yaks

I have a roommate this week. A girl from Guwahati is here in Shillong for a seminar that is going on this week about counseling. She was staying at a hostel but said that the beds were too hard so she wanted to come and stay at our house. Houser has been gone all week teaching so it's nice to have someone to talk to. She is from Germany and is quite friendly.

Today my roommate and I were walking to the junction to catch a taxi. We waited there for a few minutes and a taxi drove by with a huge, dead pig in the back seat, all four legs sticking up in the air. Maybe two minutes later in the opposite direction a car drove by pulling a trailer with a dead, skinned cow in it, loosely covered by a tarp. Perhaps they were on the way to the meat market.
My friend from Germany said, "That's the sort of thing that makes you want to be a vegetarian."

It reminded me of this picture I had of a yak in China. Yaks are very important to many Tibetans. They will dry their meat and use it year round. They use their milk to make cheese and butter and even their hair to make coats and blankets. We saw many when we were in Shangri-la.

Rest

I had only been in Shillong for a couple of days when we left for Nagaland via overnight bus. We reached Dimapur at about 6:00 am and Houser was supposed to start teaching at 10:00 am.

I just went straight to our room and slept for a while. My heart was so weary and tired. Too much travelling this year, and my body and soul were in need of true rest. I woke up and started praying. I just kept thinking of Matt. 11 and decided to study rest in the Bible. I think that these were some of the best verses I found:

"Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Matt. 11: 28-30

I love that Jesus said of Himself that He is gentle and humble in heart. He doesn't have to be. It's amazing that the God of all creation is gentle and humble and promises us rest when we come to Him. He promises rest for our souls. Rest for our souls. That's something that we can't buy, can't pretend. We can't earn it, and it doesn't even necessarily come with a vacation. In all of the busyness of life, in all of our comings and goings, and plans and strategies, we need rest for our souls. It's available to anyone, regardless of our history, or age, or race, if you are weary and burdened, you qualify. Rest.

We are back in Shillong and thankfully I have no plans in the near future to travel. Houser is going tomorrow to teach at another school, and so he has a couple more train rides ahead of him. I got sick again in Nagaland and saw a doctor there and found out I have dysentery. He gave me antibiotics and so I'm getting better now, just a little weak.

I'm so looking forward to the rest of this year. We have been doing a lot of prep work for the schools that we are running here later this year. This DTS lecture phase is finished April 17th, my Dad's Birthday. We are starting another DTS and an SOFM in July. We are for the first time hosting a School of Intercessory Prayer in October. There is great anticipation in my heart for what God is going to do in this city and region.

Beverley and I are going to spend more time in prayer, especially for the next three months, and I'm really excited about that. When Houser gets back we are going to continue all of our Hindi lessons. It was neat to see how much we had learned as we were travelling around. Far from fluent, but it was good to know more phrases and vocabulary.

"You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book?"
Psalm 56:8

Manali

After our time in Delhi, which is the capital of India, we had a 15 hour bus ride to Manali. Manali is over 6,000 ft in elevation and is incredibly beautiful. It's a part of the Himalayas and so there were mountains and snow in every direction that we looked.

There is a YWAM Centre there and so we went to spend time with them and share our hearts and vision with them. For me it was one of the highlights of the trip. One of the ladies who had worked there the longest shared so many stories about what God is doing there. We even met and had tea with a new believer in her home. I almost started crying as she shared about her life and how as she has become to know Jesus more and more, the peace and joy that has come to her heart.

One of the leaders in the center was telling us about a story of a woman in the village who is a witch and she prophesied that the gods told her it was going to snow the entire month of January, every single day. One of the believers started praying fervently, asking God that it would not snow even one day in January, as a testimony of His power and truth. This was a crazy prayer because Manali is in the mountains and receives an ample amount of snow every winter. The people in the village heard that this other lady was praying to God, asking that it would not snow. All of January, this last year, it didn't snow even one day. The first of February there was a huge blizzard and so much snow came, but not one day in January. Because of this, many people in the village began to ask questions about the God that she served and began to see His power is stronger than that of the village witch.

It was so good to be able to spend time with these people. Their simple hearts and faith in God were such a blessing to be around. We stayed with them for a few days and got to pray with them and hear so many stories. Truly God is alive and moving in the nations of the world, revealing His kindness and beauty.

my favorite shoes

I think for the past 6 years plus, I have been wearing the same shoes and many people make fun of me. Especially here in India, when I am already a good foot or two taller than everyone else around. They are tall, black flipflops. The heel is probably somewhere between 3-4 inches tall and they are very comfortable. Since I always wear them, all the pants that I buy are several inches too long and so if I don't wear them then my pants drag on the floor.
In these past years, I've probably gone through 6 pairs of them at least, and yet I am hopelessly attached to them.
When we were in Manali, the only pair that I brought with me from the States broke and my heart was sad. Manali is a mountain place and somehow the strap fell off of the shoe. I had to go straight away and find something else to wear on my feet because with a broken strap, my shoe wouldn't stay on my foot. After I found some shoes, Bev and I found a shoe cobbler and he had some hope that he could repair it. First, he put some glue on the broken piece and connected it back to the shoe. After some time, he took a really long needle and sewed the two pieces together again. He fixed my shoe! So far it has been doing ok.

trains

We have spent literal days on trains this last week and they are quite a phenomenon. The train that we were on had 6 beds in one compartment. I think that the hardest thing about travelling on trains is that as foreigners, we are always of great entertainment to everyone around us. At one point, we had literally 5 different men sitting on a berth just staring at us. Sunny was joking that she felt like a monkey in a zoo.
Trains are a good form of transportation in India because they are quite inexpensive and there are so many trains going all of the time in so many different directions. It's highly advisable to have tickets or you can find yourself without a seat.
In between ministry times we tried to go to the Taj Mahal and we had to stand up for hours on this train. It was quite hilarious. We had been staying with a Korean family and the mother had prepared us some sushi to take along with us and so I'm sure we were quite a sight, some foreigners standing up eating sushi on the train. The Taj Mahal was well worth it, it was incredible.

together again

Houser picked me up last night at the train station, hooray. It was the longest that we had been apart since being engaged. Today is our nine month anniversary and we are happy.

We only have a couple more weeks of travelling and then we are finished. Truly, it feels so good to just be home. On Sunday night we have to leave again to go to Nagaland because Houser is teaching there for a week.

Spring is here in Shillong and it changes everything. Fresh leaves and flowers are springing up on the once dead tree limbs. There is something about Spring that brings fresh hope and life. I was walking down the street today and my heart was overflowing with thanks to God. I'm thankful to be here in Shillong, in this nation that I love, with my husband.

will write soon

So much has happened since my last post and I'm not even sure where to begin. Sunny, Beverley and I left Shillong last week for a ministry trip and we have been in a constant state of travel since then. We are running an SOFM in Shillong in July with a Tibetan Buddhist Focus. We are trying to meet with various bases and leaders in different places across India in order to build relationship and share our vision. We are hoping for at least 20 students to come. So far it has been really good and we have had great fun along the way.

Since we were in Delhi we all went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal since none of us had ever seen it. It was breathtakingly beautiful and well worth the journey. One of our rickshaw drivers gave us some bad information and so we ended up standing up on a train with tons of people for a couple of hours. It was funny. I have so many pictures and will post them later.

On our journey to Delhi, that same night, some bombs went off in Varanasi, which is one of the train stations that we passed through. The bombs went off between 6:30-6:45 pm and we went through the station somewhere between 10:00pm-12:00. Since then Delhi has been put on high alert and they have found a few bombs that were put in other places. Since we've been travelling, I'm not very sure of the motives and the sources of the bombers, but we are praying for this area and for great peace.

Seeing more of this nation has made me fall more and more in love with this place. I have never been to a more diverse, beautiful country. Everywhere we go we see great poverty and need also, so much injustice and pain and we are crying out for His mercy and love to flood this land. There will be no true peace until He comes and establishes His kingdom in this land.

I will write more later, I just wanted everyone to know that we are safe and doing well. I've gotten several e-mails asking if we are ok and if we were near Varanasi when the bombs went off. I just really miss my husband because this is the longest we've been apart since being married. I'll be returning to Shillong later next week.

home sweet home

We are home! We met with Beverley in Bangkok and had quite a journey getting here. Beverley was joking and saying that she felt like we were on the Amazing Race. They had cancelled our flight from Bangkok to India, and broke it up into two flights. They told us we were going to have to spend the night in Calcutta, but at the last minute they had us run to the next terminal and jump on a plane. It was a tiny plane with little propellers and had quite a bit of turbulence. Beverley said after landing, "Well, that was an experience and a half." But we have made it safely.

It is so good to be back in Shillong and sleeping in my own bed. We still have quite a bit of travellling to do this month, but for now we are home. It has been fun to show Beverley around and introduce her to all of our friends here.

I downloaded some pictures from our trip on the My Pictures link.

" O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Yes, I have a good inheritance." Psalm 16:5-6