A Special Sunday

God has been very busy in the life of our ministry lately. This past Sunday, Nov.14, Bob and I attended the morning worship service at Fellowship Ashram Church of India (FACI) in Valsad. Valsad is about an hour's drive from our town of Silvassa. We were very excited to meet the congregation of FACI church. It is very rare to find fellow believers in our part of India; especially Indian believers.

The area we live in is 35% tribal. It has one of the highest tribal populations in India. "Tribal" means exactly what it sounds like. These people live in remote areas within a specific tribe. Most have little contact with the modern world. When I visit these tribal areas I am the first white person they have ever met. Some of the tribes I have visited did not even have a road to their village until several years ago. The people live in mud huts and raise all their food. Most have little or no access to education. A quality, English education is unheard of. All of the tribes speak a different language from the others. Because Hindi is the national language that is only taught in government schools, most tribes do not even speak Hindi. Tribal people are very suspicious of outsiders and especially Christians. They are strict Hindus and want to keep it that way. For these reasons, it is very unusual to come across a Christian from the tribes. That is where FACI comes in.

FACI has made it thier mission to go into the tribal areas to provide English-medium education for the children. The congregation we worshipped with on Sunday held 12 men from different tribes who are now attending the FACI Bible Institute in Valsad. These men are being trained to take the Gospel back to their villages in their native tribal language. What a breakthrough for these people! We were so humbled to be able to worship with a group of folks on Sunday who are now believers. These people were all previously Hindu. Bob and I both shared our story with the people of how God called us to come be a part of His work in India. Bob also preached a great message that the Lord gave him. I have never been more proud of him! We are so thankful that God wants to use us in India. We are just your average American couple. We have no special training or outstanding skills but what we do have we give to God to use. He does amazing things with average people all the time. Just read Hebrews 11 to see a list of all the average people and what they accomplished through the power of God. It is all Him; we are just the pipeline.

Please pray for our ministry, New Beginnings India, as we partner with FACI to accomplish what God plans for this area. It is our goal to reach the tribal people with the Gospel through education and better living conditions. Big God=Big Plans :)

God's Been Busy Here

We have seen God do some incredible things in Silvassa this past week. As most of you know, we came to India to do mission work. We had no idea what God wanted us to do except move to India and He would show us the rest as He saw fit. Well, He is beginning to show us His plan for our ministry. We have been praying for a year that God would use us to help the people in our remote area both physically and spiritually. We got here and immediately got involved in working with the Red Cross Mobile Dispensary and teaching English at a local school but it still did not feel like these were where God wanted us. So we continued to pray.

One morning as I was going out to visit a children's hostel in another city I was approached by a man who works at the hotel we live in. He had heard that I was a Christian and trying to do "social work" (the Indian term for mission work). He told me he too was a Christian and he had friends who had started a ministry in a region 1 hour from Silvassa. He asked if I would like to meet with the Pastor of the ministry and,of course, I was thrilled. In the meantime, we prayed that God would show us if this was part of His plan for us.

We met with Pastor Saji and could not believe all that he and his people had accomplished in 5 years. He is originally from Kerala in southern India but knew God was calling him to sell everything there and move very far north to reach the tribal people. He and his family moved to Valsad in the northern state of Gujarat. He established the Fellowship Ashram Church of India (FACI). A true Bible-teaching, preaching church focused on improving the physical and spiritual lives of the Indian people. (Sound familiar?!) In 5 years God has built an English-medium school with over 700 children and a hostel that houses 75 children. They have a Bible Institute to train missionary leaders, 150 home churches in tribal villages, and started an English-medium street school. Learning English in India is vitally important to get out of poverty. Only educated, English-speaking people are able to get jobs. The problem is that all schools that teach English are expensive--including govt. schools. The mission of the FACI schools is to offer English lessons to all. If you can help by paying any small amount that is great but you will not be turned away if you can't. They believe God will supply what they need and He has done so amazingly. They cannot explain how they have been able to cover the costs at times except that God miraculously provided in time. One of their biggest investors is a Hindu! Unheard of!! Goes to prove that what God's Word says about Him turning the hearts of ALL people to do His Will is true. God even uses the non-believer to accomplish His Will. LOVE THAT!!

I cannot tell you how excited we are that God has lead us to the people of FACI. After meeting with them several times we believe God is leading us to partner with them and believe God for GREAT things for the people of Silvassa. There are so many wonderful stories I could share with you about what God is doing here. One that really pertains to us must be told! Pastor Saji and his wife Janet have tried 5 times to get a visa to the U.S. They made the necessary appointment in Mumbai and were turned down by the consolate all 5 times for no real reason. It can be very difficult for Indians to get a visa. It is totally up to the one person you meet with at the consolate. It still blows my mind that the fate of your travel visa can be in the hands of one person! Can you imagine? He can deny it for any reason. I'm sure most visas are obtained by bribs since that is such a basic way of doing things here. Pastor Saji has gotten visas to many other countries and just recently returned from the UK but God kept shutting the door for him to go to the U.S. Pastor Saji told us that he prayed and told God that if He did not want him to go to the U.S. then bring some Americans to him!! That was the same time we were praying that God would introduce us to true believers in India. Did I mention we are the first and only Americans to live in our region!!! Now you tell me that isn't God!!!!!!!
He WILL work all things together for our good in His time and according to His Will!

Needless to say, we are overwhelmed and humbled that God wants to use us to do something very big here in Silvassa. The schools that FACI has are about 1 1/2 hours from Silvassa. We have felt all along that God wanted us to start some type of school and mission here in Silvassa. Pastor Saji has prayed for a long time that he would be able to start a school and missionary work here as well! No telling what God is going to do now that He has joined our ministries to work together. Please pray that we will all listen and follow God's direction for this new project. I know in my heart He has something HUGE planned and can't wait to see it happen!

Our website for New Beginnings India is still under construction but you can go to the website for the Fellowship Ashram Church of India and check out what God has done there. It is
www.feaministry.com

Keep praying for us! God answers prayers!

Miscellaneous Thoughts

Each day I see new things that I want to tell everyone about; too many to remember. India is such a vastly different world than what most of us have ever experienced. It is one thing to see pictures or films but quite another to live amongst it.

Several days last week I rode into town early in the morning. Early is a relative term. The daily schedule in India is quite different from the U.S. They do not go to work until 9:30 or 10:00am and get off at 6:30 or 7:00pm. Most restaurants do not even start serving dinner until 8pm. We usually have the dinner dishes washed in America by then! While in town those mornings I saw families with small children picking through a large area where industrial trash and construction waste had been dumped. Both times the families were looking for simple, small objects that they could use for living or to sell for a small amount of money. Broke my heart to see this. Life is so hard for most of the people here. It truly comes down to survival. So many struggle here to get the basics for daily living that we take for granted and even waste!

Water is so necessary for life and yet so hard to get in India. They do not waste a drop of it. The amount we waste by letting the water run while brushing our teeth they use for an entire day!! I watch people "bathing" outside their huts from a communal water bucket. Frankly, I am impressed they make the effort. I now understand why there are so few western-style, public toilets in India (less than 500). It is because it takes precious water. Imagine being thirsty and all you had to drink was rainwater you caught in a holding tank or unclean water pumped into your area from a local river. No, it is not purified between the river and the spout! Since it only rains 3 months out of the year I wondered what happens when the rainwater in the holding tanks is gone. They told me they use the water that is pumped in from the rivers and then wait for next year's rains. I sometimes feel ashamed that I always have a bottled water with me wherever I go. Do the people seem to resent this? Not in the least. They are the poorest, happiest people you will ever meet. I am always treated like a special guest wherever I go; even in the remote villages where I am the first white person they have ever seen. On a funny note, the children are scared of me at first. They are so amazed at how different I look and will stare for a long time. Everything is fine if I don't stare back or smile or try to talk to them. Then they start to cry! Had two tiny ones cry just last week. They are so shy and cautious and I have to let them ease into talking to me on their own terms. Nothing like most children in America who will smile and laugh at you. I don't take it personally since they do it to Bob as well :) Usually the ones who are about 5 or 6 yrs. old are just fine and a little more confident to approach us.

The rice fields are being harvested right now. I watched them plant those rice fields in June and it is neat to see the crops coming in now. Everyone who lives on the farm helps. If the children go to the free govt. school in the morning they work in the rice field in the afternoon. Same thing for any husbands who might work in the factories. They all use a hand-held sickle (hooked blade) to cut down the rice plant. The stalks look just like wheat that grows in the U.S. The stalks are dried in the sun and placed in big stacks that end up looking like round, tall, grass huts. (See the picture above) As the top layer of the stacks dries the rice is beaten out on the threshing table; just like you read about in the Bible. One threshing area I saw in town was "high-tech'! They had a huge fan that blew at just the right angle so that when the rice was beaten out the chaff blew away. The rice is gathered, put in large bags and stored outside. No worries about it getting wet since there won't be any more rain until next June or July. Not quite sure about pests and rodents and frankly really don't want to know! I am sure that the food we eat here at the hotel is completely sanitary--that's my story and I'm sticking with it!

Back in India, Oct. 2010

Well, I have been back in Silvassa, India for 10 days now and it is time I start being more faithful about blogging. To be honest, I forget all about it since I live on Facebook!

Week One back in India has been filled with a variety of activities. The non-stop flight on Continental was SO much better than the last one we took which had us lay over in Paris and added untold hours to the trip. I arrived much happier :) We spent the night at the Sahara Star (love that place) in Mumbai. So great to see the hubby again. We went in search of a decent bookstore the next day before we left the city. Was hoping to find resources to begin learning Hindi. Couldn't find a decent one. They are all in South Mumbai and we stayed in North Mumbai since it is closer to the airport. We did find a very Americanized mall. It had several floors and lots of nice shops. They also had American prices! Have no idea how most people in Mumbai can afford to shop there but there seemed to be plenty of folks buying things. Goes to show how diverse the city's population is. Some of the world's poorest and richest living side by side.

Slept most of the 4 hours back to Silvassa. It was so nice to come "home" and see all the hotel employees that are our Indian family. They were all genuinely excited that I was back. Everyone wanted to know about the twins and college. So sweet.

I have had to get used to the Indian food all over again. You forget just how different (spicy, weird) it can be. Slept so much during the day during the past week. My schedule back in the U.S. was so crazy that I guess by body needed the rest.

When I arrived back in India the Navratri Festival was going on. It is a nine day festival in which they worship Durga, the goddess of power. They build elaborate shrines to this goddess and cover the streets with lights. It is very pretty. The women and girls where their best Indian dresses and jewlery and the men where traditional long shirts. They worship the goddess then dance most of the night. There are two different dances. One is called Garba and it has six basic steps that they repeat over and over in a huge circle. The other dance is the Daandia and they use sticks to tap together while dancing. It is all so much fun to watch. Even the little children dance and have a great time. They do this for 9 nights and the last night is an all-nighter. The next day they celebrate Dusshera. It is in honor of the god Rama and his defeat over the demon-king Ravana. They believe it was the battle of good over evil. They make Ravana idols, take them to the river and then blow them up with firecrackers. Hilarious! "Crackers" as they call them, were going off all over town that night. Next is Diwali, the "festival of lights", during the first week of November. It is a five day celebration that is equivalent in importance to our Christmas. The "festival season" is one party after another in India. Bob says that companies have a hard time getting people to come to work because of all the celebrations. During Diwali oil lamps are lit all over the city and in front of homes to "lead lord Rama home from exile." The people say it is quite beautiful. Hope to get some good pics.

I have enjoyed seeing all the beauty of these festivals but it is so hard to see all the rituals that the people go through in order to please their gods. It is all so futile. There is only One God and One Truth and that is Jesus Christ. So thankful for a Savior Who loves me unconditionally and doesn't require rituals or dances to stay in His good graces!! Please pray we can show the love of Jesus to these very sweet people in India.

Week 2 -Settling in and exploring

This week has been so much better for all of us. I am no longer crying a lot and we have all adjusted to Indian time. Jet lag is killer! Never thought it would bother me that much but was I wrong. Thanks to all you friends who listened to my hurting heart and prayed for me. I know God will never take me where He will not sustain me but He never said it would always be easy. I have adjusted to all the craziness in Silvassa and don't miss home, family, friends, and my dog quite so much :)

On Monday we went to talk to the priest of the local church/school. This area was settled by Portuguese and not turned back over to India until 1954 so there is a big Catholic influence. (The only Christian church here) There are many different protestant churches, including Baptist, in Mumbai, but none here. The priest spoke relatively good English and said he could use me to teach Kindergaten. He wanted to let me teach High School English but said I talked too fast like most Americans and they couldn't keep up with my English...LOL!! He actually told Clara, our hotel "public relations" lady who later told me. We both got a good laugh out of it. I am trying to speak slower now in hopes it will help all the Indians understand me better but you know how hard that is for me! I am so excited to be working with the sweet little Indian children. They are really beautiful children and always so excited to see new people. Ashlyn and Alyssa will go with me the rest of the time they are here and help out in the classroom.

It was amazing to walk into the school and see the contrast to the rest of the city. It is kept immaculately clean. There are 2 computer labs, a chem. and bio. lab, and a library. They are so proud of the school and compared to the way the rest of the city looks, they should be. The children all wore nice uniforms and were neat and clean. I have no idea how much the school costs but am sure it is prohibitive for most of the families in this city. They teach every class in English except one which is Gujarati, the local language. One father told me that the "new generation" in India believes that English is the language of the world and that to be successful you must learn English. The city has a Gujarati school but most children only go to 5th or 6th "standard" (grade). I'm not sure if this school is free like our public education. Taxes are very high in India but doubt the average village person selling vegetables worries about paying taxes. Mostly the workers in the factories, businesses. There is a very high % of children who are never educated. This makes me very sad. So wish I had the funds to start a free English school for any child to attend. What a difference it would make in this part of the world. Good education always comes at a price and these precious people have nothing to pay for food, much less education. Another thing we so take for granted in America. Thank God each day if you have a good school to go to or have an education. It is like Beth Moore says, "if you own a book you are considered rich in most parts of the world!" She is right; I have personally witnessed it.

After we left the school, we went to see Bob at his Sterlite office. It is so much like American office/manufacturing facilities that you forget you are in India when you are inside. We met lots of people in the company and Bob gave us a tour of the plant. Very cool to watch fiber optic cable being made. He loves his job and is having a blast. The company is experiencing incredible sales and growth and he loves the technical part of building up the business and adding prodcution lines, capacity, facilities, etc. (All the left brain stuff that my right brain does not get) So great to see him enjoying a job again :) He is such a witness to his peers at work and when we are together in the hotel. Two other Sterlite employees are living in our hotel. One is Romanian but has lived in America since 1988 and the other is from South Carolina. We all eat dinner together most nights and have lots of laughs. We are buildling relationships and able to talk about the Lord a little each night. God is faithful.

We also went to a clothing outlet at a garment factory in Silvassa. The clothes were really nice and the twins got several things. Everything is made for small people. I am finally getting used to the Rupees. Kind of confusing. Glad I have the twins to do the math right now...will need to bring a small calculator back with me in the Fall. lol

Wed. we went to Vapi, a city about 30 minutes from Silvassa. It is a larger city and there is a lot of industry and chemical plants there. It has better shopping but best of all it is where McDonald's, Dominoes Pizza, and Pizza Hut are located :) Ashlyn, Alyssa, and I first went to Vischal Mega Mart. What a fun store. It is India's version of Wal-Mart. It has everything from groceries to housewares to clothing. They even had a few washing machines, TV's, and window AC units. We spend several hours there and came home with American potato chips, Mt. Dew, Fanta Orange, and several Indian outfits for the girls. Much fun!! Next we went to McDonald's. That McChicken and fries tasted like heaven :) We had our driver come in and bought him lunch. He didn't want to but we insisted and you could tell he really enjoyed it. He would not sit near us but we asked him to join us. The caste system is outlawed in India but still very much alive and well. Jitender, our driver, only speaks a few words of English. It is hard to communicate with him but we make do. He is so shy and sweet and we always thought he was just mean. He just did not know what to do with us crazy American women! We are trying to learn Hindi and we are teaching him English. Slow going but fun. Ever since we have tried to befriend him he has acted like our personal bodyguard. We went to the special local market that they only on Fridays and Jitender followed us and made sure the locals didn't rip us off by overcharging us--which they do a lot since we are foreigners. He really watched us as we walked down the crowded streets so we wouldn't get hit by all the large trucks. He is one of our new projects to teach English and share the Gospel with him.

We also found out that we will be going into the remotest parts of Silvassa and outter villages with the Red Cross. Sterlite sponsers the local mobile unit. It has a fully equipped/stocked van, a doctor and a nurse, and goes out daily from 9am to 3pm. The twins and I will be going out with them 3 days a week to help with mobile medical clinics. Ashlyn is very excited as this is what she wants to do when she becomes a doctor. Should be great experience. Pray we are able to communicate in some way and show the love of Jesus to these people. I cannot imagine just how poor their living conditions must be.

This evening we have been invited to a family party of the plant manager of the copper cable plant. It is being held at a hotel across the street from ours and should be lots of fun. We are heading downtown now to see if Alyssa and I can get a traditional Indian outfit to wear.

Thanks for all of your continued prayers. I know that they are the reason we are doing so much better here and God is blessing us each day. Love to all....Kim

Going into town

Today all 4 of us went intothe town to the vegetable market. Pretty unbelievable what we saw. The street was lined on either side with carts and people selling all sorts of beautiful veggies, fruits, rice, etc. I had never seen some of them before and have no idea what they were. The locals used old scales with weights to measure the veggies for sale. Eveyone in the market was amazed at the "fair-skinned" people walking around (us!) We caused quite a stir. I did not see one other Westerner all day while we were out. There are a few in our hotel but I amm sure they are here on business. Silvassa is a union territory of India, not an official state, and it has set up excellent tax breaks and electricity discounts for business. Lots of foreign businesses have opened locations here and that is what has put Silvassa on the map lately...literally. You can hardly find an older map with the village on it.

The trash heaps and just plain nastiness on the streets it something most Americans cannot comprehend. Worse than any major American city at its worse that I can think of. The smells of rotting food that they just throw into piles was rough at times. Makes me thankful for our little hotel here. It is kept very clean. The shops on the main streets were interesting. Each one carried one specific item. Boys' clothes at one store, girls' at another, womens' another, etc. Everything you can think of had its own store. You could not buy shoes where you buy clothes. Electronics were not in the same store as phones. It is so crazy. Shopping is more like hunting!! Ashlyn got a traditional Indian outfit; long tunic top with fitted pants underneath. She looks cute in it; even if she is red-headed and almost 6 feet tall...not your average Indian woman :)

Bob goes back to work tomorrow and I dread it because the twins and I feel so isolated. We are going to talk to his HR person about volunteering on the company Red Cross vehicle and I am going to call the local catholic church and school to see if there is something we could volunteer to do there with the children. Please keep praying for us as we deal with immense homesickness and try to find our way. Also, remember how good you've got it and be extra nice to your local trashmen :)

Trip and 1st days in India

We left Jacksonville, FL at 10 am on 6-15-10. First stop Atlanta, next stop was Paris, France and we finally arrived in Mumbai, India on 6-16-10 at 2 pm EST (midnight in India). 32 total hours. International travel is not as glamourous as you might think! AirFrance flight was great; all the baquettes you could eat :) We were exhausted but excited to get to the Sahara Star Hotel in Mumbai. It was amazing. So modern and beautiful inside. The outside, however, was a mess. It looked like it was still under construction...but wasn't. You would never have known it was a state of the art hotel inside; as nice as any Ritz I have ever been in. The bed even had this cool control panel that allowed you to adjust lights, TV, music, air, even had two buttons for aromas for the room. I told Bob I wanted one of those in Silvassa...HA!

Our driver picked us up the next morning and we toured some of Mumbai. Wow, what a city of diversity. I have never seen so much poverty and depravity. Hard to believe. There is also lots of wealth in the city and it smacks each other in the face all day long. Don't know how the people survive so well together. I was totally overwhelmed and not ready for what I saw. It is one thing to read about it and see pictures of it and another to watch humans living in it. Of course, there are the funny things like animals walking the streets. Think of it like this- water buffalo walking down Broadway St. in NY. That is exactly what it was the equivalent of. Crazy! Everyone uses the horn- not to be rude but as a way of saying "here I am, don't hit me". Hilarious. The back of trucks have "Horn OK Please" painted on them. We visited a beautiful old cathedral and an Indian "mall". They are definately into pushy sales here, not unlike the Caribbean and Mexico. Since it takes 3 hours to drive the 60 miles from Mumbai to our village of Silvassa, we left early to beat the traffic.

The drive to Silvassa was interesting. There are officially 2 lanes on each side of the highway but they became up to six at any given time. Horns blaring and drivers "overtaking" (passing) each other. The twins and I managed to sleep some of the way. We had so much luggage that it barely fit into the Toyota minivan. We had to hold some of it. Along the way we saw huge, beautiful temples built for the gods and people living in shacks or under tarps. So sad. The farther we got outside Mumbai the more rural it became. There are lovely mountains and lush forests only miles from the Arabian Sea. The farmers were plowing fields with a single plow pulled by a water buffalo and the women worked in the fields wearing beautiful saris with a baby on their hip. I saw a man plowing with an ox at the same time a big John Deere tractor passed us on the road. Diversity!

We arrived at the Ras Resort (a loosely used term!) which is the hotel we will be living in. We have an apartment-type set up. Two bedrooms with a sitting room between them. It reminds me of an old hotel from the 60's. It is very clean but basic. The staff are very sweet and eager to help us. The Daman River runs right outside and it is pretty. The locals have build shrines on the shore of the river to worship the river gods in hopes of good rain and more water. Idol worship is very prevalent here and it infiltrates every aspect of their lives. They have little statues of gods in their cars, on the porches, their jewelry, pictures, everything. The elephant god seems to be very popular in this area. There is a large shrine to him on the front steps of our hotel. I am sure we are some of the first Christians some of them have ever met. I pray we are able to show them truth.

The twins and I are having a bit of a hard time adjusting to everything we have seen and feeling isolated. Bob has been here for 2 months now and is used to it but we need a little time. Lots of tears these last two days but I know it will get better as we get out and meet people. The village is very small but we really want to go see if there is anywhere we can volunteer or find something to do. Bob's company sponsors a Red Cross vehicle and we plan on riding along to give out medicine and humanitarian aid. Keep us in your prayers are we try to adjust and find God's place for us to serve over here.