From Barbara:

Today, we went to see Suramangalam. We will help start three small businesses here and do a health camp. It was really sobering to walk the streets with Anand and pastor DhanaPaul and hear the story of this village. It’s people are such a low caste that others don’t even want to enter this village. There is such poverty here that they sell their children for a period of five years to a master that abuses them. Approximately 70% of the men are alcoholics or drug addicts. The suicide rate is very high.

And then we met DhanaPaul and Suresh. They had smiles on their faces, hope in their eyes, and joy to have us meet their friends and family. DhanaPaul’s father was a Hindu priest. There was a plague in their village and DhanaPaul was dying. His father prayed to their Hindu god and nothing happened and then he prayed to God and said, “If you are really the true God, heal my son and I will serve you.” And his son was healed and their whole family is serving God. A Hindu priest is at the top of the social circle, he lost everything to serve God. As we met various members of their church, they would greet us with “praise the Lord” and we would smile at each other and know we were connected in Jesus even though that was all we could understand to say to each other. DhanaPaul is now the pastor of a church and Suresh is his assistant. DhanaPaul is the man standing next to the vegetable stand.

One of the Christian families greeted us when we walked into their home and honored us by giving us this red scarf. It is a custom of honor. It is so humbling to see how they give from the little they have.

Suresh (seated in the center) is going to be starting a tea shop. His father was an alcoholic, so from a young age he supported his other 10 brothers and sisters and mother. He wants to get the business up and running then hire a couple people to work there so he can work as a pastor in this village full time.

This picture shows three women making rope from coconut husks. If they work very hard all day, they will make $2 a day. The lady turning the machine is Lydia. Her husband committed suicide and she has a 6 yr old son and 15 yr old daughter. To be a widow is to be alone with no one to take care of you. Right now she is working for someone else making rope. We are going to help her and her mother-in-law start their own rope business.

When it was time to go, we hopped into an auto rikshaw (a small, yellow, three-wheeled cab with open sides). As soon as we sat down a thunderstorm popped up. It had been a warm afternoon and we were happy to be getting splashed as we were driven home.

Anand then joined Prema in the bus that will drive 6 hours to pick up the rest of our team in Bangalore and then turn around and drive back. We will see the team tomorrow around noon. Pray for Anand and Prema as they work so hard to take care of all of us and plan for the next thing.

We were left to fend for ourselves for dinner so Jim went downstairs and pointed to something on the menu (they speak very little English here) and it was delicious.

That is our story for today. God is a faithful God. One of the older widows that we met told us, “I am alive only because God has taken care of me. My sons have abandoned me, but God is taking care of me. I have no illness.” She will be helping Lydia in the rope business.

Blessings, Barbara

Thursday was an organizational day in Salem. Anand (pictured left) and Thiyagu (below) helped us to get the camera charger and the outlets in the hotel room working, so that we can charge and use all of our little technologies. We use a camera to takes pictures of the people, the buildings, the events, so that you can share more fully in our experience. We send this blog, and need the laptop for that. I also use the laptop to charge my cell phone, since it has a surge protector. Then, there is the cell phone to twitter, text message, and talk with the people here in the field, to coordinate things. We also have a projector to use in the talks that will be given for the health camps, and in the Conversational English projects. Finally, some old technology, a Whirlpool refrigerator, to cool the fruit that Prema gave us, and keep it from spoiling.

I can't begin to tell you how much help Prema, Anand and Diago have been. They are truly going the extra kilometer for us, and have been a joy to work with.

Good news: Barbara's minor stomach disturbance responded to medication, and rest, and she is good to go this morning.

As the teams are in the air now between Chicago and London, we'll go out and visit the businesses we'll be helping with this week, including goats, rope making, and flower shops. This is a change, and represents the efforts of our Life Mission International staff to organize opportunities for us to minister in these villages, supporting the efforts of our pastors. Their countless hours of preparation are going to make it possible for our team to minister when they arrive. They are truly a blessing to us.

Friendlies!

These two lovely people are Dustin and Lisa Holliday. Dustin is a pastor on staff with Christian Fellowship in Washington DC, and a member of our EnterMission Coaching network. Christian Fellowship already works extensively in Nicaragua, and they are joining us in India to see what things look like "in reality, on the ground".

We'll have 10 days together, during which time i'm sure they will a) thoroughly enjoy their time with the amazing Indian people we have the chance to meet in Kalavai, b) get to hang out with our awesome team members, and c) be thoroughly sick of me by the end of the week. :- )

On the Way!

Today is Denise Walsh's birthday, so after singing "Happy Birthday" before we jumped on the GCC shuttle, we all enjoyed cupcakes and cookies to celebrate on the way to O'Hare.

We arrived at O'Hare in plenty of time, and after just a little hiccup at the British Airways ticket counter, managed to get all our luggage checked through to Bangalore.

Everyone is doing great!

What a Team!

My little iPhone didn't really take that great of a photo, but here is our next wave of highly dedicated, amazing men and women from GCC who will be heading to India. There are actually 2 teams represented here.

The first is the Salem Community Health team. They will be focusing on 3 primary objectives: Conversational English, Community Health and Micro-enterprise training.

The second is the Kalavai "Untouchable" Aid team. They will be focusing on 3 additional primary objectives: Conversational English, Construction on the new KC3 (Kalavai Colony Community Center) and Micro-enterprise training.

Before taking off, we were joined by GCC staff, family and friends for a time of prayer and a fantastic send-off.

SMILE school

We went from dinner to the home of Pastor Job, where we met the pastor and his wife, along with another churchplanter (Ebenezer) and pastor (Moses). They showed us the square where there was a big market place today (every Wednesday), and where the health camps will be held next week. They also took us around the corner to the SMILE school (pictured). This is a school where children who are very poor, and often have to work as laborers, are given 2-3 years of education by the government, to try and bring them back into the mainstream of Indian schools. Up until they enroll in SMILE schools, they've had virtually no schooling, despite being 10-14 years of age. Learning English could really help change their futures, and we hope to give them a jump start.

Now these kids are ready to learn, let me tell you. They were walking up to Barbara and telling her their names, and asking her name. They were so excited that we were coming to their school, to help them learn English. They followed us around for blocks, talking with us in Tamil, other than a few basic words of English. You can't help but want to sit down and start rebuilding their future with them.

From there we went to another village near Salem, Suramangalam, and arrived at the office of Dr. R. Mohan, who was seeing patients in his simple office. He greeted us, had someone bring us some soft drinks, and told us about the 28 years of work he's done, helping the poor of this community. He has organized many health camps over those years, educational sessions to teach the people of the community the basic health and hygiene principles that can make a huge difference in quality and length of life. Dr. Dana Anglund will be spending a couple of days shadowing him. He let us sit in his consulting room, as he saw several patients, and here is posing with one of his patients.

Arrived in Salem

from Jim:

We arrived uneventfully in Bagelore this morning, and Prema and Anand met us with a driver and small bus. They had driven up the evening before, and then slept in the bus 5 hours, while they waited for our flight to arrive at 4:45 AM. We then drove to Salem, about 6 hours with stops, and saw some beautiful scenery along the way. Unfortunately, I didn't have fresh batteries in the camera, so we don't have any of that to show you.

We checked into our hotel in Salem, slept a couple of hours, and went to have dinner, prepared by Prema and one of the ladies who cooks for the training conferences for the church planters and pastors (pictured to the right). This blue house is also the one the Salem team will be staying at, when the rest of us arrive on Saturday. These ladies really put on a feast for us, with all kinds of fruits and vegetables, omelets, french toast, tea, soft drinks, and whole wheat tortillas (well, that's what they were, although they aren't called that in this culture). The kindness and hospitality continues to amaze us.

All of this food was prepared for the two of us, and yes, that is a whole watermelon behind Prema's arm!

Landing in London

From Jim:
Here we are in the British Airways Lounge at Heathrow. Dan somehow got us in here. I hope I don't have to wash dishes. Flight over was fine, although I think there was a slolem course on our runway. We all got an upgrade to business class, so we're expecting more sleep on the India leg. I don't know how that happened, but we're grateful to God, and Jeanna, in that order.

Salem team

The Salem team has prepared for the trip to India, with focuses on conversational English, micro-enterprise, and community health. While some members of the team have prepared to work in more than one area, we plan to deploy as follows:

Conversational English - Jessica Stemm, Debbie Thompson and Jennifer Archer will be working in the government school, helping the children to improve their vocabulary and pronunciation of English. The more English a child learns, the greater the opportunities available in the future, and that is incremental. It may mean getting a better job in a restaurant or hotel, or it may mean being able to go to college, which is taught in English.

Micro-Enterprise - John Baldwin and Nate Stemm will be working with budding business owners, helping them learn basic business principles. The businesses they'll work with are a flower shop, a breakfast shop, and a petty shop (mini-convenience store). Women in India are not empowered in ways that American women, and are more vulnerable to various kinds of abuse. If a woman can run her own business, she is freed from some situations which have the potential for abuse.

Community Health - Sandy Morris, Dana Anglund, Barbara and Jim Blechl will be working to help educate the people in the community regarding diet, health and hygiene. Sandy is a nutritionist, Barbara a registered nurse, and Dana and Jim are physicians.

All of these efforts have the common purpose of coming alongside the local pastor (Job), to elevate his status in the community, and to assist him in his ministry to the needs of the community.

Final Team Training!

Last night, our India Teams gathered for their final round of training before we leave next Thursday (7/30) to head to the field. We were joined by two very special guests who helped us in tremendous ways over the two hour span.

Dr. Shobana Pandian - Dr. Pandian is a local pediatrician who is a native of Tamilnadu and did her medical education just outside of the city of Chennai. Wearing traditional South Indian dress, she explained a great deal about Indian culture, some fun Tamil language basics and phrases, and answered a myriad of questions regarding everything the teams threw at her.

Mrs. Shanti Nand - Shanti (featured photo here) is a GCC member and close friend who taught ESL (English as a Second Language) for 5 years within the Elkhart School System. We asked if she would come and help both teams to understand some basic "do's" and "don't's" when teaching Conversational English to school children. As both teams will have a Conversational English focus point, Shanti was well prepared to help the teams understand that they need to a) focus on vocabulary over concepts, b) that the "unexpected is okay", and c) that we should focus on activities and opportunities for learning recognizing that everyone can participate, but maybe at different levels.

It was a great night, and i recorded the entire session if you'd like to hear. You can click here to go to my Livescribe notes. You may need to sign up for a quick Livescribe ID, but it's free and should just take a second.

Simulation Weekend...

If you travel to India on a GCC India Team, we'll do our best to make sure that you have a LOT of preparation ahead of time. In addition to extensive DVD-based curriculum for "general preparation", a lot of team specific time with your team and team leader, and a high degree of individualized interaction, we also do a series of "simulations" to help you get an idea for what India, travel and Indian culture will be like. Our current teams participated in their "simulation weekend" last weekend, and it encompassed the following items:

Sleep Simulation - Each team member slept on their floor for two nights. That meant that they slept on their floor Friday night, spent all day Saturday with us, then slept on their floor again on Saturday night before spending all day Sunday with us as well.

"India for a Day" Simulation - On Saturday,

we took both teams to

"Little India" in Chicago to spend the day with our partners at the South Asian Friendship Center on Devon St. After arriving, we heard from Sunitha (one of the SAFC's teachers, and a native Indian who immigrated to the US after growing up in India) about the challenges and delights of Indian culture and some of its specifics for us as Americans as we begin to interact with it. After that, we ate an authentic Indian meal (hands only... no silverware or utensils!), and then spent 2 hours on a "cultural scavenger hunt" around Devon St. This hunt requires team members to interact directly with Devon St.'s dense Indian and Pakistani immigrant community to learn as much as they can about the culture, and see, smell and hear as much of it as they can while still in the US.

Work Simulation - After sleeping on their floor again on Saturday night, the team gathered at GCC to worship together on Sunday morning, and then took off to Feed the Children in Elkhart, where we spent 2 hours working alongside one another packing food and Avon boxes in the FtC warehouse. The goal of this time is to help team members begin to experience and simulate the kind of physical exhaustion that is unavoidable with long-range travel, as well as begin to "gel" as a team in a physical way as they work shoulder to shoulder with one another.

Luggage Simulation - After a quick lunch (pizza...mmmm!!!), the teams met again at GCC for the final part of the simulation: The Luggage Simulation. This involved a 2.5 mile rapid hike around the GCC campus (both inside and outside) with all their gear packed as they think they will take it to the field. After going up stairs and down, through the grass,

up the hills, around the pond, through some mud, and a variety of other fun exercises along the way (i.e. sharing a water bottle "Indian style", sharing each other's luggage and packs, etc), most people get a pretty good idea of whether or not their luggage (and the items they're packing) will make the trip. Additionally, this exercise seeks to simulate the stress and speed of navigating airports and train stations, as well as for team members to have an opportunity to re-think (and potentially re-pack) their gear if it doesn't work well during the simulation.

The teams did great! Everyone navigated all elements with grace for one another and an increasing committment to what God is calling them to do on the field!