Earlier this week, we had a break in. I was washing my hands, when all of a sudden I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned and looked at the intruder, slightly startled. Bravely, I returned his menacing stare. Finally, he ran away along the wall and crawled into his hole. Yes, the culprit was a gecko, but it was fairly decent sized at about 6 inches long. I told Carmen about it, who later couldn't sleep because she was dreaming about geckos crawling all over her.

On Tuesday, our team was able to contribute to a Republic Day celebration service. We did music for about 25 minutes and it was so much fun! The crowd got right into it and it seemed that they enjoyed it even more than we did. Jake and Cayla were able to use their puppets for the service, as well. The kids hadn't been responding to the puppet scripts that we had written previously, so we altered the one that they did at the service. The kids loved it! As soon as Jake and Cayla started, the rest of us watched as kids ran so they could see what was happening on the stage. It was great :)

On Wednesday night we had the opportunity to do one of our dramas at the youth service near where we are staying. It was awesome to spend some time with the youth, singing, playing games, and just hanging out. That youth group definitely has the capability of making an impact for Christ in this area. They put so much work and effort into the youth night. It is awesome to see how on fire for God they are and how willing they are for God to use them in spreading the Gospel.

On Friday, we were involved in another character building seminar, this time at a highschool for tenth grade students. But because the whole seminar was being taught in Hindi, we could not teach any of the sessions. Instead, we were asked to do dramas and songs. We were only planning on doing one song, but once we had finished the students asked us to do another one. RJ was able to share his testimony and preach the Gospel, which was awesome. Overall, the seminar went well, although it would have been nice to be able to connect with the students. The fact that most of them didn't speak English complicated this ever so slightly.

God has been blessing us so much here. He is continuing to provide us with safety wherever we go and He was been giving us many opportunities to show His love to the Indian people. I am definitely looking forward to how God will continue to work in us and in the lives of the Indian people.

- Tanya

India has been great this last week, there have been so many cool and exciting things happening. Let me give you an idea of what's happening with the guys on our team. We have been going out and playing soccer almost every day for an hour or so, just trying to relate and pour into the lives of the youth in this area. We have been building good relationships with them. We decided to step it up a little bit by asking the guys that we play soccer with, to spend a day with us at a nearby beach. On Saturday we hung out with a bunch of the guys, played some soccer and volleyball on the beach, as well as sat down for a snack. It was during this break that we were able to preach the gospel to these guys, who come from Hindu and Catholic backgrounds. I myself got to share my life story with these guys, and tell them how Jesus changed my life. The Holy Spirit was at work that day. These guys ended up saying the prayer and coming to the youth group on Sunday, that we just recently started. God is good! This one ways we have been doing ministry in the area other than just programs.

We had youth last night at 5pm, and it was really exciting to see so many of our Indian friends come. We sang some songs and shared with them what it means to be a follower of Christ, as well as what the Bible says about becoming a child of God.

God is at work within the Indian people of Mumbia and we are just the tools God is using to tell them about Jesus Christ.

-Kyle

January 14-17

These last few days we have had no programs; we are focusing on relationships and getting to know the youth in our community. The guys have met lots of people through soccer, and now have an abundance of friends. They see people they know every time they walk out the door, which is such a great opportunity for them. The girls have had to be a bit more creative as girls here don't play sports, but God is faithful, and we now are getting to know more people. Yesturday we had our second weekly youth worship/get together time. It's a time of games, singing and sharing the gospel. There are still less than a dozen of locals who come, but both times it's been mainly different people. It was really encouraging. Our host was able to share the gospel. Praise God!
Praise Items:
-For how God is working; even in the little things
-For God's provision and protection thus far
Prayer Requests:
-starting today a few team members are giving free music lessons. Pray for wisdom and opportunities to share Christ.
-health; a number of people having been feeling under the weather lately
-continued unity among our team

~Kimmie

This weekend we had the chance to go to a Church that we had visited once before. We were there for Saturday and Sunday, doing a seminar type thing with our host about being Christlike. It was pretty challenging, as this was a pretty new thing for our team, but God provided for all our needs. They were long days, but totally worth it! Most of us were able to share our testimonies, and how God has grown us and taught us. We met a lot of wonderful people who love God and love others. We felt very welcome and fairly comfortable there. We also celebrated Alena's 19th birthday on Saturday. We had cake and played birthday games like musical chairs and pin the sombraro on E.T.
Yesturday and today have been filled with working on things so we can start performing new programs. It's been a lot of researching and thinking of new ideas, and practicing drama and music. It has been wonderful to have a couple of days to be able to focus on getting more programs up and running.
Lately God has been teaching me about love and passion. I realized that I didn't really feel a passion to serve and love people, but that's what I wanted, so I studied it. I learned that I first need to love God and have a passion for Him. Okay, so what is love? I read 1 Corinthians 13 about all the attributes of love: what love is and what it's not. I've started breaking it down and looking at each attribute separately. I planned to study each attribute 1 week each, but it's been two weeks and I'm still working and looking at patience. When I saw patience, I thought, "God please give me opportunities to practice my patience." He definitely did, but not in the way I'd expect. I've learned that I'm not patient with myself at all. I expect myself to fit in culturally, to not make mistakes, so when I do, I get down on myself. But how can I be patient with others if I don't work on it myself. Through this, God is totally growing me, and slowly, I'm finding that I love it here more and more. I'm getting super excited about how God is working and will continue to work here. When we love God with all that we are, that love will overflow to those around us. That is what I want while we're here, and my whole life: to have such a passion and love for God that I can't help but love those I come in contact with.
~Kimmie

Early Mornings, Late Nights, and Camel Rides!

Well, the title basically says it all, but I figured that I would elaborate a little =)
When we have an early morning, usually I have a nap, and then I can't sleep through the night and others do that as well, we find out that the next day is an early morning so it's a vicious cycle really, anyway back to my point, when we have early mornings and things of that nature it's really neat to see the team run on God's strength and energy. It so cool when we get to a program, our lack of energy totally disappears and we're jumping and having a blast and half, it's so awesome how He is willing to provide us with that. This week we had a program in the early morning and in the afternoon so in the time between we had some relax time. Since we were quite a long distance away from our flat and a short distance from the beach, we had lunch on the sand. While we were waiting for our transportation, there was a man with a camel walking along this deserted beach and we discovered that he has giving rides! So the entire team except for myself and Alex (because he was sick) got to ride on a camel! It was everyone's first time. I had ridden one before so I didn't want to waste time. Everyone was startled upon getting on and off the camel, it was quite hilarious to watch I will post some pictures =) When we got back to the school, we did our thing and then at the end, the school wanted to show us their action songs! So they had a group of girls come up on stage and start singing and dancing! They dragged the team members up with them and I was videotaping the whole thing! The one song I remember is "Just to please you Lord I am jumping on the rock, jumping jumping jumping jumping on the rock:" It was really incredible to see and how all of it is for His glory!

~Alena

New Year, Same God

Its awesome to see what God has done in the lives of each individual teammate. The 31st was a day of reflection and thanksgiving. We sat down as a team and shared the blessings that God has given us in the year of 2009. Our God is a living God and He is at work in each of our lives.
I had a fun filled night celebrating the coming of the New Year. We were able to enjoy a firework show over the city of Mumbai, from the roof of our apartment.
The very first day of the New Year God provided another opportunity to share our faith. Our team traveled across the city and had the pleasure of sharing through our performances. There were just over 50 college student that we were able to talk to and fellowship with.
I can't wait to see how God is going to work through the team and what he is going to bless us with during this New Year.