Hello, India.

 I am in INDIA! After 45 hours or so of travel and stops in Tokyo Japan, Seoul South Korea and Bangkok Thailand my team and I made it to Kolkata India! However, getting here was a tad crazy. The journey began at seven in the evening on the 17^th when we left Kona. We flew from Kona to Honolulu at nine and had a twelve-hour layover at the airport there. Yes, I slept in my hammock in an airport and yes everyone was a tad jealous seeing as they had concrete as their bed. Best investment to date.

Next we flew from Honolulu to Tokyo. This flight was by far the best flight of my life! The flight didn’t have very many people so the stewardesses let us know that we could move about and have an entire row to ourselves if we liked. Also, we got two free meals (Korean food is surprisingly delicious), free movies (I watched four), and brownies and drinks galore. It was fabulous.

From Tokyo we flew to Seoul with just enough time to hop off that plane and jump on the next one to Bangkok.  At Bangkok we had a six-hour layover that I slept through due to a double dosage of Dramamine.

On the flight from Bangkok to Kolkata I sat next to Havana, an Indian woman. We talked during the majority of the flight. She explained a bit about Indian culture and the Hindu religion.  By the end of the flight she had invited me to her daughters wedding in July and said that if I was ever in Jakarta I had a place to stay.

After arriving in India our team made our way to the guesthouse we are staying at. We split up into three groups and hopped in some taxis that the drivers told us they knew where it was they were going. After about a forty-five minute drive I realized the driver had no idea where he was going. He started to stop and ask people on the streets where it was that we needed to go. He finally stopped and tried to explain to me that we had passed the guesthouse and there was no way for him to get back to it since we were on a one-way street. There I am with three teammates with bags and bags of luggage and expensive equipment on the side of the street with no idea where the guesthouse is or how to get there. Next thing I know I am surrounded by a bunch of Indian men asking me to get into their Rickshaw and trying to put my bags in saying they know where I needed to go. I then found myself riding in the Rickshaw down the middle of a busy street going opposite to the one way traffic with everyone looking at me because we all know I almost glow I am so white. I had no way of knowing whether they were going the right way, talk about jumping right into it. We managed to make it to the guesthouse, and in style too.

It is hard to describe what India is like, but I think my school leader described in best when briefing us on our trip “India is like an assault on all five senses at once”. Ever since arriving here my team and I have been adapting to the life and trying to get settled in. We have had a lot of difficulty with different things. One of my teammates, Megan, got a serious infection after she had a tooth abscess which we have been trying to get treated the past couple days. She decided today that it was best for her to go home seeing as it is rather serious, so my team leader and I took her to the airport today. We also had planned on going to Odisha, a province here in India to do some work with a YWAM base there but we are having a lot of trouble getting tickets there and back. If we manage to get tickets we will be the first international team to visit this base, which is located in a largely Muslim province. Also, before even leaving we had a great deal of difficulty with visas. One team member had to switch teams since he couldn’t get his visa and the other flew to San Francisco to get hers. And there’s more, one of our team leaders was unable to come.

Overall, I am doing great and am so happy that I have the opportunity to be here. However, as a team we are experiencing a lot of difficulties and we are not even a week into our outreach. That being said, I feel an even stronger sense that we have some very important things God has brought us here to do. I don’t think that we would be faced with this much opposition if there weren’t something big that we have come here to do. With that, I want to ask for prayer for my team and I. Spread the word. Whoever reads this just keeps us in mind and if you can pray for us daily that would be wonderful. We need prayer specifically for guidance, for strength, for immunity from any more illnesses, for the right connections and for overall peace as we continue in our outreach.  As of now, our ministry connections are with an organization that works with woman who have been rescued from the sex industry, along with a ministry called Life Connections that works with children living on the street and finally with a mother Theresa home that houses people who are close to dying giving them a comfortable place to spend their last days.

My team and I need your help through prayer. We are tired of having so many obstacles and we really want to get our feet on the ground and do what we have come here to do.