7 day hike

Darjeeling is so beautiful; I’m loving everyday of it J First we went on a 5 days trek to hand out the supply’s I talk about in the blog before and that was a really neat experience. All the village people were so thankful for everything we were giving them. But today was not the best day because I found out that we are going to go on a 7 days trek , where we hike anywhere from 4-7 hours a day… everyday….for 7 days, and there is no ministry we are just doing it to do it. Well all the boys were excited but I was not to say the least, I said “What?! We have to hike everyday up and down hill with a big hiking backpack on our backs, for hours, for 7 days, and with no ministry! We are just doing it to see the country side??” haha so I was complaining and I just really didn’t want to do all that walking.

But oh man, this 7 day trek, was the most beautiful thing I have ever done in my life. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. Of course at times the hike up hill was very hard and I pretty much hated life… but seriously this was amazing. I will post pictures with this blog so you can see just what I’m talking about. One day we even crossed the boarder and slept in Nepal. But really on this nice long trek I just had a chance to experience God’s beauty! One day we would be a deep dense forest with big creeks and waterfalls and the next day we would be in this huge green open pastures was yaks and horse wondering around… and all of this is God’s creation and then of course we saw the mountain rage and really I was just in awe of God’s beautiful creation.

Darjeeling!

Wow so when i was skiing in the Swiss Alps i thought.. Nothing could be more beautiful than this.. but now i'm in Darjeeling and we are staying in the Himalayas! It is actually the most beautiful landscape i have ever seen! Some people on my team and i have been waking up every morning at 5am to see the sunrise and go for a walk, its great :) It is also super cold here!! Yesterday i walked around town with a blanket on! and i sleep with a beany(hat) on at night it is so cold. serisouly i think i really under estimated how cold it was going to be here because i only brought one sweater and i'm frezzing.

Today we went white water rafting because it was our free day. I have never been before and it was pretty much the coolest thing i have ever done! because the river was right in the middel of the Himalayas!

For ministry... i'm so excited.... we are going on a 12 day treck (hike) in the Himalayas, right on the Nepal and Indian boarder!(which we will be able to see Mount Everest) we are going from villige to villiage to hand out food, meds, clothes, and blankets. The crazy thing is... is that some of these villiages will be unreached people groups, which means very few or no outsiders of been to that villiage before! We will be hiking about 4-5 hours everyday for 12 days, so i'm not going to lie i'm a little scared that i am going to get tired!

I'm so excited for this time here in Darjeeling becuase it is totallly different from what we have been doing... I can't wait to tell you all about How the treck goes and how God uses us in these unreached villiages :)

Calcutta!

I love Calcutta! First- oh my goodness it is very very hot! and it is very humid! But at night it cools off and there is a nice brezze so that is nice. Calcutta has been my favorite part of outreach because there is so much need here. There are slums and begger everywhere in India but in Calcutta it 100 times greater than in the other place we have been. I have seen alot of things i thought i would never see.

Right outside our hostel is about 10 familes living in slums. Cammy one of my team mates and myself have been going and visiting with them everyday! I love hanging out with the poor :) It is crazy because they speak no english and we speak none of their language but we can spend hours sitting with them! They really enjoy our company and we love hanging out with them. There is a leaper, and a lot of children, some mothers and then very young soon to be mothers. (In India they get married and have babies very young) The other day they gave us Hena! it is like and India type of tatto that last a couple weeks they put it all over our hands and feet and they loved see our reactions to it! We just sit with them and share cookies and whatever we have with them. This has been one of my highlights in calcutta is hanging out with this family everyday. :)

Mother Theresa's home! Oh my goodness... I'm in love. If anyone didn't know this is what i have been looking forward to on outreach... this is where my heart is, for the poor and for the dying, for the people who normal people don't want to spend time with. I have seen some crazy things here that again i never thought i would see. Some of these people have very intense deformities and some you question how they are still alive. But at the same time it is so easy to love these people! God has really shown me things within myself that i didn't know i had.. like i knew i had a heart for these people but i thought i would be kind of scared to sit with them or even touch them or hold their hand.. but without even thinking twice about it i sit with them and hold their hand and the joy on their face is indescribale! So our job at Mother T's house is to do some laundry, make beds, and then just love on the patients, i also help feed the ones that can't feed themselves.

Calcutta has been amazing so far. For some people when they see poverty and suffering like this they question why doesn't God help these people or why doesn't he care, or does he even exist. For me God has never been so alive!! Being here i don't question where God is but where are the Christians? Because i know God has made so many people with a heart to help people, those peolpe just have to make the choice to get up and start helping!

To sum it up outreach is going great, oh and i haven't been sick for awhile! Calcutta has for sure been the highlight, i love the people in calcutta and i love the God i see here, the God who wants to help these people, he doesn't want to see them suffering but he has sent people like me and my team to help these people and if he can send 7 people and we are making a difference image all the other missionaries that he is sending! So for me there is much hope and joy here. Yes the things that i do see are very disturbing and devistating but I see hope here.

I leave calcutta on Friday for Darjeeling and then we have 3 weeks there and then it is back to switzerland.. crazy! Time is going by so fast!

Thank you all for you prayers and your encouargment!

Punjab!

Wow Punjab is so much nicer than Delhi! it has less cows, less trash, less slums, less traffic, it was over all just nicer, and we got to stay in a hotel with AC, i haven't felt AC since Switzerland. We were so busy this week. We would wake up at 7 and not get back to the hotel until 12am. This week we did a lot of church services, where we do dramas, give testimony, and preach.... i have already given 3 sermons since i have been here, and i use to hate to speak in front of people! we did alot of prayer this week too... because all the churches we went too were new churches, and most of the members use to be other religions but now they are Christians.

One night i will not forget we were at this church( and when i say church it was just a 4 walled room with rugs on the ground) but there was this girl who was SO So very skinny, but then she had a huge belly. At the end of church i talked to her, and i never really found out what here problem was, some said it was a growth and another said it was cancer, ( she wasn't pregnant, it was a different kind of big belly) Anyways she was so beautiful and only17 and she was going to die. The doctors said there was no cure and besides they were poor. I just sat there holding her hand( the skinniest hand i have ever felt) with tears running down my face, i wish i could have given her something to smile about i wish i could make her life the best until she dies....but that is when i realize that i can do nothing by myself but only God can, because i had to let go of her hand and go back to the hotel, but i know God is still holding her hand.

The last day in Punjab we went to the Golden temple which was pretty cool! Then we went to the Pakistan border which was really cool!!there was so many people there! and on one side people were shouting INDIA INDIA! and then on the other.. PAKISTAN PAKISTAN! it was pretty crazy....

Up Next: One more week in Delhi, i'm actually not even sure what kind of ministry we are doing yet... Then it is off to Calcutta for 3 weeks and working in mother Teresa's home!

2 weeks in Delhi

The first week of outreach was not the best... our ministry was to work in this coffee house and make relationships with the locals... only the problem was that all the students were taking exams that week so the coffee house was very very slow. And we would pass all these slums everyday and i would think why are we sitting in this nice coffee shop doing nothing when we could be helping a lot of people. So we had a team meeting because everyone felt the same way so thankfully the ministry was changed.

The second week, we taught at slum schools. The slums are so intense i know i will never get use to go in them. The schools are so fun! There are about60 kids in the smallest room and we teach them for 1 hour. We teach them some easy songs like head and shoulders and read them bible stories. So the second week was much better. But i also Got sick this week, it is not fun being sick, i think on outreach i might get sick a lot, just because of the heat and all the different food!

It is so crazy because there are so many different Gods . Walking only 2 minutes down the street we are staying on there are 4 temples! and the once a week the set up a temple right out side our house to worship their Hindu God through out the night! very loud and hard to sleep.

HOLY COW!!!

Holy cow.. I'm in India... and it is pretty insane.. I have so much to share with you guys but i have limited time so i have to sum it all up..

First the plane ride here was awesome, then we got here at 3:30 am an it took us and hour to get the YWAM base we are staying at there was so much traffic and soo many peole on the streets either sleeping or walking.. and i was like ohh this is what people mean by saying India is packed with people, and it was 3 in the morning!! The driving here is a little crazy well actually a lot crazy they don't really have lines on the road and their main way of communticating it honking... oh my soo much honking! Then i was expecting Delhi to be kind of nice but the part we are in is not.. and I thought i would be more in culture shock because it is so different but i just think that because God has giving me such a heart for missions and helping these people, instead of just sitting back and taking in all the sites of the slums and being sad, i just want to get in there and help! So i'm so exicted to be here! We went to the market to buy India clothing i don't know how you call it but you should like google India traditional clothing for women.. and that is what we have to way we look so funny... it isn't that warm but that outfit makes it hot, because as women here we need to show the least amount of skin as possible

We are staying at a YWAM base and before i came i was like man i don't want to stay at a YWAM base i want to be like hardcore... well i got hardcore, how shower is a bucket of water! and for food it actually is not that bad but sometimes we have meat and i have no idea what kind of animal it is.. so i just stick to a lot of rice. :) yum but the chai tea is soo goodd!!!Oh ya so we went to the market... and that is why i said holy cow because oh my there are so SO sOO many COWS!!! everywhere!! haha it is insane... ok and i will just paint this picture for you, it is our first day in Delhi that we went to the market, and our guide is so nice she is part of the YWAM base and she said she would come to the market with us and help us find the clothes we need... well we are in this little ally and it is full of little stands ( not shops because we are going through this all y to get to the shops) So this all has a ton of stands... seriously like 100 cows! random dogs, trash, so many peolple, bikes, cars!, beggers, and holes in the wall were people live... and ok this was intense because we are all trying to take in what we are seeing and our guide is walking so fast!!! And so i'm trying to look at these holes in the wall where a whole family lives and then a car honks at me to get out of the way and then i run into a cow!! it was the craziest time of my life!

But we got the clothes! ha and we wore them for the first time today because today we went to church...we actually ran the whole church service besides worship, so it was a lot of pressure on our 2nd day of out reach, so last night we prayed and people recieved that myslef and my leader Cliare are suppose to give a testimoney... So i talked about obeying God.. it was so crazy i was nervous at all!! it was excited and i can't wait to talk more infront of people... God has given me so much strength when it comes to public speaking, i use to hate it!! and then us a girls did a dance to a song and that i was a little more nervous for but it still went good!! aww it was so exciting!

I'm really excited for our Delhi ministry because at first i was like man i just want to go to calcutta but i think it was smart to start here so we wouldn't get over whelmed.. So like 3 min away from where we live, the YWAM base owns a coffee shop and it is the cutes coffee shop ever! And the people of the Universty come here.. and so that is one of our ministries and i'm really excited because we just get to work there and inter act with the costumers and most of the speak english and i get to bake! so i'm excited!

we will also be teaching kids english!

aww my time is running out... but just know that i'm so exicted to be here and serve God! Thank you for all your prayers :)

Lecture Phase = amazingly wonderful

Right now I am sitting here typing this in my room as people around me are going crazy trying to figure out what to pack for out reach! It is going to be hardcore, we are only bring like 2 shirts, and 2 pants.. but as for me, the girls have to wear special clothes in India that we are buying there like skirts that hit the floor and some scarf thing that goes around our neck... I should probably start to pack soon… but I wanted to write one last blog. This is such a weird stage right now, I can’t believe lecture phase is over… I can’t believe it has already been three months! I want to type so much about what I have learned here but sometimes it is hard to put into words, but I will try my best…

First of all experience so many cultures was amazing! I have loved living in Switzerland and it was been so amazing to share it was the coolest people. Something really awesome about doing a DTS is that everyone is in the same place, everyone is learning so much about themselves and trying to grow closer to God at the same time… so you become so close to the people you are living with! I know me personally there are a couple people here that I have truly grown so close to! And it is really hard because I’m not going on outreach with them. It is just so cool that I know that I have really good friends from all over the world! You form such a deep bound with these people because you are so open with each other and it isn’t just a surface relationship, but you cry and you laugh with these people and most of all you are seeking to know more of God together.

Coming here all by myself was kind of crazy, because none of these people would know who I am, or know my personality.. so I was like do I even really know who I am?? Because I mean as you all know I have an awesome twin sister, and we do everything together! So coming here I thought for sure I would learn a lot about my character.. and I have learned some, but I think I will learn more on outreach. Because for example like ok I guess I’m a little shy sometimes and like I’m never one to go against the flow of things or step up and take charge in a situation… but I think outreach is when I’m really going to live to my full potential. Like people here are so outgoing so they can be outgoing here and that is one of their strengths, but for me I feel like my strength or what God has created me to do is help those in need, and ya I can do that here but there is so much need in India and we will be living in it for 3 months and I really think I’m really going to find my true character in God because I really believe this is what God wants me to do.

Thank you so much for all you who kept Lauren and me in your prayers, read my blog, and even supported me finical!!! It means so much to have support form my friends and family.
To sum it all up God is seriously indescribable and I’m so in love with him!! Before DTS I loved God with my whole heart but I wasn’t in love.. when you are in love with someone you think about them all the time, when you first wake up and they are the last thought before you go to bed.. you want to tell them everything. And I know that is easy to say now because I’m in YWAM like this whole Godly atmosphere, how could you not always think about God. But being here I have grown so much deeper in my friendship with God and I know that I’m not just going to go home and forget about everything I learned here. It would be SO impossible because God has done some really crazy things in my life as I have been here that seriously I will not be able to forget even if I wanted to!!

I have found a new obsession… Following Jesus :) and it is pretty darn exciting

Ok well I better go pack now.. Oh my gosh I’m going to India!!