Hello friends!
Sorry it has been so long, had some technology issues in Nepal and after 3 failed attempts to write the blog, I finally just gave up! So let me give a quick update on everything that has happened in the past few days...
We arrived in Nepal and were amazing to find the weather to be absolutely beautiful and cool!! Such a contrast from the Kalcutta furnace! Our hotel was more like a resort and was in the valley surrounded by an amazing view of the mountains! What a blessing! During our stay in Nepal we worked with Janets friends who had been working there for the past 20 years doing bible translation for village people groups. The first day we got to meet his team, which contsisted of many men from the village. A few of them shared with us their testimonies which were truly moving... They expressed their desire to know more about the Lord and they were so excited and full of passion about reading the word. One of the men told us that he worked on this translations project becasue he so badly wanted his family and friends to know the word of God! WOW... These stories really convicted me because it made me realize how much I take for granted the fact that I have had the bible in my language always at my finger tips. These men were craving to hear the word in their own tounge and I take advantage of the my easy assessibility. After hearing their stories, we were all left in tears... it was beautiful and refreshing to hear...
We spent the rest of our time in Nepal just touring around with our wonderful hosts. They took us to many Buddhist temples adn shrines, which i found to be beautiful and interesting. I really can appriciate many ideas from Buddhism and want to learn more about it. We also spend a lot of time in the market areas and I successfully traded out my entire wardrobe for a new one! ha! Lots of light linen pants and shirts...very cool.
One day we got to go to a few of the villages that the translators worked in, which was really cool and gave a new perspective. I loved the village feel, so laid back and peaceful.
After Nepal, we flew back to Delhi for a night and then we were off to Jammu, which is way up north India. We will be spending about a week in this area. While we are here we are working with a group here and doing water testing in almost 40 villages! The hope of this project is that we can test the water in these villages and then show them the samples, many of which are full of coloforms, which is bacteria from human and animal feases. After we show them that their water isnt clean we hope to do some community orgainzing and get them to understand that this dirty water is what is making their kids sick and even die. We also brought with us water filters and we can help them build filters for their water.
Yesterday we broke up into three teams and went out with translators to the different villages to get water samples. My team consisted of myself, two missionaries who were just a little bit older than me that are stationed here for 2 years, and then our translator who was also much age. We drove around all day to different villages and talked to the people there and told them that we wanted to test their water to see if it iwas healthy or not.
This is a new project for this group and many of these villages that we visited had have limited to no contact with the outside peoeple. It was cool to think that my presense might be their first immpression of westerners or even Christians. While the water testing has obvious practical uses, the main reason this group started this project was to give them a reason to go into the villages and build relatioships with the people. It was a really cool day and got to see a lot!
Today we are actually doing the tests back at their home. I feel like I am in Chemistry lab again, with all my chemicals and test tubes... We have already found that more than half of the villages we tested had traced of fecal matter in their drinking water. It is cool to be just a small part of this long process that is about to begin with these people. I knew this already, but this is just reconfirming to me that real ministry takes so much time. No matter what it may look like, building relationships is key and it takes so much time and effort!
Well i feel like I might have missed some things for sure, but I need to get back to work!
I love you all so much, please leave me some comments of send me an email! I would love to hear from you!
OH, I forget to tell you all that I have a plan for the second part of my summer here!!! I will be working in Pune at a coffee shop and helping our new friends who own it start up their second shop! I am so excited to help out however I can. They said they are also excited for me to be there at this time because they are trying to get a fresh perspective since they are trying to cater more to college ages people! Their story is so amazing and they believe that ministry can be integrated into normal society and that is what they are doing with their coffee shop which is located in a predominatly muslim area. They are constant lights in their area just by living their lives like Christ. I can't wait to be there and help!! More details to come!!
LOVE YOU ALL!!
Matt-
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Not so glamorous...
Hello friends! Each day I am here I feel like I am feeling more at home... I love Kolcutta and despite it's extreme poverty and despair, I have felt very connected here. It seems like such a long time ago that we arrived and i feel like since we just jumped in head first i have learned so much in such a short period of time...
Yesterday we served at Mother Teresa's Home for the Dying... While it will definetly be an experience I will never forget, it was not exactly what I was expecting. I think when you tell you people you are going to serve at Mother teresa, it gets put on this very glamorous level. I guess that is understandable considering almost everyone knows who mother T is, but let me just say that it is not so glamorous...
We woke up at 5 am to get to Mother House at 6 for mass. We walked in and they had just started...all the sisters (about 80?) where there and about 30 visitors where there on the side. We sat down and worshiped with them. I really enjoyed it, the message was great and just being there was very surreal. After mass we went down to have Chai and bread and then all the volunteers were divided up to go to the different house. There are about 6 house for different groups, like one for little babies, one fro women, one for the dying, etc... Sitting down eating there were people from all over the world there...we met some from argentina, japan, austrailia, UK and US. It was pretty cool to see everyone there, for whatever reason, ready to serve. Some were there for their first tiem like us, others had been there for weeks, months, or even years. We got assigned to the Home for the Dying, which has about 100 people, men and women, on their last legs of life. Inside, i was glad we got placed there just because it was the one I had heard about and it seemed like the one that would be the most impactful... not to sound selfish. So we took a bus to the home and then walked a little ways and finally made it.
We walked in and it was a very simple building, with rows of beds laid out with men and women lieing on them. We immediatly wend to the back where they were doing laundry. Everyone kinda seemed like they knew what they were doing already but finally someone told me what I could do. We were cleaning the clothes from the patients...but not in a washer...but instead we would put the clothes into this stone tub full of water, and then step on them with our feet and then we would put them into another tub full of water and do the same then finally they would go into a final tub and then wrung out...
I could write forever about all the tasks that we did that morning but that would probably bore you but the point of all this is that what we did, was nothing extrodanary or out of the ordinary...in fact we were doing things I could have done at home or any hospital of nursing home. I mean it was very cool to look around and think that I was working where Mother Teresa did, but at the same time it was nothing to brag about...
After we finished the laundry we had some time to interact with the patients....I'll admit that was very hard for me at first just because these men were literally dying before out eyes. I don't think I had ever been around that kind of sickness and despair before. Although again, looking past that, they were just men, some of them young, maybe even my age. Some were so sick they couldn't respond or even move, but many were alert and I even played catch with one of them for a while with a small ball.
The morning shift ended at 12 with a small lunch for the volunteers on the roof. It was so amazing to get to talk with the other people working. This small Japanese man who had worked there for the last 5 years on a off, took me under his wing and showed me the ropes...he said i "looked nice" and was very helpful which I really appreciated. We also met many young people, a couple of guys from Canada that had been traveling around the world for the past 8 months...and we met a guy my age from Chicago that had been working for a non profit and he travels all over the world. There were couples, old men, young women...it was such a melting pot of people, I loved it.
We were told that the afternoon shift started again at 3 and so we road the underground back home and went to a small cafe....it was so surreal that we traveled from extreme poverty to wealth in about 20 minutes...it was hard to stomach....
We weren't sure if we were going to go back at 3 because we tired, but Lindsey Marco and I decieded that we wanted to go back. It was cool to be out in the city by ourselves and actually feel like i knew where i was going..sorta... We got back to the home and it was very quiet and they said we could just sit with the patients...I gave many of the men massages since they were so sore and acheing... I sat next to a man that as he took each breath it sounded like it might be his last...each breath gave out an audible wince of pain... One of the other volunteers had brought a guitar and was playing songs, which brought a very soothing feel to the room. I massaged one man's leg for about 30 minutes and just held his hand...it was a very intense moment as we just locked eyes...I don't know if what I was doing was even helping, but I hope that just being there did something... Some of the men had TB, some had aids, some had limbs fully amputated...it was a room full of pain and suffering...as I was sitting there again I felt that this was nothing that I wanted to tell people about in remincent stories about "serving at Mother Teresa's". This is not to say that I am not so gratful for this experience, I just don't know if it is something I would want to brag about or do for a long period of time. We talked alot on this trip about the differnce between "crisis intervention" and "development". Mother Teresa worked with crisis intervention, and it was necessary. But i think it is also important to take a step back and try to figure out why we have these problems in the first place.
I had a lot more on my mind but am having trouble getting it into words... I have found it is better not to force it but let the processing come when it does on its own...
To sum it up, yesterday was a very challenging day, I am probably more sore than i have been in years... my whole body aches...but then i think about the man who i was sitting with who must ahve been in pain 100 times more... I am glad i got to experience this and it will be something i remember forever... but I also think I learned that at the end of the day, it was still just work, hard work... serving at the home for the dying isn't any "better" than serving any where else...God isn't going to look more highly on my day yesterday than any other day in my life prior...
So that pretty much sums up yesterday... Today we just got back from Emmanuel Ministries, which is a school for the poor. SO AMAZING! I will tell more later, but we spent the morning there playing with the kids and it brought me so much joy...
Love you all... Off to Nepal tomorrow for a few days! I'm excited! don't know what to expect!
I like traveling with Janet and this group...we laugh alot. Even when things go wrong...which they do a lot, but we just laugh. it is so great!
Still laughing,
matt-
Yesterday we served at Mother Teresa's Home for the Dying... While it will definetly be an experience I will never forget, it was not exactly what I was expecting. I think when you tell you people you are going to serve at Mother teresa, it gets put on this very glamorous level. I guess that is understandable considering almost everyone knows who mother T is, but let me just say that it is not so glamorous...
We woke up at 5 am to get to Mother House at 6 for mass. We walked in and they had just started...all the sisters (about 80?) where there and about 30 visitors where there on the side. We sat down and worshiped with them. I really enjoyed it, the message was great and just being there was very surreal. After mass we went down to have Chai and bread and then all the volunteers were divided up to go to the different house. There are about 6 house for different groups, like one for little babies, one fro women, one for the dying, etc... Sitting down eating there were people from all over the world there...we met some from argentina, japan, austrailia, UK and US. It was pretty cool to see everyone there, for whatever reason, ready to serve. Some were there for their first tiem like us, others had been there for weeks, months, or even years. We got assigned to the Home for the Dying, which has about 100 people, men and women, on their last legs of life. Inside, i was glad we got placed there just because it was the one I had heard about and it seemed like the one that would be the most impactful... not to sound selfish. So we took a bus to the home and then walked a little ways and finally made it.
We walked in and it was a very simple building, with rows of beds laid out with men and women lieing on them. We immediatly wend to the back where they were doing laundry. Everyone kinda seemed like they knew what they were doing already but finally someone told me what I could do. We were cleaning the clothes from the patients...but not in a washer...but instead we would put the clothes into this stone tub full of water, and then step on them with our feet and then we would put them into another tub full of water and do the same then finally they would go into a final tub and then wrung out...
I could write forever about all the tasks that we did that morning but that would probably bore you but the point of all this is that what we did, was nothing extrodanary or out of the ordinary...in fact we were doing things I could have done at home or any hospital of nursing home. I mean it was very cool to look around and think that I was working where Mother Teresa did, but at the same time it was nothing to brag about...
After we finished the laundry we had some time to interact with the patients....I'll admit that was very hard for me at first just because these men were literally dying before out eyes. I don't think I had ever been around that kind of sickness and despair before. Although again, looking past that, they were just men, some of them young, maybe even my age. Some were so sick they couldn't respond or even move, but many were alert and I even played catch with one of them for a while with a small ball.
The morning shift ended at 12 with a small lunch for the volunteers on the roof. It was so amazing to get to talk with the other people working. This small Japanese man who had worked there for the last 5 years on a off, took me under his wing and showed me the ropes...he said i "looked nice" and was very helpful which I really appreciated. We also met many young people, a couple of guys from Canada that had been traveling around the world for the past 8 months...and we met a guy my age from Chicago that had been working for a non profit and he travels all over the world. There were couples, old men, young women...it was such a melting pot of people, I loved it.
We were told that the afternoon shift started again at 3 and so we road the underground back home and went to a small cafe....it was so surreal that we traveled from extreme poverty to wealth in about 20 minutes...it was hard to stomach....
We weren't sure if we were going to go back at 3 because we tired, but Lindsey Marco and I decieded that we wanted to go back. It was cool to be out in the city by ourselves and actually feel like i knew where i was going..sorta... We got back to the home and it was very quiet and they said we could just sit with the patients...I gave many of the men massages since they were so sore and acheing... I sat next to a man that as he took each breath it sounded like it might be his last...each breath gave out an audible wince of pain... One of the other volunteers had brought a guitar and was playing songs, which brought a very soothing feel to the room. I massaged one man's leg for about 30 minutes and just held his hand...it was a very intense moment as we just locked eyes...I don't know if what I was doing was even helping, but I hope that just being there did something... Some of the men had TB, some had aids, some had limbs fully amputated...it was a room full of pain and suffering...as I was sitting there again I felt that this was nothing that I wanted to tell people about in remincent stories about "serving at Mother Teresa's". This is not to say that I am not so gratful for this experience, I just don't know if it is something I would want to brag about or do for a long period of time. We talked alot on this trip about the differnce between "crisis intervention" and "development". Mother Teresa worked with crisis intervention, and it was necessary. But i think it is also important to take a step back and try to figure out why we have these problems in the first place.
I had a lot more on my mind but am having trouble getting it into words... I have found it is better not to force it but let the processing come when it does on its own...
To sum it up, yesterday was a very challenging day, I am probably more sore than i have been in years... my whole body aches...but then i think about the man who i was sitting with who must ahve been in pain 100 times more... I am glad i got to experience this and it will be something i remember forever... but I also think I learned that at the end of the day, it was still just work, hard work... serving at the home for the dying isn't any "better" than serving any where else...God isn't going to look more highly on my day yesterday than any other day in my life prior...
So that pretty much sums up yesterday... Today we just got back from Emmanuel Ministries, which is a school for the poor. SO AMAZING! I will tell more later, but we spent the morning there playing with the kids and it brought me so much joy...
Love you all... Off to Nepal tomorrow for a few days! I'm excited! don't know what to expect!
I like traveling with Janet and this group...we laugh alot. Even when things go wrong...which they do a lot, but we just laugh. it is so great!
Still laughing,
matt-
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Hello from INDIA!!!
Wow, I am actually here!! Sorry it took me a few days to update this, but we have been going goin going non stop since we arrived...I will try to update you all quickly with what all we have done...
So our trip started off great with running into the Baylor kenya team in the dallas airport only to find that we were on their same flight to London! It was great to travel with Amanda, Mel, Ben and Jamie for 8 hours to the UK. ha...the flight was smooth execpt when i woke up 5 inches from the women next to me breast feeding her newborn....good times. We finally arrived in Delhi late that night and took a taxi to our hostel. Leaving the airport I was immediatly blasted with a wave of heat and interesting sights sounds and smells....It reminded me a lot of kenya at first...We made it to the YWCA where we were staying...very nice place. AC!! praise the Lord!
The next say we woke up and went to some different temples... we went to a Hindu temple and a Hare Krishna temple...I have never really been around that before and I was a little uncomfortable at first...i felt like a major outsider, but it was really cool to see the different (and sometimes bizarre) ways other people worship. Later that day we met with this man named Thom Wolfe. He and his wife live in Delhi and he specializes in teaching about world relgions. He was very kind and very knowledgeable. I wish I hadn't have been so jet lagged becaus all of his information was very interested, but i had trouble retaining it all! HE had a team of college students from Flordia (near west palm beach...dont worry i threw out the stuart connection meg) they were in Delhi for 3 weeks working with some churches there. IT was cool to talk with them and here about what they were doing and what they were struggling with already.
The next day we visited a muslim shrine...to get there we had to walk way back into this slum like area...as we started walking further in we had to remove our shoes and as we handed them over to some random guy i was sure we would never see them again...we kept walking through the market place barefoot (it reminded me a little of Kibera in Kenya, so being barefoot was a little intesnse) we finally made it to the shrine and went it. There were people everywhere walking around the tomb. Only men were allowed inside so Marco and I went in and go to see the inside. Again i felt very out of place but it was cool to see. AFter that we got to go shopping for our indian garb. IT was actually pretty fun...got some cool stuff...i feel like i look the part now (ha not) After that we went back and met with Dr. Wolfe again and listened to more of his lectures...very interesting, but a bit over my head at times.
After that we took a taxi the airport and flew to Kolcuta. Janet warned us that the poverty here would be like anything we had ever seen. It is so hot and full of despair... The YWCA we stay in here is not quite as nice and has NO AC! ah! This morning we had our first interaction with the street beggars and children. We went to bought some kids KFC and talked with them for a bit...they were very fun but it was so sad because there are people EVERYWHERE that need help. After that we walked around the city (got lost) but it was good to get acquainted with the city and then we went to Mother House, which was mother teresa's home and minstry. THey werent taking visitors at the time but we are going back tonight and tomorrow.
Ok, i know this is super long and will try better to update this more frequently. The trip is already been very trying and emottionally draining but it is great. I feel like God is moving but i am not quite sure how and where...I am excited to see where else he leads me. We are here in Kolcutta untill sunday then off to Nepal!
Love you all soooo much and thanks for the prayers and comments
PS sorry for all the typos and mispellings...no spell check on this comp !!!
Love God, Love people,
Matt----))
So our trip started off great with running into the Baylor kenya team in the dallas airport only to find that we were on their same flight to London! It was great to travel with Amanda, Mel, Ben and Jamie for 8 hours to the UK. ha...the flight was smooth execpt when i woke up 5 inches from the women next to me breast feeding her newborn....good times. We finally arrived in Delhi late that night and took a taxi to our hostel. Leaving the airport I was immediatly blasted with a wave of heat and interesting sights sounds and smells....It reminded me a lot of kenya at first...We made it to the YWCA where we were staying...very nice place. AC!! praise the Lord!
The next say we woke up and went to some different temples... we went to a Hindu temple and a Hare Krishna temple...I have never really been around that before and I was a little uncomfortable at first...i felt like a major outsider, but it was really cool to see the different (and sometimes bizarre) ways other people worship. Later that day we met with this man named Thom Wolfe. He and his wife live in Delhi and he specializes in teaching about world relgions. He was very kind and very knowledgeable. I wish I hadn't have been so jet lagged becaus all of his information was very interested, but i had trouble retaining it all! HE had a team of college students from Flordia (near west palm beach...dont worry i threw out the stuart connection meg) they were in Delhi for 3 weeks working with some churches there. IT was cool to talk with them and here about what they were doing and what they were struggling with already.
The next day we visited a muslim shrine...to get there we had to walk way back into this slum like area...as we started walking further in we had to remove our shoes and as we handed them over to some random guy i was sure we would never see them again...we kept walking through the market place barefoot (it reminded me a little of Kibera in Kenya, so being barefoot was a little intesnse) we finally made it to the shrine and went it. There were people everywhere walking around the tomb. Only men were allowed inside so Marco and I went in and go to see the inside. Again i felt very out of place but it was cool to see. AFter that we got to go shopping for our indian garb. IT was actually pretty fun...got some cool stuff...i feel like i look the part now (ha not) After that we went back and met with Dr. Wolfe again and listened to more of his lectures...very interesting, but a bit over my head at times.
After that we took a taxi the airport and flew to Kolcuta. Janet warned us that the poverty here would be like anything we had ever seen. It is so hot and full of despair... The YWCA we stay in here is not quite as nice and has NO AC! ah! This morning we had our first interaction with the street beggars and children. We went to bought some kids KFC and talked with them for a bit...they were very fun but it was so sad because there are people EVERYWHERE that need help. After that we walked around the city (got lost) but it was good to get acquainted with the city and then we went to Mother House, which was mother teresa's home and minstry. THey werent taking visitors at the time but we are going back tonight and tomorrow.
Ok, i know this is super long and will try better to update this more frequently. The trip is already been very trying and emottionally draining but it is great. I feel like God is moving but i am not quite sure how and where...I am excited to see where else he leads me. We are here in Kolcutta untill sunday then off to Nepal!
Love you all soooo much and thanks for the prayers and comments
PS sorry for all the typos and mispellings...no spell check on this comp !!!
Love God, Love people,
Matt----))
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Getting ready! Thanks for reading!
So I have been told by so many people that writing down my experiences for this trip is going to be crucial and even though the thought of journaling pains me (although I think it is just because i don't like looking at my horrible handwriting, so maybe a blog will be better) , I am going to listen to them and keep this blog for my trip.
For those of you who might not know, I am leaving tomorrow (May 17th) for India! I am going with Mission Waco, I local non-profit here in Waco. There will be a team of 5 of us going and we will be traveling all over the country working and serving in a variety of ways. After about a month, the group will part ways, and I will be staying in India until Aug 2nd on my own. I have lots of options of what I will be doing during that time, but I haven't made definitive plans yet...I will be keep you all posted about that part of the adventure!
This trip is full of unknowns for me. But I could not be more excited. Despite not knowing exactly what I will be doing this summer, I have come to the place where I just know that God cannot use this summer for bad; Although it might be a little scary, I know that God will use me in the ways He needs and I can't wait to see what that looks like.
If I have learned one this past year (for those of you who know me, you know I have learned more ha) it would be that we don't grow unless we struggle. This trip will be full of struggles, and also full of growth. I mean lets be honest, I am going to be in a country, more or less by myself, for 3 months... and I don't even know where I will be most of the time! Am I crazy?...maybe a little, but I just know that the times where everything that is familiar and comfortable to us is taken away are the times we truly have to rely on God and we begin see Him in a brand new way.
I can't wait to see God this Summer. Through my fears, tears, and lots of sweat, I have no doubt that God will open up some unexpected doors this summer, ones that will lead me to places I have never been, or maybe even never imagined were there.
I won't lie, I'm scared. But more importantly, I'm ready. I'm just a kid who wants to learn to love people. I can only imagine the ways God is going to break and bless this crazy college graduate ready to "save the world" ha.
More to come! See ya in India!! You know I'll be dancing to Jai Ho right off the plane! :)
Love God, Love People
Matt-
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