We woke up again this morning and there was yet another rat caught, I'll try not to post any more graphic pictures though. We had no idea that we had that many guests in our house at night. When we were sharing it with our staff, our friend said that he has caught 6 so far.

So many different things have been going on this last week and this next one is quite full with Mission Adventures. We are expecting participants to arrive on Monday.

There are a large group of Americans here on an outreach from Florida. It's a bit overwhelming because we haven't seen so many "foreigners" in such a long time and to walk into a room with 18 Americans is a bit shocking. There are 18 of them and they are from various places in the States, even one girl from Lancaster County. It's the neatest thing because even though we have never met them before, we feel an instant connection and love because we are from the same family. The same thing happens as we meet other believers from different tribes and countries. Somehow, we connect heart to heart and have a love and understanding that breaks through languages and cultures.

caught

Just a quick update that we have already caught two mice/rats within 24 hours. We set traps up last night after the rodent invaded our home. When we woke up, I checked the traps and we had caught one.

Just now, tonight, we were in the living room and we heard a loud snap. We went and checked and another one had been caught. It's the weirdest thing because normally they don't come inside when the lights are on, but the past couple of days they have been coming in while we are still awake. Houser said it's maybe because of the change of seasons.

Staff training for MA is going on right now and Houser has been involved with that and orientating the new staff that have come. Bev and I are spending our days studying and praying and then sharing with the students at the Discipleship School of Ministry in the afternoons. We are having such a good time with them. We leave every day encouraged.

cheese

Is it really true that mice like cheese, or is that just on cartoons? We had an invader in our house tonight and we aren't quite sure if it's a full grown mouse or a young rat. He ran quickly into our living room and I saw a brown blur in the corner of my eye. I screamed like a girl because it frightened me and said "Houser, there's a mouse!" It kept running and then hid behind our couch. Houser said he didn't want to kill it and I said "Please, do something!"

They're so small and harmless, but somehow still they are quite unnerving. I didn't want the mouse/rat to leave the room so I guarded the door while Houser went to find some sort of weapon. He returned with a shoe. He told me to move away from the door and after a minute or two, the mouse/rat scurried through the door into the kitchen. Houser aimed and threw the shoe down hard, but the mouse/rat escaped back through the hole that it came in through. We have a small hole in our kitchen where the water from the sink drains out.

Occasionally we will see some rat droppings and figured that they come and play in our kitchen in the night but we have never seen one in our house. So tonight we set some rat traps to see if it returns. We put some cheese on the traps and it made me wonder, do they really like cheese? I guess we'll find out soon enough.

exciting times

So many neat things have been going on this last week. This last weekend they were celebrating a revival that happened here in Meghalaya 100 years ago and a church here invited me to come and speak and lead a prayer time. As I was preparing to share with them I was studying the history of revival here and it was so inspiring and encouraging. A group of people had gotten together to pray because they heard that exciting things were going on in the world (the Welsh Revival). The book I was reading said that they had a longing in their heart for God and a desperation because of their own powerlessness in sharing the gospel and reaching out to those who don't know Jesus. So they started praying. There was a meeting that was held and thousands of people came and had incredible encounters with God.

Suddenly, normal lay people in the church started going out on the streets and sharing the gospel with people and in 2 years over 8000 people were saved. They said that there was incredible unity within the church, people were getting out of debt and becoming generous, and there was a new hunger to share the gospel with the unreached. The thing that encouraged me was that it was normal people, like you and me, who started praying and the results were like those in the book of Acts as lives were changed and localities were changed.

So we had a neat time of prayer that night, asking for God to come and move again within this city and the surrounding regions. Beverley and I were asked to share with a group of youth this week in a training program and it has been good. There are somewhere between 30-40 of them and they are from different states within northeast India. We are mostly sharing about prayer and trying to instill a love for God and hunger for His word. It has been challenging and fun.

Last night 4 new people arrived who are going to be on staff with us now. We are starting Mission Adventures again this Monday and running it three times this month. It's a ten day program with 4 days of training and 6 days of outreach and ministry. So our base is full of activity and preparation for this month to come. We have been praying so much that God would do great things and we feel like we can see glimmers of answered prayers. It's really an exciting time.

orphanage

On Saturday Beverley and I went to a local orphanage to spend time with the children. Beverley really has a heart for orphans and so we wanted to see if there are ways that we can help out there. This particular orphanage is mostly Khasi and only for girls. There are about 74 girls there right now ranging from ages 4 to 16.

It was really funny because we didn't have any program prepared, we just wanted to meet them and find out if there were ways that we could help. However it was a rainy day and so they had all of the girls inside. They really wanted us to share some stories or teach them some new songs and so we sang with them and I told the story of David and Goliath. I had a volunteer, the tallest girl, stand on a chair and be Goliath. Another tiny girl was David and everyone was laughing really hard. Beverley and our friend Ayophy shared some things as well. Those little girls are so precious, I cannot even properly explain.

We found out that we can come and play with them on Saturdays and on the weekdays we can come in the afternoon to help them with their studies. So especially for the next couple of months we hope to go there a couple of times a week.

easter eggs

All over the world, Easter is celebrated with Easter eggs. My Grandma sent me a package with some Easter goodies in it, and so here is a picture with Bev and some candy easter eggs that she sent. My nephew Luke is holding an easter egg that he made for his brother Noah. My sister is 8 months pregnant and so Noah isn't even born yet, but we are all anxiously awaiting his arrival.

We went to church yesterday on Easter Sunday and they gave us boiled, colored Easter eggs. I was really surprised that they would do that here. My friend Sunny was sharing that in South Korea, they also hand out Easter eggs at the church services symbolizing new life. So it seems to be a worldwide phenomenon.

Today, April 17th, is a great day. It is my Dad's Birthday and our ten month anniversary. One of our friends was making fun of us because we count our anniversary monthly. Maybe we'll stop counting after we hit the one-year mark, but to us, it's a big deal.

The DTS is leaving for outreach today and so our base will be quiet for a couple of weeks until Mission Adventures starts.

Chicken Biryani

On Friday night, a couple from the DTS that are originally from Maharashtra (West India), came to our house to talk. They were supposed to leave for the outreach to Bhutan on Monday, but they needed over 10, 000 rupees (about $250 US dollars) to pay the school and outreach fees. They were heart broken because they had completed the three month lecture phase and were wondering if they could somehow get credit for that since they weren't able to complete the two month outreach to receive a DTS certificate and graduation. It was really hard because the husband was sharing with us that he really believed that God was going to provide for them, but the deadline had come and gone and they didn't know what to do. For sure we don't have an extra $250 dollars laying around, and we didn't know how to counsel them, except to say that we could give them a certificate for the lecture phase and pray that God would clearly lead and guide them and provide for all of their needs. They left our house and said they wanted to make dinner for us Saturday night.

The next night they came to our house and brought the chicken biryani dinner with them. They had good news. Suddenly that day their phone had rang and someone from Maharashtra said that they would send them the money they needed for the outreach. Their faces were bright and shining and their joy was contagious. It was so encouraging because Peter really believed that God was going to provide for them and He really did, just in time. So we prayed for them, along with the rest of the DTS today as they are leaving this afternoon for their outreach to Bhutan.

They had invited a couple of other people over to our house as well and so we had a neat dinner of chicken biryani and celebrated the faithfulness of God. Biryani is a famous dish in India that is usually made for special occasions like weddings and birthdays. It is made up of several different layers and is often served with some curds and vegetables. It was delicious and we had a good time.

Good Friday

Today has been a really full day. It is the last day of Housers' teaching this week and the last day of the lecture phase for the DTS. We had a really neat time this morning praying for all of the staff and students and celebrating Good Friday with worship and communion. It's bizarre to think that these students are leaving in a few days. They are going on an outreach to West Bengal and Bhutan for a couple of months. Sunny prepared some tea and snacks at her house this afternoon and we all went to hang out and spend time together.

Last night we had some girl's fellowship at our house and it was a really rich time. We had some tea and snacks (it's a huge part of the culture in India) and we prayed for each other, told stories, laughed a lot, and some even cried. It's one of my favorite parts of our life here, to spend time with these women. Today two of my friends here gave me little Easter baskets and it brought joy to my heart.

Houser and I have to run down the mountain tomorrow to visit some friends from Brazil. He has known them now for over six years and they are returning to Brazil for good on Monday. We are really sad to see them go.

Tonight they showed The Passion of the Christ (the Mel Gibson movie) on a major movie channel here in India and it was dubbed in Hindi. It's incredible to me that all over India, the story of the passion of Jesus is being told. It's hard for me to watch that movie. It's hard to believe that it all really happened to Someone so innocent and kind. However, I am thankful for what He has done.

"He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed."
Isaiah 53:3-5

cricket chaos

Houser returned from the cricket match around 3:00 in the afternoon and the match was supposed to have been going on late into the evening. When I saw him, he didn't smile, and he looked very disappointed. I knew that there was going to be an interesting story.

They arrived at the field in the morning and waited outside the gate for over an hour and a half. Then they were sitting on the stands for three hours, waiting for the game to start. There had been a lot of rain the past week in Guwahati and so the fields were drenched. Thousands of people were waiting in the stands to see India play against England. During these hours there were no annoucements or any communication and the crowd became restless.

There were mostly men in the crowds and in the beginning they would cheer when a woman walked by. But after a while they started throwing things at the women as they walked by. Houser even saw them throw a banana peel at a women's head and everyone laughed and cheered. Really. As the time went by, they started throwing things at Houser because they thought he was from England and wanted his attention. If you notice from the picture, Houser is wearing a shirt that says India. He was definitely cheering for the India team. A man gave him a free India hat since he had come from so far away.

The people who organized the event even brought in a helicopter to fly over the field in circles, hoping that it would dry out and the game could start, but it was to no avail. When the crowds began to realize there was not going to be a match, they became outraged. Many of them started tearing down parts of the arena, advertisements and whatnot, and setting things on fire. It was about that time that Houser and the group decided to leave.

A little over three hours later, the weary group reaches Shillong. We found out from the news that the crowd really started a lot of trouble and the police had to use tear gas to break up the madness. It was even a big story in the newspaper this morning. Houser and everyone that went were joking that they have more memories of the event now than if the game had really gone on. We're all glad that they made it back safely. Houser is teaching this week in the DTS. This is the last week of the lecture phase and we are having a Commissioning night for them this Friday, before they go on outreach Sunday.

cherry blossoms

These are pictures from Manali. The one is of me and a lady who lives in the village there. We were on a walk and enjoying the beautiful flowers and mountains. She came out and started talking to us and said that it would be good if we would take some pictures in the yellow flowers there. It was lovely.

While we were out walking we saw so many beautiful things and people. The cherry blossoms were just budding on the trees. The whole scene reminded me of some of the verses that we had read at our wedding ceremony last June:
"My beloved spoke and said to me: Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes give a good smell. Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away!"

I love these verses because they remind me of the love and grace of God. It's a picture of His heart toward us in any season. He is always calling us on to choose life and to arise from our complacency and apathy. He delights in us and calls us to forget what is behind and to press on toward what is ahead. Our pain and sin truly is captured in the idea of winter with it's bleakness and barreness, and He calls us onward into joy, righteousness, and beauty with Him, regardless of the time or season.

The choices that we have to make daily are glorious. We can choose to love and forgive and to give of ourselves to those around us. Daily, over our lives, He says "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away!" He desires our love and affection, and His mercy and compassion are new every morning. I love that about Him. No matter what we have done or how far we have gone, He is calling us to arise and choose His love and grace. He casts our sins into the sea of forgetfulness, and beckons us to draw near. The time of singing has come.

"This I recall to mind, therefore I have hope. Through the Lord's mercies, we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I hope in Him." Lam. 3:21-24

mashed potatoes

Beverley and Sunny have arrived safely in Shillong after their long and adventurous travels. It's so good to have them back here. Beverley has a really good camera and so she took quite a few more pictures and so I'll be posting more to share. These are pictures of us at the Taj Mahal, last month. Since Houser is away to watch the cricket match, Beverley is staying with me tonight and it's good to catch up with her and just to hang out.

We decided tonight that I'll make some mashed potatoes and I'm horribly embarassed to say that I don't really know the right way to make them. I have one really good cook book here and although it has many varied recipes, there isn't one for mashed potatoes. I think it's because it's one of those things that everyone should know how to do. So Beverley and I have been having discussions about the "right way." Do you boil the water before you put the potatoes in? Do you peel and cut the potatoes first, or just wash them and plop them in the water? How long do you boil them for? This led to discussions about boiled eggs as well. Do you boil the water first, or just put them in with the cold water? How long do you cook them? Please give me wisdom.

So as I write, there are some potatoes (skinned, and cut in small pieces) boiling in the kitchen. It was Beverley's idea to cut them in small pieces, she said that they would cook faster that way.

C.S. Lewis

"Even in your hobbies, has there not always been some secret attraction which the others are curiously ignorant of- something, not to be identified with, but always on the urge of breaking through, the smell of cut wood in the workshop or the clap-clap of water against the boat's side?

Are not all lifelong friendships born at the moment when at last you meet another human being who has some inkling (but faint and uncertain even in the best) of that something which you were born desiring, and which, beneath the flux of other desires and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions night and day, year by year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for, listening for?

You have never had it. All the things that have deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it- tantalizing glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest- if there ever came an echoe that did not die away but swelled into the sound iself- you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say "Here at last is thing that I was made for." We cannot tell each other about it. It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeaseable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work, and we shall still desire on our death beds, when the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work. While we are, this is. If we lose this, we lose all. " -C.S. Lewis

April 6th, 2006

Houser's birthday was yesterday and we had a lot of fun with our friends here. We had a little birthday party in the afternoon and all of the staff and students at our base piled into our house and we had some cake, snacks, and tea. It was a good day.

Cricket is a big deal here in India. Every few years they will have a match in Guwahati (three hours from us) and it's quite an occasion. Houser and several of our staff are going to go this weekend and watch the cricket game. It's India vs. England and India has been beating them the past few games. There will be thousands of people there and so it will be quite an adventure. An average cricket game is around 7 hours and til today, I don't fully understand the game.

Houser's Birthday!

Tomorrow is Houser's 29th Birthday, hooray! We have several special things planned. Houser really loves smoked pork, as do the vast majority of our staff and students so we're buying some pork for tomorrow's lunch and making some other special things to go along with it. At tea time in the afternoon, everyone is going to come to our house for cake and some tea and we'll have a time of celebration. I even had fun making a cake today. Then we have plans to go out with the leadership team for dinner. I'll be sure to take some pictures.

We went to the bazaar today and we found these birthday flowers there. I'm really into flowers these days and since the other ones I planted outside became a little wilted, we bought some inside flowers to brighten up our house. I think I need to read a book or two on gardening. I just planted some seeds a few days ago and I keep looking carefully at the ground everyday to see if I can see any evidence of growth. It's kind of exciting.

Spring

Spring is here and it really does change everything. The weather has been warmer and so fresh. There are flowers everywhere and somehow it feels like everything is brand new. The sky even seems more blue. Houser came home safely from Siliguri and so for this past week we have been transitioning to life back in Shillong. We've met with our Hindi teacher and family one time and they were so happy to see us. Poonam called the day we were back and asked when we were going to come and visit. We really missed them as well.

I planted some flowers in our little yard. Some of them a friend gave to me and I just transplanted into our soil, and some were from seed packets. I'm very new to having a garden and it's a bit overwhelming. A couple of days ago we had a little bit of a storm and the wind was blowing like crazy and my newly planted flowers looked a little worn and sad. I'm hoping that they will be ok. I feel really responsible for them like they are a cat or dog or something. There is something so beautiful and refreshing about flowers.

It is so good to be back here and to not have to go anywhere for a while. There are only two more weeks left in the DTS and Houser is teaching the last week. I've been working on contacting people for the upcoming SOFM and just trying to get everything caught up in our house and lives. Beverley and I are going to start praying more together next week, I've been eagerly awaiting this time with great anticipation. Her and Sunny will be returning from their travels on Friday.

These days Hudson Taylor is one of my favorite heroes. He was a missionary doctor to China some time back and his life is an inspiration to many. He said "If I had a thousand lives, I'd give them all to China." My favorite quote this week that he said is, "Only one life will soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last."