On the brink.

Hello Everyone!

This is the first post on our new India blog! Right now we are in Oregon with Grant's family. We met the rest of our group minus one person for the first time last night and it was wonderful! It felt like we'd all known each other for a really long time already. I'm so excited to travel with these people, Grace, Rachel, Brian, Elyse, Laney, and Vanessa (haven't met her yet, but can't wait). We were able to sort through last details and then pray a lot together. Here's the schedule as I know it right now.

We leave on our first plane Monday night at about ten. We have a layover in New York, and then we fly to Bombay. Another layover there and then to Kolkata! When we arrive we will head to the Missions of Charity. The people of this organization were largely inspired by and follow the example of Mother Teresa. They have several help houses set up to aid the sick and dying. We will meet with a woman there who will place us each in the house that she believes will fit us best. We will work there for one shift a day for three weeks! We will all stay together in a hostile, and will spend afternoons and evenings together going out into the community to meet and help the beautiful people of India. After our three weeks there, we will travel to Darjeeling to spend a few days in an orphanage, and then rest for a couple days so that we don't go into complete shock when we come back. We are so excited to be taking a ton of stuff with us to give away! Seriously... we each have a duffel bag so large that we could have brought a couple friends with us. We're filling them with little wooden cars, beanie babies and stuffed animals, and lots of clothes.

Our focus while we are there is really love and simplicity. More specifically, to let God love the people there through us, because our love is so weak compared to His. Jesus was so good at showing His love for people while He was on earth simply by spending time with them and helping them. We want to live like that. We want all of the unimportant, complicated, and distracting stuff to be stripped away so that we are simply focused on God and His love. I'll be completely honest... I have a lot of fears... about safety, about being inadequate, about leaving people I love, but I have been able to find peace knowing that Grant and I are doing what God wants us to do, and that He has prepared the way and has everything totally and completely in control. What an amazing guy, I love God :)

And I love all of you! So much. Thanks for all of the support and prayer and everything! So many people have donated money, things, time, and it means the world to Grant and I. Keep the prayers coming please :) And we'll try to keep the information coming.

As soon as Brian gets the internet working again. He killed it.