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I’m sitting in a hotel in Dehli. It is a bit surreal to be typing on my dear old mac again. I hardly recognize my lovely computer as the keys click familiarly beneath my fingers. For those of you who didn’t know, my computer crashed the end of last month and I just got it back ☺
BUT… the greatest thing is that I’m with my dad this week! He came out with a chapel team and I surprise him today. He thought I was meeting them up in Bihar tomorrow, and had his back to me when I walked into the hotel lobby this morning. I don’t think he quite knew how to respond!
Dehli is much different than Hyderabad. For the first, it is cleaner and more orderly. Cars actually drive in the lanes some to most of the time! It was shocking. The roads are well kept up and clean. And I even saw people using blinkers today. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I love my city, but it is so cool to see different parts of India—the same India, but recognize the great diversity. I am aware I am just seeing the surfacy differences since I’m in Dehli under 24 hours. But just to recognize it at that level speaks something of the differences. I feel as if I were in a big city back in the US. Some areas of the city are once that I’m used to from Hyderabad, but other cities send me into a confustion of what country I am in. First impression: I like Dehli! I was expecting a city more congested and more dusty and overpopulated. But I was definitely pleasantly surprised with the aspect of India that I see here!
Six days later:
I had just a lovely time this last week. I met up with a team from the Chapel to help with some women's empowerment conferences. I am quite in love with the north! The chapel women were so enthusiastic and energetic. It was an encouragement to see them just jump right into the conference and invest full force into their teaching and into loving the women. And the Indian women in charge of WE were just lovely. I enjoyed building friendships with them and am excited to see them more in the coming months. I did also get to see my father, which was just an added bonus :) I'm thankful that he got to see India and be a part of the work being done here! It was funny watching the team go through culture stress/shock. Its a lot more obvious when it isn't you going through it!
The language barrier is always hard, but there was enough interaction, visual aids, examples that kept the women attentive despite linguistic difficulties. I must say that I was encouraged to see how easily the women on the Chapel team interacted with the Indian women. The comment in the feedback session that made the greatest impression on me was that she felt love in that place more than she had felt it in her whole life. I sometimes think I’m so used to the love of Christ that I often forget the power of his love and the power that a community in Christ really does have. It was such a good reawakening for me to the blessings of having a community. I just pray that God will remind these women that they aren’t alone. That they will be encouraged to remember that they arfe a part of a larger community in Christ. I Peter 2:9-10 has been made so real to me this weekend.
I was really nervous to give my talk. I was slightly paranoid that I would be oversimplifying things and they would feel insulted. Once I was talking though, I really enjoyed it. Even though I have a B.S. I still need reminded of these things. I still need to be reminded that being good stewards of God’s blessings includes my health. Nonetheless, I was still blown away when the women talked about how much they learned from the health topics. I thought everything was so basic, but realizing how much they learned in those two sessions made me realize how much awareness still needs to be there. It has challenged me and definitely is making me think about different ways I can spend the next 7 months.
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