Visa and Trip Update

This week, our team is working on getting our applicationS for our Travel Visas ready and sent to the outsourcing company.
Sunday night, I realized I needed to get it done ASAP, because I need my passport back for an August 2nd trip to Canada to see Jim's family. SO Monday was completely devoted to that :)

Please pray that we all are able to get our applications completed and approved by the Consulate of India. I got mine over-nighted Monday and have already had to troubleshoot a few problems with it.  I need my visa and passport back by August 1st. Thank you for praying!

Now for the super fun news! We have a team meeting next week, where we will learn more of what we will get to do with the ministries and people in India we are visiting. At this point, I know that we will have a picnic and spend two days with the women living and working in the red light areas! What an honor! I'm so excited to be able to have so much time with them. I have such a deep deep respect for these women and the choices they must make, the families they take care of, and the dignity with which they live! So amazed!
We also get to spend two days working with a prison ministry staff. How humbling! Imprisonment happens very unjustly often in India. And these people truly do need ministry and compassion.  And hopefully we can bring encouragement and help to those who work with the imprisoned.

In the last couple of weeks, the warfare has definitely intensified. I admit, I did not have my dukes up till getting a hit a few times (I guess I'm using wrestling metaphors).  But the Lord is our defense and He makes His way...and we get to rest in His love and His provision. The enemy does not want the light to invade darkness, he wants these people to continue to believe they are undeserving of love.

But it is our joy, to lay down our lives and time to reach those who think they are unlovable! The Lord longs for these to know of His great great love for them! He is jealous for them with all of His heart! He is jealous for us too! It is a JOY!!!
THIS IS WHY WE FIGHT! HOWEVER WE CAN!

India Update-We got the tickets!!!

Hello all!
We have everyone we need for a team. There is a couple from Georgia who will be joining the team for the first week of the trip, in Mumbai!

We are leaving Friday, August 17th in the afternoon and returning to Portland on August 31st. Our connecting flights are at Schipol Airport, in Amsterdam, and I've been there before! Exciting!

This week we need to get our visa applications completed and sent to the Indian consulate in California. Please pray that we are all able to access everything we need for a complete application. 


Our first team meeting is in two weeks, where we will all get to meet and find out more about our trip and what we'll be doing with each ministry we visit! I'm pumped for this!


Thank you thank you so much for all of your support and love!  
More info to follow <3
me


FOR THE LOVE OF INDIA!

I must believe...

Everyone once in a while my heart and my brain catch up to each other - that is always great fun and brings a whopping amount of clarity, that was simply not there before!
The way this India trip has come together, over the past several months, has blown my mind...and opened it up to see some things again that I had forgotten about.

When my heart and brain come to the same page, there is a story they can tell me. Again and again and again, their testimony compels me to believe I was made for great things!
In every day life, I think we all forget or stop being able to see how much potential life has. But here is the huge, crushing, splitting open truth:

My heart cries out, I must believe I was made for great things! I have to believe I was made to do the things I have dreamed of and greater! My own testimony convinces me, over and over again, that I/we were put together and dreamed up for our own unimaginables.  


We all have dreams. There are more to uncover. They are not owed to us. If we will choose to not just stand by, but chase them with the Lord, we will see this insane truth. We get to walk this earth with GOD, the Lord of Lords inside us, moving the ground, shaking the earth and setting things free through us. We are/BE compelled to believe WE ARE MADE FOR GREAT THINGS!!!!!!!!!

For Independence

Psalm 45:1 My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the King, my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.

Tomorrow is Independence Day. Tonight, I found a site through Pinterest called MadebySurvivors. These survivors are those who have been rescued from Red Light Districts in India. There is art and also facts and other info on their pin boards. I read and looked through most of it, and since, I cannot stop thinking about those in slavery, in 2012.
The verses I recite for the King are the treasures in my heart that He put there that I bring back to memory as often as I can. And this heart is stirred. I suddenly realize the statistics are horrible! I am so thankful I am not a slave of any-ANY kind!!!! As I am no one's but my King's and my own, I will assume that my role is to make their plights knows. Those who are kidnapped, sold, taken into slavery-we need to not forget. Pray, make mention to the Lord and to others. Remember you are free, in every sense of the word!

I encourage you to look up the above verse in different translations. It literally gets funner and funner.

The pinterest page: http://pinterest.com/madebysurvivor/ 



Sculpture in Shantiniketan, India

India Trip Update

An update for you all. I realized I had not really communicated about the trip for a while. We were needing two people for the team for a while. We have since found one person. We are still needing a second person. Monday, July 9, is the deadline to find our second person. There are quite a few interested at this point, but we are still waiting for confirmed team members. I ask that you (all) join Jim and I in praying this other person, or persons, onto the team this week.

I really feel the Lord is crafting this team in this way, slowly and intricately, for a great purpose. There are great things in store for us and for the people we are to meet this summer. So, Lord, please bring this other person and help them to know that this is an opportunity for them, comfort them and meet their needs. You are painting a portrait, telling a story, as you do with all of us. This trip is something special in your heart, and I thank you Lord that we get to be a part of your expression of Love to India. 

Once we have the rest of the team assembled, we can all move forward with getting visas and immunizations, and all of those joyous things...I have, however, already started building an Indian "wardrobe."  Here are some lovely skirts I found this past weekend! Much more needed, but this is a fun, sweet start<3

Thank you, dearly, to all have donated, emailed and joined in the excitement for this journey! What a blessing to know and love all of you. 

Here is a map of India that shows the location of the various cities/villages we will travel to.

Much love!