day 48! HOME!

Landed! We landed in NYC at 8:20am and I made up my mind that I was going to make my original 9:40am flight to Atlanta. I thought I had plenty of time so I went though customs and when I was rechecking my bag, the man at the desk informed me that my flight was not at 9:40 but instead 9:10 and I had 10 minutes to get on the train, go across the airport, go through security and make it to the gate before they closed the flight. Only by the grace of god did I make the train and pick the right line in security to make it to the gate as they were closing the door. The flight attendant showed me favor and let me on the plane with seconds to spare. 3 hours later I was crying and hugging my family in Atlanta, it feels good to be home!

I almost cant believe that Im back in my house with my family and my bed. I have air conditioning, a western toilet, water pressure, ice, a washing machine, a DRYER, internet that works (yay!), a microwave, i can wear shorts, i can drive a car, people dont stare at my light skin, people smell nice, people use trash cans, and no one shoves me. Its wonderful! I miss everyone from India and it breaks my heart to think that their problems dont go away just because i left and i dont see them anymore. During debrief I was warned that adjusting back to life will be hard and I will break down: maybe in the grocery store, or maybe just looking at the money in my wallet. Its hard to comprehend how much we have here. I know it is inevitable and my heart continues to hurt for my Indian friends, but for now at least: its good to be home.

I don’t think I can even try to summarize what ive learned on this trip, because its so much. The Lord has taught me so much about his faithfulness and how he will always provide. Its amazing how much I have learned about freedom from women who have none. I came on this trip intending to love on women who were enslaved and as it turns out, they loved on me and taught me more about freedom than I could ever imagine. We are in such captivity here, enslaved by our own wealth, selfishness, and ignorance. They taught me that true joy comes with freedom and freedom comes from Jesus regardless of whether you are physically free or not. Please continue to pray for the women who have not found freedom in Jesus, the only true freedom.

Beth Moore shares this in her bible study "breaking free" that ive been doing and I think its an appropriate place to end:

"He i God, the creater of the heavens and earth, the supreme author of all existence. He reigns over all and in Him all things exist. He is Lord, the Master and Owner of all living creatures. He is the covenant maker and the covenant keeper. He delights in humanity, His prize creation, and woos us to the riches of relationship. He is Holy. As Lord, He will never ask anything of us that is not right, good, and open to the light. He is perfect and undefiled. Lastly, He is redeemer, the One who bought us from sin's slave master so we could experience abundant life. He bought us to set us free"

Thank you for all your support: both emotionally and financially. I cant believe this journey is over physically but I know the lessons will continue to pour out. I am so thankful to have friends and family that would invest so much into me and what God is doing in India. Human trafficking is an unbelievable problem because it is an unknown problem. Knowledge is truly power and if we continue to invest time and energy into making the problem known, we will continue to save and help girls from its dangers.

Day 47 recap

Sunday:

I think im still in denial that Im leaving! I was extremely sad about leaving earlier today but theres something about the Indian Airports that make me want to sprint out of this country. Saying goodbye to Leila today was absolutely heart wrenching but I have to trust that the Lord will continue to take care of her and protect her even when Im not here, just like he did for the 25 years before I came. His protection and love for her is not dependent on my presence in the least haha. Once we got to the airport though, I was ready to go. I don’t know what it is about Indian airports but they feel the need to scan everything, including you, at least 5 times before you even get close to the plane. Its like American security on steroids. They scanned my checked bags twice before even weighing them and checking them in, only to scan them again behind the counter. I was scanned twice along with my carry on to get back to the gate and then scanned one more time before actually boarding the plane. I flew from Goa to Mumbai and then had to travel from the Mumbai Domestic airport to the Mumbai International Airport. It was during the call to worship that we arrived at the International Airport and it seemed like everyman was in a loincloth kneeling with all of their wives in burkas waiting for them to finish. It was a sight to see. Our plane was 4 hours late, leaving at 2am and therefore they automatically bumped me from my flight to Atlanta because I wouldn’t make it on time. They did give us a free unlimited buffet meal though while we waited, all Indian food of course. The Lord has consistently provided for me throughout this trip in the form of food haha, he knows what I love. After 3 hours of waiting, flight attendents started running frantically thoughout the gate yelling for everyone on the flight to new york to run and board the plane, it was leaving without warning they said. So naturally we all dropped everything, ran to the gate, were scanned twice, and proceeded towards the boarding ramp. In true Indian fashion, the plane was not even there yet and we all waited on the boarding ramp for another hour before they let anyone board. I have never rushed so much to wait like I have in India. When we finally started to board it was like a mob, everyone elbowing and shoving… I was so ready for America!

Day 45 recap

Well today was my last day in the slums, hard to believe! I worked in the preschool in the morning and spent some sweet time with Konkwa while she did mehindi for me (henna drawings on my arms). Then during our lunch break we came upon some creepy mannequin heads that had been donated to rahab’s rope (its hilarious to see all the things that a non profit can accumulate- everyone wants to donate anything they can but it can amount to a very peculiar collection of items). Of course since we had three hours to kill while the rest of india took a nap we came up with different activities that the mannequins could do and took pictures of them. Some of the pictures are below for some comic relief. In the afternoon we had another bag making class for the women. It has been so cool to see all the items that Rahab’s sells in their gainsville store being made here and getting to meet the women that make them! Rebecca, a staff member from Rahab’s came last week and will be here for 3 years to help develop more ways that rahab’s can get women off the street and making things to learn a skill and earn a living. She’s coming up with many different product designs so that eventually we wont just be teaching women to sew and then graduating them to go find their own jobs but we can provide them with a job making things for the store and paying them a steady income.

Everyday we have been putting antibiotics on Ruppa's leg, the little girl who was burned badly. Today was her birthday and she asked for some chocolate. I brought her some chocolate to eat hoping that it would also distract her when we cleaned her leg, as it is very painful. Instead she gave most of it away and the last piece she had she split with me. I was overwhelmed by her generosity when she has nothing, even on her birthday. I gave her my camera to distract her since she gave all the chocolate away and the children are fascinated by cameras. She documented me cleaning her leg and even her leg itself. Ill spare you from seeing her leg, it is a lot to handle and im still shocked everytime i go through my pictures when i see it.

I also walked out on the beach one last time in the slums. As you may have seen in some of the pictures, the slum backs right up to the ocean which is a beautiful and haunting sight all at once. I went out there and took a few pictures so you can see. After taking the pictures I looked a little closer and realized that men were lined all up and down the shore, squatting. I thought they had just been meditating by the beach but soon realized that they were naked, and yes, going to the bathroom all up and down the beach. I couldn’t even bring myself to think about what I had not only walked through, but what all these children are playing in and people are living in everyday.

Then I had our last nutrition class, so sad! I got to teach the women but afterwards all they wanted to ask about was whether I would wear my Indian clothes in America. They are fascinated with American culture and especially how little American girls wear compared to how much Indian women cover up! After we handed out food and finished discussing America’s lack of modesty, my sweet friend sanjena asked me to pray for her. I said I would and when she dragged me outside and into a corner I realized that she meant she wanted me to pray with her right then not just in general. It was a wonderful way to end the day, getting to pray over here and then taking one last picture with all the women.

After all of this, we had Leila come over to the house for dinner and we gave her her first pedicure! She was so reluctant to let anyone touch her feet because in India they are considered so dirty but in the end it was a great way to show her how much we loved her and wanted to be close to her, even when that includes her feet. It was also a great way to share the story of how Jesus washed the disciples feet, and their feet were even dirtier than Indian feet (which is hard to imagine). A few weeks ago we got to wash the feet of the children in the slums and share that story too- it has brought so much more meaning to that story now that I see what feet are like when you walk everywhere with only sandals on. Especially after my experience on the beach. We walk through more than I would ever want to imagine and its dirty. Jesus truly loved his disciples.

Reflecting on my time with these women, I cannot believe how much the Lord trusted me with. I am so honored that these women would let me into their personal hurt and joy and that the Lord would trust me with their hearts. Its hard to let yourself open up to these people and be opened up to hurting for them, but its hard for them to let us in as well and Im so honored that I got to live with them for these two months.

Happy Birthday Ruppa!

One of the many pictures taken by ruppa while cleaning her leg:

Praying and talking to Sanjena:

The beach, and the men using the beach as a toilet:

day 41 recap

Since I was unable to post my blogs from previous days this week, here they are now!

Wednesday:

Today was my last sewing class with the women and it was filled with both tears of joy and sadness. The first and second classes of women are so different and today really showcased their differences. I decided to teach the women a very abbreviated version of what song of songs teaches us. This book in the bible has been a huge part of my summer: realizing that the lord wants an extremely intimate relationship with me, that I am his beloved and he longs to be close to us. I told the women that this story was about a husband and wife, and the husband was full of love for his wife. He was captivated by her beauty and said she was like a lily of the valley. He wanted to be close to her and was filled with so much love for her, she was his beloved. In the same way, God is captivated by their beauty and longs to be close to them, they are his beloved. I printed out pictures of all the women from this summer because they never have any pictures of themselves and I wrote them all letters about how beautiful and loved they are. I had to read the letters to them because they are all illiterate. It broke my heart when I told one of the women all this and she said “me, no, I am not beautiful”. The first sewing class, I told them all of this and we all cried. Cried because I was sad I was leaving, cried because they were never told they were beautiful, and just cried because sometimes you just need to cry. I was overwhelmed by the emotion they shared and moved by their love. The second sewing class took a slightly different tone. I told them the story of song of songs and everyone expressed their thoughts on the story and then maria, the one who loves to talk, said “my husband loves me thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much” and stretched her arms as wide as they could go. Everyone of the women died laughing because maria and her husband are separated. They then proceeded to ask everyone how much their husband loves them and they thought it was so funny they started crying they were laughing so hard. Stephanie and I weren’t quite sure what to do, because obviously laughing about how little their husbands love them isn’t as funny to us as it was to them but since then they always remember that story in the bible because it was such a fun time for them. So I don’t know what seeds the Lord planted through that but I trust he has a plan. Haha things certainly don’t always go the way I plan, if ever. I love these women so much and it breaks my heart that im leaving soon but I know that other people will come and continue to grow with them. I have to trust that there is a plan.

day 48- headed home!

flights are delayed, please pray for fast flights and fast customs so that can make my flight from new york to atlanta!

day 45

on the kindle so this will be short but today was my last day in the slums, cant believe it has come and gone!! thank you for all the prayers!

day 40

I now know how Noah felt when God floaded the earth, India is flooding! It has been a downpour all day long with no releif... i didnt even know it could rain this much.

Yesterday and today were wonderful with the women. I just love being in the sewing classes and spending time with them! tomorrow is my last day with them in the sewing classes since we dont have them on thursday or friday! I cant believe it. Im going to be teaching the bible lesson tomorrow and its been on my mind all week. there are so many things i want to tell them about how loved they are but theres no way I can fit that all into one lesson. Prayers for that please! But ive loved just sitting with them this week and spending time with them.

Today was a hard day in a few ways, we had two things come up that were just reality checks for me, reminding me that these women do not live in the wonderful world of our care but at the end of the day return home to harsh realities. One of the women I have gotten closest too was beaten last night. She was married to her uncle at age 9, she doesnt even remember her own wedding. she refuses to be with her husband and everytime her parents send her to be with him she runs away or screams the whole time. Last night she was fighting with her mother about going when her father came home drunk and beat her. She tried to run away but today after classes were all over told us that she has no place to stay. It is not part of indian culture to allow other people to stay in your home and no one will take her in because the police will go after them, including us. It absolutely broke my heart leaving her there today knowing that she will have to go back home and there is nothing i can do.
We also have our out of state contacts here helping us do some work including an evaluation of the community and what else we could be helping with here. During all of this a woman that we know came to us, with her 3 week old baby and casually told us that she was going to sell it. She needs the money and she could make $30 off of selling her baby to a person that comes into the slums regularly and was described as simply the "baby buyer". This blew my mind that a woman with a history in prostitution would willingly sell her baby into that same, if not worse, environment. Hearing mackey talk about everything she is doing in mumbai and seeing what goes on here, i now know that the love of money is truly the root of all kinds of evil.

My mom wrote me a letter for everyday that I am gone, which is a lot of letters! But she included this quote in one of them and it stuck with me, especially today. "The most profane word we can use is "hopeless". When you say a situation or a person is hopeless you are slamming the door in the face of God." -Kathy Troccoli. Today some things seemed hopeless but i have to remember but things are not hopeless because I serve the God of the universe and he is the God that saves and the God that redeems.
"But now, this is what the LORD says—
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the LORD, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I give Egypt for your ransom,
Cush and Seba in your stead.
Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you "
Isaiah 43:1-4

That being said, we still had a wonderful time with the women and I was able to video a few of them introducing themselves for you to see!
Meet Konkowa:

This is Durga and she just finished her first sari blouse! The video was an accident but now you can see her face and her new blouse!

I hope that works because they are some amazing women and I want to put some faces (and voices) to the names you have been reading! I have a few others but i will wait to post them when i know they work! Happy tuesday to everyone in the US, my last tuesday here is over!