weekly reflections.

wow, what a week. we had some good friends visit from bangalore. they're the kind that you hope to be connected with the rest of your life. quality. and they spent three of their vacation days, VACATION days, in sunny kolkata to see us, bringing encouragement, prayer, good stories and treating us to dang good pizza. if any of you decided to take some of your vacation time in sunny paradise kolkata i might even consider taking you out for fire and ice pizza, soo, who's ready to jump on the plane...

as it warms up around here i realize how easily irritation replaces softness. how quickly after returning from nepal that i retreat into the reactions i know so well. i fight so hard to replace. i do not simply want to survive in kolkata. i want to thrive. i want to function in the softness, joy, peace, love, kindness that i know is available to me. as tammy and her team reminded me in their prayers, my strength, power, annoitnting comes from creating space to be with Jesus. a feat that certainly doesn't come without strain sometimes. and that my work here is not who i am. that i must be identified by God, not by the girls, not by teams that i lead, not by living in kolkata. but by being a daughter of the king. its so easy to get wrapped up in the work, the results, what we can accomlish. but if all that taken away what will be left. this is the lesson i'm in the midst of and long to grab hold of early in my kolkata life. ahh, identity and space. good reminders. to bring transformation and new life.

in other thoughts. i'm reading another great book. servant team...t-minus melissa i didn't get much love on the last one. one strike for you all...but this one is inspiring in many ways. three cups of tea is its name. and after my own four day tramp through the hymalayas i'm almost 100% confirmed that i don't really care to try and climb K2 in pakistan any time soon even if it does mean meeting some sweet sweet village people along the way. anyways, you should check it out.

and lastly, and most random. i've been dreaming of getting my own camera phone. an obession of mine for quite a long time now but i've taken it to a whole new level, as i dream of creating a camera phone blog to share with the world all those classic acting natural pose treasures we stumble across just by default of living in kolkata. how many times have i sighed to kristin and sarah...oh, if only i had a camera phone right now. so keep your eyes pealed, camera phone blog will be in the works.

so anyways, been a good week. preparing to enjoy my weekend and study bangla. and maybe try to watch a nepali film that some of our friends from the gach so graciously let me borrow. in their own words...there's fighting singing dancing, oh it will make you cry. yes, thats so true, nothing like a 3 hour foriegn musical to bring one to tears...