Week One. Here we go!

Let the mission begin

We left last Saturday morning at 4am. Our first flight to Singapore was 8 hours long and they treated us like royalty. Movies galore, good food, snacks, and even hot towels to wash our faces. Such luxury. We then had a 6 hour layover in Singapore that felt more like a vacation. Between the butterfly garden, game rooms, Starbucks, art area, and a few other gardens we were well taken care of. Our last real Western food was a piece of cheesecake that we split 8 ways.

Our next flight was 4 hours long, Courtney had the “pleasure” of sitting in vomit on the plane. It was a smelly, uncomfortable flight to say the least. And we landed in Coimbatore, India at 12 am their time, 5 am our time.

We are staying at a YWAM base, a few blocks from the airport, which has 10 students participating in a school of worship. The girls are all sleeping in one room with two other students & the boys are split up into two different rooms.

I suppose the best way to explain all we have experienced & been involved in would be to do a day-by-day account.

Sunday:

Every morning breakfast is from 7-7:45 and we eat bananas, toast and Chai tea. I should rephrase that, it´s the best Chai tea in the world! We met the school of worship leaders, Jo from Australia & Robin from India, and were given an orientation. They are such an amazing couple who strive to serve God. This day was full of resting, getting settled in and attempting to adjust to the heat & culture. We also had our first real experience with curry which we eat every meal and with our hands. It´s quite a freeing experience & we´ve all joked about how our mothers would be appalled at how we play with our food. After that we ventured to the mall. Pure chaos. Packed side by side is a jumble of cars, motorcycles, rickshaws, buses, mini cars, and they´re all flying by wildly honking & zooming in and out of traffic. 5 people are crammed onto a scooter, babies are dangling from their mother´s arms, and men are wearing short skirts (lugies). At the mall the girls were able to buy our first kootas. No exposed shoulders, arms, or legs are allowed and the only place we´re able to relax and breath is when we´re in our room or taking a bucket shower.

Monday:

Since the electricity randomly shuts off, we´ve all been having a difficult time sleeping. Once it goes off, it feels as though a warm blanket is trying to suffocate you because the humidity & heat are so intense. Without fans, it´s very difficult to get any sleep. We had base worship at 9 am. It was very refreshing. We also met our translator Jabe who we all adore.  In the afternoon, we went to an orphanage with so many precious children of God. We spent the time singing some songs, Lukas told a bible story of the Prodigal son that we all acted out, and we played some games. Because Oddvar was the father in the play the kids all took to calling him “daddy”. It was a bit overwhelming for some of us, but a good experience. It was heartbreaking seeing so many children without parents. The sight of them yelling goodbye & waving through the gate was one we shall not forget.

Tuesday:

Our motto has been to drink water and be flexible. Every moment is constantly changing and plans never prosper. This day was a long one, but rewarding. We traveled by bus for an hour to a village where there was a tiny church. In this village this little church oppressed and even while we were there a pasty faced, beady-eyed Hindu priest peaked through the door chanting that we must only pray and not convert. The head pastor had become a Christian 5 years ago and had followed Gods call to go to the unreached. Many children were at the church since the parents were mostly working. They had once been Hindu, but had converted to Christianity. It was also beautiful to interact with the kids because it was their first time being around foreigners. What an honor! We taught them some fun songs, we also did one of our skits called the “healing drama”, Ben did a fantastic job at bringing the word & we also taught them a memory verse. Funny tidbit: While trying to get used to the new foods, Courtney accidentally let loose a fart during Ben´s preaching and the pastor´s wife stared her down.  Haha! Moving on.. they clung onto every word we said. I should also mention none of us have ever sweated so much in our lives. It´s about 105 Fahrenheit and with the humidity it´s about 120. I´m not sure what that is in Celsius, but many of our shirts & kootas were changing color from our sweat. We also were able to pray over them & eat lunch with them. We learned that during prayer we´re suppose to say “soltrom” over & over again. It means “praise the Lord”.  We also had the moment during lunch that they offered us water & we all just stared at each other terrified and the pastor´s wife said “God will take care of you”. With that said, we´ve been praying over all our food and so far are very healthy! Funny tidbit: Right before we left Courtney & Mariah had to use the restroom. The wife lead us right outside the “back” door to where we all had just rinsed off our curry hands. It turns out where we had walked barefoot to wash our hands was actually the bathroom and we all had just traipsed through their pee. Later in the afternoon we went to Jaba´s house where we all collapsed onto his living room floor and slept. Pia somehow bought us snacks and Courtney cried tears of happiness when she saw Oreos. In the evening we visited a house where we gathered in the “prayer room” that had an empty plastic lawn chair for Jesus that we almost accidently sat in. We were able to pray over them and in return received some bananas from the tree outside. Jaba lead us to the church where the girls almost sat on the boys side of them. Again sang some songs, Mariah shared her testimony, we did our healing drama, and Mikkel freelanced it with preaching and did an amazing job. After we prayed over them, checked out the pastor´s home and went to another house to pray Funny tidbit: Since the restrooms have squatty potties and there is no toilet paper we´ve been having to bring our own. Courtney after using the bathroom asked for a garbage bin to throw away her used wipe and instead of showing it to her, they just took it from her. It was a long day with only bread & jam for dinner.

Wednesday:

We crammed into a taxi to go to the “Fun Mall”. Since we´re white as soon as we got in “My Humps” by the Black Eyed Peas started blaring through the speakers. We were able to be refreshed by McDonalds & buy some fruit since we´ve been deprived of it. In the afternoon we visited two temples. It was very spiritually heavy and difficult to see how lost these people are. Marlena and Mariah cried heaps.

Thursday:

In the morning we went with the school of worship to a retreat place where we had 5 hours of solitude & prayer. In the afternoon we traveled near the mountains to a small village. We met with a pastor from a persecuted church and within the village many dark spiritual things were going on. Funny tidbit: Mariah and Marlena told the pastor they liked his couch and he offered for them to take it home. 70% of the people there are tribal. We were able to do street ministry for the first time. Imagine 8 foreingers in a tiny village standing in the dirt street under one street lamp. It was a beautiful scene. We sang, Courtney shared her testimony, we did the healing drama, and Marlena brought the word. Afterwards we offered prayer and pretty much everyone came up. We prayed against pain, oppression, and many dark things. One specific woman came up and asked for prayer because she hadn´t been able to work for three days because of intense back pain. Pia sat her down and her legs were different sizes. Marlena and Pia prayed over her and her legs grew out. When she stood up her back pain was less, but they prayed again and it was gone. God is good. Soltrom. We thought she was wiping away sweat, but truly she was crying tears of joy. Some girls taught Mariah and Courtney Indian dances. The children love Ben´s height. And they adore Oddvar and Lukas. We had an incredible time.

Friday:

We spent quite a bit of time praying over each of the other teams sent out from our base. In the afternoon us six students went with Jabe to a home for the destitute run by Catholics. It was a home for cripples, mentally ill, addicts, mute and some blind. We sang worship songs for them and they loved it, then we did our healing skit. After that we prayed over all of the men individually. It was a beautiful time and the men were so grateful and open for prayer. The men had so much joy and life in them even though they were stuck in a home. We had fun taking pictures with them and playing music, Ben serenaded a group of old men. It was nice afternoon of sharing and loving!

 So its been a great week! Please pray we continue to have a unified team, for boldness as we speak, and for restful sleep despite the heat.  We have a big week ahead and will talk to you soon!

Here´s a pic of a village we visited: