I'm Still Alive

So I could say that I am in rustic India where the power goes out frequently, the internet moves as slow as Christmas, and I am so busy with ministry that there is just no time for blogging....orrrr, I could just apologize that I have been a little negligent in my writing. I'm sorry to all of you who have supported me that I left anxiously awaiting updates. Rest assured that your silent outcry from the edge of your seats and the sound of your nail biting could be heard halfway around the world and I have returned from my cyber no mans land to share my adventure with you:

The weather is hot, the food is interesting (it's growing on me a little...a little), the flowers/plants are beautiful, they don't have shoes that fit my women's size 11 feet, the culture is vastly different, I hand washed and air dried an outfit for the first time in my life, I'm exactly where I am supposed to be and I love that, annnnd I'm moving back here towards the end of the summer.

You like how I snuck that last one in there?? Yeah, so I am exactly where I should be, doing exactly what I should be doing right now. Although there have been things that stretch me, awkward moments and situations, uncomfortable feelings and culture shock, I know that by God's grace He has placed me in the perfect place to grow, learn, and minister. When I return I will continue to work with the widows project that I am currently part of. Our goal is to employ widows to produce jewelry that will in turn provide an income to women who would otherwise have little to no opportunity for employment. We are in the beginning stages of the project right now so most of my work has consisted of bead shopping, organizing, and product development; things, however, are progressing quickly and we hope to have several widows employed, trained, and producing jewelry by the time I return to the States in May.

Besides working with the widows I have had the opportunity to travel to different churches within Bangalore to teach and preach. So a typical day for me here in India consists of preparing to teach different topics in the morning, helping to develop the widows project in the afternoon, and learning to cook Indian dishes in the evening. Somewhere along the way I'll throw in learning to speak the language....just FYI, I'm pretty sure that every word in Kannada (the language spoken here in Karnataka) has 183,938 syllables. Maybe it's just me, I could be wrong. I tried to learn how to say "thank you" yesterday and it had 5 syllables that I couldn't remember to save my life. I'll get it someday.....