driving....

i feel like a teenager again. i have to say, that is the first time i have said that-i think , ever but i have a good reason. i got to drive yesterday for the first time since we landed in our new country. if you know me, you know how i love cars. our company has a great idea for helping us engage with people, learn language and build relationship....ride the local transportation. the purpose is served, and our skills are getting better all the time, though i have to say at this point that i still don't feel like i have enough language to get much past greeting and labeling a few things. but, i have made several friends over these friends. so, we have some friends who have been picking up the kids and taking them to school in the mornings, very cool. shout out to Ray and Luis! so, they were shifting flats (moving to a new place) and weren't able to pick up their daughter. they asked if i could use their car to pick up all the kids.

now we come full circle.. i feel like a teenager again. so after getting the truck in reverse, and carefully backing out of the spot, with much help from D so i didn't knock over the motorcycle parked in the same spot, quite literally, we were off. D asks, "what side of the road are you supposed to be on?" i was thankful that we were in the neighborhood still and that the car coming was going as slow as i was. i corrected that mistake and then once at the end of the block realized that i really didn't know how to get to the kid's school from our friend's house. we drove a couple of blocks, with guys trying to squeeze past us and telling me to move further into my lane, and finally i realized where we were. i mentioned how glad i was that we hadn't hit anyone to which i heard, "what a great standard you have set." i am glad to report that we made it to the school and back and am quite confident that no one was the wiser. it is quite common for people to drive offensively and sometimes are quite oblivious to others on the road. on the back of many trucks are the words "horn please". they are asking you to let them know that you are there. i have heard it said, that if you don't honk and you hit someone else, it can be blamed on you for not giving them warning of your presence.

so, one spiritual thought i have in this. does Jesus have to honk to get my attention or am i watching out to see if He is moving around me. am i waiting for him to scare me before i pay attention to Him? i think i want to be more aware of Him than that.

i also think that when i start driving here in the next year or so, i will be glad to honk to let others know that i am here.

seth

reasons to laugh

Walking outside our door provides an overload to all our senses. There is always something to look at and something new that we have never noticed before. As I sit here in my living room, I hear the swishing of the paddle fan, a bike bell ringing as it goes by, dogs barking, a varied concoction of car horns, music, mopeds, motorcycles, cars and small trucks.

We have seen some great signs around.....on the front of a store it said, "Gift Store, Items from Customs Confiscated Goods". And on the carton of eggs we bought, it said, "Near Organic Eggs". So what exactly does that mean and do I really want to know. When we went to the office to sign up for internet and phone service, it was called the "Relationship Center" and we are hoping to have a good relationship with them - so far so good :) If you pay attention, there is no shortage of entertainment around here and we really like it.

There are also some great specialty items that can be purchased on the corner, while waiting at a stoplight. Some of our favorites are a wind up little toy chick, flowers, a wrist sweatband in the colors of our country, dust rags, steering wheel covers, and magazines. Then if you move to the side of the road, the possibilities are endless as to the treasures that can be found.

But by far, the most impacting thing is to look at the faces of the people and children as we go by. Many children flock to our auto as we sit at a light....mostly to see our white faces I am sure. Some have huge smiles as we talk to them in what little of their language we know. It is wonderful to think that our Father loves them so much. His love is universal, it is for all people.

Ready for the next laugh....

Our new place. We landed on a Saturday and within a few days started looking for a place of our own. Unlike many, where we lived wasn't as important as most of our job, counseling, will be done out of town, or in different parts of the city. Our work isn't dependent on being strategically located in a certain area, so we wanted to be as close to the kid's school as possible. Delhi is broken into small colonies, or sections of town, like Kendall or South Miami for those in Miami, or Pantego or Lake Arlington for those in Texas. So we started asking about living in the different parts of town, having no clue just how nice they were. We hadn't even visited them. We acquired a map and quickly found other areas. Bhogal looked good. It was close to the school, but apparently, it is mostly a market. Next was Jangpura Extension. We looked at 6-7 places before we found our apartment, known as a flat here. We saw tiny ones, some with a bedroom accessible through the balcony, with outside toilets, outside kitchens and very very dirty places. The place we found, like most of the ones we looked at has granite counter tops and marble floors. Apparently these stones are pretty cheap here. They use them like Americans use tile. Carpet is very rare here as it is extremely dusty. Each bedroom typically has a bathroom attached. Kitchens are usually manned by a house helper so they are rarely a part of the rest of the home. Storage is a rare find. Our place has an open kitchen, a great view off the balcony overlooking the railroad, with trains coming and going all through the day. We have storage closet, more on that in a minute and a place outside for our washer and even enough room for a dryer. Most people here don't have a dryer.

Our landlords live upstairs, which is great, as no one has lived here before us and there have been several little kinks to work out. One of which is water. There is a large tank on top of the roof that is supposed to be filled twice a day. Our switch for filling the tank doesn't work, so our landlords have been most generous as to not only fill our tanks each day using their switch, but have also gone to the city on our behalf. They have been doing many things on our behalf. Let me introduce them to you. Doc, is the owner, a general physician, devout Hindu, husband and father is three well educated grown children. His oldest is a lady who holds two masters degrees and teaches at the international school. Next is Vik, who has been our ally and is becoming a friend. He is a banker and married to a lawyer. They have a little girl who adores Karley and they live upstairs. He speaks excellent English. Vik doesn't seem to practice his religion, so he has been on my heart in a real way. His wife is another kind of Hindu and disagrees with many of the things the Doc believes. The younger brother just returned from working on a cruise line and speaks like he is from America. He is very open to spiritual things.

Doc is very devout and the other morning when we were headed out to house church we ran into him on the stairs. He was dressed in all white and was carrying a candle. He was chanting and had a far off and very strange look in his eye. He looked very different than normal. He is in his late 60's and he and his wife visit the temple every day in the morning and at night. In addition, that storage room I mentioned earlier, is a puja in their home, a shrine. They have it set up so that they can worship their gods at home also.

India is a very dark place with idols all over. Every shop, store front, or press walla, a person who irons on the side of the road, has a shrine with little idols set up.

Each day at least one beggar, usually many more will ask for food or money. Some kids have been so bold as to grab my arm and hold on, which breaks my heart as their small hands are so fragile. The Almighty God desires that each of them come to a saving knowledge of His incredible power and unfailing mercy for them. Tomorrow we will go to language school again for the second day. Our words are incredibly infantile for now, but our hope is that soon we can speak to those who beg and those who are devout and seemingly satisfied about the One who will never stop loving them.