Pictures!

Sorry it took so long but here they are, the first batch of India pictures. It's hard to pick just a few out of hundreds but these ones made the cut. This weekend will be exciting for us as we will finally get to spend some substantial time with the orphans. They have been kept busy in school all week so we haven't been able to see much of them. We are also going to visit a widow's home this weekend and today we will be attending the funeral of a leper who died last night. Thanks to your generous giving we will be able to help the family of the leper pay for burial expenses. We will also be buying blankets and food for beggars and widows, as helping with microfinance opportunities which will enable beggars to become self sufficient. Instead of continually giving out handouts, Daniel is interested in helping people get back on their feet. This is a huge passion of ours as well. Thanks for your prayers and thoughts and here are the pictures!

Safe in Dharamapuri

Hi everyone! We are safe in Dharamapuri at last and have been working with Pastor Daniel for a couple of days now. We had many adventures getting here but apart from a little panic at the Dharamapuri train station, travel has gone remarkably well.
India is beautiful, chaotic, and vivid all at once. We have had many chances to see the area surrounding Dharamapuri on our visits to various villages and houses with Pastor Dan and after just two days have seen the amazing things his work has accomplished here. We have had some truly unique experiences ranging from hanging out of a train watching the countryside fly by, to eating a home-grown, home made meal off of a banana leaf plate on a dirt floor with a Hindu family we had just prayed with.
We have spent these few days getting used to the culture (Especially the driving) and looking at the various facets of Pastor Daniel's ministry. So far we have spent a great deal of time traveling to remote houses and villages where people who have not had the chance to hear anything other than Hindu spiritualism live. This has been a challenging experience for the four of us given the world view we come from but we have been blessed to see Daniel's message received enthusiastically.
We were "fortunate" enough to arrive in Dharamapuri in the middle of a Hindu festival celebrating the healing of a pregnant woman with chicken pox. This is celebrated primarily by blasting Hindu music through recycled megaphones placed strategically around the city at all hours of the day and night. Our house apparently sits at an intersection of the loudest megaphones in the entire village ensuring that we are perpetually immersed in Indian Culture.
Most of all we have been struck by the global nature of God's work; that it is not exclusive to any region and is not restricted to any one form. We are trying to approach each new experience we encounter as learners knowing that while we believe as Pastor Daniel does, we are in a very different setting and that the expression of that belief will differ accordingly.
Thank you all for your encouragement and prayers. It is very clear from our smooth travels that God's hand has been in this the entire time. We will be updating here as frequently as possible but it is a bit of a drive into town to get to the internet cafe so our posts may be sporadic.
We hope you all are well and we can't wait to share all of our adventures with you.

Singapore

Well,
Our time in Singapore has been amazing, but we are on our way to Chennai! We've included some pictures from our time here. I hope you enjoy!

JAPAN - suckahz

We're in Tokyo right now. Some guy gave us 100 yen to use the internet so we could check all the great comments you left us! We've been up for a solid 22 hours but we're going strong. We only have one more 6-hour flight left.

We = going to our gate. Send us love

We want to hear from you...

We're now hours away from leaving and my mom has called twice tonight begging me to reconsider. There are a few things I wanted to update you on:
The Bombings: Many of you have heard about the recent bombings in India. There were some that went off in Bangalore about 50 miles away. We're planning on avoiding busy markets and big tourist traps.
Write to us: We're going to miss all of you back home. Please respond to our posts and keep us updated! It's always good to hear from home - and it's good to know people read this thing.

We're heading to Singapore....
Ben

On the horizon....

9 days....
16 hours...
15 minutes...

It's safe to say that all of us have a mixture of nerves/excitement as our departure approaches. I wanted to make this first post to say THANK YOU to all of those who have supported us with finances as well as those who are sending us their thoughts/prayers; we're all in this together (forgive the High School Musical reference).

I found out today that our showers are "bucket showers" - I'm really excited for that! We'll also be doing some coffee-can laundry. We're about a 20 minute walk from the nearest town where we can connect to the internet and keep you updated often.

Thanks again for everything,
Ben