time to fully experience India

Hello all,

I will be departing tomorrow for a 1.5 week long journey around India. I will be traveling with Pastor Stephen.

We will be taking multiple train rides to travel across India, and to read more about the trains in India, read this link http://www.indiasomeday.com/different-train-classes-in-india.aspx

The total number of hours spending time in the train traveling add up to around 5-6 days. I will be back on the 14th! So expect an adventurous update then... :)

Please pray for safety, safe travels, and for me to experience the many parts of India the way God wants me to!







As today was my birthday, I celebrated my 22nd birthday with the missionaries, pastors, and friends here!

...and they said I'd lose weight

Last week and also this week, the school has mid-term examinations, so instead of teaching, I have been helping the teachers with the exams in the classroom. Usually, after I teach my English classes, I have one on one counseling with the 10th grade boy students in the afternoon. This past week, I started discipleship training with the 2nd year PU-College students (12th graders). I have three students in each group, and I have a total of five different groups, one group for each day of the week. I spend about one hour with them going over a discipleship training booklet which covers the foundations of the gospel. This has definitely been a new experience for me, as half the students are Christian and the other half are Hindus. As you may already know, Hindus just believe Jesus as another god, along with many other gods they believe. I am excited for this opportunity to share the gospel. Please pray for God to be moving in the hearts of these students and that they would come to believe that Jesus is the one and only true and living God. On a side note, I found it quite funny how students are excited coming to discipleship class because they get to leave their academic class during this time.

We purchased a new scooter (since the old one died) for me to ride during my stay here. I pitched in a third of the cost, as the remaining was covered by Pastor Abraham and the ministry here. When I leave in March, the scooter will be used for the staff and pastors. It was quite interesting when we went shopping to purchase the scooter. After finding a decent scooter, it's advised to purchase the scooter then and there as the dealers then to change parts for cheaper ones if you decide to go look at different shops and come back.

Also, when riding in the streets and when pulled over by the police, the drivers give money to the police and they are free to go, instead of receiving tickets. The police are usually standing by the streets, and as they see people riding without helmets or riding three people on a motorcycle, they would come into the middle of the street to stop them. However, on my way home, I  was waiting at the stoplight. As I was waiting, I saw a policeman walking towards a man riding without a helmet. The driver backed out and drove off avoiding the policeman. Right after, I saw another policeman standing in the middle of the street trying to stop a motorcycle that was coming, but the driver dodged the policeman driving off. I thought it was quite interesting how people can just drive off and the police won't chase after them. Traffic violations are definitely handled differently here than in America.

Next week, I will be traveling with Pastor Stephen to different places in India. Please pray for safe travels, health, and guidance!

My new (used) scooter!

This was during their arts exam. They were to draw a flower in a flower pot. Here are some of the students' works:

Indian sweets!

Trying some street food! I forgot what the name of this food was, but its basically a fried hollow ball and the cook pokes a hole filling it with different ingredients and sauce.

Trying some street food!

Chicken roll and chicken kebab!

Momo (dumplings!)

wedding time!

I just got back home from a wedding. Pastor Abraham asked me to go with him and a few other AECS students to a wedding he is officiating. The bride and the groom are Chinese-Indians and the groom's father is a board member of the India Evangelical Church (IEC) Trust Ministry. The AECS students performed a song in the wedding ceremony. The wedding ceremony had about 100 people attending the service while a total of 1000 people came for the reception/dinner. It seems like its part of the Indian culture here where people usually come just for the reception. Also, weddings here are huge and today's attendance was said to be average. The wedding had a mix of four different cultures in the wedding ceremony: Indian, Western/American, Korean, and Chinese. It was definitely a memorable experience attending this wedding!

Here are some photos from the wedding!

finding joy

Ahh I apologize in advance for not updating my blog very often!  It has been a few weeks since I last posted. So my days are pretty set now, and a week or two ago, I started counseling/discipleship with 10th standard (10th grade) boys in the afternoon. There are around twenty students the headmistress wants me to do discipleship/counseling with at least once or twice. After meeting each one, she wants me to then follow up and continue discipleship with the ones who seem to need it more. Please pray for the times I meet with these students and that God would use these times to plant and water seeds in their walk with Christ.

Also, on Thursdays, principal Chung and the headmistress asked me to lead teacher meetings each week. As that has been going on, please pray for guidance and even with my minimal knowledge and experience in teaching, that God would use that according to His will.


There was this one time I was walking home, and I passed by a home with a family of around 7-8 living in there. This home was just a small room with one bed. The children and everyone else were sitting on the floor, while some were working on homework as others were playing games or doing other things. As I walked by, I saw smiles on their faces and heard them laughing in their conversations. There was another time when I was lying in bed before going to sleep with my window open. And outside, I heard (what it seemed like) two siblings just laughing with each other as they were playing on the streets. These two incidents had me thinking, where do I find my joy? It was such a reminder this past week through these children and families that my joy should be found in Christ, even in times of suffering.

This was a view from the AECS chapel during morning (or evening, i forget...) service.

A birthday celebration for one of the sisters at AECS

Probably my favorite place to eat here so far. (I don't know if I uploaded a picture of Empire Chicken before or not, but...) This place is where I go eat if I am craving any of the foods back at home.

A care package from my lovely parents!

So last Friday was Teacher's Day. Teacher's Day in India is similar to Teacher's Appreciation day/week back in the states. However, it's a lot bigger here... the students came early to school to decorate the classroom and the chalkboard. They also brought cake and flowers (roses) for their teachers. I ate a few slices of cake that day and received a couple roses as well! These students really made it memorable for day experiencing Teacher's Day!

Ate samgyupsal with Pastor Yohan and his family. This meal was... DELICIOUS! (I also had the leftovers for lunch the next day!)

This is on the main street by St. Paul School. These are people worshiping a Hindu god on the street during one of the Hindu festivals/holidays.

The reason why I took this picture: One of my friends posted a link on my wall (http://www.wherecoolthingshappen.com/25-dangerous-and-unusual-journeys-to-school-around-the-world/) about different and dangerous journeys children take to school. One of the pictures on this site was several children riding a rickshaw to school. It reminded me of seeing students everyday who cram into a car or rickshaw on their commute to and from school.

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!