Our India Mission team arrived safely to the Mission.
This post will allow the team members to provide us with their comments, prayer requests, etc. Calvary members and friends may respond in the comment section, also via our website. (Please keep your response comments brief.) Finally, note that all comments will need to be reviewed before posting live for all to read.
Please continue your prayers for their safety, health, and open minds and hearts to be the hands of Christ to all those that they meet.
Hi Everyone…. sorry for the delay on updating this blog…. hope I do this correctly. We are all safely at the mission house and will be headed out to our first medical camp in about 3 hours.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this journey possible…. we will have better bloggers update this going forward.
Love to all
We did two medical camps today. On a farmland rice paddy region. The people there live in small cinder block homes with no windows or doors. They have the foundation of a church built but are still working on finishing it.
This evening, we did a medical camp in the jungle. The village we went to, the people work as snake catchers. A woman came into the small church there where the medical camp was being held. It’s a small cinder block church with rebar crosses on the walls.
This woman came in and turned around to walk out and passed out. I caught her head before she hit the floor. We helped her to a chair. And Pastor prayed as we all laid hands on her. I felt this electric chill go through me! Then she got up and walked weakly out with her husband. Turns out she was not a Christian and became overwhelmed in the church. We then walked through the village praying over people along the way. We talked on the bus. Mark felt the electric chill too when we were laying hands on the woman. All of us were amazed but not really wanting to talk about it as it was so powerful.
Yesterday, Sunday, was difficult day for me here in India. We started out with a beautiful church service at a little church Pastored by Brother Henry’s brother’s (Prasad’s) son. Pastor Nova did a powerful sermon and then Doug spoke, and we did the Ooh Oh song. They loved it! We then proceeded to a prison for men, 25 men to a 15-man cell. They were incarcerated for drinking, thievery, and domestic issues. Doug spoke very powerfully to them about Clyde. We then went to a small medical clinic in Kolladom . We presented the doctors there with the stethoscopes, thermometers, and flashlights we brought for them. We prayed over the people, Nicole was a light for all the small children there!
We then went to lunch, at quite a beautiful mango resort. The food was delicious. Brother Praveen is very protective of me and my food allergies, gratefully. He made the restaurant staff make me a special meal and stood by me to make sure none of the waiters served me anything else.
We then proceeded to the HIV care center and met the people there. We heard all their stories how they’ve been shunned from their families and have found family together at the center. Praveen and Anita bring them food and supplies. Each has their own room at the center. I was overwhelmed by the knowledge of mothers with small children living there.
We came back to the mission to rest in the early evening after being out all day.
I had to remove myself from the group for a good cry. I’m not a public crier! The pain and suffering here is palpable in these people. Yet you can see the joy that they have with so little. I feel powerless to help, and all I want to do is help! I keep telling myself that God equips the called, but my sorrow was so great yesterday that that was a hollow sentiment.
Vicky has been eloquently saying a closing prayer wherever we go. Mark is very popular with the young boys here at the mission. He was speaking to them about God’s calling in their lives this morning. Justin is ill, with a UTI, and we’re all doing our best to care for him. He slept a lot yesterday, so hopefully he’s turning a corner.
God bless our Calvary family!
Today we went to the Bone Setting Hospital. To see people with broken bones and sprain getting their bones reset on these old morgue looking tables, and crying out in pain with no sedation, was a lot to witness. Nicole started to get overwhelmed, and I had to rush her out of the room.
We then went to a local waterfall, which was very pretty, but the amount of litter was sad to see. And the monkeys in the area are very bold thieves!
Oh gosh, I forgot the school! We went to the school and saw all the classrooms and children. They sang for us! They are doing very well with Smart boards in each classroom Tonight we’re doing a two-hour performance and worship service at the Ashram.
Happy new year to everyone!
Last night the team feed 500 people after the rededication of the hospital.
Today we did a medical camp in the AM. I gave pain medication injections, and Vicky did bps. The rest of the team spread out with the other medical professions there and then prayed over people.
In the evening, we distributed blankets and food to gypsy beggars at the ashram. There were more people than blankets, so the team was a bit upset but we’re going to purchase more blankets for the rest. We then proceeded to another village for a worship service and the children performed for us.
Today, we went to the good Shepard hospital and served 160 people. I gave more meds and vitamin b 12 shots. We snacked at Cafe Agape outside the hospital. In the evening, we distributed baby blankets and 30 days’ worth of food to the poor and HIV stricken. We are headed to the ashram soon for a fasting prayer service.
I am happy to read your daily blogs. Brings back so many memories. Wish I could be there for your homecoming, and hearing your stories about your experiences. You are doing Gods work for the people.
Safe travels and hugs to the team.
Last day in Puttur. We went to a medical camp in a small village two hours away in the rice fields. They are having water pipes installed, and every hut now will have a small plastic waterspout outside of it. The people there, like all the other villages, are lovely and very grateful. I think all of southern India will know the “Oh Oh” by the time we leave!
We then had lunch and bid a sad farewell to the staff of the hospital and mission. Headed by bus to Chennai. We went to St Thomas Mount and then onto the hotel for the night. We spent 10 hours on the bus today and boy does my back feel it! We’re all looking forward to a nice shower and bed. Tomorrow we will visit St Thomas’ Basilica before shopping and then the airport & home.
Brother Praveen’s son Noel was in a nasty accident earlier in the week and ended up having road rash debrided on his arm. He was with us today in the bus and is looking much better. Thank God!
Safe travels the rest of the way back to Calvary!!