India DTS- Fall 2008

This past week has been quite an eventful one! We finished scrubbing & painting 2 classrooms, as well as finishing the outside gates of the property! We rolled, folded, and packaged gauze for the medical teams while they went out to the different colonies. The medical team seems to be a new favorite for the students, they were a little nervous at first, but they really love going out and meeting the physical needs of the people. We also continued working with the local childrens ministry! Unfortunately, Friday evening after the whole team came home we found some small critters running around. Our team had a bit of a lice outbreak! We´ve spent a large majority of the past couple days deep cleaning. But everyone has had really good attitudes about the whole thing! We took a break from all the cleaning and ventured about 2hrs away yesterday afternoon to a lepers colony for a church service! Bri & Donnie shared their testimonies & Natasha shared the message. Its hard to believe but this week is our last full week of ministry. Our time in India seems to have flown by! Please pray as the time here is beginning to come to an end that the team would continue to work hard & dig into all that God has!

We are back in Chennai after our week venture to a Hindu Pilgrimage about 4 hrs away. We survived the train with no problems! Our time there was really different than what we´ve been doing. We couldn´t openly share there, so we spent hours every day interceding for the city as well as sharing at sometimes 2 house churches every night. The team really stepped out in preparing & sharing messages. It was really awesome to see how encouraged the people there were by us being there. Some team members got hit with some sickness, but everyone is doing great now! We are all so excited to be back in Chennai, some even referred to it as home! We´ve really missed the staff and all of the people we´ve built relationships with here. This morning we started a new painting project and this afternoon we had a church service at a lepers colony where Kyle shared the message. Tomorrow we´ll jump right back into working with the local childrens ministry & medical team, we´ll catch up with you later!

After many long days of painting we finally finished the house this week! We´ve continued to serve with the local childrens ministry, as well as a new opportunity at a day care at one of the leper colonies. Tomorrow morning we´re packing our bags up for 1 week and heading by train to a Hindu Pilgrimage about 5 hrs away from Chennai. It looks like we´ll be mostly working with house churches. Last night we had a 12hr prayer & everyone is really excited to see what God is going to do. We´re not too sure if we´ll have access to the internet while we´re there, so this may be the last update till next Saturday, but that means we´ll just have lots to share. Please pray for safe travels, good health, & perseverance as we´re told the spiritiual climate of the pilgrimage is pretty intense!

Well its week 2 here in Chennai and things are going well.

The team is continuing to work with the leprosy colony, childrens ministry and medical teams, as well as diving into friendship evangelism within the local community.

We have also been helping out in restoring the ywam base we´re staying at. Right now we´re planting banana trees and painting the house & surrounding gates. 

And we´ve had 4 reports of healings! Praise God!

Our first week has been amazing. The team has worked alongside the medical teams that go into the leper colonies, cleaning wounds and re-dressing them\ wounds, praying with individuals and sharing the love of God with the patients they meet. Everyone in Inida who has leprosy is shunned by society and so they only have contact with the medical teams that come in and the local pastors. So having our team members go in give these people a sense of belonging and acceptance.

Other ministries we have bewen involved in have been working with the local chidren´s ministry. This is a type of boarding school for the young children from the leper colonies. Here they get a chance to make their way in the world without having a label of where they are from. The team has been going into clean and maintain the school, play with the children and teach them stories from the Bible.

The boys have had the opportunity to go out each afternnon with the local YWAMers and visit the various churches, sharing the Gospel and praying for people.

During some afternoons we have been going out into the local community and making friends with the locals. This Sunday our boys have been challenged to a volleyball match.

The girls managed to meet a famous Indian actress who was in the area filming. They even got their pictures taken with her and the cast.

When we first arrived in Chennai we spent the first day getting punjabi´s (long tops and wierd shaped pants that tend to make you look like midgets) for the girls. It is required that we wear them for ministry here.

The boys also had a chance to purchase man skirts, which they try to wear as often as possible.

The team is loving the food here and keep asking for it to be made with more spices. 

Thats all for now, we will post more later, hopefully with pictures.

Beckie, Andreas & Stephanie

After many hours on different airplanes, the team finally arrived India on the last day of 2008.