discrimination

So this past Saturday, I joined the AECS students and went to go watch a soccer tournament that AECS was a part of. There were other colleges from the area, and the other colleges had players/students who were locals. AECS was the only college who had students from north India, north east India, Myanmar, Nepal, and other regions, along with students who are locals. Because of this, the referees and officials were biased against the AECS soccer team and were very unfair with their calls. It was so bad to the point where we walked out near the end of our first game, and left the tournament. It was quite sad to experience this kind of discrimination first hand

independence day

One of my biggest joys here is when I work with my fourth graders. During scripture time, one of my students asked if I was going to share a bible story or a parable (I usually share one each day, but for some reason, I didn't have anything planned for this day). I told him that I wasn't going to because the teacher had something else planned and he said he was sad because he said he enjoys listening to bible stories. This brought even greater joy to me because this boy isn't the most well behaved and friendliest student.

Another moment I enjoy throughout the day is during break time. During break time, students always offer some of their snacks to me and they're very adamant about sharing if I say "it's okay" or "no thank you". It's pretty awesome because I get to try a little bit of everyone's snacks...

Every time I, or any other teacher, walks into the classroom, the students rise from their seats and greet the teacher by saying "good morning, sir" or "good morning, ma'am/miss". Being greeted by the whole class is definitely one thing I will miss when I go back and teach in the states.

So this past Friday, it was India's independence day. St. Paul School held an assembly where each grade and class did a performance of a traditional Indian dance. I have many pictures from the ceremony!

Friday night, Bryan and I went to the movie theater with Pastor Yohan's family to watch Guardians of the Galaxy

The movie theater was right next to the mall, and it reminded me of the malls back at home

For children's ministry, we helped kids make bookmarks

Weekly Korean food at BKC :)

As Bryan's last meal, Annie sgsn made us dinner!

We went bowling with David and Moses (Pastor Yohan's kids)

Bryan and I cooked Pastor Yohan and his family pasta for dinner this past week!

This is a video I sent to my church, ANC, as an update on how everything has been so far and some prayer requests. Enjoy!

continuing on

Sorry I haven't updated in a while! It's been a busy past few weeks. My sickness has gotten better and I am almost fully healed from it. Right after I got sick, Abe got sick and he felt better a day or two after and left this past Wednesday. The KCM team came back from their trip Wednesday night and left Friday night. A lot of the people got sick on the KCM team, and so did Bryan. Bryan is sick with dengue fever and has to go to the hospital tomorrow.

Bryan and I were actually supposed to take a week long trip to north India visitng different places and famous landmarks. However, since Bryan is sick, we had to cancel our trip and get refunds for our train and flight tickets. Please pray for a quick and full recovery for Bryan as this is his last week. He is leaving next Monday.

Since the last time I updated, I have been getting used to the schedule I have:

5:50 morning exercise, service, and breakfast at AECS
8:30 scripture class
9:50 English classes
12:30 lunch

And in the afternoon, I have it open to help in the office or whatever is needed. If there's nothing to do, I usually take the time to read, do laundry/chores, run errands, and play volleyball/soccer. I believe I will be starting discipleship soon with a few of the students.

A few things to pray for:
-for Bryan and his health! so that he may have strength to finish strong during his last week here
-for God to continually mold me, teach me, and stretch me during my stay here
-I will be leading weekly meetings teaching teachers about different teaching techniques/strategies, classroom management skills, Christian education, etc. So please pray for God's guidance as all I have is my experiences and from what I learned in college.

There are Hindu gods along the side of the streets and people will pay money and whatnot to these gods

Filet o fish at mcdonalds! Not as fresh as the states though :(

President Chung's famous vegetable ramyun

Last picture with Abe before he left. This is Pastor Yohan's family!

Abe paying a visit to the hospital to get checked up and receive his medication

St Paul School playing another school in volleyball

They prepared meat/steak for Abe's last meal!

After KCM arrived back in Bangalore, I joined them in visiting an orphanage and a place for women who have been abandoned, beaten, abused, etc, and have no place to stay. There is also another place for men with physical and mental disabilities who have no place to stay. The man who founded these homes was a rickshaw driver before. One day, a person asked him to take an unconscious woman to the hospital, but she died on the way there. From that day, he started these homes for women, men, and an orphanage (all separate buildings and a few blocks away from each other). This man preaches the gospel, does surgery and takes care of people's medical conditions, picks people up with his ambulance, cooks for them, cleans, and everything else. This man's highest education is third grade, and yet he is capable of doing all these things.

I don't think I explained the water situation here in India. So every home/apartment has water tank(s) on the roof. Once the water in those tanks run out, they pump water from the storage on the ground floor or basement to the roof. Once the water is out from the storage, they order more water to fill the tanks and the storage up again. (Fun fact: Here in India, first floor = ground floor, second floor = first floor, and so on.) I am living on the second floor (but in america, it would be considered the third floor).