Different. Not Weird.

Finally reunited with by bag after four days
without it!

Friday evening we spent the afternoon and evening at Dilip, one of our contacts, house. We made lunch together and ate on the floor of what we would call a living room. Their "couches" is a very thin mattress. As we were cleaning up after our 3:30 lunch and preparing for a night fellowship, I asked if there was a vacuum so I could vacuum the floor. I got laughed at, no verbal response, and was handed a small broom. We had to sweep the floor on our hands and knees because we are so tall, where as they can sweep the floor just bent over. Different.

Public restrooms are squatties. As one gal from our group asked me, "Like going in a field?" Yes. They are much more sanitary; no sitting, no touching. They also give you a good leg workout, perfect your balance, and is an overall healthier way to go to the bathroom. Most do not have any toilet paper, but we spoiled westerners have begun to carry a roll with us. Different.

Our neighbors are working on their balcony/roof. They need bricks and manual labor. The manual labor here is human strength. They carry bricks that were just made outside the building in a basket that has a strap they put around their forehead up 4 stories. These people, both men and women, look to be over the age of 40. We witnessed this same thing when we hiked the mountain on Thursday. I struggled carrying myself up the mountain, these people are carrying baskets of bricks. Different.

Sinks here, if a house has one, has only one sink to wash dishes in. There is not a sink for washing and a sink for putting the clean dishes in. Many of our neighbors wash their dishes on the roof in a bucket of water, the same way we do our laundry. For the first time I washed my laundry by hand. Some of our neighbors also bath on the roof. Different.

Four of us girls in the back of a taxi. Teresa (our leader), Kat,
me and Kreu.

Public transportation is crazy. The roads are crazy. There are no rules, just one goal: survive. The taxis here are equivalent to the size of a Geo car. To save money, we will put four in the back, and one in the front seat, then of course the driver. Yes, it is very uncomfortable, but it is not to bad because you are squeezed in with people you know. The public vans which the Western world would put maybe 15 people in at the absolute maximum, well we were in a van with 31 people. Different.

This is city life. Today, November 17, our group leaves to spend four days in a village. I do not know what to expect, our contact did not even know how to explain the village other than, "It's a village." Our bags are packed with kurtas and traditional clothing. We have ideas of what we will be doing for the children and women, but most importantly we are going with an expectant heart. We could go into this village with a schedule, but miracles are not planned. We pray expecting God to provide us with the opportunity to witness miraculous healing, to see hearts renewed for the love of God, to see broken families made whole in the power of the Lord. We believe our God, the Creator of every emotion, has the power to heal the soul. We believe our God, the Creator of every body, has the power to heal those made in His likeness. We believe our God, the Creator of every truth, has the power to heal the mind of all lies believed.

Our living room/dining room. This is how we eat all our meals!

We believe God is not more powerful or preforms more miracles overseas, we believe God has the exact same authority over all powers and principalities. Pray without doubt. God is ready to move miraculously in the west, He is simply waiting for a vessel to move through. Please do not read my blog, or any other YWAM blog and say, "Wow! YWAMers are amazing!" Yes, we, but God does not have special favor with a group or organization. God moved through uneducated fisherman, through cheating tax collectors, through the tempestuous Sons of Thunder. Be ready for the unplanned work of the Lord to move through you. He loves you, His precious child.