a new day

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13374646

vacay part two

See you in two weeks, Thailand! I cannot wait.

 

club rickshaw

My beloved Aimee has left! :( On Sunday afternoon she and her bags went to the airport headed home to L.A. Our little room in the office is not the same without her...She was such a ray of sunshine to me and to our whole office. The boys had planned some celebrations for Aimee and Liz's last weekend and their execution was stellar. Saturday evening we all went to dinner, a bunch of girls got henna and then the boys rented rickshaws for the night. This is awesome because normally the rickshaws only run on specific routes, so they had to essentially be bribed/persuaded to go out of their route for a whole evening. One of our guys had gone to an area where the seriously pimped out rickshaws tend to congregate and had them do a little 'audition' to test their lights and their systems. If only I could have been there for that part. He explained the sitch and struck a deal. Before we knew it our two maniac drivers came to get us with lights flashing, music bumpin, and took us all over the city - here are some pics before we took off of Voratida, me and Aimee holding up the back. Our driver brought along his friend who LOOOVED Usher, Akon and Justin Bieber. Guess you had to be there but his moves and his excitement were contagious to say the least.

And for my family / Stephanie: I am also posting another picture from the weekend to follow-up my animal lover post from January. I went to the medical camp for the second time this past weekend and one of my friends took a candid picture of me frolicking with the calves right outside the clinic during some free time (decked out in a full salwar suit I might add). Making progress??

I cannot believe I only have about 7 weeks left!! Where has the time gone?

IJM Chennai

God is moving! 522 bonded laboroers rescued last week in Chennai. Watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk_QDA_9gOE&feature=share

behind the veil

I can no longer keep track of the moments here which have opened my eyes to the needs of my neighbors. Since my first day, I was forced to face the reality of the suffering and abject poverty of those directly outside my door. I have been approached literally hundreds of times by beggars--mothers holding naked babies, small children in dirty and torn clothing, frail and starving men with empty eyes, women who habitate the same street corners week after week--and am paralyzed by how their needs far exceed my own capacities, resources and abilities.

"Just some rice, di di."

The image of small children coming up to my window in traffic putting their hands to their mouths will be etched in my mind forever. So will the masses who sleep on cardboard boxes lining both sides of every street at night. There is no way that I can help them all.

But as paralyzed as I feel by the poverty, I know that Jesus has not called me to turn my face to those in need. The question I have asked over and over throughout the past few months is where God might like me to give.

You know those moments where you meet someone and you know that God has orchestrated it? After meeting a new friend this weekend, I believe my prayers have been answered and I now know a clear and tangible way that I (and you!) can make a difference.

On Saturday I was introduced to a friend of a friend and was given the opportunity to learn about her work among girls in a nearby village. We met Saturday afternoon and without any hesistation she invited me to her home for Easter lunch. I was really touched by her hospitality.

Rupali* spends 4-5 days a week traveling 90 minutes each way by train to a village on the outskirts of the city. In this village she and her husband have established a community center for the girls. The village is remote and it is ruled by the tenants of fundamentalist Islam. I have read about the lack of rights these girls have in books like Half the Sky and in the occasional article on oppression against women, but I have never heard first-hand accounts. Many villages here are rigidly patriarchial.

Rupali is married to a man who grew up in this environment. She is familiar with the culture, the beliefs and the traditions. When she arrived in this village, she saw for herself that the girls are not valued. They are given no worth, no skills, no future, no opportunities, no freedom and no ability to be creative or express themselves in any way. Forced to wear a burka revealing only their eyes, none of them have been allowed outside the four walls of their homes. They are silenced from speaking up. They aren't allowed to have toys, to go to school, to learn how to spell, to go to the doctor, or to learn any skills. Boys can have all of these things. They are bred to serve the men in the home and are married at around age 14, often as just one of multiple wives to men in their 30s and 40s. For the rest of their lives, their job is to serve their husband and keep the house.

Suicide takes too many. Those who don't go that route live in constant fear, anguish and loneliness. Poverty has contributed to the culture to think of the girls only as a financial burden, incentivizing families to marry off their daughters as soon as they can to whoever will pay for them. The culture often breeds traffickers-- men posing as prospective husbands who are easily able to gain permission to swap some money for the young girls--to turn around and sell them into sex slavery. Rupali has seen girls sold right in front of her eyes. They are at a huge risk.

A couple years ago Rupali sensed a calling to work with these girls. Her purpose was to find a way to show them that they have a value and that their lives have worth. She wanted to be in the community and to educate them, teaching them basic skills that could change the course of their futures. She and her husband spent the first year gaining the trust of parents in the community so that they might allow the daughters to learn how to sew for free. Her focus is on girls from age 4-20. Because the training was offered without cost, the parents were much more likely to give permission. They weren't losing anything in allowing their daughters to learn a simple skill, but they instead saw value in the girls' contributions to the family. If the daughters could make money, feeding them might no longer be a burden. Some said no, but most have said yes.

The community center has grown. Each day, the girls arrive at 10 a.m. and remove their burkas to reveal brightly colored salwar suits and contagious smiles. Rupali has taught them the alphabet. She has taught them how to sign their names. She has taught them to stitch, to sew and to mend. She has given them toiletry kits and has seen them awestruck at how shampoo makes their hair silky. She provides coloring books for them and has watched them marvel in seeing a colored pencil for the first time. She recently took a group of them to see one of the city's most famous palaces. The girls couldn't believe what they saw.

"Is this the world?" "Are these people actors di di?" They had never before seen civilization.

Rupali's mission is to first give them a skill and show them they are talented and have value. Access to a sewing machine enabled one girl to make 100 rupees ($2) in her first 15 days- an impressive feat to someone who had never had a single rupee of her own. With that money, she can now feed herself and will not have to be given up for marriage as a child. Another girl was able to obtain a job simply by learning how to sign her name. Girls are learning quickly and have dreams of opening their own tailoring shops, of being beauticians, of being teachers. Their lives are being transformed.

When I was sitting in her home, seeing photos and hearing stories, I could not stop hearing "This is it." This woman is doing this work on her own initiative. I asked her what needs were the greatest, as I am well aware that financial limitations often place hindrances on people's capacity to work. She said that new sewing machines and school supplies are the most pressing needs as the center is growing. New machines enable the girls to take rotations using them and allow for the greatest output of work. This directly affects their ability to make money, to create value and to gain the confidence that has been stripped of them in the oppression of the larger community.

So here it is, my shameless plug for the ministry of Rupali which seeks to reach behind the veils of these girls and share love to a segment of the population who is desperately seeking someone to care for them. I simply cannot imagine living like they do. 

Each sewing machine costs $150 USD. I would like to be able to present Rupali with the funds to purchase 5 new machines by the time I leave here in June. Please contact me if you feel led to cover the cost of one.

"And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'" - Mathew 25:40

abide in me

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another."  ~ John 15: 16-17

food poisoning: round two

Twice in ten days. Such a blast. Oral rehydration salts, antibiotics and a lot of episodes of Criminal Minds. No more foreign food for me. 

tatted up

My friend Amy arrived this morning from from Chennai to spend Easter weekend here. I showed her some of the classic tourist things this afternoon and then we went to get henna 'sleeves.' The artwork is incredibly intricate! When it all dries and you take off the excess ink, it's actually way lighter. Here are some shots!

Amazing Love

"He Himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed." - 1 Peter 2:24

As I look ahead to this Easter weekend, I am overwhelmed with gratefulness for what Jesus did for you and for me on the cross. I'll never be able to fully comprehend the great exchange of his suffering and death for my sin, and how through the cross of Jesus Christ I can truly live with full confidence of the hope and life I have in Him.  Because of his death, I can live. Because He loved me anyway in my wretched and sinful state, I can place all my trust in Him. Amazing love and unfathomable grace. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for what you did on the cross at Calvary.

So let Hope rise
And darkness tremble
In Your Holy light
That every eye would see 
Jesus our God
Great and mighty to be praised

medical camp

One thing that is extremely awesome about the church I have been attending here is how involved it is in the community. They always make announcements on Sundays about various opportunities they have to participate in different kinds of service work in this city, but it has been seldom that I have done any of it. My friend Joe was telling me about the medical camps that a girl at our church has initiated in a remote village on Saturdays, and we decided to go this week. 

Remote. I have been to tons of villages, and a couple even hours away, but nothing as remote as this one. We all met up at 6:30 a.m., drove for 2 hours close to the border of Bangladesh and then took a boat and a motorcycle-type thing to get there. I love getting out of the city sometimes because the scenery is gorgeous. Everything is so green and I always feel like I am on a jungle safari. The air is also a lot cleaner. 

Sometimes here I can get pretty lonely, or homesick, or too self-focused when I think about everything / everyone I have at home and how far away I am. And other times it hits me like a ton of bricks how lucky I am to be here. How much I hoped and prayed for this internship and how cool it is to be riding around the in villages of India going to help people get medical care who have no doctors in their area whatsoever. How much I wanted to be working in the front lines of human trafficking and how I am here now.

That being said, today was one of those days where I was struck by how much I love it here. We left early and arrived at the school where the clinic would take place at about 9 a.m. I think 34 new patients came today, above and beyond the people who were following up from last time. It was a lot of women. My job was easy- just height and weight measurement and playing with the kids. I was struck with how important it is for Christians to help meet the basic needs of other humans- and how great is is that Sarah has made it her life mission to ensure that these village people are healthy and have access to medical care. 

As I was working in this dilapidated school in the middle of nowhere in rural India, I kept thinking about how beautifully and wonderfully God has made his creation. The doctor we brought was able to sit with each patient and help prescribe medicines for various aches and pains. A few previous patients were back and were doing drastically better simply because they were able to receive medicine. Everyone was excited to be there. When we left, I was exhausted but in a good way. Here are some photos to document the day!

Boat ride #1

2/3 there: Pre-motor ride

Ready to go. We felt like we were going to fly off the whole time!

Everything is so green! Including the water, apparently

Getting closer to our village

The school where the clinic is held

Joe and Brother Hector, check in team

Waiting for the doctor

My favs

Taking height measurements

And weight measurements

Auntie Evelyn and Babet giving out meds

Dr. Sam with one patient

The final boatride back

speak up

Lovely Readers! Today I am thankful for how abundantly enriched I am by the amount of quality relationships I have in my life. I am constantly overwhelmed by God's grace in giving me things that I so completely don't deserve.

Through my family, my wonderful friends, boyfriend, coworkers, mentors, babysitting kids and church family, etc., God has revealed His love to me time and time again - His perfect love through imperfect people. How cool is that?  I can't remember a single instance when God didn't provide a mentor or a friend to help me sort out problems, make a decision, point me to Jesus or care for me when I needed it. This is above and beyond God's own promise to never leave me or forsake me Himself. Because of this, I truly have never been alone.

Anyways, the point of this post is that a lot of the time I don't vocalize enough to people how much they mean to me. Things that I think and appreciate often go unspoken, and I let opportunities for encouragement and affirmation pass me by. I don't even do it intentionally. 

Because this has been on my mind so much, my challenge for this next month is to speak up and tell people in your life how much they mean to you. Write a letter, an e-mail, schedule a hangout, make a phone call and just take care of business. Let them know the influence they have had on you, the challenge they have been to you, how fabulous they are or the ways that their presence has made your life better. 

Love initiates.

"Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as you are doing." - 1 Thes. 5:11

the small things

Text I got from my BFF Aimee last night at 11:51 p.m:

"Almost forgot! Get your cute butt to Spencer's asap! Yogurt is back!"

Why did this make my night, my weekend and perhaps my entire week? I have serious trouble finding food here that I like / want to eat and  I do all my shopping either 1. getting imported apples at a local market or 2. getting chicken, eggs and cereal at Spencer's, the closest thing to a Western grocery store.

 I found these 15 cent Hindi-labeled vanilla yogurts last October and we fell hard for each other. They taste like home. I mix them with granola and mentally teleport myself to Alpine Bagel, reliving college lunchdates and spontaneous meetups at the student union. To my extreme disappointment, they mysteriously disappeared from the shelves without warning sometime in December, and I have spent the last four months scounging the dairy aisles of every store in the city. To no avail.

But they are back. I am so excited. Hmm. And I'm realizing more and more that when living nine months overseas, it really is the small things sometimes.

Oh India sometimes you don't make any sense. Is yogurt consumption a seasonal affair?

global prayer gathering 2011

This weekend, about a thousand people are meeting together in Washington, D.C. for IJM's annual Global Prayer Gathering to pray with the staff from 5 continents and 14 field offices for the justice work around the globe. I would highly recommend checking out the schedule and online streaming options at http://gpgonline.ijm.org.

On Saturday evening at 8:30 p.m. there will be an online broadcast premier of IJM's latest film telling the story of the rescue and re-rescue of a girl in this city by our field office (see the post below... Vic Lacey), followed by an interview with my field office director. This film was made in November when I was here!

If you have time this weekend, definitely check it out. There are wonderful updates and speakers, but most of all it is a time to bring petitions and cries before God's throne of mercy and to believe that He is hearing us and is working through us to bring an end to oppression everywhere.

"You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more." - Psalm 10:17-18

to the laceys

I honestly don't even know how to start this post, which explains why it is several days late. As many of you know, the dearest people that I have had over here left on Friday night to go back to the U.S. I met Vic and Trish on my first full day in the city at the mall with my roommates. It was then that I was also introduced to their daughter Robin, who came to be a super close friend as well. Over the last six months, the impact that the Lacey family has had on my life has been huge-- I don't even feel like I can express it in a way that explains how much this family has meant to me. Before I came I didn't even know who they were or that they would make such a difference in my quality of life over here.



Robin and I were instant friends. I think it was a couple days after I arrived that her parents had some interns over to their flat when Robin and I had a serious girl talk in her room and realized how much we have in common and how fabulous it was to hang out. This led to being inseparable for every weekend the first three months of my stay, and it made the transition sooo much easier. We baked, watched tons of Gilmore Girls, went out, went to the villages and stayed up extremely late on several occasions making videos from our tours around the city. A major highlight of course was our five-star hotel-hopping and food extravaganza weekend. I am so thankful that God provided such a great friend and also kept us safe as we romped around the city (...sorry for my bad influence Vic!) In December, Robin headed home to find a new job and return to her life in America. As of last week, she started a new job at Air One Radio as their special media extraordinairre (not sure of the exact title...). I cannot wait until I can see her again and I am so proud of her! Fortunately, I think I can persuade her to move to Toronto so that we can be roommates....!!

Fortunately for me, when she left, her parents were still around and her bedroom became the room for their other adopted daughters, Aimee and myself. I stayed there pretty much the entire month of December and into January. The Laceys taught me so much about hospitality and the importance of always having an open home. I know that their place has been a haven to  many interns who have come and gone before me, and I know that their presence in this city has eased the minds of quite a few sets of parents. Trish was always willing to have us over for dinner, to help us learn how to cook new things and to have girl time when we needed it. She even helped me make two dresses and was patient when my darts sucked or my lines weren't straight like hers. I learned how to assemble a zipper and a hook and eye, to make homemade tortillas and an assortment of other baked goods. Trish is one of those people who is totally selfless and she proved it all the time-- whether through taking us to the doctor to taking care of us when we were sick to checking on me every couple hours when I couldn't sleep for weeks in February to always being there to talk with about absolutely anything. I miss you mama Trish!!

Together Vic and Trish also taught me so much about the kind of relationship I aspire to have. It was really cool to see Trish's unwavering support of Vic and Vic's love and appreciation for her. Aimee and I asked them several times to impart their secrets of a successful marriage on us and we loved gaining wisdom from them.

Vic was our office's fearless leader and was responsible for building the police relations in this city from the ground up. Three years ago the police station didn't even want us in their office. Now, members of our team have had tea with some of the highest ranking criminal investigations officers in the state. This can be directly attributed to Vic and his relationship-building and leadership skills. And patience. Because of his hard work and faith in God's passion for justice and rescuing girls, over 150 young girls are now living in freedom. 150 girls who have been freed from unbelievable torture and abuse and given a chance again. God even provided one final successful rescue operation on their last morning in the city.

Vic also spent every Sunday afternoon going to the local villages to take photos of village families and their kids. I got the privilege of joining him most Sundays and seeing the kids literally running in huge packs when they saw him coming towards their village on the bike rickshaw. The families would gather in crowds asking for their photos to be taken, and he would give their kids candy and return the next week with prints for them. Most of these people have never been able to own a photo of their family- so in that way God used Vic to be an enormous blessing and gift to the hundreds of people in this community even apart from his immeasurable contributions towards justice.

I have to also say how much  I will miss Vic constantly making fun of me: from repeating all my embarrassing ditz comments to telling me he would put gross pictures of me online, etc...The last week definitely hasn't been the same and it was soo hard to see you leave, but I will be visiting California soon and look forward to sipping on some margaritas and eating Mexican with my second family. Y'all are phenomenal. I love you and miss you so much already!!

Michael W. Smith throwback

We sang this song in church this morning and I hadn't heard it in years. What a great reminder:

Above all powers, above all kings

Above all nature and all created things

Above all wisdom and all the ways of man

You were here before the world began

Above all kingdoms, above all thrones

Above all wonders the world has ever known

Above all wealth and treasures of the earth

There's no way to measure what you're worth

Crucified, laid behind the stone

You lived to die, rejected and alone

Like a rose, trampled on the ground

You took the fall

And thought of me, above all