and young boy...we will see good overcome.
we did today.

just a little stroll.

have you ever been to a village?
well its an interesting place. a simple place. a difficult and different and quiet place.
where mud slopes up from the ground to create the smoothest of walls, and bamboo thatched walls offer the basic necessity of a bathroom...the illusion of privacy.
it is a place where the hard work of a mother's hand is lost in constant consumption. and again i realize just how hard the women of india work, offering themselves to their families.
walking along the dirt paths, hand in hand with my friends from the city, we took in the sights and peace of the banana tree fields and the open sky. free from the horns and hurry of our kolkata roads. and looking over a barbed wire fence, we gazed on another country. following the lanes of bangladesh to her own peaceful villages, and banana trees, and families. one of our friends, unable to return to her own village because she lacks the appropriate documents allowing her entry, talked of her own village just across the fence, how many time has she walked down those paths in her dreams.

after seeing such a village, i try to imagine a young girl being taken away and sold to a brothel in a place like kolkata. the fear, the absolute contrasts of the two places. such innocence, thrust into such horror. i cannot comprehend it.

so if you ever have the invitation to go to the village. do partake. though prepare to eat ungodly amounts of rice. some cloudy water. and of course a few sweets here and there.
more correctly, be prepared to be.
to enjoy the beauty of hospitality.
and perhaps a stroll to the borders of india.
if i lived in this country even for the next 50 years i still feel i would not fully understand all the aspects of this rich rich culture...

may day.

happy may day.
i'm not just being cheesy. may day really is celebrated here. they say its a day for all the laborers to have the day off. but i guess here "laborer" means anyone who can afford to have the day off. however, sari bari is closed today. and thus, we've had the morning free. enjoyable and productive. and this afternoon we're having a family over for chow mein from the gach. its actually a big deal that they would come over, the mother has a bit of paranoia and her 19 year old girl is more like a slave to her than a family member, and the two year old boy doesn't get to go outside to play...so we device entertainment in their room. who knew tossing plastic bags into the fan could bring such joy...his smile could light a room.

not much else to report on this fine morning.
but i must say, i do feel quite accomplished after washing two buckets of dirty clothes. nothing's better than a clean pair of sheets.
well, the only thing better might be the ice cold diet coke i'm going to partake in just now.

peace.