Prayers

Please pray for a couple of special children.

Sonaji (pictured) is very sick. He is around 5 years old although know one knows his exact age. He was abandoned on the side of the road in February probably because of his disease. Dr. Edward nursed him back to health and he was doing good but now he has turned for the worse. His AIDS virus is very advanced and I'm worried he will only make it weeks or maybe even days. My prayer is that God would take him peacefully and that He would not be scared in his finaly moments.

Atul was sick when we arrived this morning. Atul is about 10 years old. He has a fever and cough this morning and is feeling very dizzy. The worry is he may have contracted Swine Flu. He went to the hospital yesterday to get his AIDS medications and was exposed to the the Swine Flu since the the particular hospital he went to is one of the treatment centers he could have been exposed. Pray that he heals quickly and the other children would not get sick and that the swine flu would not attack these fragile children.

The work is great but God is faithful

How can anyone argue that the work being done is not great? To look into the eyes of a child that has been raised in the brothel, that knows ALL that happens in the brothel in detail, that came from a place of darkness, that came from a place of that hurts women and children in the name of a God or Goddess, that was thrown to the street and now see peace in their eyes as they sing songs of praise to the one Holy God.

Some of these children have changed their lives. They refuse to go see a grandparent at holiday time because they'll be forced to go to the temple and worship a false God. In a land consumed with false God's this is amazing.

Your prayers and support are changing lives! God is alive and moving through India. the work is hard and tiring but God is refreshing.

Our prayer today is that the words of our mouth and the work of our hands would bring Glory and praise to God so that all the people will be able to sing "I Am Free"!

Today we will leave Santvana AIDS home and travel to Delhi to work in a girl's orphanage in a Muslim area. Please pray for safety as we travel and our hearts as we will be sad to leave the children of Santvana.

Today we will also visit Preet Muneer an orphanage here in Pune. This is an added stop in our trip planned solely because one of our teammates was adopted from there 19 years ago. The visit will be a special time and I feel honored to be able to experience it with her. She is nervous as is to be expected but we are surrounding her with prayer and support.

And I danced with Cinderella.....

We had a great day today. We are falling in love with the children at the Santvana Childrens AIDS home and saying goodbye will be heartbreaking. I can leave in peace though knowing they are being loved and are learning of a God who loves them. We were disappointed to find out today that we will not be going to the Red Light area at all. Americans are being blamed for the swine flu outbreak and there has been some unrest in the Red Light area towards foreigners. For our safety we will not be visiting. I am glad for the safety but sad that we will not be able to visit those who need to know of God's love so desperately.

We were able to spend hours with the kids today just enjoying them and forming relationships. As I was on the patio of the Santvana home I heard the song Cinderella by Steven Curtis Chapman start playing from our Ipod we brought. A sweet girl that reminds me of my Emily back home grabbed my hand and began dancing with me. As we're dancing around I'm hearing the words sing out over the country side on an amazing India evening.

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh, I will dance with Cinderella
I don't want to miss even one song
'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone...

It brought tears to my eyes how beautiful the moment was dancing with my little Indian Cinderella.

Pune - Day 1

The city of Pune is literally being shut down around us. The swine flu scare has taken over the city. People everywhere are wearing whatever they can find over their faces as a mask. Even the street vendors have put aside their plastic toys and cell phone chargers and replaced their inventory with cheap masks being sold for up to 900 rupees (about $20). The schools have been shut down which has been a blessing for us because we get to have more time with the children of the AIDS home. The government has demanded that all large gatherings be cancelled and today we got word that the Red Light District will closed because of the swine flu. How odd that the swine flu can do what so many can't - close down the brothels. Although according to Uma (the director of India for Orphan Outreach) it probably won't stop the brothels from being opened. There is a chance that we won't be able to get down to the brothels though. We are praying that God would open the door for us to get a few of our team members down there. We'll have to see how it works out tomorrow.

The children at the Santvana home were so sweet and dear. A few are very sick and deep down I know that likelihood for them making it to their next birthday is slim. As I type this I thank God for Dr. Edwards and work at the home. Each child has a different story but each is tragic and full of sadness. These children are learning about a God that loves them, they are praying and they are full of joy. Some are brand new and are still learning, some have been there for years but all know they are loved by Dr. Edwards and are hearing of the love of Christ.

The team is doing well. We are all jet-lagged horribly tonight and are looking forward to collapsing in our beds. I wish I had the energy to relay more this evening. Please continue to pray for our health and that God would be glorified in all that we do.

Delays

A test of patience? God keeping us out of harms way? We'll never know for sure why today (or the last two days depending on how you look at it) have been filled with delays. What we do know is as a team we faced each delay with a smile on our face and we are all safe and sound.

We left Hillsboro, Oregon at 4:30am on our way to the Portland International Airport. Once seated on the aircraft we were informed by the pilot that the tower had notified us of a delay. We don't know what the delay was for but we sat on the tarmac for an hour waiting to takeoff. We landed at the Newark/New Jersey airport a little late but in no hurry since we had a 4 hour layover in our schedule. Waiting for us as we debarked the plane was our 7th team member Delilah who had flown in from Maryland.

Delilah was introduced to the team members she had never met and we did what every team heading into India would do for their final dinner. We ate beef!! We sat down at a diner and ate burgers together. During dinner I received a call from my husband about a tsunami warning around India. After some research we found out that the tsunami warning was actually on the Eastside of India in the Indian Ocean and we were landing on the West side of India. Giving thanks to God we closed down our computers and walked the airport before our long flight.

We boarded our plane headed to Mumbai and as the boarding started coming to an end I looked around and 6 out 7 of the team members had entire rows to themselves. Our 7th team member had 2 seats. We all gave thanks to God for His provision. Little did we know that He had knowledge of what the rest of our day would look like and the extra sleep we received from the extra space would be needed.

As the doors to the airplane shut we got notice from the captain that we would be delayed because of weather i Pennsylvania. The weather was in our flight path. The runways were stacked up because of the delay and it took us 2 hours to get out of Newark. I knew this would put us into Mumbai very late and I was wondering how the details of our day would fall out. I prayed and asked God to work it all out for us and to give us comfort in His provisions and closed my eyes and went to sleep. 8 hour later (YES! 8 HOURS LATER!) I awoke. It is truly amazing how much you can sleep on a plane when you have a couch to sleep on.

As we neared Mumbai the captain came on to tell us that the airport was stacked up with delays and we would have to circle awhile until we had clearance to land. Now, delays can be caused by many different types of weather and technical issues, but have you ever heard of an airport being shut down because there is a dog on the runway? Seriously, a dog was on the runway and it shut down an International airport. We all had a good laugh about it and FINALLY landed in Mumbai 3 hours late.

We pulled up to the terminal and the jetway would not work so after 20 minutes of delays they pulled up some stairs and bussed us back to the terminal.

The swine flu is breaking out here in India and the country is in a panic about it. There is extra security measures at the airport to go through to make sure we are not sick. Everyone is wearing masks. I would covet your prayers for the whole team as we serve. Please ask God to provide health and protection to all of us as we serve.

Our team flew through the health screening station and 5 of us were through the customs checkpoint when the computers went down. Another delay....I sent 3 team members on the baggage area to start collecting our bags while I waited for our team members to get cleared through customs. Finally the computers were up and running and we were all collected again in baggage claim. Praises to God for ALL our suitcases arriving safely!

The team then proceeded to move outside of the airport. We spotted Uma right away and headed through the thick crowd to make our way to him. By the time we arrived outside of the airport it was 1am Mumbai time. We had been traveling for 32 hours. We loaded our luggage and team members into 2 vehicles and headed to Pune, a 4 hour drive. This was the only leg of our journey without delays.

As I'm typing all the team members are snug in their beds and our wake up call should be in about 2 hours. We'll start ministering to the children at the AIDS home tomorrow and visit the Creche in the evening. Please continue to pray for strength tomorrow as we fight jetlag and minimal sleep. But like I told Uma we didn't come to sleep we came to serve our God so we will persevere.

Good night for now.

Prayers for continued PEACE in HIM

I can't believe we are just 39 hours away from leaving for INDIA... It is not surprising that we have accomplished much and overcome challenges to get to this point. We have raised funds/struggled to do so, we have overcome emotional challenges, we've prepared our travel, service and activities schedules. Most importantly we have accepted the changes to our hearts. The Lord has given us opportunities already to GROW and STRETCH toward His will.

It is so odd for me personally, to think that my biggest fear is that I am not afraid this time around. I keep battling satan's accusing voice telling me I am NOT READY because I am NOT worried. I feel very blessed by GOD'S PEACE... However - I too am not w/o hurdles - in the last few days I learned of a family member's relapse into drug use/criminal behaviors, disruption of family plans/dynamics and several other "causes for concern". I am praying for protection for all of these and that my heart will not become distracted by these issues. I TRUST GOD and know HE is in control! He is MIGHTY TO SAVE and HE is ENOUGH... and nothing I can do will change that or add to HIS GREATNESS!

I pray all my responses will be acts of PRAISE for what HE is/has done for me. May HE be seen in my service and my love for his people, may HE be in the center of all I DO!?!

I SEEK TO HONOR MY KING - - -

Humbly,

Jen

Photos from 2007/2008 by Renae

I've uploaded just a couple of photos from my previous trips to India. Looking at them reminds me why the call to go is so strong for me. These faces are why I do what I do. Someday in eternity I pray I will be standing next to those sweet faces singing songs of praise to God.