disclaimer…We have TONS more pictures of our whole team which we will be posting…so if you are like “why does Ryan never show MY son/daughter/friend/Mom/Dad/favorite know that its not on purpose! Just using what is quickest…I love all the team!:)
VBS
Today we closed up VBS with one more session of crazy English and Tegulu songs, a silly skit about David and Goliath, and some more coloring. The kids LOVE singing “My Salvation” (sung the tune of “Twist and Shout”)…especially the surfing hand motions.
We then served all the kids lunch. Harvest India makes sure that every aspect of VBS is very special, including the food. The cost for a 3 day VBS is only $5 per person.
Rally
After a short afternoon break, our team loaded into some auto-rickshaws and headed back to the orphanage. Now that was an experience!
To close VBS, Harvest India conducted a rally in a nearby village. All the kids put on crowns with bible verses and the band loaded into a van with a portable sound system on the roof. All 700 kids followed the van down the street to the village, singing praise songs and dancing and gathering attention. Once we got to the end of the village, Saresh shared the gospel with the town and told stories of what Jesus has done in the lives of the orphans to make them so happy. It was a blast to see a live band and a throng of kids stopping traffic for Jesus! It was really hard to say goodbye to the kids we befriended, especially those of us who decided to sponsor a child. The great thing about Harvest India is that 100% of sponsorship money goes to the child…no administration costs!
Medical Camp
After VBS we had the opportunity to visit a Harvest India medical camp and pass out malaria medication to the children. The doctor and Harvest India nursing school graduates then diagnose and treat the poor and neglected. What an amazing time and incredible ministry. These nurses are the real champions. They set up the camps and medicine and stay for hours serving the people.
We are so sad to leave in the morning, but are very excited to share the story of this amazing place to our friends in the States.
We had another great VBS session today. The kids love teaching us Tegulu (the State language) vocabulary in exchange for their English counterparts. This is a great way to connect with the older classes (ages 12-14) who want to practice their English. They LOVE singing and hand motions! The whole team, especially the women (Kara, Danielle, Heather, Mary), are doing a great job engaging with all the kids!
Indian Wedding
Today we had the incredible privilege of attending an Indian wedding party for a friend of Saresh. The girls wore saris and the the guys wore our custom tailored Indian suits! We were a fine bunch, I must say. For 10-20 days before the wedding, both the bride and groom’s families host huge parties for hundreds of people! We attended the bride’s party on the day before the wedding. We enjoyed an amazing lunch, overwhelming hospitality, and a time of prayer for the bride.
Redlight
In the evening we visited Harvest India’s prostitute ministry in the nearby red-light district. The center provides food, medicine, and a chance to break away from the trade. The women shared an intimate time of prayer and encouragement.
A bit shorter on the post…sorry…we’ve all been a little sick and have been spending our time in the bathroom.
That’s what we did today…dipped our chicken in some yogurt…while eating on a banana leaf in the middle of the jungle. Yeah, dinner was awesome!
The day was awesome. Let’s start from the beginning.
Some chicken, rice, harboiled eggs, fruit, and a bunch of other stuff we couldn’t see in the dark
Orphanage
After a breakfast of potato crepes, hardboiled eggs, hand squeezed grape juice, and curry, we drove over to the Harvest India school and orphanage. This school houses mainly children whose families were lost in the Tsunami. The kids were so joyful and well behaved! The school has some of the highest marks in the state! All of the orphans are from the lowest caste systems. A few shared some of their stories. It was heartbreaking to see little boys and girls trying to choke back their tears and share how hard their life has been. Yet God has provided for them a new life with new possibilities.
Next we walked across the compound to visit Harvest India’s Ashraya Women’s Home. Harvest India buys women out of the sex trade and provides schooling and crafting for them to help them build an independent future. Many of these women are trafficked into prostitution, sold by their families or coerced into a life of prostitution at a young age. As we looked into their eyes, it was clear that they were still struggling with the emptiness and pain from their past and yet reconciling that with the truth that God values them more than they can imagine and offers them healing, hope, and dignity. This is one of the hardest ministries here because in Indian culture, prostitutes are “unclean.” Once they are deemed as such they live their life with a permanent stigma, leaving them feeling cast aside and forgotten. Women who aren’t virgins are seldom married (and about 50% of Indian marriages are arranged) and never open up about their past experience for fear of ruining their hope for the future. Harvest India helps to arrange marriages for these women in addition to providing them much needed medical care. In the Ashraya home, these women learn to make purses, pajama pants, and pillow cases in order to support themselves in another way. Unfortunately, since these products are made with “unclean” hands, no one in India will buy them. They depend on foreign visitors like us to support the work of their hands, and we’ve brought a bunch back which will be sold in the Cornerstone bookstore! This portion of the day was a highlight for Heather, who is excited to partner with the Ashraya Home with her business, Ransom Me, which aims to raise funds for programs that aid victims of sex trafficking.
Elderly Home
Driving for one hour in cramped SUV’s to an the elderly home was another experience in itself with oncoming trucks and buses playing truth or dare with our vehicle. When we arrived we were bombarded with flowers and hugs from the old people as they warmly greeted us in front of their home. The elderly in this home are forgotten by their families and have no place to go. All of us were choked up as we heard the stories of abandonment and then restoration as they come to this home to live out their final years with the care and compassion that only God can give. Many of them actually come to Christ in this home and these people become the prayer warriors that sustain Harvest in India.
Outreach Night
some of my handclappin’ pals
Saresh and one of the local pastors
We ended our day by heading out over bumpy dusty roads to a village where Harvest India has been ministering through different types of relief work. As we drove in we could hear beautiful native music and see lights in the distance. In the middle of what seemed like no where a portable sound system, lights and a stage were set up. When we arrived there were probably over 100 people (women sitting on the ground, men seated in the back, waiting for our teams. We were introduced to a local pastor, enjoyed more Indian praise songs with me distracting several beautiful kids in the front in a random clapping game(so many beautiful smiles). I was able to lead several worship songs as more and more people arrived to check out what was going on. Marty introduced Kara one of our team members to give her testimony which was a really big step of faith for her never having done it before. Kara did an amazing job supported in prayer by all of us, she will never be the same! Chris, one of the members of the Canadian group shared a message based on God’s love for women tied to a gospel presentation. Niall closed with an invitation to accept Christ with over 100 standing and praying to receive Jesus as their Savior. Harvest India will be following up in the village to be sure there is an understanding of who the one true God is and what that decision means to them and help discern between different types of decisions. We were all able to pray for dozens of villagers as the evening drew to a close. The work of the Holy Spirit was powerful in a small village in India last night. What a blessing to be able to be part of that!
Thanks for all your prayers and support. We’ve enjoyed reading your comments and sharing our experience with you guys! Tomorrow we start our VBS…which is gonna be amazing! The kids are so ecstactic…this is 3 days of holiday for them!
Church Service
Here is video update of our church service a few days ago.
Sat, 3:57am
So we just arrived at our hotel in Chennai, India after approx 30 hours of travel! Due to the time changes, we only spent 2 hours of Friday in Hong Kong before jumping ahead to Saturday. Crazy!
The aromas immediately thicken upon exiting the plane. The airport was crammed with people coming and going. We were definitely the odd ones out for a change. It definitely is humbling. I never really noticed how white I really am!
The taxi ride from to the Hotel was probably the craziest thing I have ever experienced. Let’s just say we all made sure we were right with God once we saw how the Taxi drivers maneuvered…but hey we made it! Let me tell you how invaluable car horns are…They saved our lives at least 3 times. And check out these sweet rides! I felt like Dick Tracy:
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The 30 minute drive to our hotel was our first chance to absorb our surroundings. The strangest, smallest, jerry-rigged automobiles cluttered the streets, along with pedestrians and the occasional cow. Even though it was early in the morning the city was alive. It was definitely a 3rd world environment. It broke my heart to see people sleeping in the gutters and the sidewalks…especially the elderly. They remained completely ignored by everyone except the large rats who could be seen rummaging through their blankets and belongings.
We met up with Saresh at the hotel and were greeted with big hugs. Culturally, you are not supposed to say “sorry” or “thank you”, or use your left hand to eat or greet. Additionally, our nods for “yes” and “no” mean the opposite so we are still figuring out how to interact, but hugs are okay! Oh yeah and men hold hands as a sign of friendship.
Saresh said he’s excited for us to be here partnering with Harvest India. He said India is a very dark place spiritually, with millions of different deities and gods worshipped. We are excited to see the amazing things Harvest India does!
We are all currently in our hotel rooms, trying to shake the time change (its 4 am Saturday here and 3:43pm Friday in Phoenix) and catch some sleep before our 6 hour train ride tomorrow at 1pm. Thank you all for your prayers! I’m not sure what what kind of internet access I will have after the train ride, but I’ll be blogging everyday and upload it all as soon as we have the opportunity!
Well, after a 16 hour flight from San Francisco, our team just landed in Hong Kong @ approx 4 am our time and 7:30pm (on Friday) Hong Kong time. It has been an adventure!
So far, Cathay Airline’s quality of service and food has destroyed all hope for US airline companies! We each enjoyed our own media center with over 100 movies, 888 cds, and 300 tv shows…plus games of course!
We had a few mishaps with our luggage claims in San Francisco, but after some cross-cultural communication, we figured it out…And props to the nationalities that speak multiple languages!
No matter how nice the plane ride, 16 hours is still 16 hours. Time change, muscle soreness, cabin fever…traveling over the whole Pacific Ocean and wondering if you are in an episode of Lost. We all feel like we’ve been hit by a double decker bus! Next up a 5 hour flight into Chennai, then a 7 hour train ride to Tenali!
Its amazing being overseas…a first for several of us on the team. A total change of smells, sounds, interactions and voltages (bring a transformer!). Its exciting and also intimidating…It reminds me how small we actually are and how diverse our world is.
We serve such a diverse God who speaks to all nations! Our purpose as a short-term team is mainly to experience and witness what God is doing in other areas around the world, provide needed support to the long-term organizations we partner with, and relay the news back to our home areas. We have the most influence among our own friends and families due to our life-time of established relationships. We may feel that our purpose is mainly to “help others” when we venture out but I believe our main purpose is to serve as witnesses to what God is doing…of course we help others and share the Gospel, but as a short-term team most often we are the ones who God grows the most. We are excited to observe and partner with Saresh and Harvest India and to relay the amazing things God is doing back to Chandler, Az.
So the Cornerstone India Team consists of: Marty and Mary McIntire, Danielle and Ryan Axtell, Kara Cox, Heather Nyhart, and Niall McSheffrey.
Our iternerary is as follows:
14-02-09 – Saturday Early Morning at 5:45 A.M. Arriving to Chennai by Cathy Pacific #631.
Afternoon at 1:30 P.M. leave to Tenali by Pinakini Express Train.
15-02-09 – Sunday at 11:00 A.M. Sunday Service at Local Church.
Evening at 5:00 P.M. visit to Mercy camp, Medical Center and Nursing Training Center.
Night at 8:00 P.M. Outreach Meeting at Peddalanka.
16-02-09 – Monday at 10:00 A.M. Visit to HI Orphanage & School, Vision Center (Bible College),
Ashraya Building (Former Prostitutes Project) and Hiv/Aids Awareness Camp at HI Campus,
after visit to our new Dalith School Construction.
Evening at 5:30 P.M. Drinking Water Well Dedication at Betasthapuram.
17-02-09 – Tuesday at 10:00 A.M. First day of VBS Program at HI Campus
Afternoon VBS Section at 3:00 P.M to 5:00 P.M.
18-02-09 – Wednesday at 10:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. Second Day of VBS
Afternoon VBS Section at 3:00 P.M to 5:00 P.M.
Evening at 5:20 P.M. visit to Red-Light area at Tenali.
19-02-09 – Thursday at 10:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. Third Day of VBS.
Afternoon Final VBS Section at 3:00 P.M., after VBS Big Rally from HI Campus to Vadlamudi.
7. 20-02-09 – Friday at 9:00 A.M. Medical Camp at Peddalanka, after visit to one of our Elderly Home at
Teppalakatta. Afternoon at 2:30 P.M. Leave back to Chennai by Janashabdi Exp.
8. 21-02-09 – Saturday Early Morning at 3:15 A.M. Fly back to Home by Cathy Pacific #632
We leave tomorrow morning around 7am…Excited!! Keep us in your prayers and check in with us daily! Its gonna be a diverse and crazy trip!
Cornerstone is getting ready to send a team down to Tenali, India (in the Guntur District) and this will be the place for you to stay up to date with what we are doing! Please feel free to pass this link on to friends and family and check back for pictures, videos, and journal entries during our visit! We will be working with Dr. Saresh and Harvest India
