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A 7 hour train ride from Mysore.
A 4 hour wait in the Chennai airport.
Jon left us for Shanghai out of Chennai
A 5.5 hour flight to Hong Kong.
Tracy left us for Shanghai out of Hong Kong (I hope they did't have trouble finding each other in China).
A 2 hour layover in Hong Kong.
A 13 hour flight to LA.
A 15 minute drive to my house.

47 hours later. Home. It's good to be here.

As great as adventures in another culture are; the best part is coming back to the motherland. ;)

All Under One Heaven

I came to India looking for something enitrely different. What I found was something entirely similiar. Even in the place I was told was "as far from America [in every sense] as you can get on the planet" I was struck by how similiar we all are. In the warf slum of Tenali I saw the same despairing faces, the same teen pregnancy, the same lack of health care and poor health education, the same trash, the same insecure housing and the same desperate humanity that I see every weekend on the Skid Row of Los Angeles.

It seems like all of the differences I've found are choosen, learned, or superficial. In the grand scheme of things, skin color, clothing and art styles don't really justify distinction; language, cultural behaviors, and interests are shifting and fickle; and the rest is just how what we feel like doing in the moment.

I wanted a new context, a new cultural lense to see the world through. I was looking for the things that were hidden from me when I was in the West. I'm a little disappointed that my Indian vantage point hasn't revealed many of those things; but I have been pleasantly surprised to learn what things haven't changed. What things are universal to humanity. The things that make us the species that we are, all living on the same planet. Looking up at the same sun and moon; dreaming of the same stars. And reaching to grasp the same truth.

I came halfway around the planet to learn what I already suspected: We are all under one heaven.

The things that matter are here in India too

I've also learned that life is worth living pretty much everywhere. No matter where you go, the stuff that really matters is available for the earning: good food, pleasing weather, kind people, fulfilling work, expresive art, growing love, deep thought, and the subtle presense of divinity. The burdens that I had imagined as unbearably heavy aren't so hard on the people who live here. I've learned that as an American I am spoiled and weak. From the soles of my feet, to the strength of my stomach, to willpower of my mind, there are a million things that would overwhelm me that Indians cheerfully do every day. While there are certainly a host of people in this world suffering under the cruel hands of heartless greed, and plenty of people who don't have access to the wonderful things that make life worth living, I've learned that the world is not yet choked by despair. Joy still runs laughing through the jungles of Mysore, the fields of Tenali, and even the dirty streets of Chennai.

It doesn't take the quality of life that we have in the west to make people smile and savor life. It does make me wonder why we work so hard for it in the US though. What does it really gain us? Why do we work so hard, when what we want is the same as everyone else, when the things we're trying to buy are for sale in the market for 50 rupees (about $1)? Wives, children, friends, and prayer are free. Good books, paint and curry are nearly free.

The fellowship is broken

Our trip is begining to end. The hobbits have headed off towards mount doom; Maddie, and Isaiah will board a plane tonight for the US, and Kemi is headed out to Singapore. The rest of us will take a train to Mysore to visit the NewSong peeps out there (they run a ministry called H20), then Vanessa and I will be flying back to LA on the 7th, and Tracy and Jon will be off to the Olympics in Beijing.

It's been a wonderful trip, and I'm really sad to see it coming to a close. Last night we said our goodbyes and left Harvest India. I got the worst case of motion sickness (plus migraine, plus food poisoning, plus a cold) ever in the history of man, and ended up making a terrible mess of the squat toilet on the train. Every time I went to sleep, I'd get sick again, so I ended up staying awake all night.
When we arrived I took a shower and went to bed. Unfortunately I wasn't well by the time the rest of the team left for the Mount of St. Thomas, which was a place I was really looking forward to seeing. Perhaps before we fly out, we can visit it again.

It's been amazing going on a mission trip with friends. I've been on trips with strangers and aquaintences, but there's really nothing like having friendships with everyone beforehand. Having started Watah over 2 years ago, it's nearly euphoric seeing this little chunk of church grow in love for each other. I'm honored that God has allowed me to play a role in the construction of the Kingdom of God. If you're in a small group, or just have a cluster of Christian friends, you should definately try to go on a pilgrimage like this together. I'm confident that it will dramatically improve your group dynamic and friendships.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Mysore, it should be a big change from Andhra Pradesh. I'm expecting more Muslims, more mountains, and a more westernized culture. But I'm no expert, so I expect surprises.

Things to do when I get back to the states:
Enjoy American Bathrooms
Sleep
Drink a Large Horchata
Appriciate not having an upset stomach for nearly the first time in 2 weeks.

Vermin Stories

Oh my gosh. So I'm coming back to my room after an early morning shower, and as I pass through the I see the largest scurrying furry mammal I've ever seen scurrying around inside. It dashed into the hall with a sickly scamper. No! As I turned the corner I realized that I had left my door open. It wasn't that fast, so I was going to try to chase it out of the house, but it had already gone under my table. I kicked my shower shoes onto the ground and lept onto my bed.

In the early morning light I could just make out a dark lump in the corner. As my eyes adjusted a thin tail ran along the wall, and a nasty little snout twitched in the air.

I needed something to throw! But all the small throwable objects were on my table and there was nothing useful on the bed across the room. Except my shower shoes!

I took aim with one shoe and chucked it between the legs of the table. I missed the vermin, but that didn't stop it from lunging forward and attacking my shoe! It attacked my shoe! And it made a nasty kind of growl that made it sound like it had been smoking 3 packs a day for the last 30 years.

Maybe if I hit it, it would run. I angled my shoe to navigate the various obstructions between the table and I and took a more careful aim. The beast practically swatted my shoe out of the air with a vicious lunch and another hissing growl. WTF was this monster?!

I was out of ideas and still not wearing a shirt. I stood around feeling like a dope for a minute or two until I realized that the fiend had moved forward and put his grimmy little paws on the table leg to get a better look at me. How dare he! I yelled at his indignity and he scurried back to the wall. Something had to be done.

I was still a little uncertain on the best course of action. The girls room was across the hall from mine, and I didn't want them to come out for a shower and meet our unwanted guest. Still, the longer I waited here, the higher the chance of them coming out, and it didn't look like the fiend had any intention of exploring beyond the safety of the tablecloth. Our wonderful hosts have provided guidence and protection on many occasions; even though I wanted to keep watch on the soggy furball so he didn't do anything atrocious, I needed their help. I lept from bed to bed until I was close enough to jump out of the door. With only a glance back, I ran through the dinning room and outside.

I can't imagine what the neighbors thought as they watched a wild-eyed slightly damp white man (one of the two currently in Tenali it seems) prance around the second and third floor balcony wearing only a pair of hawaiian board shorts (I didn't dare retrieve my shower shoes for fear of meeting the same pouncing that the shoes had recieved after I threw them). I looked into the silent first floor and saw only a small skinny body that didn't look too much like someone who might save me. Not knowing which bedroom door I should knock on, I ran back upstairs in a panic. It wasn't until I reached the third floor balcony that I realized I was running away from my help and back towards my problem. I started to feel a bit like Arthur Dent from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. On the way back downstairs, I eyed the large dog the keep tied in the yard. That might be a solution... but I after a moment's consideration, I remembered that India is the country with the highest rate of rabies infections in the world. I didn't want the dog to get bit... although this made me a little more concerned about being bit myself...

Praise be to God: about this time I heard the singing of a prayer meeting rising up from the back of the house. Hallalujah! I wasn't really sure how they would respond to me busting into their prayer circle half naked, so I kinda snuck up and whispered to the first person who's name I knew. "Peeeter. Peeeter. There's some kind of animal in my room." Peter came over and gave me a curious look. I held up my hands to show him how big it was. "There's some kind of... mammal in my room. It's big... is it an opposum?" I'm not really sure he knew what an opposum was. "An animal. It's in my room." He gestured that I should show him and we ran upstairs.

I was warry that the

Let me interject here with another brief vermin fact. As I was typing just now, I looked down at my leg and found a greedy mosquito drinking down a feast. They're rather large. I feel like they'd make a worthy wrestling opponent for a house fly. They're also very ambitious. If you smash them before they fly off (and they really do hang around for a while) you are rewarded with a splatter of your own red blood smeared across both the place where you did the swatting, and the hand you swatted with. Don't bite off suck up more than you can chew fly off with. We now return you to the regularly scheduled vermin story.

As Peter and I came into the dinning hall in our bare feet, I was warry that the invader had moved to a new hidding spot. I reached around the corner and cautiously opened the door. Peter and I leaned our heads down to the ground to see under the table. There was the foul devil, still panting in his corner. Peter stood up and said the word "die" followed by a word in Telugu. I looked at him and blinked twice. He repeated it. "Die?" I responded, "Do I want it to die? Whatever, I'm ok with it dieing." He gave me a funny expression and asked me if it ran in here. I said "Yes, it ran in here, with a sickly little scurry." He said ok and told me to wait there.

Well I sure wasn't gonna wait RIGHT there, so I went into the dinning room and climbed onto a chair. (I assure you, I would have behaved in a much more manly fashion had I only been wearing a good pair of closed toed shoes and maybe some long pants.) I choose a chair that allowed me to watch the doorway of my room to make sure our dirty enemy didn't go anywhere else.

But then the worst began to occur! The girls door swung quietly open and a woman dressed only in a sheet or a towel began to slink towards the bathroom. "Go back in and close the door! Go back in and close the door!" I repeated until she disappeared. I wasn't sure if she heard me say "There's a giant vermin out here" through the door, but I hope I didn't leave her in locked in her room in terror of what crisis loomed just outside her room.

Through the window I caught a glimpse of Peter bounding up the stairs with a large stick in his hand. What an idea! A large stick! I should have thought of that. A moment later two of his brothers came up with a hefty club and a metal pipe. Brilliant! A metal pipe! I should have thought of that!

The three hunters peered around the door jam at their rightfully fearful pray. If the rodent had been smarter, he would have retreated when the only weapons involved were wet flip-flops. The three men circled around in my room and began prodding under the table with their weapons. I couldn't see the table, but a series of weezeing snarls told me that they had engaged the enemy.

Scurrying. Shouts in Telegu. Snarling. Stick pound against the floor. More Scurrying, bare feet jumping, more weezeing, panicked Telegu. More scurrying. Someone jumps on my bed. I hear metal clang on tile. Laughing and more Telegu. Some kind of unhealthy barking noise. Then the battle is in the dinning room! The three boys dance around the dinning room table as a flash of fur dodges between chairs. As it chaos lurches in my direction, Peter shouts, "Eric, do not stand!" At this I almost fell off my chair. I caught myself on the window sill and dangled awkwardly as the battle raged below my feet. Jesu Babu pulled out another chair and told me to stand on it, and then dove laughing back into the fray with his pipe swinging wildly.

Someone started shoving their stick in on top of the chairs and I began to get very concerned about where this was going. Under the table was constant panting and growling. At this point I became convinced that the rodent did in fact have emphasema. A muddy flash shot toward the fridge. Half way there a stick came down on the flash, and for a moment it was still. But then it was behind the fridge gasping for breath and snapping it's teeth. Someone flipped it out to his partner, and a devastating blow slowed the fight to a leisurly pace. My saviors circled around what, in the light, seemed to be a very odd looking mangy rat and delivered two or three mortal blows to their incapacitated opponent. With the long hairless tail still twitching on the dinning room floor, Peter looked up from his work and said, "You can sleep now!" and began prodding the carcass out the door with his stick. I mumbled something about never being able to sleep again and thanked them for their work. They left with smiles and I returned to my room with bewilderment.

I think I'll wear tennis shoes today.

A reinactment of the moment I spotted the invader.

UPDATE: They tell me it was a mongoose, but it didn't look much like the cute furry cobra-killers that google images shows me. When we told Suresh he gave us an expression like he didn't believe us. Apparently this doesn't happen very often.

Bite Sized Thoughts

Some quick thoughts:

Man, the food is good here.

If you smile at an orphan, they smile back.

Orphans have huge smiles.

The food is SOOO good here.

Our stomachs are hurting less from traveler's sickness.

The longer we're here, the more our stomachs hurt from laughing so hard.

Mango chutney is potentially my most favorite food ever.

If I moved to India and kept working half-time at my job, I could support 4 people with a "Luxurious" lifestyle.

When you give medicine to the sick, food to the hungry, clothes to the naked, homes to the homeless, jobs to the unemployed, and safety to children, lot of people start to think pretty highly of you. They'll even help you spread a religion they don't believe in if you ask politely.

We're experimenting with the possibility of creating a curry-filled naan-wrapped burrito-amalgam.

Only 1% of all people stay involved.

A $1000 deep-bore well makes a simple but noticable difference in dozens to hundreds of people's lives.



Fruit Jelly is an unexpectedly pleasant addition to spicy curry.

White Americans are giants.

I enjoy being a giant.

The food that makes our noses run is apparently designed for babies. Suresh says he'll allow us to eat from his table the day we leave, that way he doesn't have to deal with the spicy reprocussions.

The world is thriving with life. It crawls, swims, flies, drops out of, nests in, burrows, wallows, flurishes, fills, scurries and climbs on every inch of this beautiful garden we call Earth. Thank God that we have more things to play with than just rocks and water.

Ants and pigs are very determined and adaptable. Both will eat anything. Ants will even eat Primrose Crayola markers.

Isaiah tells me that the one thing which is common to all cultures is soda pop.

Everywhere we go, someone hands us a botle of sprite.

It's really not that different here. We're all under one heaven.

How much is it worth to you?

The Ambulance showed up in the afternoon. We oogled and aaawed it for a few minutes and then Suresh took it to the Harvest India campus to scare all the children with the sirens. On the way he had a little fun with the traffic too (he admitted later that he felt a little guilty for using the sirens when it wasn't an emergency ;) ). We parked it next door until the dedication ceremony.

Later that night we were driving through the thickest rainstorm ever and Surresh told us that he had recieved a message. Someone had called Harvest India and said that someone they knew was very sick and that he needed to be taken to the hospital immediately. Suresh's wife Cristine rushed out to pray for the ambulance, annointed it, and then sent it out on it's first mission.

Since it arrived, it's already taken 3 trips to the hospital, and we haven't even had the dedication ceremony yet! I think we're going to have to wash it for the ceremony, cause it's already covered in dust.

So I got to thinking, how much are you willing to pay to save someone's life? $15,000 divided by 3? And that's just this week! It hasn't even started it's job as a mobile clinic!

So good job everybody who helped fund the ambulance. It's already making a difference. You've done a good thing.

Listening to the East

I'm posting this entry for Vanessa:


Listening to Suresh and seeing India...has led me to thinking about a few things:
1) Building the Kingdom, not churches.
Suresh is all about building the kingdom of God. In Luke, Jesus starts his work by saying that the kingdom of God is at hand...meaning that it is here. Here on earth, the poor are to be cared for, the orphans to be parented, the hungry to be fed, injustice to be ended, and God to be glorified. The kingdom, although perfect in heavan, is to be built here on earth, as well.
I listen to Suresh talking about kindgom building. And I have seen how Harvest India is building the kindgom. Where there is need, they go. And always in the name of God.
They will help any denomination. Pentecostal, apostolic, assemblies of God, you name it. Today we got to see a water well given to a Muslim community, in Jesus Christ's name, with no strings attached.
Which brings me to the second thing I wanted to mention...
2) The Western/Eastern church
The Western church appears a little stuck, to me. Our efforts at community transformation seem hamstringed- or at least slowed-down. Demoninations fight instead of partnering to build the kingdom. And all the permits to open social services slows-down quick response (see "The Wire"- Season 3).
On the other hand, we have lotsa state social services. There is somewhere for an unemployed, hungry person to go. That is not the case here in India. BUT...our services are...partial. Constrained by budgets. Whereas here, the service is based in love, not government regulations. So a person in need is cared for in a more complete, helpful manner.
I think government/institutionalized social services might also result in American Christians turning to fighting systemic injustices (read, me). While dealing with the system is necessary (as Amos points out). Kingdom is necessarily relational, not policy -based. So we need to find a balance. I see the Indian kingdom so strong in social service, and the American chruch strong in systemic issues. We need each other.
Another matter of needing each other: money. The Western church is stock-piling resources! The kingdom of God is international. Even more accurately, without borders. So much money goes so far here! 400 people were fed this morning for $100. For real. I think our consumerism is weakening the church, worldwide.
The Western and Eastern churches need each other. Desperately.



And now for some pictures:

The cat says "This is relevant to my interests"

(The title is mildly relevant, don't worry.)

We're having a wonderful time here, and the only thing that makes us unhappy is what's going on in our lower intestines. The team has been getting along well, and everyone is in high spirits. Today we went to a free medical clinic that Harvest India set up in the middle of the street in a village. It blocked off the entire road and there were several hundred people there for vitamins, antibiotics and a doctor's checkup. It's a little bit of a preview of when we get to ride in the ambulance/mobile clinic off into the boonies and help treat people. I'm really excited to finnally see the gift that we raised. Thank you to everyone who helped fund the amubulance. We're excited to see it. We'll have video and pictures when we get back.

Two days ago they took us to an orphanage. The orphans sang for us and we passed out candy, and afterwards we goofed around with them. The girls played patty cake type games, and the men challenged the boys to tests of strength and physical prowess (thumb wars and arm wrestling). My favorite game was the one where the entire orphange grabbed my wrist and we played tug of war with my arm, 30 vs. 1. I was winning until a smart kid came behind me and start pushing my back and threw me off balance. The kids were chanting "Champion! Champion!" whenever they won.

Yesterday they took us to a home for the elderly. They were amazingly welcoming and kind. The home welcomes eldery people from all castes and religions. There are many dalits (the lowest class, often refered to as "untouchables"), but we also met some brahmins (the highest cast) and other rich people. They were so happy to see us and wanted us to pray and bless them. I couldn't find enough to say, so I ended up blessing them with "Live Long And Prosper" (and yes, I held my fingers the right way when I touched their heads).



So many of them had injuries or sickesses, and they asked us to pray for their medical bills because they have so many. The doctor was there when we were. He was looking at a man who had slipped and busted up his knee earlier that morning. I feel like I touched and prayed for every single person there. Suresh tells us that someone dies about once a month, and they are lucky when no one dies for 3 months in a row. They bury everyone with dignity behind the home (Suresh pointed to a lush banana orchard that looked like a peaceful place to be buried).

Afterwards we went into the elderly home's dinning hall and across from where we were sitting a passage from the book of James was painted on the wall. "Pure and undefiled religion in the eyes of God the father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress and remain unstained from the world." I thought it was particularly relevant to our trip.

Arrival

Good news: We're here safe, everyone is wonderful.

Bad news: We brought the wrong firewire cable, so there probably won't be any video updates until we get back. We should have brought the mini-firewire to mini-firewire and instead we brought the mini-firewire to firewire cable.

Other bad news: The internet is really slow. So even if we find a firewire cable, we probably still won't be able to upload video.

More news to come when we have time

It's begun

We're through security now, waiting in the terminal. I'm using my free year subscription to T-mobile hotspots that I got from my donation to the One Laptop Per Child Program to post this. (OLPC is a IT infrastructure designed to integrate low cost laptops (somewhere around $190 per laptop, formerly referred to as the Hundred Dollar Laptop) into third world schools.

I feel like I'm in a bit of a liminal state right now-- a world between. It helps that LA is foggy and has a bit of a mysterious look to the sky right now. It reminds me of that episode of Star Trek:TNG where Dr. Crusher gets stuck in some kind of subspace bubble that makes it seems like the universe is shrinking around the Enterprise. Outside the bubble is just void.

I realized that I haven't slept through the night all week. I keep waking up thinking about the team, thinking about the trip, a bit of worrying, a bit of wondering, a lot of desperate prayer. My stomach was upset too for a while, I'm thinking that might be related as well.

Yesterday the pre-trip last minute fires started cropping up, and all that nervousness was blasted away by adrenaline. But we're all here, and things are going well, everyone has their passports (and I really don't care if they forgot anything else-- I know how to travel light, we'll work it out).

It's pretty amazing how long it's taken to get here, and how short it seems that we'll be there. The last three weeks have flown by. I hope things slow way down and the trip drags on forever when we land. It's taken a ton of work to get here, but if the trip ended right now, I'd be content with my experience.

I am a little pissed about having to take off my shoes for security. I dunno who's more paranoid: the security guards of me, or me of the "man gettin' into my privacy".

They're calling our flight now, so I'll stop ranting about my constitutional rights.
Peace out.

check this out

I just realized we never posted a picture of our team. Here we are. :)

It's officially Wednesday now, which means we're leaving in TWO DAYS. aaaahhh! i've started packing and i'm getting (even more) excited. we start taking our malaria pills today. haha.. i think that makes it more real.

i just checked the weather in Chennai (the city we're flying into) and take a look-see.
woohooooo! this should be interesting...

On a personal note, I think my focus for this trip is going to be Ephesians 4:1-3
"I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace."

I love that we are going to serve the poor, the orphans, the widows. I love that Harvest India is working in the areas Jesus did, and calls us to do. To me, that is "living a life worthy of the calling."

But I realized that I could go through the motions, but without love it means nothing, right? I want to be able to serve humbly, with genuine love - for both the people in India and my teammates. I am not the easiest person to get along with, and many of our friends have already told me they think I'm going to be the first to "freak out." haha.. hopefully i will prove them wrong. Pray for me, cause I can't do it on my own!

peace outttt,
Tracy

8 Days til India

There are only 8 more days until we leave for India! A couple days ago Dr. Suresh e-mailed Vanessa our itinerary, so now we know what we'll actually be doing. If you'd like to know what to pray for for each day, keep reading...

• July 18-20 Fly fly fly
  
• July 21 Visit Harvest India Orphanage and School, HIV/AIDS Awareness camp, Bible College, and Former Prostitutes Project. That evening, there will be an outreach meeting. I have yet to know what that is.
  
• July 22 Visit construction site for a new school, and the prospective sites of future HIV/AIDS Hospices, then we're going to see some water wells get dedicated
• July 23 More well dedications, then a visit to another HI orphanage
• July 24 Visit one of HI's homes for the elderly. Then, another outreach meeting.
• July 25 Visit a medical camp in the morning, and the nurse training center in the evening
• July 26 Visit to Mercy Camp and Free Medical Center, and more wells dedicated
• July 27 Sunday Church Service, and an outreach meeting in the evening.
• July 28 Visit to another HI orphanage
• July 29 Visit the Railway Children Home. 
• July 30 Visit to Red-light Area ministry
• July 31 Visit to Mercy Camp
• August 1-3 Return to Chennai, see the city, fly back home

Please keep praying for the work being done by Harvest India, the people it is reaching, and those who it cannot. Pray for our team in our final week before our departure, and that we be prepared to build others up as our hearts break for them. Pray that we go with humility, compassion, and love.

We're selling two tickets to Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles on eBay to generate funds for our trip. If you guys know any golfer friends who might be interested, send them this link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140247609357

Curry is HOT.

OMG, July has arrived. 2 weeks. WHOA.

I want to start by throwin' some props out there....First. Thank you God for everything!!! Last night we found out from a friend that she's donating $10,000 towards the ambulance. We didn't even specifically ask her! Praise the LORD. All him. And thank you to all of our other supporters. Your prayers are powerful and we long for them! It's so cool getting to be the hands of so many of our friends and family in India. Thank you teammates for all your hard work! Making videos, planning fundraisers, buying travel insurance, getting us vaccinations, buying supplies, having genuine conversations, etc. etc. y'all are amazing.

Sometimes I think we're just kids, not able to do something like going to India to learn and serve and help fundraise an entire ambulance. I have felt that lie take an uncomfortable seat in my soul. But it is a lie. God is using us. We are able. And we have so many friends who are invested in this, as well. Anyway, I hear that God likes using the least, and most unlikely.

So here are some prayer requests, if you're of the praying sort:
1) Continually deeper Unity and Reconciliation amongst our team
2) Safe Travel on July 18th, 3rd, and 7th
3) The Holy Spirit's power amongst and through us
4) Complete fundraising (we've still got a ways to go)
5) Blessings for India, Harvest India and Dr. Suresh Kumar (the director)

With gratitude,
Vanessa on behalf of The India Team

Getting the Word Out

Raising money to buy an ambulance is not easy. But it is pretty awesome to see our friends give generously to make it happen. Make sure you check out our videos, join our group on facebook and just spread the word.

We are doing everything we can to prepare ourselves for the journey. Last weekend we attended a conference. The speaker really challenged us to be people who care about and care for those living in poverty, whether in the US or overseas. It's pretty exciting that the ministry we partner with specifically targets the rural poor in India.

In other news we are leaving for India in two weeks!! It's getting closer every day...

GDR Fundraiser Mixtape Vol. I: Harvest India-

One month away!!

In one month the team will be leaving for India.  I am really excited to see all the ways God is getting us ready.  Already we have some amazing supporters as part of our team and I am so thankful for their prayers.
 
The past two weekends we had three fundraisers/ get togethers.  Last saturday we had a garage sale in the morning and an auction at night.  Then this weekend we had friends and family meet and hear the vision of Harvest India from the president, Suresh.  He is visiting Socal for a few days so it was a great opportunity to spend time with him.  I really enjoyed meeting him and hearing his vision to serve God in India.  I feel truly inspired to continue working hard to raise the money we need for this ambulance/ mobile clinic.
 
Also two guys on the team have created a hip hop worship album.  We are selling it for a suggested donation of $5 or more.  If you are interested in buying it please leave a comment and we'll get in contact with you.

Eric's Video

This is the first video of my travel log. It explains the trip, why I'm going, and why I'm raising money for an ambulance.
Part 1:

I forgot to attribute yatta from flickr in the YouTube version for the photos of Crenshaw I used. They're available under the Creative Commons attribution license. Thanks yatta!

YouTube doesn't like long videos, so the second half is here:
Part 2:





I plan to do at least 2 more videos, perhaps 3. One before leaving with more details, and one recording my trip. If you respond to this first video, I might send you my entire travelogue on DVD. I still have to look into how much time and money that would take.

Introduction

This July, eight of us will be traveling to India. Our reason for going to India is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which I believe is best done as St. Francis of Assissi once said, “Preach the Gospel everywhere and when necessary use words.” The gospel is a holistic, transformational, radical way of loving and serving that will change lives, families, communities, nations, and this very world we live in. We are going to serve our Indian family in Christ by speaking encouragement, helping in their ministries, and fundraising for an ambulance.

We will be working with “Harvest India”, located in the Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh. Their vision is to show divine love to the starving, sick and suffering people through feeding, clothing, healing, rehabilitating, and sharing of the good news of Christ. They take care of 1150 orphans and have homes for widows and the elderly. In addition they have a leadership center which has planted over 900 churches in rural villages throughout southern India, a Nursing school, 6 medical centers, 6 Bible schools, an HIV Clinic, a safe drinking water ministry, Mass Meal feedings for the hungry, a ministry for prostitutes. Our team will be working with the ministry that needs us the most when we are there. In addition, we are raising $15,000 to purchase a brand new ambulance for one of their medical centers!

In many villages in India there are no First Aid and/or medical facilities. In addition, most people living in the rural areas do not have cars. An ambulance/ mobile clinic will allow Harvest India to take doctors/nurses and medicine to the village on a regular basis to help alleviate this great need.