Hi friends and family,
Hey, first off I just wanted to say thanks for the emails and notes telling me you're reading this blogger-thingy. It's hard to motivate myself to write when I have no clue if anyone's keeping track, but I shall write on!
Things in Delhi, India..........ahhh, well the longer I'm in this place the more I'm realizing I know nothing about it. I mean I can get to where I need to go on a rickshaw, buy vegetables from the "subzee walla", chill with locals on the street and say a few sentences, but I really would need years to feel like this place is totally comfortable. That being said, I am enjoying parts of the Indian culture more and more and am able to appreciate some of the ways they do things.
Like for example, I really like the way religion here is so tied in with tradition and community. Most people are Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh so the culture fits mostly into those religions, but even the Christians I know in Delhi are so community-oriented, it's awesome. The tiny little church we go to meets for a regular Sunday service, a Monday married couples' prayer meeting, four seperate youth events (one for girls, guys, young guys, young girls) and a Friday night prayer meeting. I mean who meets on Friday night and everyone in the church shows up? These people actually want to be there and are excited to pour into each other's lives and be stretched and molded by God. It's incredible. I would love to see what that kind of community could look like in Canada.
Switching gears here, I was challenged the other day to not put "please pray for our team's unity" as just a bullet at the end of a blog, so here is me not putting it as a bullet. The five of us got to meet with Sam Dick, one of the Trek leaders from back in Abbotsford, a couple times this past week because he was out here for meetings, and our team has described it as "like pressing a reset button." It was really good for us to be challenged and also encouraged by him to really look to God for our strength, joy, peace, patience, and love especially. God really is the source of everything good in this world, and if we want to love each other better it has to come from Him. I realized for myself that I have been trying to please everyone on the team, by doing the whole chameleon thing and changing into who I think they want me to be. But that's totally wrong! I know that I need to be the leader, daughter, friend, woman that God created me to be--not who others think I should be. And hey, I like the girl He's made me. :) But yeah, please pray that we'd be able to be ourselves around each other.
A couple cool things:
-We went to the Republic Day parade at India Gate last week. We saw the Prime Minister of India as well as Vladimir Putin, the Russian President. Also a lot of marching bands, soldiers with huge, scary guns, marching bands on camel-back, elephants, helicopters, and waaay too many floats...one for every 28 states of India in fact. It was very well done but we were a bit disappointed they didn't throw candy to the crowds.
-After coaching soccer at the American high school, Greg and I got to eat
real hamburgers and then he played basketball in a
real gym with
good players so I got to watch. For a minute I forgot I was in India!
-Nicole and I have been learning some "Bhangra," (Punjabi dancing) with Amy and Bindu. A few women from the community have been coming out which is awesome and it's a lot of fun!
Well I hope everyone back home is doing well. Keep the emails coming...I love hearing what is going on in your lives as well!
Miss you all, God bless,
love, Bethany
university nearby. It's a huge blessing because I had been praying that I would get to play some sports! God knows the desires of our hearts, that's for sure. I am really excited to let Him guide me in the next few months that I have left in India. I feel like I've grown in so many ways already--it's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that we still have a lot of time to spend here.
