Leprosy

We arrived safely in Chennai. The time here has flown by so fast! I can't believe it's already Sunday and I'm getting ready to go back home on Tuesday! Our time here has been great!

This week we visited 2 leprosy colonies and an aids hospital. To tell the truth I was not very excited to visit these places. I hate hospitals! It wasn't as gruesome as I thought it would be, but it was still very eye opening. Do you know how hard it is to look a 8 year old girl in the eye and see her total lack of hope. She wouldn't smile at all. I don't blame her. She has aids and will die in a couple years or so. The conditions of the "hospital" resembled more of a Zoo and I'm told even the pigs won't eat the food served there. Yet these people have no other place to go. The leprosy colony wasn't nearly as bad as I thought, but still very sad. It's very strange to see people with no fingers, only a stump of a hand. They are also very hopeless. It's tragic.

On a happier note, I leave for home on Tuesday! My final flight arrives on Sept 3rd around noon. Please pray for my return journey. It will be VERY LONG! (I have two 5 hour layovers!) Please also pray for my safety! I can't wait to see everyone when I get back! I miss you all so much!

~Audrey

Leaving Rajahmundry

Sadly, in seven hours we will be leaving Rajahmundry. We will be heading back to Chennai for our last days in India. Rajamundry was great! It was also CRAZY! We interviewed over 200 sponsor children! They were all so cute! I'm very excited that Living Hope has taken the initiative to help these kids! They sure do need it! THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of you who sponsor a child! WE will be sending you more info as soon as possible. (We have 200 profiles to short out and limited internet, so your patience is GREATLY appreciated.) If you don't already sponsor a child I highly recommend that you sign up for one! Contact Living Hope Church for more info.

Well, I'm off to finish packing! Please pray that we will have a safe train ride back! I'm not really worried about it. Dr. Kumar is coming with us and the ride here was fine. Still, prayer is always needed!

Thanks!

Speaking out in Faith

God has really been doing amazing things in me. On Sunday, I was prepared to share about Joshua (during a church service we put on). Suddenly, ten minuets before I was going to start talking I felt God asking me to talk about a completely different subject! I began to feel a little uneasy! I mean you kidding right God? How am I supposed to know what to say ten minuets before I speak?! I jotted down a few notes I thought God wanted me to talk about, only about 5 minuets worth of talking if I stretched it! I thought for a second maybe a compromise would work. I'll talk about what I planed on talking about and then kind of encompass the new subject for a few minuets at the end! The little voice in my head said, "That's NOT faith! How much do you trust me? Step out completely! Talk ONLY about what I told you!" Me, "Wow this is crazy! I mean their expecting me to share for half an hour! What if I run out of things to say?" God, "Trust me." "Ok, I'm going to jump, YOU BETTER CATCH ME!" I walked to the front, full of adrenaline, ready to speak. I was so excited to see what God was going to do! I knew I had trusted Him and he was going to do something great that evening! Well, he did! Line by line he gave me analogies and words to say! And I didn't just casually speak them either. I was very excited, and passionate about what God told me to say. It was amazing! My best sermon yet! Thanks God! : )

On a more shallow note; Today we went shopping, it was crazy cuz Jean (Mrs. Kumar) went with us and we had our own driver and were accompanied by a body guard! They even carry our shopping bags for us! I feel like royalty here. As guests we are not allowed to work at all. Not even to sweep our bed room floor or to take out our trash. Not even to take our plates to the sink after eating! I kinda like it but it feels strange. The only thing I miss doing myself is cooking! We eat the same thing for lunch and dinner every day. Deep fried potatoes, deep fried carrots, fried chicken, rice with cardamom, and chicken curry. I feel so pressured to eat here. Jean serves us BIG servings. And she’s always telling us to eat lots now and lose weight when we get home! Often I’m not even hungry when it’s a meal time but I sit down and she still serves me a big plate of food! I feel like I’ll offend her if I don’t eat it! But I can’t! Also today it rained very heavily and all the laundry the maid hung out to dry got soaked. Guess we won’t have any more clean clothes for a while! Lol

Dr. Kumar

Tuesday we took the train from Chennai central station to Rajahmundry. It wasn't as bad as I though tit would be. It was a cooler slightly over cast day, which pretty much saved our lives because the coach we rode in had NO A.C.! The seating was a little cramped and yes creepy Indian men starred at the WHOLE time. Apparently they don't think starring is rude here and some of them act like they've NEVER seen a white person. The men will literally stare at you unblinkingly for hours on end. It's very awkward!

After an 8 hour train ride we arrived safely in Rajahmundry. Dr. Kumar was there to greet us as soon as we stepped off the train. He was escorted by the usual 2 body guards. (Alisha and I nick named them Mikey and Bubah, we have no idea what their real names are.) His body guards follow him everywhere he goes. Dr. Kumar took us to his home where we would be staying. He has 3 sons. The middle one, Alver, is VERY lively and reminds me of my brother Andy. (I sure miss him!) He likes to watch power rangers and does his own highly energetic version of Karate! Dr. Kumar has a servant who does all the cooking and laundry for his house hold. At every meal the team, the four of us, sit at a table and are served food by his wife. She treats us so well! None of us is allowed to lift a finger even if it's just to refill our water glass. I feel like we are staying at the presidents house! Complete with body guards and servants! Dr. Kumar is a very nice man. He speaks very good English. He's also a very schedualed man. But when you have as much to accomplish in one day as he does I guess you have to be. We also live very routine lives here. Which is very different for spontaneous me

Rajahmundry has a bad side too. The least of our worries is the power cuts. Which are even MORE often and last even longer then they did in Chennai. It's miserable here with out fans and A.C. But that's not the worst part! The worst part is the hatred of Christians here. There is a group of people here wholly dedicated to demolishing Christian efforts. People here are allowed (I would even say encouraged) to openly persecute Christians here. That's why Dr. Kumar has body guards! We have to be very careful what we do. On the train ride we were strictly warned not to talk to anyone. Hindu fanatics have killed Christians here before, and it wasn't a long time ago that it happened! Please have no fear for us. Dr. Kumar knows how to be careful and God is protecting us. I say this so you will pray for us not so that you will worry for one moment. If anyone needs to worry it would be me, and I'm not worried so you shouldn't worry either! Just pray.

God is still teaching us so much! If I were to right about it all it would fill a whole book! I can't wait to tell you all about it when I get back. It's been amazing to see how everyone on the team has realized and developed their spiritual gifts. There has been prophecies fulfilled in our coming here and prophecies given us while here. It so crazy how God continually confirms that I am supposed to be here. There's no doubt in my mind I am exactly where God wants me!

Wednesday, we went and visited the children's orphanage that Living Hope Church sponsors. The power was out so it was very dark. To small candles lit the crowed room where 90 children sat in perfect rows. The children all stood and greeted us as we entered. "Good evening Father, Good evening Mother..." They call all visitors from America father or mother because we are like fathers and mothers to them. The children were perfectly behaved! They say us a song in their native language accompanied by some native drums. It was the most amazing sound I've ever heard in my life. I'm sure heaven itself couldn't make a more beautiful noise! It gave me goose bumps. the children continued to sing to us song after song for half an hour! Then we had to leave so they could do their home work. I can't wait to see the children again!

We visited orphans in Churches. They have no place to stay so they return to their church every night. There a church family takes them home to feed them and let's them sleep on the floor ever night. We are hoping to get these children sponsors soon as well. Right now they are sleeping on dirt floors.

On a side note; these are the children that Living Hope Church is helping find sponsors for. For $30 a month you can sponsor a child. That means that they will be able to receive 3 meals a day, an education, a place to sleep and medical care.

Gypsies and Rag-pickers

We visited the rag pickers and showed them some movies outside on a big screen. They were so excited we came! One movie was in Tamil, and one was the Jesus movie. Five of them came forward and accepted Christ as their savior! I got to pray with three of them! It was awesome to get to see some fruit. They had been waiting for 2 years for someone to some show them the movie! This was the first time someone had come to show them a movie where they live. Please pray for the new believers. Several of them requested that we pray for their family difficulties. One lady in particular said her mother has been missing for 5 days. No one has the slightest idea where she is, or even if she’s alive.

We visited the gypsies and took them rice. It was Crazy! We had to be really careful the way
we handed it out. They are very wild people. In the past when others have given them rice they have broken out in fist fights and have tried to take rice from other families. They will try to get more than their allotment of rice and cheat others out of their rice. Caleb said today went the best. No fights broke out (although there was lot’s of yelling) and everyone received a fair share of rice and lentils. It was really good to know that they won’t be going hungry for a while. We were going to put up a big screen out side and show them the Jesus movie, but it started pouring buckets of rain so we had to postpone it. : ( Please pary we are able to reschedule it sometimes before we leave.

Random Updates

Thanks for all your prayers guys! We all really appreciate it! We need your prayers everyday. I'd like to send a BIG thank you out to all of you who prayed for James. He's doing much better, and hasn't had any attacks since the one I witnessed on Sunday night. Thank GOD!

Please pray for Persilla. She operates the Christian daycare. All of the children that attend come from very low income homes and their parent are Hindu. She was physically attacked last night by something. She was at her house alone in her room when strange things began to happen. Toys and things were thrown at her from different directions. The next morning her whole body was so swollen she couldn't remove her blouse. Her work is very important. Please pray for her safety and courage. She is at the forefront of a spiritual warfare.

Today we went to visit the gypsies. They literally live in the dirt. They sleep in the dirt and eat in the dirt and their children are born onto the dirt. It’s so sad. They live among piles of trash. The few rags we saw strewn across the surrounding scraggily bushes, were actually their laundry drying! We will visit them again in a couple days and take them some rice.

On a random note, a wore my first Saree yesterday!!! I was soooo excited! It was royal purple. It's difficult to wear 9 yards of fabric wraped around you! One false move and the whole thing falls off! So, don't stand up too quickly! lol I managed to wear it all day with out any embarrasing aacsidents! (YAY!) I wore it to Cableb's church and then 2 other churches.