Friday, January 29, 2010

Day Forty Two: Where to now, God?

So Panaji was pretty dull. It was very hard to meet people and we literally did not have a single meaningful conversation. After a day and a half it was clearly time to move on. Still, we had no idea of where to go next. The question we asked ourselves last night was: "are we okay with just showing up at the bus station in the morning and asking God which bus to get on?" The answer was a unanimous resounding "yes".
It didn't turn out quite that dramatically, we had a general direction in mind. We've heard quite a few people mention how nice Gokarna was. We didn't really know exactly where it was but we knew that it was south and that we needed to head through Margoa wherever we ended up going so we headed there first, praying that we would meet some people along the way.
Sure enough, in the Margoa bus station while I was looking around for information about Gokarna, Petra befriended Oman and Ina, two German guys who were also heading that way and we ended up spending the rest of the day with them, shared rickshaws and got beach huts right next to each other. We were also able to meet a few Dutchies along the way and, get this, an English lady traveling BY HERSELF with THREE children! (Ages 9, 3 and 1.) Some vacation eh?
Gokarna is awesome so far. We arrived around supper time so we haven't seen much yet. We are actually staying about 9km out of Gokarna at Om Beach. It's literally just jungle, beach huts, restaurants and piles of backpackers. That's it. It's paradise. Well, actually, that's the name of the next beach down.
Yesterday we read through some of our notes from two months ago when we prayed about some of the locations in India that we thought we might be going to.
Here's some of the things that we had:
A vision of coastal fog, covering up spiritual bondage.
You may not necessarily know where you're going.
You will see something different and refreshing.
How badly do you want team unity?
It was weird to read through those things, which we had pretty much forgotten about, and realize that all of them had been fulfilled. The spiritual haziness of Arambol, our last minute travel decisions, spending a whole day wandering through grand cathedrals in Old Goa and praying hard for the rest of our team, though we are currently apart.
Speaking of the rest of the team, we just got an email from them about ten minutes ago. Gabriel, Katie and Kaison (and Theresa, the German girl who's traveling with them) just arrived in Hampi after their overnight bus broke down several times and ended up dropping them off 14km from their destination. They managed to get there somehow but apparently they were too late to get the ferry across the river so the spent a night in some back alley. On top of all that Kaison lost his bag that had all his valuables in it, including his passport.

Praise God for a great day of travel, for us anyway, and for all the great witnessing opportunities we've had here already. Gokarna looks like it's ripe for harvest.
Praise God for the great health that our team has had. No one has been sick for over a week! (Side note, pray for Kent, on the other YWAM India team, who is currently in the hospital, in Delhi or Jaipur I think, and is passing blood.)
Pray for continued passion and purpose for these last few days of outreach and much fruit.
Pray for the other half of our team, who have had a rough couple of days.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Day Forty: The Great Divorce

As misleading as the title of this post may sound, I couldn't resist stealing the name of a great C.S. Lewis novel. It makes me feel wiser.
Our plans were slightly reshuffled yesterday and Nicki ended up switching to the team heading south through Goa. So early this morning Nicki, Petra, Lydia, Anthony and I took the bus to Panjim (Panaji) and this evening Gabriel, Katie and Kaison will catch a sleeper bus to Hampi.
Panjim is the capital of Goa and besides being a convenient place to make day trips to Old Goa (which was the Portuguese capital until it was abandoned in the 1500's) there really isn't much of interest here. We did a little bit of exploring this afternoon but haven't met very many travellers at all. We're thinking about seeing a Bollywood film tonight and then probably checking out Old Goa tomorrow. Where to next? Only God knows. Literally though, only God knows. We seriously have no clue.
I just bought a book called "Jesus Lived in India". I had never heard of it before coming to India but many people that we've met seem to believe that Jesus spent much of his childhood here, studying under Bhuddist and Hindu teachers and, after "surviving" the crucifixion returned here to live to an old age as an Indian guru. It all sounds like bullhonky to me but I figured I'd better get an idea of where the ideas come from so I can converse intelligently on the topic.
I'm a little bit confused about what day it is... I think some of my previous posts were dated wrong... I might go back and changed those at some point. I'm pretty sure this is our fortieth day of outreath though.
Keep praying that God would prepare the hearts of the people that He wants us to impact during our time here and that He would lead us to them. That He would give us the words to speak and live out His life through our actions and attitudes.
Pray also that as we "put our ears to the ground" here in Panjim that God would give us clear direction on how long He wants us to stay and where we should go next.
Praise God that everyone's health is in top form even after the stuffy bus ride this morning and lots of walking around in the hot, hot sun.
Pray that our team would remain united in purpose, prayer and power despite the fact that we are separated temporarily.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Day Thirty Six: Some Changes

I think that one of the things about this whole experience that will have the most lasting impact on my life is the testimony of all the radically different believers that we've had the privilege of meeting on our travels. What a joy it is to be able to travel all over the world, sit down with people you've never met and with whom you have almost nothing in common, and be able to worship and praise the same Lord who has saved us all.
Yesterday we spent the afternoon with a community of christian hippies living here in Arambol. I never really got the whole story on what exactly they do here but I have no doubt that they are a huge witness here. The light of Jesus shines through them so strongly. We heard some rumours that they usually meet up for worship somewhere around here on Sunday afternoons so we set off in search of them and were greatly refreshed by our fellowship with them.
Then in the evening we had our bonfire on the beach again. A few people went to an open jam session at one of the cafes. A few others went clubbing. It was a great night. We had lots of good conversations and we're meeting a few of the same people to take a hike to a nearby lake this afternoon. This last week we've been taking turns giving mini "sermonettes" so I'll top off the day by preaching on the beach this evening.
On Wednesday we are splitting into two groups. Gabriel, Nicki, Katie and Kaison will head for Hampi, which is east of here, and Petra, Anthony, Lydia and I will head south through Goa. Praise God that we have such amazing team unity that we are actually going to miss each other terribly for this week. It is a testament to God's sustaining power that we still love each other after this long together and the only reason we are splitting up is because we believe that is what God is calling us to do for most effective ministry in these last days. We plan on meeting up again in Hampi or possibly Mumbai... or maybe somewhere else... that's the way backpacking goes. If nothing else we'll meet up in Heaven one day.
Thank you for your continued prayers!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Day Thirty Four: Goodbye Ordinary Life, You Sucked Anyway

I am amazed again by how easily life becomes "normal" wherever we go. Arambol feels strangely like home. It's amazing that we've already spent... how many days here? They all sort of blend together. Most of our days so far have started with early morning prayer walks on the beach, sometimes with some sunrise worship thrown in there. (Not worshiping the sunrise mind you, that would be a silly mistake, but the one who created it.)
The mornings and afternoons have been quite different each day. We've made a lot of friends here so we all split up and go to hang out with whoever we planned on meeting that day. Whether it be for swimming, slacklining, cooking courses or just sharing meals and playing games together... whatever we can do to convince people to spend time with us... mwuhaha. This afternoon Katie and I headed down to the juggling convention in Mandrem. At least, they called it juggling. Really it was any sort of hippie circus act you can imagine... and possibly more. They had a bunch of workshops going on so Katie spent a lot of time working on her fire poi. I tried my hand at some new juggling tricks and did a little rope walking but mostly hung out in the bar area trying to strike up some conversations. Unfortunately everyone I talked to was quite unresponsive and it never went anywhere. It was really quite a depressing day to be honest. The atmosphere was the most spiritually oppressive that I have felt so far on outreach. I felt like my mind was really clouded and I had trouble thinking straight. I kept trying to pray but my mind kept drifting and going blank. It was really weird. I knew that it was something spiritual but I couldn't quite place my finger on it. That's the way it is with New Age spiritually, I think. It dulls the senses and leaves you dazed and confused. We had been planning to stay the whole day but decided that it would be more profitable to spend our time back in Arambol, where we've had open doors all over the place. As we walked out of the compound I could tangibly feel the cloud lifting from my mind. A weight was off my chest that I hadn't realized was there. On the 4 or 5 kilometer walk back along the beach we ran into our friend Paul, who is a perfectly ordinary man leading a wildly radical life. He is a firm believer in Jesus and is seeking hard after God's perfect will. It was so refreshing to walk along the beach at sunset and get all worked up talking about our mutual passion. Which is to love God and love people. It was such a strange contrast from the rest of the afternoon, and left me so thankful that God has given me the life that he has and the opportunity to share it with others.
Which brings us up to the evening I guess. Again, they've been different each day. Quite often we've started fires on the beach near Cocoloco, which is the most popular dance club, and just welcomed people to join us and enjoy having a chinwag together. We usually stay out quite late, I got to bed at 1:30 this morning, but we often have the opportunity for a quick nap in the afternoon. Anthony, Katie and Lydia are planning to go out with some local fishermen at 3:00 am tomorrow. I think they're crazy... but kind of cool as well, I will admit.
All right, time to hit the beach again. Keep praying!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Day Thirty One: Hippie Heaven

Well, we made it. Two days, one tuk-tuk, one train, two taxis, one plane and six or seven bus rides later... we have finally arrived safely in Goa. Have you ever been curious about what it feels like to be a sardine squished into a little can? Come travel in India and you will soon find out. The illusion of personal space has been shattered forever.
I think Bilbo said it best, "It's always an adventure, stepping out your door. You get your feet on the road and there's no knowing where it may take you."
This journey has certainly been an adventure every step of the way. Last night, while I was brushing my teeth and looking up at the stars through swaying palm trees, I got to thinking about some of the crazy places that God has taken me and I couldn't help but marvel. "Wow, God, we've had some exciting times together. You're really cool. My life would be so boring without you."
(Yes, mind blowing I know. Life always seems to be the clearest when I'm brushing my teeth.)

Goa is a small Indian state on the west coast. It was a Portuguese colony for many years so it is traditionally Catholic and has quite a different flavour from the rest of India that we've seen so far. It is rightfully famous for it's beaches and has become a bit of a hippie paradise in the last five decades. Arambol, the little town that we're staying in now, consists mainly of beach huts, bars and open markets. One out of ten people is Indian (probably a shop owner). Four out of ten have dreadlocks. Three out of ten are old Russian men in G-strings. Five out of ten haven't had a "real job" in years, and never intend to again. Two out of ten are naked. Ten out of ten are spiritually seeking. So, basically, this is the place to be for backpacker ministry.
Gabriel, Nicki, Lydia and Anthony are renting a room in a house owned by two Russian ladies and Kaison, Katie, Petra and I are renting two thatch huts on the beach. (Being in missions is hard work, really, it is!)
We have been really encouraged by how easy it is to get into spiritual discussions here. Anthony and I were walking down the beach yesterday, looking for the juggling convention and not really intending to meet anyone, and we got into three great conversations just with people who happened to be walking in the same direction. There is definitely an ease and openness here that is not found in a lot of other places in the world. That can be a good thing and a bad thing at the same time but either way it is definitely a huge opportunity. I would describe the spiritual atmosphere here as "foggy" and/or "hazy". Both in the sense that it's vague and also that it is very deceptive and hides the real dangers that are lurking beneath the surface. Picture a cloud of marijuanna smoke that's lulling people to sleep and convincing them that everything's all right and there's nothing to worry about. When really they're adrift at sea with no land in sight. That's basically what Goa is like.

In other news, Gabriel has been really sick the last few days and apparently he got up in the middle of the night, headed over to the communal fridge, sprawled out on the floor and was eating some curd when the two Russian ladies found him, held him down and stuffed him full of something that he described as looking like black sand with chunks in it and now this morning he feels tip top!
In a completely unrelated incident, I unexpectedly got my ears cleaned out by some random Indian guy on the beach yesterday. Those guys are fast. By the time I realized what was going on he was already displaying heaps of wax that he had pulled out of my ears and demanding payment.
Kaison is still determined to get some fresh coconuts and managed to get half way up a tree this morning. We celebrated by setting off some fireworks that Anthony picked up for 5 rupees.

We're planning on staying here for at least a week and then maybe taking off for Hampi, which is a big climbing hotspot, or maybe somewhere else in Goa. Pray that God would give us clear direction on how long He wants us to stay here, where He wants us to go next and clear direction for what sort of ministry we should focus on while we're here.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Day Twenty Six: Agra

Our last few days in Varanasi were quite enjoyable. It's hard to believe that we were there for nine days. The time went by so fast. We had lots of great opportunities for sharing the gospel. Keep Lily, Sam and Simon in your prayers especially. We spent quite a bit of time with each of them. (I think I may have already mentioned Sam, we met him in Pokhara and, lo and behold, he turned up in Varanasi too. Praise God that he has decided to kick his Marijuana habit.)

Our 13 hour train ride to Agra turned into a 19 or 20 hour ordeal due to delays caused by fog. So we've been here for a few hours now and just had enough time find our hotel and settle in. Since today was cut short we'll probably extend our stay here to three days instead of two. This is the halfway point of our outreach (hard to believe, I know) so we're going to take some time to evaluate and discuss what we've been through so far and set some clear goals and vision for the next four weeks. Of course, while we're here we might pop into the Taj Mahal for an afternoon... maybe.

The area that we're in now has given us a small taste of reverse culture shock after coming from Varanasi. There are hordes of tourists and everything is quite westernised. We feel oddly out of place. The flavour is still definitely Indian but a boring, sanitised version. I feel like a homeless man who's stepped into the Disneyland of the Asian subcontinent without any interest in riding rollercoasters or eating cotton candy. Such places are where the worlds two most uninteresting and unoriginal people meet. Those who are only interesting in selling and those only interested in consuming. Blegh.

Our next stop is Goa. Which, if today's train is any indication, may take several days to get to. Regardless, I'm excited to get back amongst my backacker brethren. Apparently there's a big juggling festival going on while we're there. Heck yes.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

An Average Day in Varanasi

Our days are loosely divided into thirds. One third is dedicated to team time (worship, intercession, planning). One third is intentional "ministry" time and the final third is free time. Though with our type of evangelism the lines between ministry and free time often blur.
The way that each day is arranged changes from day to day but we've been starting most days at 7:00 by pairing up and prayer walking up and down the Ganges for an hour. Then we have personal devotions/breakfast until 9:30 when we will usually meet up again to discuss whatever is going on that day. We've really bonded well as a team and we all really enjoy these times of just hanging out together. Depending on whether we're praying or singing during that time it may go on for an hour or two or three. After that we pair up, pray together for direction and go and do whatever God gives us that day. One of the most intense days was when God clearly told Katie and me to go down to the Ganges and pray for miraculous healings. That was a new experience for us and we both went in great fear and trembling. If I see no greater demonstration of God's power than this I can see already that he has completely changed my heart. That I, Ben Sherwood, would stand in the middle of a busy street in Varanasi, place my hands on a man with no arms and pray that they would grow back... who but God could ever convince me to do that? Or to look into the eyes of a beggar and truly be able to say that I love him with all my heart and wish him a good day? I'm not like that naturally. Men don't change by themselves. It just doesn't happen.
But I digress. Most days our focus is more on the western travellers that have come here as spiritual seekers. Their souls are so ripe for the picking. They are desperately seeking truth and they are trying everything out in their search to find meaning. Most of them settle for a new-agey mixture of anything and everything spiritual and try any kind of drugs they can get to help anesthetize the pain in their hearts. Basically all we do is talk with them, eat with them, share our testimonies with them. It's pretty straighforward really.
Several days ago we were fortunate enough to meet Michael Graham (who we had never heard of before) and he gave us some little booklets with his testimony in English and Hindi. So we've been handing some of those out, as well as Bibles, to those who are interested. He spent 28 years deep in Eastern spirituality so his testimony speaks directly to where many of these travellers are at right now.
If we have any time left over, and we're not currently engaged in serious conversation, we sometimes meet in the evening for public worship or prayer. One or two nights ago we took communion together by the Ganges. That was an interesting night.

Keep praying for:

-Continued health and safety. Everyone is feeling pretty good today, as far as I know, but just about everyone has been sick at one point. Praise God that the worst I've had is a two day cold.

-The seeds that have already been planted. Compared to Nepal we've met so many more people here and I can't take the time to list them all. (Even if I could remember all their names.) We are especially thankful that we've bumped into some of the same people on multiple occasions and been able to spend significant amounts of time with them.

-God's continued guidance on the best ways to reach out and show His love.

-The rest of our travels. The next of which will be a night train to Agra on the 13th/14th.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Impressions of India

It's a bit overwhelming at first. It's true what they say, that nothing can really prepare you for India. Everything hits you all at once the moment you step into it. The sights, the smells, the sounds. All indistinguishable in one great blur as you stumble about wondering what in the world you've gotten yourself into. The first thing that stood out to me was the chaos of trying to get transportation to the place you want to go at a price you're willing to pay. Usually I'm arguing with at least five or six bus, taxi or rickshaw drivers all at the same time.
Gradually, as the initial shock wears off, you are able to begin noticing individual details. The burning in your lungs from a mixture of smog, incense and marijuana. As you walk down the street the pleasant smells of spices and fresh fruits wafting from the innumerable roadside stands mix freely with the pungent aroma of raw sewage running through the gutters.
You get used to the constant honking of horns. The streets are every bit as crowded as you've imagined. From large buses to little cycle-rickshaws and everything in between. India has it all. They drive on the left side of the road officially, but that seems to be a fairly general guideline. Right of way goes to the person that wants it the most. This makes busy intersections quite exciting. I've spotted a few traffic lights here and there but never any that work. They have sometimes been replaced by traffic police but their power is limited to how impatient people are to get to their destination. Somehow it always seems to work and, despite all the honking, no one ever really seems to get too angry. It's a giant, chaotic, deadly, colourful dance. Then there's the holy cows of course, who are the wild card players. You never can be too sure what they're going to do next but they're unavoidable in India and if you can go twenty steps without running into one you've probably stepped in twenty cowpies to get there. I've only been run into once so far (by a cow, that is) but our local cow, Bessy, that always hangs out near our hostel has taken a personal dislike to Kaison and takes a swipe at him every time we go past. It's quite hilarious.
Then there's the people. There are a lot of them. About a billion I think. That's a lot. We can't really hide the fact that we're westerners so the offers for drugs, boat rides and silk shops are pretty much incessant. All of our conversations are interspersed with regular outbursts of "No boat! No rickshaw! No hashish! No helicopter! No money!"
The kids here are delightful, even though they start begging or selling as soon as they're able to walk. They generally speak good English and we've had lots of interesting conversations with them. It's encouraging to see the simple joy and innocence on their faces, in contrast to the despair and hopelessness that is evident everywhere else. The little boys have an appreciation for good facial hair and they often tug on my beard (yes, it's long enough to tug on now) and call me "baba".
The sky is always full of kites and the kids are real experts at handling them. It seems to be a national pastime. With cricket being another one, there's usually a game or two going on in any open area.
Hindus come to Varanasi for the holy river, and to die here if possible. There are several burning ghats where bodies are burned and the ashes put in the river. I won't go into all the details except to say that it is quite a dark place and the people are full of despair. While standing about two meters from a burning corpse I had a lengthy conversation with a man who works in the "hospice" there. His job is to take care of people who have come there waiting to die. By "conversation" I mean that I mostly prayed to God for words to say as he gave me a monotone description of all the rituals that must be performed for each body. I have never seen such emptiness and despair contained in one man's eyes. Looking into them was like looking into the pit of hell. I tried challenging him with a few questions about what he believed but he dodged them swiftly and carried on with his monolouge. I tried changing tack and told him a little bit about the hope and peace that I have in Jesus Christ but that went nowhere fast and the conversation ended with me walking away with him yelling after me and calling down curses from the gods.
There is so much bondage here. The air is thick with it. We've been starting every morning with 7:00 am prayer walks to bathe the city in prayer and true worship. We continue to take up the full armour of God each day and He has kept us within His blessing and protection each step of the way. To be honest, I was actually expecting a lot more spiritual opposition. But hey, it's early days yet.
Perhaps my greatest surprise is how easily I've become at ease here. I was thinking about how strangely at home I felt yesterday as I was sitting by myself in a little roadside cafe, enjoying a small pot of coffee, reading about Sadhu Nitenyana and his search for the Eternal Guru and exchanging travel stories with the Dutch couple sitting nearby. It is such a blessing to take the presence of God with us wherever we go. To be at peace in all circumstances. To know joy in suffering. To have hope for the future. To take each step in faith and to approach life from a place of true rest. God is good. I love Him more each day. If nothing else, India has shown me what depths of mercy and grace I truly have in Christ.
That is enough. That is more than enough.

Day Twenty-Two: Varanasi

Well it's been exactly one week since my last post and boy, what a week it has been. We're taking another Sabbath today which is why I've finally found enough time to be able to get on the internet for a little while.
Praise God for a safe arrival in Varanasi. The two day journey went pretty well, all things considered. The border crossing at Sunaili was a real mess but we managed to get a bus down to Gorakhpur. Unfortunately we were unable to get the night train that we had been planning on so we crashed at a really grungy hotel near the train station for a couple hours sleep before the 5:30 train left the next morning. It literally took Gabriel and me all night to get the tickets for that train. We managed to sleep for a few hours here and there in between getting sent from counter to counter trying to find someone who spoke English and could get us the right tickets. Everyone gave us a different story about where we needed to go or what time we needed to get them by and what paperwork we needed to fill out and so on. It was a little bit frustrating but we did eventually manage to get them at about two or three in the morning.
So we arrived in Varanasi at about 11:00 am, took taxis down to one of the ghats (which are the stairs leading down to the Ganges) and let everyone hang out there while Petra, Kaison and I went in search of accomodation. As per usual, all of our first choices were booked up and we spent most of the first two hours trying to shake off an extremely persistent hotel tout who kept on following us everywhere. Kaison ended up chasing him down the street yelling and shaking his fist. Even with such violent tactics it still took a few minutes to get rid of him. That guy was the most persistent but there were dozens of others offering boat rides, hashish, temple tours, rickshaws, peanuts... anything you could possibly imagine. So after a few hours of that, and not finding anything available within our budget we returned to the group thoroughly exhausted and feeling rather hopeless about the whole situation. We decided to all keep walking further north up the ghats and see what we could find there. Almost immediately we passed a group of hippies who stopped and stared for a minute and then asked if we were a YWAM team from New Zealand. Long story short, we've met up with a worship DTS that's based out of the North Island. We had no idea that they were here but they had met up with another one of our teams that had been here a few days earlier so they knew our names and a little bit about us. They were able to hook us up with a sweet place to stay and show us good places to eat and exchange money and so on. It was just another example of God pouring out blessings on us when we least expected and most needed it. We haven't hung out with them too much since then, since the focuses of our ministry are quite different, but several nights ago all nineteen of us took a boat up and down the Ganges singing praise and praying together. Amid all the idol worship with incense and chanting and the clanging of bells there is such a lack of true worship in this place.
Hm... well that's a very brief description of our first few hours here... so I might try and update a little bit more later today. Thanks again for your prayers.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Day Fifteen: Worship

Today we began the third week of outreach by enjoying another Sabbath. This morning we rented two canoes and paddled around the lake for a while then hiked up to the World Peace Pagoda on the other side. We walked around the temple praying and then set up right at the entrance and sang worship songs, read scripture and basically ruined the atmosphere for everyone who was looking for enlightenment through Bhuddism. We got the usual amount of odd stares and the older generation was quite curious as to how our little speaker could produce so much sound. Nicki hit it off real well with three young boys and one of them in particular was quite interested in hearing about Jesus. Anthony had one of our backpacker Bibles with him so we gave that to them and they were really excited to go home and read it so that they could pass it on to their friends.
Somehow the focus of our time in Pokhara kept on gravitating towards worship. Meeting Chieran (the hostel manager) was a huge blessing and it turns out that my initial estimates about the small number of believers in Pokhara was a translation error and the church is actually growing quite fast. It's not hard to imagine why when you hear the testimonies that these guys have. We spent New Year's Eve with a small prayer group and got a massive feast out of the deal and then on Saturday we attended a church service with about forty or fifty members. I was fortunate enough to sit next to a guy that spoke pretty good english and he translated a few bits and pieces for me. It's really humbling to see how much faith and passion these little Nepalese guys have. Most of them live very simply (the pastor is a taxi driver) but they all want to work harder so that they will have more money to give to the poor. They are so hospitable towards us and genuinely stoked that we're here. Being able to worship and pray with them will definitely be the thing that I remember most fondly about Pokhara.
In other news, Anthony has fully recovered and we had a great time celebrating his birthday a day late. Keep Petra and Katie in your prayers, they both have colds. Thank God that my health has been tip top so far (and that it will remain so).
We're starting the trek to Varanasi early tomorrow morning. It looks like it will probably be one bus to the border crossing at Sunaili, then one more to Ghorakpur, then probably a night train to Varanasi... or something along those lines. Pray that I will be able to find the quickest and most efficient means of travel without putting everyone through too much tribulation on cheap busses.
Two more people to pray for specifically are Sam from Australia, who will be doing some travelling in India as well, and Frith from New Zealand. Those were probably two of the keenest people that we've met so far. Oh yeah, also Vicki from South Africa, if you're still on your knees. She just got a job at a parahawking company here and she's planning on travelling the world for two years and working as she goes. She had supper with us two nights ago.
I think that's about all for now. Pray that God would prepare the way before us in India. I think we're all ready for some good curry. We've had about as much chowmein and momo as we can take.