More of our trip

Here are the kids ready to board the plane!

This was our lovely wonderful clean hotel! Ok, just a little sarcasim in that last sentence. ;) When I woke up my luggage was open right under the dripping ceiling. The bad thing is that we know this wasn't rain water!!

We took bicycle rickshaws from one side of the town to the other side.(4Km) Boy was that uncomfortable. We were so thankful for wonderful friends that took a 1/4 of our weight and put him on their rickshaw!

It was absolutely beautiful! I loved looking at the fields as we drove for 6 hours. It was as if we had driven back 200 years. Villages out there were so simple and most seemed to live by means of farming. I saw so many women and children out in the fields.

This poor little guy had such a crooked back and couldn't walk straight up. I see this here a lot. So sad.
Here is one of many local markets that we passed along the way.

Here is a school bus we passed on the way.

Our trip took six hours each way. The first trip we were in a itty bitty cracker jack car. We felt every bump in the road. I was completely exhausted once we arrived! On the way back we took a 1950's style Ambassador and the seats had huge springs. It was a much nicer trip. Not so bumpy. We couldn't speak to the driver as he only spoke Hindi. He was suppose to drop us outside of town at a taxi stand and then we were suppose to get an auto rickshaw to our hotel. But our driver hit a trailer as we were entering into the city. He dented up his taxi pretty bad. He needed money to get it fixed. He pulled over and found someone who could speak English. He offered to take us all the way to our hotel if we would pay him ten more dollars! We were so happy and of course we agreed. We spent the next few days in the capital seeing an eye doctor that was well, a waste of time...but more on that later! We did get to see some friends and hang out at a really cool mall. I will post more on that later! Stay tuned...

Bordem Buster

While we were at the immigration stand waiting and waiting and waiting... I gave the kids my camera and told them to snap photos of fun things that went by. They had a blast and it entertained them for about an hour and a half! Let's just say there were no computers at this stand so everything had to be handwritten in a large book. It took what seemed like forever. The the man doing all the writing was super nice though. :)

Our trip to the village...part I

This past weekend we took a trip out to a village about 4 hours away. These are some of the things we saw on the way. It was a very interesting trip.

This is a field of sunflowers. There were tons of these fields. Later we found out the have a plant that processes sunflower oil.

We passed many houses that looked like this one.

Dosa...our favorite.

A field of cabbage. YUM!

Coconut groves.

There were so many sherpherd with goats on this trip. Really neat to see real live shepherds.

More pictures to come.....

Village trip...part II

Here is the sweet ladies that had us in their home. We were truly blessed by them.

Many women and men sell vegetables and fruit on their heads early in the morning.

Water is a precious resource so many of us take for granted. The people here fill these with water usually from a small well that is shared by many. This lady is selling the water jugs.

Caleb playing ball with the neighborhood kids.

As we drove into this small village area, kids began following our car and were all so interested in the white people. :)

There were tons of pigs in this area. Let's say...I am not eating any pork here. :)

Women and children all curious about the new folks.

Early morning tea! Yummy! Just what we needed to get us going.

This picture was taken our second night. Word had spread that there were foreigners in the village. Everyone wanted to see us.

We took this picture right before we went to church. Caleb was trying to explain to these boys how to play tag.

One more post to come of our time at a fort. :)

Sweet Little Ladies

This Week at a Glance

We have had an amazing and busy week! We started out on Sunday having church with some sweet friends of our that have an orphanage. Worship was wonderful. I actually understood some of the Kannada that was spoken there! The songs are also becoming very familiar.

On Monday we had language class and ate lunch with a national here that we worship with on Thursday nights. He and his wife are a blessing to us. She taught me how to make a sweet desert that I love here. I will try to make it next week and post about it!

On Tuesday we went to a small town about 2 and 1/2 hours away. It is a place where they use to mine gold. There are thousands of widows here because of this mine. Most of the husbands died from lung diseases. There are piles of black rock that is filled with cyanide. The cyanide is in the water and in the air. In the culture here widows are looked down upon and often cast out of the communities. We have met a man whose father worked for the mines and died also from it. He and his wife live here in our city and have a huge burden for these women. Every month they provide them with rice, Dal and oil. They give them our message too! We went and shared testimonies with them and helped distribute the food. Savannah and Caleb were so sweet to give each of these women a hug. Caleb got a few kisses too! It was a special blessing for to be loved on by children. The ladies faces would just light up.
We ate breakfast that morning around 8am and it was past three oclock before we got anything to eat. I had brought snacks for the kids but they were in the car. Around 2:30 Caleb began to melt down on me. He was so hungry as was I! I reminded him that this hunger we were feeling is something these women feel all the time. It was truly a humbling day and I came home with my heart broken and burdened for these women. One women came up and was sobbing. She began to tell us that all of her children have rejected her and will not let her come to their homes because she has become a beliver. She said, " I have no one." I can't even imagine the pain that she must feel in her heart. I know that when I am hurt, lonely or sad God's Word comforts me. The reality is that this woman can't read. I am still trying to process all that I experienced that day. I have weeped several times and cry now as I type this.

Wednesday we just rested from Tuesday's trip. I was able to eat lunch at a place called Leela's Palace. All the ladies from our company got together and enjoyed each other!

Thursday (today) we have just run around and are getting things ready for our cultural immersion we are taking this weekend. We will leave tomorrow and travel for 5 hours to the house of a national friend's mother and sister. I will spend all day Saturday with the sister at her school she teaches at and Shannon is going to see some different ministries. It will be like camping as Shannon said! We are really looking forward to spending time with these precious ladies. They only speak Kannada, so we will get lots of practice in!!!

I will return in 3 days with stories and pictures! I also will post pictures of our trip to the Gold Mines. Blessings!!!

Packing and Sorting

We spent the weekend with family and saying goodbye to my hubby's 97 year old grandmother who went to be with our Lord Jesus.
I now have exactly one week to be completely packed for our 8 week training in Virginia. I also need to have most of my packing done for South Asia. In the midst of all the sorting and packing I am trying to do justice to our homeschooling! Last night I had to finally ask the Father for his peace and help! I know I cannot do this all alone. He has called me to this life and I know he will be my source of strength! I am looking forward to our time in Virginia just being completely focused on the Father and His work for me.