England-Bound

LAST FEW HOURS.

This is a bittersweet day.

I have been here for 17 days and I've really started to get into the hang of life- Indian style.. and I've made some really great friends here. It's weird that tomorrow I will wake up and my Indian life will be no-more.

I have had such a brilliant time here- So any experiences I will nver forget. I want to say thankyou for everyone who has contributed towards me coming here :) and thanks for your prayers along the way.

But yeah. I've loved every moment. I'm not saying that it has been easy, but I have learned and grown so much... been challenged and refined. :)

Jesus has taught me so much while I've been here.. He has been so good to me. 

And blessed me so much. I can't handle it :)

Ahhhh. My time here has just been really fantastic.

 If you want to know more... hear stories... experiences and stuff... then I'd love to meet up! 

(over tea, naturally).

It's hard to fully convey life over the internet.

Yep. Love and Peace. Here are some pics to keep you keen ;)

 

 

Half way point

We are half way through our time here in India. This time next week we will be packing up, preparing for our 1am departure (death worthy, I know).

I don't feel like I can put into words what I have felt or seen while I have been here.

The reality of how half the world has to live slaps me daily. Tonight I was in the 'house' of a family of 8 people, and the size of the one room they owned was so small it would be physically impossible for them to all sleep at night. That is no exagguration. Yet with the little they had, they served us chai and continually thanked the Lord. :) They were such an inspiration.

The team from my church left on saturday, so it is currently just my dad, jonny and me doing outreach with the other ministry people. Last week we went to one slum where we prayed for a man who had stomach cancer, and he gave his life to Christ that night. Today we went back to that slum and his wife told us that he'd passed away a few days ago. My heart broke for the family that has been left behind, yet I also rejoiced because this man is now in heaven and that I will hopefully meet him one day =]

Life is so short! The reality of now and eternity is crazy. 

Hmmm. Apart from that, I love India... the people, the crazy traffic, the weather.... :) Everyone is so friendly. Counter-cultural shock, coming from England! haha

I spent 3 hours searching for a camera charger in a city. I finally found one. PTL.

Another thing- I'm coming down with a cold which is ironic... but also annoying. I do not need this sickness right now! ><

Keep sendin' your prayers my way! I need them all the time:)

Love & Peace <3

Blogspot isn't letting me upload pictures but you can have a look at what I'm getting up to here:

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/elisa-joy/

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150669616592658.450606.767322657&type=1

The last few days..

I feel like every day is 100 hours long.

I can't believe I have only been here for 4 days... however every day is full of ministry...

In the mornings we have generally been going to a school that is in a slum. As I said before, we have joined a DTS that is on their outreach now, which means we have a bigger team. We do all the standard outreach stuff: songs, games, a craft, etc, but the kids loooove it! Language barriers are always hard and I have basically mastered the art of 'Charades'. :)

In the afternoon we then usually go door-to-door within different slums, praying for people and building relationships. Each day we go to a different area, so it is kinda hard to keep meeting different people every day, instead of meeting up with the same people to see how they are doing, ya know? meh. It's all good.

Another thing that has been awesome and totally un-outreachy is the ridiculously cheap prices on everything.. clothes.. general shopping.. we obviously have not been doing that, at all. O_O.

Yep. Transportation is also always a fun one- Health & Safety go out the window, and the focus is how many people can fit in a car at one time. I have been spending a lot of time on the back of a motor bike, and when times got desperate we squeezed Jonny on the back of it too (No need to worry Mother :) just trying to understand the culture)

Yes Hannah! Livin' large haha

 Sally and Hannah got to pray for this woman

 The man in the center used to be completely paralysed... until one day our translators came to his house and prayed for him. Since then he has been getting better and he is now able to walk and move around =]

For more pictures and in better quality, have a look at my Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elisa-joy/

The 32 hour long weekend.

uhhhh SO TIRED.

Our flight left England on Saturday at 11.30am and 10 hours later we landed in Mumbai on Sunday at 4.30am. No sleep on the flights. Too many movies... Not enough time. O_O

We drove back 2 hours to the YWAM base and arrived just in time for breakfast.. which was rice and tea. Yes. =] We basically eat curry and drink tea 3 times a day. love love

Seeing as we had the whole day to kill, my dad, jonny and I walked down the road where there were some shops, lots of traffic and lots of people.We were just down there for the morning. Too Hot.

India feels so much like Mexico. Yesterday I kept having memory lapses and thinking I was back in TJ or something. Either they are strangely similar or I was delirious from being awake for too long... probably a bit of both.

The rest of the team (Pete, Mick, Sally, Sally and Hannah) arrived that afternoon and they were also very tired... Some of us decided to join a team going down a slum that evening. We went to one just down the road, where we played with some of the kids and then went so some houses that the people from the base knew. We prayed with the people there, who had disabilities, sickness, and unemployment. We also prayed with the elderly, some young mothers and mothers-to-be. It was such a special time because we saw breakthrough and broken people coming to the feet of Jesus and just letting Him love them. I think the base go to different slums every day so there will be more stories to come :)

But yeah. After 12 hours sleep everything feels so much better.

My dad is going to a base down south for a few days, so Jonny and I will carry on chillin here.

My deodrant exploded in my bag so i currently smell like a man, courteous of my brother's Lynx. 

Yep. That is the DL of what has happened so far :) Thank you  so much for your prayers and support <3