India

Our last week of ministry.... Well it has truly been amazing in so many ways, India has been better than I thought it would be. It has gone soooo fast. I have a few stories I will share. This week is school holidays for Diwali which is the celebration of lights. It is not such a good holiday because all the people are rebuilding their idols and celebrating the wrong gods. So last Tuesday we invited both of the slums over to the base for a time of worship and intercession for the festival. We cleaned all day Monday then started preparations early on Tuesday. We had about 30 people show, we piled in on our segregated mats, women and children on one then men on the other. We worshiped although it was all in Hindi it was powerful seeing how passionate these people are about the lord. We had a time for testimonies of how god is the light in your life. Then we ate. Side note real quick, the way they cooked the food was over a fire with a massive pot that I could have taken a bath in sitting on piled up bricks. They needed three guys to lift it and get it into the house. It was the best chicken rice I've had so far! It's so much better when you eat it with your hands! It was great to see the families come together for one purpose, TO PRAY. I really felt like I was at a family gathering because we were all connected and united, we all love Jesus. It felt real powerful, it was legit. A few Sunday's ago I met this girl Depa, she did henna on my hands. She is a fierce woman of 16. She loves god with all her heart, her parents make her worship the hindu gods and sometimes beat her for following Jesus. She looked me in the eye that day and said "I love Jesus" with tears coming down her face. We prayed that her older brother would come to know the lord. This past Sunday he did, god answered our prayers!!!! I am so stoked for her! She doesn't come to the school because her parents won't let her. I was so excited when I saw her on Tuesday! We just embraced each other like we hadn't seen each other in years. Bless her and her family. Another story I have is a woman from the other slum, her and her husband run the church in that slum. Anyways when I first met her she was a pile of tears, her two brothers had been put in jail that day. They weren't sure if they were going to get bail. So we prayed for her and her family. This past Sunday when we were sitting there talking about gods love, they got a call saying they had both been released! Praise the lord!!!! god is doing something huge here! What I love about that church is that they are pouring into the kids so much because it's the kids that can reach the unreached. They are memorizing verses, singing at the top of their lungs, and praying with all their might. They are praying about taking the kids into a different slum to preach the gospel to the people there. How cool is that!
These kids have touched my heart so much. I love their kindred spirits, they really are child-like when it comes to the lord. They don't hold back. There's this one kid Abheshek he is probably like 4 the cutest kid ever. Anyway when I first saw him I really wanted to get to know him. He is so shy that I had to grab him and hold him, he didn't mind I think he really enjoys love from others. So this went on for a few weeks and the other day he kept coming to me for things and let me hold him and had the biggest smile on his face. It was so sweet because all those weeks payed off for him to finally trust me.
Everyone calls me Courtney de de. Which is a sign of respect and it means sister. That's what you call any girl that's older than you. To our host family I am known as auntie Courtney. It took a while for the kids to get my name because it's hard for them to pronounce so I started going by my middle name renee and it was much easier for them. I didn't think I would get so attached to these kiddos.
As far as team stuff goes we are doing extremely well. The running joke is that I am "mother hen" because someone that I didn't know in Queenstown prophesied over me that I was a mother hen with all my chicks around me. So I have come to accept this at first I was not because I was no ones mother but someone pointed out its more hospitality than it is mothering. Just watching over. All my chicks are doing well, only Josh and I have been sick. Both with the stomach flu, it's going around. Praise the lord no one on our team has lice! We are flying to Goa which is in the south of India for debrief next week, then we fly home. We went to see the Taj Mahal this past weekend, it was pretty legit. I never thought I would see it in my lifetime. Mainly because I never saw myself in India, never say never I guess. It was beautiful! I will post all my pictures when I get back to base then you can see the proof that I was there. :) I have become the trans/interpreter for our team, I don't know why I pick up different cultures so easily. I think it's from living in NZ for the past two years and really needing to get to know the language and what people really mean. Here, it is funny because I can just understand what the people are saying but for others on my team it is more difficult. Indians are very simple in what they are saying especially if they are speaking english because it's usually broken english.
Indian time has taken some getting used to, it is a lot like island time. On the Tuesday we were gathering, we said 11am but that's Indian time and everyone showed at 12:30. So funny when that actually happened. Be flexible, that is what I've learned. As well as why not. Why not just do this or that. You're in India why not?! Which ironically these are two things I learned from my grandpa, stay flexible and why not(especially in cooking).
We had one of our last visits to one o the slums today. We arrived and visited and prayed for everyone then we found out that they were making us lunch. It was awesome! They were making chapatti over a "stove" which was an open flame with a pan on top. I got to help the woman roll out the chapatti then she would throw it on the pan. Confession time: so after 5 weeks of not cooking I must say I am feeling deprived so when I got to help her and be literally covered in flour I felt so at home! When I had sticky fingers from the dough it never felt better! I know I'm a cooking nerd what can I say! So let me get back to the story, what they made us for dinner was water buffalo. So in other words beef. We were all a little leary to eat it. It was very good though and quite the experience. Our last visit was very good to say the least.
Many blessings,
-C

Submission

I am finding that most people don't like this word, specifically women. I mean I know that I didn't.... So this is wht god is teaching me right now, how to submit.... There are definitely some growing pains! Being in India it's very much a mans world, as a woman you don't really have an opinion. This is one way he is teachin me, the other is through co-leading. This is simlar to a relationship setting learning how to love the other person when really all you want to do is rip their head off. So with these two things it has really been a learning thing! Submitting means to yield oneself to the authority or will of another. Which is so hard! Not just in this context but submitting to the lord is even more important and harder. I'll be the first one to put my hand up and say that it is hard for me to submit, when I was a little younger I was the one to rebel from submission. Now I'm learning that it is very key in my walk with the lord and in leadership of others. The bible talks about how he always chose the servants to lead/rule. Because they know how to submit. Psalm 78:70-72 says "He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens; from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance. And David shepherded them with INTEGRITY of heart; with skillful hands he led them." Honestly speaking once my co-leader and I found how each other works, it is really easy to submit to him and for him to submit to me. What I am finding is how our students work and for which ones it is hard to submit. You can release someone into leadership but you still need to submit to the authorities over you and respect them. If you think about it in the sense of you submitting to god, you can go far in life and have a lot of authority but you still submit to him. Trust me some days I don't want to at all but it's a choice because I know all my co-leader wants is the best for me. I guess if it were easy then I probably wouldn't learn anything. I think that any leader learns about this either the easy way or the hard way.  Surrendering your rights and dying to yourself. This has been an adventure for me because I want my freedom as a woman in this country. Each day though I need to say that I'm not here for me I'm here because god called me here. It's his work not my own.  God bless....

Ukraine? Or Indian...

I think so...  India is not what I expected it to be, in a good way mostly. The weather is average 95'F with humidity, the cows here eat garbage, the trash gets thrown out back then burnt, the food is incredible, the kids have hearts of gold and the colors are amazing. Women are not allowed to touch the men ie hugging, high fives ect. That is something I am kinda struggling with because I love through physical touch. I know it will get better as the weeks go on but right now I get yelled at for touching them. We must wear the traditional clothing of the country so for girls that is leggings that go to our ankles with a punjabi that goes to our knees along with a scarf. It does get a bit hot and a little annoying with the scarf, I won't lie... We can only where our "american" clothes inside our rooms. We have bucket showers with cold to warm water, our toilet is American thank goodness no squatty potties.  We have been working with the kids in the school and we went to the slums for a few hours. The kids are so amazing I love them all!!! Katherine and I prayed for two women in the slums, for their families. We also cleaned cuts and scrapes for the kids.  So as for the title of this post, I am getting more tan and my hair is getting more dark. Therefore members of my team are calling me puerto rican when in fact I am Ukraine. Most of them said they thought I was Mexican when they first met me. It's funny how your heritage can come out in different climates and in different cultures. India is definitely not for everyone! I never imagined myself coming to this country, in fact my brother said I was not allowed to come because he was afraid for my safety. Now I'm here and it feels like home for now. When we were at the market the other day, we made friends with some of the sellers and they were teaching us Hindi. Anyways all the Indian men came up to me and asked where I was from and I said USA they were all like you look Indian like you are from here! It's so funny to be on a foreign country where they think you're a local. It's a gift that I love. Seriously though I knew this before coming to India that this would happen, nothing better than to embrace it!   As a team we are doing really well with bonding regardless of the separation we have a challenge to try to love without the physical. I feel Josh and I are leading well, we are very good at communication with each other and in our group! Prayer points:  - to love without the physical - health and protection from lice, malaria, ect. - for gods heart for this nation - to dive into the culture - continued communication with Josh and I - for our team to not hold back!  Much love and many blessings...