Beautiful Feet

2011-11-29T16:03:00.001-05:00

Zombies, Wine, and Christian Music

A really interesting blog post by Michael Gungor that discusses the superficiality that is prevalent in Christian music...and then a little rant about alcohol.

Change of Plans?

2011-11-13T19:11:00.001-05:00

1The plans of the heart belong to man,
but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.
2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
but the LORD(C) weighs the spirit.
3 Commit your work to the LORD,
and your plans will be established.
9 The heart of man plans his way,
but the LORD establishes his steps.
Proverbs 16:1-3,9

Sometimes God likes to change my plans.

In 2002 my mind was made up that I was meant to be the chief medical examiner for the FBI. By the summer of 2004 God said, nope, you're going to be a missionary.

In 2004 I went to Nicaragua on a medical mission trip. In 2005 I knew that I was supposed to go back to Central/South America and do medical missions, but God sent me to China to teach 13-year-olds English instead.

In 2006 I was sure that I was supposed to get back into medical missions, and I was definitely meant to go to Moldova. That year I ended up planning VBS for 11 churches in my hometown instead.

In 2007, after a second summer working with Chinese people--this time in Malaysia--God shifted my heart's focus from the Chinese to Muslims.

In 2008 I started medical school at a school where I had said just 4 years earlier that there was no way I would ever go to. That year He placed me with a Bengali Muslim roommate, who I lived with for 2 years. And in 2009 He sent me to northern India to work with Kashmiri Muslims.

God likes to change my plans. I get to a point where my mind is convinced that no other situation would work for me, and then he renews and transforms my mind (Romans 12:2). Strangely enough, when God steps in and changes my mind--a situation which can be scary and which my mind should naturally resist strongly (Romans 8:7)--everything around me seems like it falls into place.

Roll the calendar over to 2011. Here I was, thinking I knew exactly where God had planned for me to go to residency. Everything made sense. I visited the program and loved everything about it. The residents were cool, the education was excellent, the town was cozy and comfortable, and the program actually had a global health track that would allow me to do some missions while I was in residency. I even found a church I really liked there.

And then I went to the Global Health Missions Conference.

There I was introduced to a brand-new, only-in-its-first-year-of-existence residency program. I had met the head of the program a year earlier at another conference and thought the model of his clinic was revolutionary and I knew I wanted to experience it and be a part of it somehow (so I signed up for a 2 week rotation there, which I'll do in late February). It's an inner city clinic where most of the employees live and minister in the surrounding neighborhoods. These people moved to the hood with the mind that they were going to meet people's physical needs through the clinic and meet their spiritual needs by starting house churches in the area.

They now have 5 clinics and 8 house churches. They also recognized the need to send missionaries to difficult places, so they sent people to Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Northern India, Sudan, etc. And now they've started a family medicine residency program. Be still my heart.

In talking to the folks from the residency program, everything started to fall into place.

Not only do they have an option to do missions during residency, but they require it. They model their whole program around it:
1) live in the hood, learn how to connect with your neighbors, meet people, and tell them about Jesus.
2) learn how to start house churches, which are the most sustainable and easily reproducible type of church out there (that's why they did it in Acts, and that's why it works everywhere from Memphis to Kabul to Shanghai).
3) spend time in hard places overseas--places no one else is going, where medicine is the only way missionaries can introduce people to the gospel--and learn how to be a foreign medical missionary in the 10/40 window before you go there full time.

I applied and hopefully will interview soon. I still plan on going for 2 weeks in February too. I don't know what to say. I don't have lots of reasons, but this program might change my plans. It has me all turned upside-down and confused. Now the other program--the one I was sure I was supposed to go to--doesn't seem to quite fit.

The resident I went to the conference with was from the program that I was so sure about. I told her about this new program, and though I completely expected her to discourage me from checking it out and to try to pull me closer to her program, she didn't. Strangely enough, she said, "I think you should go there. It totally fits. Definitely pray about where God wants you, but don't let our program get in the way of going where God wants you to be." How awesome is that?

Sometimes God changes our plans and calls us to do hard things. I know that I would be happy at the other program, I know the training would be excellent, and I know that I would love it, but right now it sort of seems like the easy way out.

But we'll see. Who knows? Maybe God will change my plans again.

Lecrae's testimony: I am second.

2011-10-07T10:53:00.002-04:00

Too Christian: The Jesus Bubble discussion.

2011-10-03T21:54:00.002-04:00

For the next 2 weeks I am in Oklahoma doing an away rotation at a family medicine program I'm interested in. Why come all the way out here? The program looked really great online, and I didn't think a 2 day trip for an interview would be enough time to decide if I wanted to move halfway across the country for 3 years.

I've only been here 2 days, but the environment here has raised a question in my mind. I'll get to that in a bit.

As an outsider, Tulsa appears to be a very religious city. Oral Roberts University is here, with its prayer tower and giant praying hands statue serving as giant visual reminders that they are not of this world. Many of the hospitals here are religiously affiliated, with names like St. John's, St. Francis', and Good Samaritan. The program I'm working with is a "Christian program" (can a program be Christian? I thought just people were Christian. That's a post for another time) within a Catholic hospital, and the residents here are from all over the country. Many of them went to Christian colleges for undergrad. One of the things that initially drew me to the program was the fact that they mentioned that they have daily devotions together before morning rounds. Prayer with patients is not only allowed, but encouraged, and the program is fairly missions-focused, although they don't have a specific missions track like another one I visited.

Now that I'm here, though, I'm not so sure how much I like the "Christian-ness" of the program. As you can infer from my earlier post, I have a hard time figuring out what "Christian enough" means in my own life, but I do know that there is such a thing as "too Christian."

Whoa, what did she just say? That heathen. Shouldn't we always be striving to be more righteous? She's such a slacker. Backslider.

What I mean is that some of the people I have encountered here seem to be a bit too separate from the World. Can you imagine growing up at a Christian school, going to a Christian college, only hanging out with friends from Christian Medical Association in med school, and then going to a Christian residency program where your little bit of free time outside of work is spent in Bible study with your co-workers? I'm all about having Christian community and encouragement and discipleship, but there comes a point when you have to leave the safety of your Jesus bubble and interact with the World a bit, lest you turn into that weird Christian kid. You know the type: all smiles, never seems to have any life stresses or problems, and talks like a TBN preacher.

In Macon there is a church with a "medical professionals" Sunday School class. I've said it a million times: I don't want to be around the same people all day, every day. For me, church activities are a welcome break from the medical world. I'm reminded of how normal people live (did you know normal people don't talk about lancing abscesses while sharing a molten chocolate cake at Applebee's?) when I'm at church, and I hope that it makes me more able to relate to people inside and outside a medical context.

In the same way that I have to get outside of my hospital clique, I don't feel comfortable in a Jesus bubble for very long. Jesus didn't hang out with religious people, and I start to feel like my collar is too tight when I do. Not to mention the fact that my insecurities (and satan) make me feel about 37% more sinful when I'm in a Jesus bubble. This is not conviction I'm talking about. I'm talking the "not Christian enough" guilt.

Today a nurse asked me where I was staying while in OK. I told her the program put me up with a resident, and her response was, "isn't it nice to know you're staying with someone who shares your faith?" I truthfully said yes, but in my mind I also wondered what she would have thought about me having a Muslim roommate for 2 years.

The jury is still out on whether I like this program or not. We'll see how the rest of my 2 weeks goes.

Am I right, or am I really not Christian enough, and it's just my insecurity making me crack jokes about graduates of ORU to make me feel better about my heathen-ness?

What do you think? Are you uncomfortable in a Jesus bubble, or do you feel like Snuggles in the Downy commercial in that type of atmosphere?

Leave me a comment. All the cool kids are doing it. Actually, no one is doing it, so leave me a comment and become a cool kid.

Sometimes people just need their hair brushed.

2011-09-26T15:40:00.003-04:00

I hope that I could be this in tune to what Jesus wants me to do for someone, and I hope I can get over the piercing stares and whispers and just do it.

Because brushing one person's hair may eventually lead another to ask about Christ.

Live your life in a way that makes non-believers think you're crazy.

S.W.F.A.C

2011-09-15T21:33:00.000-04:00

Single.
.
White.
.
Female.
.
American.
.
Christian.

Fitting any one of these descriptions could get a person in serious trouble in certain countries. Unfortunately, all five apply to me.

I have met a good bit of opposition from different people about this trip. I have talked to people in ministry positions who have told me that SWFAC's like me shouldn't go to the kinds of places I want to go to. It's dangerous! What if you get killed? Why don't you wait and go after you have a husband to go with you? Those people don't like Americans! Christians are persecuted there! I will address these objections in a later post, but for now I'd like to give some reasons why I think a SWFAC like me is well suited for the mission field.

Single: It's hard enough trying to figure out what God wants for one person, but for two? The difficulty more than doubles, I'm sure. There is no boyfriend, fiancee, or husband "back home" pulling my heart in a direction away from where God is pulling it. There are no children needing me to take care of them and ensure their safety. Sure, my family would like me to stay, but I have no real obligation to them (sorry, family!). It is relatively easy for me to live on the cheap, save money, schedule time off, put my responsibilities and life on hold, and just go. This is what Paul was alluding to in 1 Corinthians 7: 25-40 when he said it was better not to be married.

White: Yes, being white (especially as white as I am) can make you more conspicuous, but it can also put you at a slight advantage in some areas of the world. In the parts of Asia where I prefer to go, there is still a strong prejudice about skin color which can work in my favor. It's not nice, but it's a fact.

Female: In many Asian countries, not just Muslim countries, there is a taboo about women seeing male doctors. Either they don't feel safe or comfortable, or their husbands don't trust other men looking at their wives. As a female, I'm in a unique position to minister to other women and provide medical care to them that they otherwise might not be able to get. Imagine being in labor and the village midwife encounters a complication. Your options are to try to get through a dangerous delivery at home or ask your husband to take you to a hospital to find a doctor (who will probably be male). My goal during residency is to become competent and confident in doing deliveries, even C-Sections, so that I can be of service to women. And I don't care how patriarchal a society is, women still have a lot of power and influence in their homes. If a Pap smear allows me to gain a woman's trust so I can tell her about Jesus so she can then share Him with her family, I'll take it.

American: Believing that every Muslim hates America is as stupid as believing that every American hates Muslims. Believe it or not, just being from America opens doors for conversation with people. I've had lots of people approach us on mission trips just to practice their English with us or learn about our culture because they're interested. Their cultures tend to not be so weighed down with political correctness as ours is. It's not a big deal to just go up to someone and say, "hey, you look different. Tell me about where you come from." Out of all the people who have approached me like this, only one had anything remotely political to say, and I'm pretty sure he was just saying it because he thought it's what Americans wanted to talk about.

Christian: All Christians are commanded (not called) to GO. We are not guaranteed safety in exchange for our obedience, but we are guaranteed heaven. Christians are more perfectly suited than non-Christians to minister to people. We have all been given spiritual gifts to enable us to do what God has commanded in unique ways. We have the fruit of the Spirit in our lives that pours forth as a witness to the lost. We know the ultimate Teacher, Preacher, Comforter, Peace-Maker, Healer personally. We are in his family. Who better than people who literally have the Spirit of God in them to minister to people? As Christians, we know that our side ultimately wins, so we can be confident that any trouble or danger we face is only temporary.

So there you have it. Please change your mind about us SWFAC's. Don't feel sorry for us or fear for our safety. Instead, thank God for taking things that could seem to be a disadvantage and making them useful for His kingdom.

Where Do You Want Me To Go?

2011-09-14T21:20:00.002-04:00

Once again I find myself trying to figure out what God wants in my life. Specifically, I want to know where he wants me to go next. This question is multifaceted for me: Where do You want me to go for Residency? Where do You want me to go after residency? Short term or Long Term Missions? Rural practice or overseas?

But for now I will address the most pressing question, which is, Where do You want me to go during my vacation?

I have saved up 5 weeks of vacation time at the end of this year before graduation for a mission trip. I contacted the organization I went to India through, and they sent me a list of countries with ongoing projects I could be of use to. The list includes: China, India, Nepal, Ethiopia (to work with Somali people), Bangladesh, Egypt, and Pakistan. I feel called to Muslim people, so that sort of kicks out the China and Nepal options (although I would love to go back to China, and Nepal looks like an awesome place to visit), and India is questionable (if I went back to the same place I went before I would be with Muslims, but pretty much the rest of the country is Hindu). That leaves Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Pakistan to seriously consider.

I have the list pretty much narrowed down to 2, but I am facing a lot of opposition about this trip right now.
So if anyone still reads this blog, please pray for discernment for me. Pray that I will be able to figure out where God wants me (and if it's really God who wants me there and not Me who wants me there).

Christian enough?

2011-07-03T18:55:00.001-04:00

If you've never read a post from Jamie, the Very Worst Missionary, please go to her blog right now (well, after you read this post) and check it out. Her posts make me feel slightly better about myself and my future as a missionary. She reminds me that missionaries (and presumably, most Christians) are human. They screw up. They're dorks. They struggle with laziness and complacency. And they're trying just like I am to follow God's call on their life.

Have you ever gotten insecure about your Christianly-ness? I do. A lot. I'm not talking about worrying about whether you're a Christian or not--I'm pretty sure the answer to that question in my life on most days--I'm talking about being unsure whether you're Christian enough.

I love watching videos and reading blog posts from people who are doing amazing things for Jesus. These people are leaving the cultures they find comfy and are moving to inner city neighborhoods, jungles, deserts, and mega-cities and immersing themselves in a totally new way of life because they felt Jesus tell them to do it. When I read these blogs and watch these videos, I am simultaneously encouraged and disheartened. I am excited to see that people are actually out there doing the things I dream about doing, but then I am discouraged that I seem to be stuck running into one obstacle after another that's keeping me from joining the movement, so to say.

The people I see on the blogs and videos seem to be cool without trying. They look like super-Christians to me. They appear to be creative, interesting, bold, loving people with hearts of servants. They don't seem to let anything shake them. Their faith amazes me, that they could leave college and jobs and family to bring the gospel to people who need it. These people, without knowing it, make me feel unworthy of the call that I feel has been placed on my life.

I am not cool.
I am minimally creative.
I am often too meek when it comes to speaking Truth.
I am selfish.
A mountain of student loan debt prevents me from dropping everything and moving to a hut in Obscure-istan.
I am obligated to do at least 3 more years after this year of medical training.
I am much more inclined to make myself comfortable than help someone in need.

But then I remember a few things from the Bible, which I have been known to read every now and then:

We are all unworthy of the call on our lives. In 1 Corinthians 5:9, Paul calls himself "the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle". And my goodness, if Paul's unworthy, I certainly am.

God knows we're unworthy and offers us a place in his family anyway. Remember the prodigal son? Luke 15 says, "²¹And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' ²²But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.²³And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. ²⁴For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate."

We are enhorted many times in the Bible to "walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called," regardless of our insecurities. (Ephesians 4:1)

There are no super Christians. Apart from Christ we are all completely incapable of doing anything. These folks aren't winning people to Christ because of their creativity or even their servanthood; rather, they let themselves be used by the Holy Spirit to reach people. Peter, Andrew, the 2 Jameses, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, Thaddeus, and Simon were regular guys. I'm sure fishermen and tax collectors weren't the most interesting or creative people in Israel. Peter denied Jesus. Thomas doubted. James and John were selfish and wanted to sit at Jesus' right hand. And yet the whole church today exists because of these 11 average Joes.

Sometimes God makes us wait patiently or labor to the point that we start thinking we'll never really be used by Him, and then he shows us that our labor has been toward his purposes all along. Noah built a boat in the desert. Abraham and Sarah waited decades to become parents. Jacob worked 14 years to marry Rachel and become the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. Moses wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before leading the Israelites to the promised land. I believe God has called me to be a medical missionary, so I have to remember that all my years of preparation are working toward a purpose. And I also have to remind myself that even though I'm preparing for the future, I'm not totally useless in the present.

I may not be Christian enough, but Jesus makes up for everything I'm not.

Do you ever feel like you're not Christian enough?
Do you get insecure about your calling?

Storytelling through Henna: a first attempt

2011-06-11T15:18:00.004-04:00

Henna art or mehendi is also a tradition that dates back for centuries. Women apply the henna as decorations for celebrations like weddings or religious holidays. Many designs have symbolic significance.

In Asian cultures, storytelling is a big deal. Stories are practiced over and over again so that nothing is told incorrectly. I was surprised when I went to India that even in the 21st century when we have tv and the internet, oral storytelling is still cherished and greatly enjoyed. When we visited villages to test water, we were always prepared with stories to tell, and people were always pleased to hear them.

This is my first attempt at storytelling through henna drawings.When I was in India, the missionaries I stayed with came up with this idea as a way to witness to Muslim women. Stories from the Bible are to be told as they are drawn and to be passed on. Since henna ink lasts for several weeks, it is both a conversation starter and a way for women to remember the stories they have been told and tell them to others.

I've played around with some henna designs before, but I'm not very satisfied with this drawing. It is messy because I was just playing around with how to represent the story in pictures. It's not as well organized as I would like. I would like the different parts to flow together better. Other stories may be easier to do that with. On my next try I will attempt more authentic designs, too. Anyway, enjoy.

Finally, some good press for Southern Baptists!

2011-05-10T18:45:00.000-04:00

And in the NY Times, no less.

For Some, Helping With Disaster Relief Is Not Just Aid, It’s a Calling

I Will Wait for You: A poem for Singles

2011-05-02T17:30:00.001-04:00

The Good News

2011-05-02T17:26:00.001-04:00

Flash Mob in Beirut singing "Christ is Risen" in Arabic and Greek

2011-04-30T20:49:00.001-04:00

Bibles in Malaysia: Still a struggle

2011-03-24T18:52:00.002-04:00

In Malaysia, Bibles are allowed, but not in the Malaysian language (Bahasa Malaysia) because proselytizing to Muslims (all ethnic Malays are defined by the government as being Muslim, and vice versa) is prohibited. The problem is that in the Alkitab (Bible in Bahasa), the word for God is Allah. Muslims have a problem with that, of course. Remember last year's fight over the word Allah being used in a Catholic newspaper?

The long and the short of the story is that about 35,000 Bibles have been confiscated recently. They will be released, but they must have "For Christians Only" printed on the covers. Hmm.

Thoughts?

2011-03-06T17:56:00.002-05:00

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, "Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away." Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.

-A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

US Religious Knowledge Survey.

2010-10-02T12:49:00.000-04:00

Come on, folks, we gotta do better than this.

2010-09-15T16:21:00.000-04:00

Christian School in Kashmir Attacked Over Reported Quran Desecrations

Spotting a Missionary (from SCL)

2010-08-13T23:15:00.001-04:00

http://stuffchristianslike.net/2010/08/spotting-a-missionary/

LOVE THIS. So true.

Prayer Drive-By

2010-08-13T22:32:00.004-04:00

So today a friend and I tried to go prayer walk at a mosque we found in town. It turned out to be in a kind of sketchy place where we didn't feel comfortable getting out and walking around, so we parked the car in the empty lot across the street and prayed there. She had never prayer walked before, and I've only done it once, so it was kind of awkward, but it was good.

I found a website that has a really good prayer guide and resources for Ramadan. Today's page was really good. It highlighted the Muezzin, who are the people who do the call to prayer (azan) every day. We prayed that as Muslims hear the azan calling them to a life of rules and fear of condemnation, they would hear Jesus calling them to himself and to freedom.

For those who have never heard the call to prayer, here is a good example of one from Mecca. It's the same recording that played on my roommate's computer 5 times a day... Listen to the whole thing. For the full effect, turn your sound up as loud as it will go.

Here are the words that the Muezzin is saying (each line is said twice):

In Arabic and English:

1. Allahu Akbar. (Allah is great)

2. Ashhado an la ilaha illa-’l-Lah.---. ( I bear witness that there is no deity except God)
3. Ashhado anna Muhammada ’r—Rasula ’l Lah.--. (I bear witness that Mohammed is the Messenger of God)
4. Hayya ’ala ’ s-Sala.--. (Make haste towards worship)
5. Hayya ala ’l-Falah.--.(Come to the true success)
6. Allahu Akbar.--.(Allah is great)
7. La ilaha illa ’ l-Lah.--. (There is no God but Allah)
The following sentence is added in the call to morning prayer:

-As-Salato Khayru ’m-mina ’n-Naum.—(Prayer is better than sleep.)

Non-Muslim Religious Clubs in Malaysian Schools Closed

2010-08-13T13:08:00.001-04:00

I've been to Subang Jaya...

http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/malaysia/23949/

Ramadan Prayer Suggestions

2010-08-11T18:16:00.006-04:00

Today is the start of Ramadan. Last year I followed the same fast that Muslims follow for the month, and I used it as a reminder to pray for Muslims around the world. Due to my work schedule (and the fact I've almost passed out from hypoglycemia / dehydration about 4 times in the last 2 weeks), I won't be fasting this year, but I still plan to pray daily for Muslims during this month. I found out today from my former roommate (a Sunni Muslim from Bangladesh) that there are two mosques in downtown Macon now. I am planning on prayer walking to these places at some point during the month, maybe every Friday. For others who would like to pray for Muslims this month, here are some suggestions of things to pray for.

1. Pray that as Muslims search for a closer connection to Allah this month, the true God would reveal Himself to them.

2. Pray that Muslims could come to see that salvation is cannot be earned by doing good deeds or by following rules, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

3. Pray that God would introduce the truth to Muslims through dreams. Most Muslim background believers have reported having dreams about Jesus that stirred their interest and pushed them to search for Truth.

4. Pray for the salvation of Muslim women. In many Muslim countries, women have great influence over their households.

5. Pray for Christians in Muslim countries, especially for Muslim background believers. This month can be a time of particularly great persecution.

6. Pray for missionaries to Muslims--for their safety, boldness, and for opportunities for them to share with their Muslim friends about Christ.

7. Pray for opportunities to share Christ with your own Muslim friends and acquaintances.

The Invasion (Hero) by Trip Lee feat. Jai

2010-07-05T20:33:00.008-04:00

I'm loving this video. It's like something out of the Bourne movies or something. Oh, and the Jimmy Needham cameo is pretty cool. I love how he and Trip Lee are on each other's new albums. Their music mixes really well. Heh, and Sho Baraka calling Trip Lee Frodo? Priceless.

Favorite quotes: "I usually walk around the office with a lot of papers but I really don't do anything. You guys notice that?"

"You're lucky I'm married to your grandmother..."

Who are we worshiping?

2010-07-05T19:14:00.004-04:00

As I went in to church yesterday, July 4, I was a bit apprehensive. I was interested to see how my home church would choose to recognize Independence Day, and I have to say that I was a little disappointed. My home church has never been a very political one, which I appreciate (I just feel like politics should be left out of church. We fight about enough Biblical issues... we don't need to add politics to the mix), but I have always known it to be somewhat patriotic. Separation of Church and State was declared to be a good thing from our pulpit, with the rationalization that no one should be forced to believe or worship something they don't believe in wholeheartedly, whether that is Christianity or some other religion. However, parts of yesterday's service made me feel like more like I was in a Chinese Three Self church rather than in a free Christian church in America.

We started the service with the Star Spangled Banner. I guess there's nothing wrong with that. We as Christians are called to be model citizens of our country and to give to Caesar what is Caesar's. What bothered me about it was that the congregation sang it with considerably more gusto and conviction than I have heard them sing praises to God with in a while. I will take the risk of having people doubt my patriotism and--gasp--even call me a liberal when I say yes, give to Caesar what is Caesar's, but please don't love your country more than you love your Creator. Our men's voices were beautiful as they sang about land of the free and the home of the brave, but I would much rather hear them sing about "the empty tomb declaring Jesus saves".

We continued the service by singing America the Beautiful (first, third, and fourth stanzas like all good Baptists would sing), celebrating America's beauty and veterans. Again, America's a great place, but shouldn't we be thanking God for putting us here? I'm glad that we as a church pray for our country's leaders and for the safety of soldiers overseas, but just imagine the things that could happen if we prayed for our church leaders and the persecuted church just as often. There are thousands of American soldiers overseas, but there are millions of persecuted Christians throughout the world, and plenty more people are dying for Christ than for America.

The other two songs we sang were "Let The Church Rise," which I loved, and a song about 2 Chronicles 7:14 ( if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.), which I thought was especially appropriate for the day.

After the music was done, I was glad to see that our pastor was continuing his sermon series from Acts and not stopping to do a patriotism sermon. When did we in America start equating being a loyal American with being a faithful Christian, as if claiming the former automatically made you the latter? I liked what our mentioned yesterday about the rules of dual citizenship--how you have to pay taxes and obey the laws of both countries you are a citizen of--and how it relates to our faith. I am an American, sure, and I'm thankful for that, but my real citizenship is of the Kingdom of God, and that is where my primary allegiance lies.

Laughing at Legalists

2010-05-30T18:03:00.001-04:00

New Single by Trip Lee

2010-05-29T14:15:00.004-04:00

Already got it on pre-order...

Listen to "Invasion (Hero)" here

Listen to "No Worries" here

Lyrics to Hero:

Creation's groaning, lost their hope and feel they always closed in / Lots to cope with, on the ropes, wish they was in the open / This broken world is so dim, our souls are searching, groping / For one with hope to hold us close, and set goodness in motion / I remember growing up in Dallas, I thought me and my close kin / Was more than straight, our folks was great, not broke that paper flowed in/ Not boasting man, just saying in my brain I didn't know then / That all went wrong, and it just can't go right like a broke pen / My mind was blind and cloaked in, but then that foolishness departed / I saw this thing's an ocean, and we just tryna swim real far but / But can't nobody float when we ain't got boats or no fins / We need a hero to go in, cause our solutions don't win / Education can't fix it, more dough just leads to more sin / Medicine is temporary, government seems so thin / With all these weighty problems, that ain't shrinking they just growing/ Who's adequate to save us, / how about He knew no sin?

Hook:

Like a G5 yeah you rushed to rescue me / Took a cross in exchange for a throne to save me / You began the work and I know you'll finish / And make all things right when you come back / Cause you're my hero, you already saved the day / Cause you're my hero, and I know you're coming back for me

Verse 2:

Follow the steps bro, / Adam sinned now we all dead so / We gotta sentence on our head like death row, everything is wrecked / All creation is a mess bro, / In the fullness of time, in steps the hero no red cloak, / He's Jesus No flashing lights, glitz n glam, and no cameras / He came to serve needy folks, and point them to the answer / You see Him healing, feeding folks, and telling them the standard / Our most basic need is to be ransomed by Jesus It has first place, yeah we separated in the worst ways / Even physically peep how the earth quakes / Separated socially, murder and the worst rapes / Even separated from ourselves, we in the worst state / It's so major, that's the reason that we need a Savior / Cause the root of needs is separation from Creator Jesus came humbly to restore us to our maker / And later He'll restore all that He made bruh, He's Jesus

Verse 3:

God is not pleased man, it's clear that His standards missed / The world is running rampant with, sin it's an abandonment / Man is feeling stranded, feeling hopeless since his banishment / God is angry at the distortion and the mismanagement / Evil is at work, but don't be thinking He can't handle it / He promised He would do away with all of it, dismantle it / He's put up with this damage in His world, but He's promised us / That He'll destroy all His enemies and then He'll walk with us New Heaven, new Earth that's where all His sheep dwell / Cause Jesus succeeded in every part of life that we failed / Died the death we couldn't die, paid our price with 3 nails / Began the work He promised, in the end we all will be well / Already beat our enemies and when His Kingdom's realized / All those who oppose Him will see Jesus with some real eyes / Deliverance is offered us, the hero He is urging us Salvation is exclusive to His people who have turned to trust

Tedashii's explanation of "Make War"

2010-05-29T14:12:00.004-04:00

2010-05-19T21:10:00.003-04:00

I have only seen a few of Rob Bell's Nooma videos, and I wasn't in love with them as many people seem to be. I don't know much about him or his theology, but I have to agree with the guy in this video: Bell was flat out wrong on this point. He seems to be saying pretty much the opposite of Paul's "make less of me and more of Him" idea by saying that what Peter really needed was more self esteem, not more faith in Christ. Next time I hit the swimming pool, I'll be sure to think highly of myself as I walk off the diving board and hope that I just walk right across the pool.

The Words I Would Say (Sidewalk Prophets)

2010-05-16T16:42:00.002-04:00

Saw them in concert recently, and they were awesome. The lead singer was so friendly looking.

Currently listening to...

Three in the morning, and I’m still awake
So I picked up a pen and a page
And I started writing just what I’d say
If we were face to face
I’d tell you just what you mean to me
Tell you these simple truths

Be strong in the Lord
And never give up hope
You’re gonna do great things
I already know
God’s got His hand on You
So don’t live life in fear
Forgive and forget
But don’t forget why you’re here
Take your time and pray
These are the words I would say

Last time we spoke you said you were hurting
And I felt your pain in my heart
I want to tell you that I keep on praying
That love will find you where you are
I know cause I’ve already been there
So please hear these simple truths

Be strong in the Lord
And never give up hope
You’re going to do great things
I already know
God’s got His hand on You
So don’t live life in fear
Forgive and forget
But don’t forget why you’re here
Take your time and pray

These are the words I would
Say… from one simple life to another
I will say… come find peace in the Father

Joel Osteen or Fortune Cookie?

2010-05-15T17:34:00.001-04:00

Take the quiz. It's scary.

http://www.challies.com/humor/joel-osteen-or-fortune-cookie

2010-05-15T11:38:00.001-04:00

Chinese Rights Lawyer Gao Zhisheng Missing Again

2010-05-15T11:37:00.002-04:00

http://radiofreechina.wordpress.com/2010/05/15/chinese-rights-lawyer-gao-zhisheng-missing-again/

the new "Contemporvant" Service, coming to a church near you.

2010-05-07T17:17:00.001-04:00

Love this video. So true.

Making Disciples, pt 3: Obstacles

2010-05-06T23:11:00.001-04:00

Recently I read a series of blog posts from New City Church about why they don’t have a youth group. While I definitely can see the benefits of having a youth ministry, they had some very good points about why not to have one. Their main point was that youth can learn more from being in Bible study groups with people of all ages than they can with just other youth. I agree with them on that.

When I was a senior in high school, my church did the big Purpose Driven Life series, and part of it included Sunday night sessions in homes rather than our normal Sunday night service. People gathered in homes according to their neighborhoods, not according to who their friends or peers were. However, 7^th-12^th graders were separated out and had their own sessions. The point was that many teenagers didn’t come to church with their families, so there had to be a place for them to go even if their families weren’t doing the study. Also the church figured they could tailor the material to meet students’ interest. I went the first week, and I really didn’t like it. It ended up being 45 minutes of games and 15 minutes of Bible study. I was very hungry for the Word and was frustrated that my church didn’t see the youth as being able to handle the same material as the adults. So I asked my family if I could come to the adult sessions, since our neighborhood was meeting at our house. My friend Haley also wanted to join. She was my neighbor and though she was 2 years younger than me, she felt the same about the youth sessions.

When we went to the adult group the next week, some people protested our presence. They felt that they couldn’t be as open about their own spiritual struggles with 2 teenagers listening in. I understand those people’s arguments, but I also think it’s sad that mine and Haley’s eagerness to learn and grow more was not encouraged by the whole group. They may have been a little uncomfortable sharing with us, but Haley and I wanted to be around older Christians who could help us grow. And in my own defense, I was almost 18. My graduation was only a few months away, and after that point I would have been considered a college student by the church and would have been encouraged to go to one of the regular groups. So this age business is silly.

My point is that separating people out by age group may not be the best way to disciple believers. I’m not saying that 5 year olds should be mixed into a class of thirtysomethings, but if a person is a believer and wishes to grow, why are we limiting their exposure to older believers who could potentially disciple them?

Many churches are not just separated on the basis of age, but also of occupation. One church here in Macon advertised themselves at my school because they have a “Healthcare Professionals” Sunday School class. My first thought was, “I spend all day with people talking about medicine. Why would I want to do it on Sunday too?” Yes, it’s nice to be able to talk about living out your faith in the context of your occupation, but I don’t want to talk about Jesus and medicine every week. I’m a member of the Christian Medical Dental Association, and I’ll read their publications and go to their conferences to learn about Jesus and medicine. I’d rather just learn about Jesus at church. Certainly not everyone feels that way, which is why classes like that get started, but I think it makes it easier for us to make cliques and close ourselves off to others in the church who could encourage our growth.

What would be a better way to make disciples? I’m really liking how some churches, including New City, are mixing up the age groups instead of having traditional age-separated Sunday school classes. I would like to see more Bible studies and activities at my church that would accommodate a wider age range. For example, the women’s bible studies are all on Thursday mornings at my church. That pretty much excludes any woman who works, goes to school, or has small children at home, so the only people who get to go are retired ladies. If some studies were offered at night, it would open up a huge new group of people that could go and learn. And as I’ve said before, I’d also like to see some sort of one-on-one program started up where young people could pair up with someone a little older (in age or in the faith) that they could learn from. Such partnerships would not just benefit the younger person. We can all learn new things from each other, and we can all challenge and encourage one another. We’ve got to do a better job with this.

How to Write an Awful Worship Song

2010-05-05T10:42:00.002-04:00

Love it.

http://www.theblazingcenter.com/2010/05/how-to-write-an-awful-worship-song.html

Shy Worshippers

2010-05-01T16:31:00.007-04:00

I shared this article with a friend, who then posted it to her facebook and got like a bunch of really well thought out responses to it. So any thoughts?

I had mixed feelings about it. I dread getting up in front of the whole church by myself for anything, especially speaking. But I do it if I have to. But being in the choir is different because there are other people up there with me. I think my problem is just large crowds, not sharing. I definitely don't think you have to be an extrovert to show that the Holy Spirit is working in your life, as the guy in the article said. If God is working on me, I'm probably not going to tell folks about it at the very start. I'm going to wait and see what He does for a little while before I talk about it, and even then I'm not going to get up in front of the church and share a testimony most likely. I'm very comfortable talking about "spiritual experiences" on a one-on-one or even small group basis. I just don't like the big crowds.

I know a guy at Mabel White who is very introverted, but you can tell that over the past year or two God has been doing big things in his life. He doesn't talk about them much, but his countenance has changed. He brings people to church all the time, and I'm always hearing stories from other people about how he witnesses to people all the time at the bus stop and such. He doesn't draw attention to himself, but it's clear to anyone who knows him that God is changing him. There is probably even a danger in being too willing to share. There's a pretty fine line between sharing how awesome God has been to change your life and pridefully drawing attention to yourself.

My aversion for big crowds is one of the reasons why I'm not a hand raiser or charismatic worshipper. It's not that I'm not worshipping; mine is just more private. When I sing a song in church, a great deal of what I get out of the experience comes from pondering what the words of the song mean and whether I mean what I'm singing (which is why I have a hard time with "worship" songs that mindlessly repeat empty phrases). I don't have a problem with other people doing that stuff, because maybe that's how they feel comfortable worshipping. I don't know their style. If someone were to watch me during church, the most outward sign of worship they'll see from me is me standing still with my eyes closed. I like to block everyone else out and really try to take in the words to music.

I also don't like praying out loud in a group. Again, I'll do it if called on, but I'm probably not going to volunteer. The temptation for me to do a mad-libs type form prayer where you just fill in different people's names and ailments and punctuate it with the occasional "Lord" or "Father" is pretty great. My prayers (the ones I say in my head) aren't like the prayers you usually hear in church. It's mostly me just talking and rambling. So I just feel a little like it's a show. The whole process of praying out loud and trying to be real and also trying not to sound too weird kind of takes the focus away from the whole point of the prayer for me. I'm so worried about what I sound like and whether people think I'm weird that I lose sight of the fact that I'm talking to God.

I think maybe one reason people are uncomfortable with these outward expressions is that they think they're missing something since they don't feel led to do the same things. When the whole hand raising thing got to be more popular, I thought I wasn't really worshipping because I didn't feel like I should raise my hands. I think that was addressed pretty well in the article, and I agree with him that sometimes it does force you to put on a show for people. The quality of your worship can't be judged by how emotional you get during the service. I mean, worship is a lifestyle, not an event, so it makes me wonder sometimes if the hand-raisers feel such a strong emotional connection to God outside the church as they do on Sunday morning. I know that some of them do because I can tell from their walk, but I'm not so sure about others.

My friend said that part of the problem is a little spiritual weakness in us all, and I agree with her. It's weakness that makes some of us afraid to be more demonstrative in worship, and it's weakness that makes others want to draw attention to themselves in the same situation.

Making disciples, pt 2. A partnership.

2010-05-01T16:16:00.002-04:00

In my experience, Sunday School and weekly Bible studies have typically been the major ways churches disciple their members, and those are great. The awesome college Sunday School class is what drew me to Mabel White Baptist Church, and I grew leaps and bounds as a result of that class. But I don’t think that Sunday School and weekly Bible studies are enough. Bible studies are tough because in larger churches, the studies tend to be big. They’re great for gaining knowledge of the Word and for fellowship and encouragement, which is all part of discipleship, but I think small groups or pairs are probably better suited for building accountability and may be where the most growth takes place. Unfortunately, there’s really no standard way to set up these discipling relationships.

My college BCM’s solution to this need for one on one discipleship was a mentoring program through the girls ministry. We had a night where we all got together and did a speed dating sort of thing where each upper classman got to talk to each lower classman for about 5 minutes, so that they could sort of see each other’s personalities and interests and see what they wanted out of the mentoring relationship. Everyone picked their top 3 people they’d like to be paired with, and by the end of the night everyone was paired up with someone. I met my mentee for lunch once a week, and she and I learned a lot from each other. The benefit of meeting with someone close to your own age is that you’re likely dealing with similar problems and you can work on those things together.

My mentee got married the next year, so I ended up by myself again. I didn’t get set up with another discipleship partner (um, whoever comes up with an effective method for this, please come up with a good name for it… I can’t figure out a good one. Accountability partner? Discipling relationship? Ugh.) until this year, my second year of medical school. I owe that to my friend Laura Jane, who told me that she was trying to find a godly woman from our church to mentor her. I had the same desire for someone to teach me and help me grow and be sort of an accountability partner for me, but I didn’t really know how to go about it, and the church didn’t have any system in place to help me find someone like that.

So I prayed about it. I asked that God would just put someone in my way who would make a good mentor, and he did, surprisingly quickly. There was a lady I sang in the choir with that I just knew I would be friends with, but as far as I knew, she didn’t know me from Adam. I sort of tested God and asked him one day at church to show me that this lady at least knew who I was before I randomly went and asked her to mentor me. And of course, that day I was by myself at church and she invited me to sit with her family. Way to answer prayers quick like that, God. That was cool. So the next day I asked her to mentor me (yeah, I don’t like the word “mentor” either), and she was very excited to do it. One of the first things she told me was that she had been discipled by several older women in the church when she was single and she had wanted to do it again and just hadn’t found a way to do it. Anyway, we’ve been meeting for pretty much the whole school year, and it has been fabulous. She has really been a huge encouragement to me and she has definitely helped strengthen my walk.

So where am I going with my stories? I have come to see this year that it is really helpful to be discipled / held accountable / taught by someone in a different stage of life than you. I have a friend who is my age that I also share prayer requests and struggles with, but since we are in the same situation in life, we can’t really offer each other any advice from experience. It is a huge benefit to be able to talk to and learn from someone who has already been where I am. There is precedent for this in the Bible. Samuel trained for priesthood under Eli. Jesus’ disciples were from several different walks of life—fishermen, a tax collector, a doctor—and Paul instructed a young Timothy through letters.

I know a several other girls my age who would love to be discipled like this, but it seems to be something you have to pursue on your own rather than the church helping you along. Wouldn’t it be great to have some sort of program in the church to set people up like this? It would be especially helpful for college aged and young single people—the group most likely to drop out of church. My generation is all about authenticity and building relationships, so I know that this would both draw people in and keep them in the church. The dropout rate for 18-30 year olds would certainly decline if we could see real discipleship happening in the church.

Next I’ll try to tackle discussing some of the systems in church that are keeping us from more effectively discipling individuals.

The Great Commission: Making Disciples pt. 1

2010-04-26T23:53:00.002-04:00

Every good little Southern Baptist kid learns the Great Commission in Sunday School--even me, a Bible Drill drop-out. We are taught that it is Jesus’ command to us to go to the jungles to save the heathens, and to go to our neighbors and family members and snatch them up for Jesus too. While this is certainly true, I think we often miss a few very important words in Matthew 28:18-20, and if we remember that they are there, we will see that the Great Commission is so much more than a call to get people saved.

The first thing Jesus says is “go”. I think we got that part pretty well. We get that one, so I’ll move on to the next part. He doesn’t say “go and do a bunch of backyard Bible clubs or tent revivals”. He says “go and make disciples”. Making disciples is not the same as adding numbers to the “souls saved” list. Making disciples is a process.

It has bothered me for a long time that the church (or at least the ones I’ve been in) don’t seem to have a really effective system for pouring in to individuals and discipling people on a one on one or small group basis. I think a lack of effective discipleship contributes to the growing pool of cultural Christians and what I call Saved Slackers. Let me define those terms: when I say cultural Christian, I mean someone who celebrates Christian holidays and maybe goes to church every once in a while but who doesn’t understand and can’t explain what the Gospel is. This type of person knows that Christians believe that Jesus is God, but they have no understanding of salvation through Christ alone or of His lordship over a Christian’s life. A Saved Slacker would be someone who does understand the Gospel and is a believer, but who pretty much bought a hotel and settled on St. Charles Place after getting their Get out of Hell Free card from Jesus. These folks aren’t growing in their faith.

If we look at the model that Jesus set, we can see how effective real discipleship is at growing the body of believers. Jesus preached to thousands, and many believed, but on top of that he poured into his 12 disciples by teaching them, eating with them, traveling with them, and so on. Once Jesus was gone, the church expanded exponentially as a result of the disciples’ evangelism and guidance. Jesus commanded the disciples to make disciples. These disciple cycles build the church into a much stronger Body than mass evangelism does. Yes, the aim is to spread the truth about Christ so that people will come to know him, but our goal shouldn’t be just to get people into heaven. The goal should be to lead people to radically changed, fulfilled lives through Christ.

So how do we do in 2010 what Jesus and the disciples did back in the day? My thoughts on that will be coming soon.

And because no post of mine can be complete without a few rap lyrics, here's a little flow from LeCrae's song After the Music Stops:

Discipleship is our call but we make disciples / this is not a suggestion, create disciples. / The teachin' is a process, it's not over night / and it’s not a stage and a mic nah, it's life on life / Christ -Walked with twelve, ate with twelve, talked with twelve, shaped the twelve, / invested in 'em well you could say that he made the twelve, / who made many more, who made plenty more, / now it's on you and me if there's anymore. / 1 teach, 2 teach, 3 teach, 4 teach, 5 teach, 6 teach, 7 teach more, / this is what we've been commissioned, it's the reason why I write, / so that you could hear the truth, not so you can say I’m tight whoa...

2010-04-12T14:49:00.001-04:00

Wondering How Youthtastic Your Youth Minister Is

2010-04-12T13:57:00.003-04:00

This is from Jon Acuff's Stuff Christians Like Blog. A while back he asked for submissions for crazy things youth ministers do. Clearly some of those submissions showed up in his latest post because I wrote numbers 73-75!

That one was for you, John Rainey.

The “Is that contestant on American Idol a Christian? Scorecard”

2010-04-06T00:04:00.001-04:00

50. They audition in a bikini, completely forsaking the very available and very lovely Christian "tankini" = - 2 points

Just doin' my part for the Stuff Christians Like Guest Post-a-thon

Guilty of Distorting Acts 1:8

2010-04-01T14:50:00.003-04:00

Also from Jerry Rankin's Blog:

The IMB realized a long time ago that we would never have enough missionaries to reach all the lost people in the world. But if we could mobilize and enable 42 state conventions, 1,200 local associations, 43,000 churches and 16 million Southern Baptists (or however many there are) to be strategically involved in global missions, the task would be doable. God has blessed us in numbers and resources, not to take pride in being a great denomination and for all the programs we can carry out, but to be His instrument to reach the world with the gospel.

Just as the IMB was seeking to enable churches to reach the ends of the earth, it was apparent our denominational structure was uniquely positioned to serve churches in the Acts 1:8 missions paradigm. Associations could empower and lead churches to evangelize and reach their “Jerusalem.” State conventions could coordinate mission outreach beyond the local association throughout “Judea.” And the North American Mission Board was positioned to lead churches to engage cross-culturally throughout “Samaria.”

It was gratifying to see many churches respond to the challenge; unfortunately many were disappointed in the lack of vision and equipping provided for the task. Rather than empowering the local church, the perception of many was that Acts 1:8 became promotion for support of denominational entities responsible for each of those concentric circles.

Equally regrettable, Acts 1:8 became justification for even more emphasis on local missions. The attitude developed of reaching our Jerusalem first, then moving on to reach “Judea”—our state, and maybe, eventually, doing something across North America and perhaps even overseas. Priority of time, energy and resources stayed in the local church and in America. This stay-at-home, reach-our-own first interpretation was the devotional setting prior to the GCRTF report last month in the Executive Committee.

I have pointed out to more than one pastor that there is no “then” in Acts 1:8! This is not a sequential task for us today. It is not either/or. You have to resort to hermeneutical gymnastics to make this the application of Acts 1:8. Jesus was outlining the progression of the gospel which one can readily follow historically in the book of Acts. The gospel spread throughout Jerusalem, into Judea and Samaria and then began to spread to the Gentiles and to the ends of the earth.

Literally, the early believers were witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. They were evangelized, and begin to reach the Gentile world. It now remains for us to complete the task of reaching the ends of the earth. Okay, in that context we have to acknowledge the people of America, too, are the ends of the earth, but are we fulfilling the mission and reaching all the diverse ethnic peoples even here where we live? Most churches have abandoned the inner-city and ghettos populated by immigrants from all over the world and retreated into the security of doing church with their own kind in homogeneous suburbs.

Certainly we need to witness to the lost where we live and where our church is located. But there is no way we can use Acts 1:8 to justify drawing a circle around our community, or even around our nation, while denying our responsibility to reach the whole world.

New from Jerry Rankin

2010-04-01T14:46:00.002-04:00

Great article:

We don't give two cents about reaching the rest of the world

http://rankinconnecting.com/2010/04/america-and-the-rest-of-the-world-part-2/

Reason #3: Being Set Apart, Unashamed, and Missional

2010-03-14T19:33:00.003-04:00

There’s a reason why they’re called the 116 Clique. That’s one-one-six, by the way. It stands for Romans 1:16, which says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” That pretty much sums them up. Mr. Bloggerman says that they “attempt to make the Gospel acceptable to the world, not demanding the world to repent”, and that they are “acting like the world, and loving it.”Heh, shame on you Mr. Bloggerman. Lecrae’s lyrics pretty much settle that issue: “what the world do / we don’t do / cuz we wanna do / what the Lord do / Christ within / our system listen / our mission’s the Great Commission / We come here to represent him / that’s why we call ourselves Christians / hah. ”

He makes fun of their slang and their clothes, saying these things are “worldly,” but let me ask you this: didn’t Paul also say, “I will become all things to all men so by all means I may save some”? To the Jew, he was a Jew, to the Greek, he was a Greek. So shouldn’t we continue in that tradition? Missionaries in Muslim countries often choose to wear a hijab in order to be found acceptable to the culture. They don’t do it to “look Muslim,” they do it to be respected by Muslims. They do it so that their Muslim neighbors won’t totally dismiss them and disregard anything they have to say about faith. I honestly don’t see that wearing Dickies and fitted caps is any different. If you want to reach a certain culture of people, you have to take on some of the traditions (i.e., clothing, language) of that people in order to reach them. But as Paul did, you can become like these people without sugar coating or dumbing down your message. I think their actions and words are pretty clearly godly, not worldly.

Lecrae and Da’ Truth sing “I’m not the shoes I wear, I’m not the clothes I buy, I’m not the house I live in, I’m not the car I drive. I’m not the job I work. You can’t define my worth by anything on God’s green earth. My identity is found in Christ.” Regardless of the clothes they wear or the slang they use, the 116 Clique still stands out against the world. Trip Lee reminds us that part of being a Christian is accepting persecution and being made fun of when he says, “naw we don't need no chicks boy we found a way to get joy /even though we get Outkast like Andre and Big Boi / we ain’t gotta be them rich boys, ain’t gotta be them fly dudes / nope. This ain't no lie dude. I wish you knew what I do / it don't phase us cause we claim to be aliens and strangers / cats liftin’ His name up and telling folks he saved us.” Lecrae encourages his listeners to be Fanatics, Aliens, and Rebels, Souled Out Christians who don’t waste their lives. Trip Lee reminds us of 1 Timothy 4:12 in “Young and Unashamed,” and Flame goes so far as to say be prepared to beaten for your faith in “No Silence.”

And of course, a natural result of being set apart for Christ and being unashamed of Him is to tell others about your faith. While their main objective is to reach inner city areas of the US, they also make foreign missions a priority in songs like Flame’s “World View” and Lecrae’s “Send Me” and “Beautiful Feet.”

More Songs:

Set Apart: Aliens, Rebel, Don’t Waste Your Life, Fanatics, Souled Out (Lecrae); Kingdom People (Tedashii); Call us Crazy, Give you that Truth, Follow the Crowd (Trip Lee); Hurr They Come (Json)

Unashamed: Unashamed, Represent (Lecrae); No Silence (Flame); Call us Crazy, Young and Unashamed (Trip Lee)

Missions: World View (Flame); Get Busy, Let Em Know (Trip Lee); Use Me, Go (Tedashii); Send Me, Represent, Beautiful Feet (Lecrae)

#2 Exposing Lies of False Teachers, the Prosperity Gospel, Thug Life, and the “Heaven’s Got a Ghetto” Mentality

2010-03-14T18:41:00.004-04:00

The blogger I mentioned before said that these artists were promoting “modern relevance.” I beg to differ. Many so-called Christian artists are falling into the relevance trap and writing songs that make Jesus look very cute and cuddly instead of the table-tossing (Matt 21:12), Pharisee mocking (Matt 23:27), sword-tongued (Rev 1:16) rebel he was. We get folks like Osteen saying that if you love Jesus you’ll be rich and never get sick, which makes Jesus out to be nothing more than an investment planner with a stethoscope, and then there are rappers wearing crosses around their necks and thanking God at award shows for giving them the “talent” to sit in a Jacuzzi full of half naked women and sing about pimpin and selling drugs. In the end, God becomes a Copilot, a Homeboy, or a Dr. Phil self-help guru.

Flame, Trip Lee, Lecrae, Tedashii, and Katalyst spend most of the time in their songs correcting false teaching. The things they hit the most are dangers of the prosperity gospel, the “thug” image in secular rap, cults, and well-intentioned yet false teachings about the Bible. As they call out false teachings, they correct falsehoods with truth from scripture. Many of their songs talk about being “Sunday Christians” who just get saved for the prize of Heaven and don’t grow in their faith. What’s cool about them is that they don’t just talk about the need for growth and discipleship. They promote discipleship through their own music. 116 Clique has a cd out called 13 Letters, in which they tackle the main themes of each of Paul’s 13 letters. There is also a curriculum guide that goes along with the cd to explain the lyrics and the Bible passages the songs are based on. Flame explains the faith of Zacchaeus in his song “See More Him” and the concept of milk and meat teachings in “Break Bread”. Json and Tedashi explain what it means to fight for your faith in their songs “Fight” and “Make War”. Flame’s website is all about “Discipling from a Distance,” on which he posts sermons, answers to common questions about the faith, etc.

As for this “modern relevance” business, these guys are explicit in their correction of popular false teachings. Secular rappers call themselves Kings of this and that and how they’ve gotta “do me” (aka forget everyone else and focus on getting theirs), but Lecrae defines who the true King is in “the King,” and Future will tell you quick that he’s out to “Do Him,” not seek his own pleasure. Trip Lee takes a position of Christian Hedonism in “Satisfaction (Hedonist)”, saying that he seeks his pleasure in Christ rather than in money, women, or possessions. Tedashii makes fun of rappers riding on shiny rims, saying that “26 inches is a pretty low throne”. And Flame reminds us in “Goodness to Repentance” that bad things don’t happen to good people—good things happen to bad people—as he points out many secular rappers who God has allowed to live after being shot.

So yeah, these songs are full of truth. Reason #2.

More Songs to check out:

a. False Teachers: Rewind, Give Us the Truth (Flame); U Kiddin Me, I’m Saved/Not Saved, I’m talking about you (Katalyst); Give you that Truth (Trip Lee)

b. Prosperity Gospel: Cash or Christ (Trip Lee), Got Paper (Lecrae); Money (Flame)

c. Womanizing: L.A.D.I.E.S (Flame), Wait (Lecrae)

d. Thug Life: Hip Hop (Trip Lee), The King (Lecrae), Goodness to Repentance, Bad Ain’t Good (Flame); 26’s (Tedashii); Do Him (Future feat Flame)

e. Heaven’s Got a Ghetto : Funeral to Birthday (Flame), Heaven or Hell (Lecrae)

f. Image: Don’t Waste Your Life, Identity, Fall Back (Lecrae); Videos (Flame)

g. Discipleship: Gimme Dat, Whatchu Goin' Do? (Ambassador); See more Him, Break Bread (Flame); Fight (Json feat. This'l); Breathe in Breathe out, After the Music Stops (Lecrae); Make War (Tedashii); Gotta Grow, Dig In (Trip Lee); 13 letters cd

In Defense of 116, #1: Theologically Sound

2010-03-11T22:50:00.004-05:00

I’ve been thinking a lot about music lately, and I’ve been paying even closer attention to lyrics than I usually do, to see what exactly the “Christian” music I listen to is saying. I have been frustrated from time to time with some songs we sing in church because, though they may make great tunes, they are pretty shallow lyrically. There’s nothing wrong with singing songs that basically just state the phrase “I praise you” or “I worship you” in 3 different ways for 4 verses, but I think that we are also doing ourselves (as the church) a disservice if we neglect to sing songs that are rich in Scripture and doctrinal truth. I have found that of the 4101 songs on my iPod, (2838 of which would be considered “Christian”—yes, my iPod is that organized) I have learned leaps and bounds more about Jesus and the Bible from the 288 songs on my “Hip Hop #1” playlist than probably all the other songs combined. Yes, there is a “Hip Hop 2” playlist, which is also Christian, but I don’t put it in the same category with the others because some of it, I have come to see, is full of false teaching, and others just are more about being positive and clean than being about Jesus. Anyway, all the stuff I have to say is in regards to the artists that make up the 116 Clique, plus a few other scattered ones who preach Truth.

So here goes: In Defense of 116, #1: Theologically Sound

Have you ever heard the phrases “Sola Scriptura,” “exegesis, “eisegesis,” and New Testament Greek words like “theopneustos,” and “haggios” in any of the CCM music played on the radio? I haven’t. I don’t even think I’ve heard those words in church. But I HAVE heard these words and concepts used and explained in songs by Flame and Lecrae. These guys have Bible college and Seminary backgrounds. They didn’t become Christian rappers in order to offer a “clean” alternative to secular rap. They’re not in it for money or fame. The whole purpose of their albums is to take something the world says is bad (rap) and redeem it and use it to teach truth, correct misunderstandings about scripture, and promote Christ. And they do it well. Their songs have quoted Athanasius, Martin Luther, the 1686 Baptist Confession, as well as the 3 Johns (Calvin, Owen, and Piper, heehee). They teach about and defend the doctrines of the Trinity, Election, the Inerrancy of the Bible, and others.

I have a terrible time memorizing scripture (especially the references to the verses), but put it to a beat or to a song and it’ll be in my head for life. That’s how I learned 2 Tim 3:16. Flame uses that verse in his song Sola Scriptura:

“Theopneustos it’s God breathed / Second Timothy Three Sixteen / ‘Cause the Scriptures are the only example of God breathed revelation in possession of the church / they form the only infallible rule and faith for which we base the church / Let’s talk about inspiration / God is the author, no mistakin’, say yeah”.

These guys don't sugarcoat their lyrics. They tell it like it is. As Lecrae says in I'm a Saint, "yeah they tell me sugarcoat it, dumb it down but I can't / Might as well deny the Christ, be ashamed but I ain't/". He uses this song to point out how Paul called the Corinthians (one of the most messed up churches ever) saints--not because of their deeds, but because of Christ's work in them.

Other songs presenting heavy theological concepts include I’m a Saint by Lecrae, Who is He by Json with Lecrae, and Context, the Godhead, True God, Real One, God Man, and Sola Scriptura by Flame.

Silly Bloggers

2010-03-11T22:20:00.002-05:00

Recently I stumbled upon a short blog post (from 5ptsalt.com, in case you care) where the writer said that he had lost most of his respect for John Piper’s Desiring God ministry because of its support for the Hip Hop for Haiti Concert on February 5. The gist of his argument was this:

“It caters to the flesh, and it is not worship. It is entertainment to raise money for a currently politically expedient purpose. It promotes man, ‘talent’, modern relevance and Desiringgod.org should be ashamed. Whatever happened to the English language? They may say “It’s not about us” but make no mistake, it’s self-promotion. What of Chile and the victims there? No mention. This video is an attempt to make the Gospel acceptable to the world, not demanding the world to repent. Pure entertainment. Acting like the world, and loving it.”

Despite the fact that some of his statements were the result of pure ignorance (duh, the concert was before the earthquake in Chile), he really bothered me. I mean, this is a guy who is bashing a huge ministry all because of a video he likely formed an opinion about before he even watched it. If he had watched it—and I mean really watched it, took it in, tried to see what was being said—his conclusion probably would have been entirely different. After being burning mad about it for about 20 minutes, I decided to just start writing down why I believed he was wrong, and why I think this ministry from Cross Movement Records and Reach Records is a powerful one. That turned into sort of a thesis paper defending Christian rap (well, at least some of it). My next few posts will be from that writing. I know that probably no one will take the time to read it (I mean, let’s be real—only like 5 people read this blog anyway), but when I get fired up about something, I just have to write about it until I clear my head. Enjoy.

Praises

2010-03-07T18:18:00.003-05:00

1. My home church had "Jerusalem Sunday" today where they went out and did mission projects after church. I think my little sister really enjoyed it. She said on facebook:

Had an AWESOME time playing with the little kids at woodvalley appartments!! i got past all the drool and spit and relized how privaliged i was seeing those kids. It was an amazing experience! i loved it! i hope they saw Jesus through all of us! :))

2. The first person I ever witnessed to (in 9th grade a few weeks after I was baptized) got saved today at church. Woo!

No distractions.

2010-02-21T14:46:00.003-05:00

I’m going to take a little break from my blog-fast today and give a little update on me and Jesus.

After some quality talks with my friends Amy and KathyJo, and after reading a good bit of Bible and John Calvin, I have come to accept and admit something that I’ve known in the back of my mind for quite some time: I am not content. My mouth said I was, but my actions and thoughts said otherwise. I believe that you can like a person and still be content with your singleness (Calvin says “it is one thing to burn and another to feel heat”), and as Amy told me, “God put the desire to love someone within us, so I don’t think its physically possible for us to just "shut off the radar". But if we are if we’re consumed by thoughts of him, wanting to know everything about him, asking people about him...we're not content.” I told Amy she stepped on my toes with that comment, but it was what I needed to hear, for sure.

Amy, Jesus, and John Calvin all sort of brought 1 Corinthians 7:34 alive for me: “The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit.” Now, the church and most books I’ve read on marriage and singleness focus on the “holy in body” part and totally neglect the “holy in spirit” part of that verse. I get the "holy in body" part. I get it. John Calvin, however, did address the other half of the verse, saying, “one must not merely consider whether he can preserve his body free from pollution: the mind also must be looked to.” Paul admonishes men to be physically pure and be free from anxieties, but he talks to women about being “holy in spirit,” and I think there’s a great reason for that: women become emotionally attached very easily (even those of us who don’t show emotion very freely). Since God knows us girls, He needed to give us some advice on how to avoid becoming too attached to a person when it was not in God’s timing. We have to be very careful to maintain emotional purity.

In writing his letter to the Corinthians, Paul says he makes his statement to women “that you may serve the Lord without distraction (7:35).” It sort of all came together for me there. If we are distracted from serving the Lord, we run the risk of being un-holy emotionally and spiritually, and vice versa, if we are being un-holy emotionally, it will distract us from serving the Lord. Verse 7:9 talks about burning with passion (which Calvin explains means to be totally consumed with someone / something), and to that Calvin says “Where there is burning, no love of God can exist. But Paul’s meaning is this — that an unmarried person is free, and is not hindered from thinking of the things of God. The pious make use of this liberty. Others turn everything to their own destruction.” That is, if I as a single girl let my thoughts and feelings about a person overshadow my passion for Christ, I’m pretty much doomed. It’s idolatry, plain and simple. However, for as long as God will have me to be single, I should use my “freedom” to serve Christ, not to destroy myself.

I’ve been reading a book called Emotional Purity by Heather Arnel Paulsen, which I highly recommend. It’s written for females, but there are sections in it for guys too, and I think it’s probably good for any single person to read. It’s mostly about protecting your heart and the dangers of male-female friendships when no intentions or boundaries are set. My favorite thing she has said so far goes along with Calvin’s statement about being distracted. She says that when you’re trying to avoid becoming too attached to someone, instead of praying for God to help you stop thinking about them, pray that God will put Himself on your mind. If we’re constantly trying to rid our minds of a person, our mind is on that person instead of on God. Focus on God. He’ll fill you up so there won’t be room for someone else until He makes room for them. Good book. Check it out.

Anyway, I guess what I’m saying here is that I’m growing, and I’m learning, and I’m trying to be content. This week I’ve kept coming back to 3 verses:

1. “Now godliness with contentment is great gain.” 1 Timothy 6:6.

2. “Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” 2 Timothy 2:22. I like how this verse doesn’t just say “don’t do this”. It gives a negative command and a positive one, so we don’t just know what not to do, but what to do instead to combat sin.

3. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” Matthew 5:8. I have this verse cross-stitched in my bedroom at home. My grandma made it when I was little, and it’s probably the first Bible verse I ever memorized because I saw it every day on my wall. I’d always thought of the “seeing God” part as a reward for having a pure heart until I heard someone approach the verse differently in a sermon a few years ago at BCM. His view was that a pure heart is not the cause of seeing God, but the result. Did you catch that? If we keep our focus on God, our heart becomes pure, and if our heart is pure, we’ll see only God. I understood this as it applied to my salvation, but it had never been applied to everyday life and our daily walk with Christ until then.

Anywho, that's enough. Back to reading about kidneys.

**restart blog-fast**

Travel Plans are crazy

2010-01-20T17:31:00.003-05:00

Yikes, planning travel for close to 40 people is hard!

We're at a very scary stage of planning right now, known as the Non-Refundable Deposit Stage. The ministry we're working with can sleep 36 people. We're stepping out on faith and believing that we can get 36 people, but as of right now, no one is "officially" signed up to go because no one has given us their $250 deposits. We have no physicians signed up to go, and we have 3 or 4 "maybes". Did I mention that we need 8 or 9 absolute yes's from doctors? Chyeah.

So I found us these awesome plane tickets, which are close to $200 cheaper than the initial tickets I found. The only problem is that we have to make a $75 per person non-refundable deposit by next Wednesday or we lose our contract on the seats. That's $2700. Oh, and we only have $3000 right now, which is our "cushion" fund. Heh, and also, to even reserve these seats, we have to pay $200 (nonrefundable of course) by tomorrow. Scaaaaary.

Our other option is to go with a different airline that will require a $135 per person deposit within 45 days, and all but $35 is refundable. This sounds better, but the tickets with this second airline are $100 more than the others, plus this airline also charges $60 to check two bags.

As it stands today, second years can't go on the trip because of our third year orientation. We're working to make a deal to do the orientation on our own time, which would be awesome because there are at least 5 second years who are definitely going if we get the go ahead.

Decisions, decisions. We'll be saving loads by going with the first airline, but we'd have a wider safety net with the second one. I really don't know what to do.

Anyone know any physicians that want to go with a bunch of med students to Haiti?

Haiti Mission Trip

2010-01-13T22:35:00.002-05:00

Hey folks, I have a prayer request for y'all, which is also sort of a "how cool is God" story.

For the past few months our Christian Medical Association at Mercer Med has been planning a medical mission trip for this summer. The second years can't go because we don't get a summer break, but some of us are still helping plan it. I have just been given the task of arranging travel plans (woohoo me!). Anyway, the girl who is coordinating the whole trip is a first year named Amy Mason. God really laid it on her heart several months ago that we should go to Haiti, and even though we had some good contacts in other countries, we turned them down because she felt so strongly led to Haiti. She has had a terrible time getting ministries down there to respond to her or to give her confirmations about dates, so she put off announcing the location of the trip until she got a confirmation from the ministry there. So yesterday afternoon at 4:45 she finally got confirmation that we can go July 17-24, and she was so excited. As you know, the earthquake hit around 5:00. I talked to her, and we all feel like this is just a confirmation from God showing us that he had a plan the whole time, and that we really are needed down there.

Today at our CMA meeting we announced the trip and the dates. We've been asking for several weeks now that people pray about whether they feel led to go on the trip, and only 3 students are signed up so far. Also, we can't do this trip without doctors. We need at least 3 or 4 to sign up, and right now we have 3 maybes. So please pray that we could have a really good group of committed students sign up to go on the trip, and that we will have plenty of doctors available as well.

Obviously right now the medical focus there is to take care of those injured in the earthquake, but there will be lots of long term consequences too. It has messed up hospitals and clinics (all 3 Doctors Without Borders stations are out of operation right now), which will continue to affect people for months, and I imagine there will be a movement of people out of the area of Port au Prince into surrounding towns and cities because of the loss of infrastructure there. Medical teams are already moving in to Haiti right now to provide relief, but as the weeks and months pass, volunteers may dwindle. We are planning to go to a small city called Les Cayes, which is about 90 miles from Port au Prince. Hopefully there we will be able to minister to people affected by the earthquake.

We haven't heard from the ministry in Les Cayes yet, so we don't know if they sustained any damage. So please pray that this earthquake wouldn't keep us from going to Haiti. Also, Amy has been facing continual attacks from people who have been very discouraging about this trip all along, so pray that she will continue to have a peace about this trip and that she could stand firm against these attacks. Also be in prayer for those of us who are helping her get things planned, that everything will go smoothly.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/13/haiti.earthquake.medical.risks/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+rss/cnn_topstories+(RSS:+Top+Stories)&utm_c

So I wrote a song...

2009-11-01T16:04:00.003-05:00

It has music to it, but it's not really done yet. I mean, I wrote it with a tune in mind, but it's not on paper yet. My mom's working on that part for me. This song sort of came out of a conversation mama and I had last week about a new focus my home church is about to start. The whole point is to focus on local missions-- on being a missionary wherever we are instead of having to go somewhere else to do it.

That concept sort of hit me a few years ago when I was assigned to be a summer intern for the Thomas County Baptist Association instead of going on a medical mission to Moldova like I had originally hoped. I ended up loving it and I learned a lot about how to do missions at home that summer. Acts 1:8 ("And you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth") was our focus that summer, and it was also on my mind when I decided to live with a Muslim instead of a Christian for these past 2 years. However, I can't say that I've done a great job of living out that verse in day-to-day life. I haven't really tried to be a witness to the people I go to school with everyday, and that has been coming to my mind a lot lately. Anyway, here's the song, based off of Acts 1:8.

My Jerusalem
Verse 1:
With his final breath he claimed victory, over sin and over death (Matt 27:50-53)

Then the veil was torn, the saints reborn, as the Son of God paid my debt

Three days later the empty tomb proclaimed the living Son of Man (Matt 28:5-6)

Then he gathered the people and explained the Word, and He gave one last command (Luke 24:45-47)

Chorus 1:
He said Go (Matt 28:19)

Unto all the world, and tell of the sinless Lamb (Is 53:7)

Proclaim my love for the least of these (Luke 18:16, James 1:27)

And begin in Jerusalem (Acts 1:8, Luke 24:47)

Verse 2:
When I was made new, I heard his call, asking "Who will go for me?"

I said here I am, Lord God, Oh here I am, send me. (Is 6:8)

I will go to the nations, every tongue and tribe, and give them freedom for their chains (Is 52:3)

With beautiful feet I'll bring good news, that the God of Zion reigns! (Is 52:7)

Chorus 2:
But He said Go

To the ones next door, to your family and friends (Luke 16:27-28)

They're all searching for peace and love

And this is your Jerusalem

Bridge:
How can I boast of the places I'll go, if I'm not willing to stay?
My neighbors are lost, Oh what will be the cost, if I don't show them the way? (Rom 10:14)

Oh, so I'll be
All things
To all men
So by all means some may be saved (1 Cor 9:22)
Oh God,
Break me
Use Me
To reach my Jerusalem!

*instrumental break*

Final chorus:
So I will go
Into my hometown, and be a fisher of men (Matt 4:19)
I'll lose this life to follow Christ (Matt 10:39)
Into my Jerusalem.

I'm not entirely satisfied with the final chorus, but it's all I got....

The Advent Conspiracy.

2009-11-01T16:02:00.001-05:00

Awesome video. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU&feature=player_embedded

My Sentiments Exactly

2009-09-28T19:01:00.002-04:00

I just found this new song from Leeland. I'm not usually a big fan of theirs, but this song is awesome.

"Follow You"

You lived among the least of these
The weary and the weak
And it would be a tragedy for me to turn away.

All my needs you have supplied.
When I was dead you gave me life.
How could I not give it away so freely?

And I'll follow you into the homes that are broken.
Follow you into the world.
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy, God.
Follow you into the World.

Use my hands, use my feet
To make your kingdom come
Through the corners of the earth
Until your work is done
'Cause Faith without works is dead
And on the cross your blood was she'd
So how could I not give it away so freely?

And I'll follow you into the homes that are broken.
Follow you into the world.
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy, God.
Follow you into the World.
(X2)

I give all myself.
I give all myself
I give all myself... to you.

And I give all myself.
Yes, I give all myself.
And I give all myself... to you.

And I'll follow you into the homes that are broken
Follow you into the world.
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy God.
Follow you into the World.
(X2)

Thoughts on Covering Up

2009-08-14T14:44:00.005-04:00

I may get in trouble for this post, but I think it needs to be shared. It's sort of my response from my own experience to this article on cnn.com: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/12/generation.islam.hijab/index.html?eref=rss_topstories. It's called Muslim Women Uncover Myths About the Hijab.

For those who don't know, the hijab is the veil that some Muslim women wear. I have heard both sides of the hijab argument--that it is demeaning to women, and that it is a beautiful thing and makes women feel valued. In general, I'm not a feminist at all, but I tend to agree with the former argument. Well here goes.

The gujjar women in India wear a form of the hijab. Most Indian women wear a dupatta, which is a long scarf that Hindu women cover their chests and sometimes heads with and Muslim women cover their heads with. It is partially a cultural piece of clothing since women from several religions wear it, but my experience has been with the Muslim gujjars.

The gujjar people group is a very tight knit, closed society that is not very welcoming to foreigners. They are for the most part extremely conservative in beliefs and dress. I'm sure a lot of women dress the way they do because it is what they have always known and it is their culture, but that is not to say that they don't feel somewhat restricted by their own beliefs at the same time. While the shalwar kamiz outfit is commonly worn by most Indian women, the style of the outfit varies. The gujjar women wear extra baggy pants (shalwar) with lots of material in them so that they don't look like they're trying to show their legs. Their shirts (kamiz) usually go all the way to the knees or past, whereas the more popular styles hang just below the hip or mid-thigh. The sleeves of the gujjar womens' kamiz have tight cuffs with buttons to keep the arms totally covered, unlike others which may have 3/4 or short sleeves, and the necklines usually are very high with buttons as well. And of course, lets not forget the dupatta, which covers the head, neck, chest, and much of the arms.

Now, this outfit is not as restrictive as a burqa, sure, but think on this for a minute:

In gujjar villages, houses are always open and generally don't have doors or closeable windows, so anyone who wants to come visit, can (and will) at any time, day or night. This means the women cannot uncover themselves in their own homes without chancing being walked in upon. Most of the homes of the seminomadic gujjars and especially the fully nomadic ones do not have any sort of toilet or shower facility. The people answer the call of nature in nature behind a bush or something, and they bathe in rivers and streams out in the open. Some men will hold up dupattas around their wives or female children while they bathe for privacy, but the girls are never without clothes. One woman told one of the ladies I stayed with, "I just wish I could be naked for a little while." It's not something we Americans ever think about, but these women are fully clothed at all times, even when bathing.

Now sure, these women must have some sense of pride in their modesty and in the men's willingness to protect their modesty, but at the same time, they must also feel somewhat oppressed. I'm all for modesty, but I guess I have a different definition of modesty than Muslim men do. It's all fine and good for American Muslims to wear the hijab and see it as a thing of beauty and pride, but I don't want people to look at all women who wear it and assume that they choose to wear it or that they feel the same pride in it.

Muslim women in South Asia are one of the largest, if not the largest, unreached people groups in the world. The main barrier to reaching them with the Gospel is that their cultures are very suspicious of outside influences and very protective of the women and children. In most cases, the men must be reached before the women can, which is sad. It makes great sense to specifically target Muslim women, however, because in many settings they tend to be the member of the family who pushes religious learning and adherence the most, even if they are not the most educated person in the family or the most knowledgeable about the religion. All-girl madrassas (Quranic schools) are becoming increasingly more common as well. So anyway, pray for the women of South Asia, and reach out to them, if not from across the world, than in your own community.

Check out peoplegroups.info to see what people groups are in your hometown. You'd be surprised how many unreached people groups are represented in our own little towns in America. You don't have to go across the world to find someone who's never heard about Jesus.

2009-08-04T09:40:00.004-04:00

Last full day in Jammu! I did arsenic testing on 12 samples (several of them twice), and worked a bit on a little research project I was doing. I gave out around 4:30. Just couldn't do any more. Tomorrow I'll head to Delhi, where I'll spend the night, and then onward to America! The 6th is going to be a super long day, because I'll basically be experiencing it twice. Jet lag, here I come!

Shoppin!

2009-08-03T07:57:00.005-04:00

I went a-present shoppin today... spent way more than I intended to, probably because I was by myself and couldn't say no to shop keepers. You kind of have to work up your courage to go in a shop because the shopkeepers are going to hound you and present everything in the store to you for approval. I got roped into buying 2 pashmina (or wool, can't remember...they were both really soft) shawls even though I really just wanted one, but they're really cozy and pretty and I guess I'll just keep one for myself! Woo! The present count is a little uneven, though. I think I've bought 2 or 3 things for my mom and Caroline, and 1 for everyone else. And there's a few people I haven't been able to buy gifts for. Sorry guys, all the cool stuff here is really girly. I tried looking for these really cool daggers that the Sikh men carry (they look like something straight out of Aladdin), but I couldn't find any anywhere. I also really want to buy a kite here, but since they're pretty much just sticks and tissue paper, I don't see a kite making it back to the States with me.

Mmm cake...

2009-08-03T01:39:00.001-04:00

After changing out of my poo-ey clothes yesterday, I went back to house church, and afterwards we had birthday cake! And it was pretty great. Actually, I think it was better having it yesterday than on my birthday because it gave me a pick me up from the poo experience. On a positive note, I rinsed out my dirty suit yesterday, tide penned it, and then washed it in the washing machine, and it's almost stain free! You can see a bit of ick on it if you look up close, but from a distance you can't tell it ever was covered in poo!

A bit of a horrifying experience

2009-08-02T02:44:00.004-04:00

It is a well known fact that I am a very clumsy person, and today I have more evidence for that fact. This morning when I put in my contacts they were all blurry and icky, and I could only find one new contact, so I couldn't change them. I should have put my glasses on, but I thought it would get better, so I stuck with the contacts. As we were walking to house church this morning, they got blurrier and blurrier, and the sweat dripping into my face made it even worse. When we were about 2 blocks from our destination, I stepped in a fresh buffalo patty, slipped in my crocs (devil's shoes), and face planted.

I had poo on my feet, all over my legs, hands, and arms, and yes, even some on my face, although I'd like to think what was on my face (and in my mouth a bit, too) was only mud. It was the most disgusting I have ever felt in my entire life. And what made it worse was that I was in my favorite suit. I got to the house and hosed off what I could and then Perry took me back to the apartment to change and rinse off my nasty clothes. Right after I fell one of the girls jokingly asked if I wanted her to take a picture. Since I still had poo on my hands, I didn't want to dig in my bookbag (actually Caroline's bag... that also had poo on it), and I didn't want to open my mouth and get more poo in it, so I nodded no. My pride was really hurt and I was embarrassed and a bit in shock because I was so grossed out, but when I got all cleaned off I really wished she had taken a picture of me so I could have shared it with everyone. But trust, I was disgusting.

Also, I got a strawberry on my left knee for about the 137th time. Why do I always fall to the left? The WiiFit says I'm unbalanced.

New Suit!

2009-08-01T05:33:00.002-04:00

Yeah, it's kind of late in the game to be getting a new suit, but here's the deal: I got the fabric like 2 weeks ago and then it took several days before someone would take me to a tailor, and then the tailor took another 4 days or something to sew it. But it's super light and comfy, and, as a plus, it's traffic cone orange so hopefully the matadors (little short buses for public transportation) will see me on the street walking in the heat and pick me up! Every time I get a suit, I am encouraged to get one in really ridiculous colors or patterns. The justification is that the folks here wear really bright colors and patterns, and we want to fit in, right? And when else would I get to wear such fun clothes?

Blah Blah Blah

2009-08-01T05:29:00.002-04:00

I finished my last water test today, for a grand total of 38 sites. However, I still have 12 samples waiting for arsenic testing, so hopefully the tests will come in the mail soon. Meanwhile I'm working on another little research project.

Just wanted to post a few pictures of what I see on my walk between the apartment I'm staying in and the house I do most of my work in. This is a little slum area. They're everywhere, and the people that live in them have come from other cities hoping to get hired as day laborers in people's houses and whatnot.

I don't know if you can tell, but these things are only about 4 feet tall. There's no room to stand in them. I think people pretty much just sleep in them and do everything else outside.

And yes, I see horse carts everywhere. Usually they're piled high with things way too heavy for the horses to carry, and they're driven by really old men in turbans. This one was an exception to the rule. OOh! And 2 days ago I saw......... a camel! It was just walking down the road like the cows and buffalo do. It was pretty awesome, and way bigger than I thought camels were.

Birthday Celebration!

2009-07-30T05:32:00.001-04:00

Last night the girls I've been staying with took me to a revolving restaurant in the city. It was swanky, yet cheap by American standards, and the food was really good. I got some kind of garlicky-yogurty chicken and switched some with one of the girls who got chicken in some kind of saffron sauce, which I probably liked better than what I ordered. The place didn't start revolving until we got our food (after sitting there almost an hour), but it was still cool.

I wish I had a super wide-angle lens for my camera to show how packed the city looks from way up high. This city is often called "City of Temples," and I think it definitely lives up to its name. From my vantage point before we started moving, I counted something like 15 temples and one mosque (in the middle of the pic with 2 minarets). I think in this shot there are maybe 3 temples.

More temples! A little wider view to give a better idea of the size of the city. And off in the distance you can see where the foothills of the mountains start. What I wish you can see is the hundreds of kites that were flying last night. I mean, they're in the picture, just too tiny to see. Kids fly kites in August to celebrate independence day, but they're already getting started. You can see a small group of kids on a roof in the middle-right side of the picture that were flying kites. I tried to take a video, but they didn't show up really well. It was a very Kite-Runner type scene.

This is the Hindu temple we went to last week that I posted on in my prayerwalking post. From the height of the restaurant you can get a better idea of just how massive the place was. And the sunset was so pretty! Unfortunately, though, being behind glass made my color photos turn out not so nice. But I likes this one.

The TB Clinic...

2009-07-30T05:17:00.001-04:00

Well, this is where I spent my birthday yesterday. I've been going on Wednesdays and Fridays for a while now, and I just got pictures yesterday.

This is the doctor I've been shadowing some of the time, whose name I will not even attempt to spell or pronounce. He's told me several times what it is, and I still can't fully catch it. And his name is nowhere to be found in the office. And yep, this is the whole office. I was standing in the corner when I took the pic. There is a little bench next to him for patients to sit on when he listens to their lungs, but that's it. Really the only thing that tells you this is a doctor's office is the x-ray light and a paperweight from a drug rep. There are no windows, either, just screens, so it's very open to the outside and people just drift in. Anyway, Dr. What's-his-name has been very helpful and has shown me all the ins and outs of the TB treatment system.

This is the hallway outside his office, which doubles as another "exam room" where Category II patients (with resistant or recurrent TB) get their Streptomycin shots. Like the little office, it's right in the open. The waiting bench was on my left as I took the picture, and there were several people there, to give you an idea of the privacy issues here.

Not a very good picture of the lab. I kind of had to sneak this one. But you can see the little dividing wall I described in an earlier post and the lab table.

There are a few other rooms in the place, but those I showed are pretty much it. Just to the left of the picture is a tiny hand-sized window that opens up to the dispensary, where people can drop off their empty packets of pills and pick up new ones. There's not much to the place.

Roof Pics

2009-07-28T04:08:00.001-04:00

Last night I went up on the roof to escape the heat for a little while, and I took a few pictures. I'm mainly posting them because my grandma asked me to put something up so the rat wouldn't be the first thing she saw on my blog. This is the city, as seen from our roof. Way off in the distance, in the light blue, is Pakistan!

A mosque down the road, and a kid flying a kite nearby. Kids fly kites to celebrate independence day in August, but it's already getting started.

My Work, Lately

2009-07-27T07:39:00.003-04:00

This has nothing to do with my work... This is one of about 6 mice we've caught in the past week. They come up the bathroom floor drain trying to escape the monsoon rain at night.... and then we catch 'em and drown 'em. This guy is pretty big. That trap is about 9 inches long, to give you an idea. We've now cemented the drains so the covers won't pop up and these guys can't get in. At night you could hear them scratching around.... yuck.

My new workspace. I have been doing water testing sitting on the floor in the office, but I was kind of in the way, so they cleaned out the adjacent room that was used for storage and laundry and set up a desk for me. After I leave they'll use it to work at because there are always 3 or 4 people over here using the internet. The big blue kit is the water testing kit with all the chemicals and such. They have about 6 of these kits, and you can do 14 different water tests. I don't know how many samples you can go through with one kit, but I've done about 30 now, and I'm nowhere near exhausting the kit yet.

I do 9 tests on each water sample: pH, Nitrates, Fecal Coliform, residual chlorine, chloride, fluoride, iron, arsenic, and ammonia. I did some research before we got started testing and we decided these were the only ones with health effects. Some of the other tests in the kit are more appropriate for determining if a lake or river can support snimal life, so I don't do those. The most important tests have shown to be arsenic, fecal coliform, and nitrates. Almost all of the samples we've tested have been positive for arsenic and coliform bacteria (E. coli and others that cause dysentery), and about a third have had high nitrate levels, which can be really harmful to babies and small children. These little bottles are the coliform tests. They turn black after 24-48 hours incubation if they're positive.

Just me, working on the water. I try to test 3-4 samples at a time to make things go faster.

Seen Around... Pt 2

2009-07-27T07:22:00.002-04:00

These kids hang out downstairs from the apartment I'm staying in. They played and laughed at me the other day as I was waiting for a ride. Their "toys" are water bottles.

The big white house is where I'm staying. It's 3 stories, and it's broken up into at least 5 1-bedroom apartments. I'll post pics of the inside later. We all (me and 2 other girls) sleep in one room because it's the only room with an AC unit, and even when the power goes out it stays much cooler than the other room. For a few days, a neighbor girl who's about our age was sleeping in our place too because she's pregnant and can't stand the heat.

This is painted on a building down the street from us. I think it's a very appropriate name for an Indian sanitation company. Plumbing and all types of sanitation in general are pretty unreliable, so the name Good Luck fits pretty well.

Home Visits

2009-07-26T04:54:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I went to visit some women at their homes. One lady was laying on a bed crying, and when we went to talk to her, we found out that she had a really bad toothache. Dental hygeine is not very important here. Whole families will share one toothbrush, and then people will have a cup of super sugary chai before bed, so it doesn't do any good. Tooth problems are big here. I looked at her tooth, and I think she has an abcess. Her whole side of her face is swollen, red, and hot, and the gum around the tooth looks pretty bad too. What complicates matters is that she's 8 1/2 months pregnant. She can't take anything for pain, and the dentist she went to would not pull the tooth because she was pregnant. That sounded a little weird to me. He put her on antibiotics but wouldn't yank it out. I looked up the antibiotic she was on and it seems to be ok for pregnant women, but it doesn't seem to be helping her any. Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions, that'd be great. We're going to go back and check on her tomorrow.

Also, I learned a little about having babies over here. The gujjar women won't feed the baby until the molvi sees and blesses the baby, which could be up to 48 hours after it's born. The women who have babies at home usually don't have to wait as long, but this particular lady goes to the hospital for her kids. That's really scary to me, that people would think it's ok to not feed a newborn baby, or any person for that matter, for 2 whole days. It's very sad.

Pics of the eclipse on the Big Picture Blog

2009-07-24T05:24:00.000-04:00

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/07/the_longest_solar_eclipse_of_t.html

I missed it.

COMMENTS!

2009-07-24T05:17:00.004-04:00

By the way folks, comments on the blog are greatly appreciated. I hear that a lot of folks are reading this blog (apparently half of Monticello, FL...), but I haven't heard from many people. I don't get to contact home much, so it would be really nice to hear from some of you folks. You can comment as anonymous if you don't have a blogger account or anything. Just remember to leave your name in your comment. k thx!

Strike!

2009-07-24T05:15:00.001-04:00

This morning Perry called me and said that 400,000 government workers (in the state or the city, I'm not sure) have gone on strike. This includes doctors and nurses, so people in the hospital are pretty much just stuck. A lot of the higher up guys are still working, but a bunch of folks are strinking. So I went to the TB clinic with this in mind, hoping it would be open. When I got there, the 2 doctors I've worked with--the ones in charge of the whole shebang--were "on leave," according to the man I talked to. Hmm... So I asked if there was anything I could do to help them, but they seemed to be pretty well staffed. They normally have like 4 people working in a job that 2 people could do, so they had plenty of help around. I got sent next door to a doctors' office to watch a doc. I think they sent me to him mainly because he spoke good English, but that was cool with me.

There is a whole process to TB treatment here. People see docs at the CD (chest diseases) hospital or at this smaller doc's office and then get referred to the RNTCP (Regional something Tuberculosis Center something...) to see another doctor, get a chest X-ray and sputum sample, and then start the DOTS program. Anyway, the doc I was with today let me listen to some chests to hear a pleural friction rub and to hear the difference between a normal lung and a pleural effusion. He also taught me a little more about reading x-rays, which was nice. I mean, I can pick out obvious things, but he showed me some small stuff too. In the hour and a half that I was with him, he probably saw 25 patients at least. Very few get any sort of physical exam. Mostly these people have been referred from someone and already have lab results that suggest TB, so they just get sent on through to the next station. A few people get auscultated or percussed and that's about it. There is no exam room like we're used to in the US, just an office, and the next 4 patients in line are pushing their way through the door. I was surprised that both docs I have watched will listen to lungs through clothes. That's a big no-no at my school, and I've never seen any doctor in the US do it, but I guess with the extreme lack of privacy in the office here, you do what you have to do.

Today I also met the man who goes on home visits. I found out that he only goes to visit new patients, and there's no schedule to it (which I should have known-- I mean, come on, this is India. There are no schedules for anything). I'd like to go with him one day, but he speaks absolutely zero English, so I don't know how informative the visits could be for me if I don't have a translator.

One of these days I'll get some pictures of the TB clinic. You'll be shocked at the state of the facility.

Anyway, here's some daily life pics:

An autorickshaw... I ride these home from the hospital. Good times. The one I was in today broke down and the guy pulled a spare part out of a little compartment on the dash and got it running in about 10 minutes.

I was with another girl the other day so she offered to take pictures of me. I'll try to do better getting pics of myself. She's going to take some of me doing water testing later.

The street I'm staying on now. Chyeah, it's nasty. There is no landfill or sanitation system here, so there's trash everywhere. The house is around the corner and about 100 yards up.

Prayer Walking

2009-07-24T03:39:00.001-04:00

The big event today was prayer walking. We had a short prayer meeting this morning with the whole Jammu team—7 people plus myself, where we prayed for our individual ministries and for the city. After that we went across town to do some prayer walking. I have never done prayer walking before, and prayer is something I struggle with—definitely not my spiritual gift—but I really liked it a lot. The area we went to was strategic because it had an abundance of people, as well as a big Muslim shrine and a huge Hindu temple. The day (Thursday) was also strategic because Thursday is the day that Muslims usually go to the shrines, and the most Hindus here go to the temples on Tuesday and Thursday. We went in a really crowded bazaar (the "street" was about 5 feet wide and climbed steadily up to the temple) and just prayed silently to ourselves as we walked through.

A denture shop in the bazaar. The picture is kind of crazy because I took it as I was walking. In the case is lots of loose teeth that will be fitted into dentures. They also pull teeth here.

After a few minutes we came to the Muslim shrine. There are a lot of these on the side of the road—just little tombs or representations of tombs of people who were considered to be holy. People pray there and hope for some of the power and “holiness” that that person had. The one we went to had a 30 foot long tomb. The reasoning behind such a huge tomb is that they think the bigger the tomb, the more people can gather around it and be buried near it, and the “power” that the person had can spread to more people. Crazy.

The Muslim shrine. They're always green. Green is the color for Muslims and orange is for Hindus (see the Indian flag).

After the Muslim shrine, we came to a Hindu temple. All you can see from the street is the gate and the tops of the steeples of the various buildings inside. People who walk by will stop, touch their forehead, and then touch the threshold of the temple in respect. Before you go in, you have to hand over any cameras, cell phones, electronics, or leather (holy cow!) and they get put in a locker. There are cops with rifles all over the place guarding the gate. When you go in you are patted down (ladies have to go through a separate entrance to get frisked by a lady) and have to go through a metal detector. Once inside you put your shoes in a special room and then go in the temple. The place was massive. It had a little garden area and courtyard multiple rooms with different idols in them all around. The center building had 3 or 4 big idols in it, and then you could walk around the outside of it where there were little cages with little idols in them about every 5 feet. People were opening these little cages and putting in money and flowers and incense, prostrating themselves afterward. Some people walk one step and then touch the floor, then take another step, then touch the floor, all the way around the temple.

Five or six rooms on the periphery of the center building were full of representations of millions of gods. They are just tiny little rocks that have been embedded in concrete steps that run all around the rooms. People place garlands and cloth and money on these steps as well. The whole place felt really hopeless, to see these people prostrating themselves to little porcelain dolls. Perry commented afterward that he had to really focus on each word of his prayers because the place is so overwhelming. I felt the same way. If you don’t really think about each word and think about what you’re praying about, you get lost in this kind of heavy feeling that’s in the place. Scary. While we were in there I found myself repeating a lot of the same lines over and over again—God, these people are searching for peace. Reveal to them the Prince of Peace. Show them your love, show them your grace, show them your forgiveness. As we walked past a big statue of Hanuman, the monkey god and god of power, I prayed that God would show these people his Holy power and crush the power of Satan. On Sunday we read a parable from Mark about binding up the strong man and plundering his house, and I think today we all prayed that the strong man (Satan) would be bound so that Jesus could plunder the hearts of these people.

Weed(s)

2009-07-24T03:10:00.003-04:00

Today I went to the TB hospital in the morning, but the guy in charge wasn’t there so I kind of just floated around to whoever would take me for a little while. My main goal was to get a day nailed down that I could go on home visits to patients, but since he wasn’t there I’ll try again Friday. After lunch I went with Perry and Abu to go to some more villages and give water testing reports and collect new samples. The sites were not that great because they are supposed to be in villages with a lot of people, but they were all in kind of deserted places. The first place we went to had a 300 foot municipal well, so they had amazing water. But the family (Hindus) was really nice and the guy we talked to was obviously bored and wanted to talk for forever. So I think that was a good contact to make and to go back to and talk to later.

The middle of nowhere...

The second place we went to was a house, and as we were walking up to it, I looked at the plants growing on the side of the road and thought to myself, “Is that what I think it is?” I didn’t want to ask, but I was pretty sure it was marijuana. And it was EVERYWHERE. Just growing wild. On our way back to the car, Perry pointed to it, and said, “you know what that is, right?” So it was confirmed. On our drive back to the city I looked around and saw it in a lot of places, just growing on the side of the road. And yes, people do use it… Also, the villages we went to were super close to the border, as evidenced by military personnel all over the place and a heightened paranoia in the locals. We tried to talk to one Gujjar woman, who was completely nomadic and was packing up her cart, but she ran away. People on the border are really wary of talking to strangers, because they don’t want to get in trouble or mingle with people who might be militants. As we were driving, we looked out into a field on the side of the road, and saw several military bunkers in the ground. These were little fortifications dug out of the ground with a small slit at the top to stick guns out of. These were built in case of conflict on the border. Kind of crazy. We also saw a tank in a field. Army bases are everywhere here. I know I’ve seen at least 10 in the city. They are stationed all over the city so that troops can be mobilized quickly in case of conflict or an invasion.
Anyway, since the testing sites had so few people, we only talked to like 4 people today. That was about it.
Giant statue of Hanuman, god of power, on the way. Bodybuilders worship him. Wonder why?

Gujjar house.

Close up of the roof. They are not as simple as they look.

The weed itself

2009-07-24T03:10:00.001-04:00

2009-07-22T04:07:00.002-04:00

Yesterday the fridge died in the apartment I'm staying in, so we ate some of the stuff that would melt or go bad. This included a big Reese's cup for each of us. It was glorious. Highlight of my day.

How nomadic is your roof?

2009-07-21T05:33:00.002-04:00

I learned today that you can learn a lot about a people group by the structure of their home, more specifically, their roof. Of the gujjars living here, some are completely nomadic and are constantly moving, while most others are semi-nomadic, living in one place for several months. Fewer still are permanently settled. You can tell how nomadic a people are by their roof. The fully nomadic folks hardly bother with a roof. They just slap together something to cover their heads and don’t worry about structural soundness or extensive weatherproofing. The thatch on their roofs is mostly tall grasses that are all unorganized and look like they’ll fall any moment. Their houses may only be enclosed on 3 sides instead of all four, and the walls might be sticks instead of mud and rock.
The semi-nomadic people have more sticks stabilizing the top layer of grass and work harder at organizing it and putting in multiple layers of grass for weatherproofing. Some will even have a gap of a few inches between the roof and the walls to allow cooking smoke to escape and provide some ventilation and breeze.

The settled people have very complex thatch with multiple layers and tiers. They will pay for a skilled roofer to make their roof, which though it may look flimsy, may last up to 25 years with a few minor repairs.
I think it’s really cool how much you can know about a people just by looking at their homes.

Can you tell what kind of people made these buildings?

Heh, actually, these are all in the same village! Confusing, I know. These people are semi-nomadic, but they come back to this village regularly, so they have a few more permanent buildings.

Water testing update

2009-07-21T05:26:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I went out to some villages to give people reports on their water that was tested a month or two ago, and to pick up new samples. We got 4 out of 35 sites done. It’s definitely a time consuming task. There’s a whole process to it: visit the house, wait for the husband to come, then talk about the water results. Then answer a million questions about why we’re here, who we are, who we work for, how we got here, how I came to India all by myself, why I’m not married, etc. These questions get more and more random the more you answer. The first family we talked to asked us about our burial practices. During question answering you are expected to take a cup of chai. The first house we went to had something crazy going on with their chai. Mine had all kinds of things floating in it. Some of it was milk solids and I’m not sure what the rest was. I think maybe they don’t strain their milk once they milk their goats. I just tried to drink around the floaters. I’d rather drink the chunky chai (which has been boiled) than their water, which we had proven had E. coli and arsenic in it. While at that same house, we were sitting on a charpai (a bed) outside and one of the goats hopped up. They kept shooing chickens away but goats seemed to be no problem. So I ignored it. But a minute later, the goat stood up on the bed about 6 inches from me and started looking suspicious. And then he proceeded to pee on the bed. The family just shooed him away but didn’t clean it up. Icky.

After lunch we went to 3 more sites. The first one is where I wish I could have taken lots of pictures, but apparently they took a lot last time they were there and no one brought copies for the family, which is pretty rude, so they decided it was better if I didn’t take pics. But I got shots outside the house. It was a mud hut with thatched roof as usual, but the inside was really cool. The thatch wasn’t covered on the inside so you could see and touch all the sticks, and they had random things stuck inside the thatch that they didn’t want their goats to get to. The family has lots of lung problems, which is easily explained by the black char on the ceiling from the chula (mud stove) smoke. They have a water filter we provided, but they don’t use it. We explained that if they used it they’d stop having headaches everyday and could prevent themselves going blind, but they seemed to think they were fine. Heh, also this family has some strange miniature goats. These guys are full grown! We saw some babies, too. So cute.

At the last site a man came up to us and told—not invited—us to come have chai at his house. He was suspicious of us. He asked about a million questions. And he would repeat questions to see if we answered the same. I guess he was satisfied with our answers, though, because he let us go. He also invited the 2 guys I was with to smoke with him, but they declined. Ain’t no telling what’s in that pipe… After we were done talking to him, we had to go talk to some people at the masjid (mosque) in the village.
One thing I’ve struggled with here is my purpose in this country. I’m not getting to do any of the stuff I thought I was going to do. But the guy in charge of me reminded me today that this water testing has the potential to save lots of lives. The infant mortality rate is really high here because of waterborne diseases and diarrhea, so if we can establish a presence in some, if not all, of these 35 villages, and rally the people to come together and build a big water filter for the whole community, we could save lots of kids’ lives. Earning the villages’ trust is also key to filtering through the people to see who may be receptive to the gospel. So in the long run, this is very important work. I’m just in the beginning stages so I won’t get to see any of the fruit. Well, that’s about it for today. It was a busy day, but interesting.

Three Cups of Tea

2009-07-18T23:37:00.001-04:00

If you ever come to North India, there are 3 types of tea you have to try. The family I stayed with for my first 2 weeks made all three at least twice a day (breakfast and afternoon tea time). The family I'm with now rarely makes chai, and when they do, it's Lipton. They're more coffee drinkers (which is hard to come by here). First is Lipton chai, which is just black tea brewed in lots of milk and a little water, with way too much sugar added. I like it, but I'd like it better with half the sugar.

Second is kava. Kava is a green tea (which I usually don't like) with cinnamon and cloves added in. It kind of tastes like apple cider without the apple flavor. It's probably my favorite here. Third is namkeen chai. Namkeen means salt, so yeah, it's salty tea. It's weird. Black tea + milk + sugar sounds good, right, but then they add baking soda to turn it red and then add salt. I tried it a couple of times, but I just can't get used to it. It was tolerable if you have a hard salty biscuit to dip in it, but otherwise it's just strange.

When you visit someone's house, they'll give you tea and cookies or tea and namkeen (namkeen is also sort of a generic word for salty snacks). Pretty nice practice if you ask me.

Heh, the folks I'm with tried to teach their hired guy to make iced tea. He does a pretty good job (although for some reason they like it unsweet.... weird), but he doesn't understand that you don't drink it out of the tiny little teacups that you drink hot tea out of. He thinks we're really strange for drinking it out of cups....

Seen around town

2009-07-18T08:03:00.001-04:00

Beggars are everywhere here. If you're walking around in a crowded bazaar, they WILL come up to you. The expected gift to them is 1 rupee, which is about 2 cents. Kids walk around holding babies repeating, "the baby's sick" to try to get more money out of you. It's incredibly sad, but there's not much you can do about it. If you give them what you'd like to give--substantially more than 1 rupee--you'll start a frenzy and get swarmed. One day we were out running various errands and we stopped to get a new car battery because ours was pretty much kaput. I was sitting in the car waiting for the battery to be installed, and this girl and baby walked up to me. She kept repeating something about the baby, I'm not sure what. This was the first happy beggar baby I've seen. Anyway, since I was in the car and there were guys all around me, I figured I could give her more than 1 rupee without getting swarmed. So I looked around for a 10 rupee note, but I didn't have one. All I could find that was less than 100 was a 5 rupee coin, so I gave it to her. Usually when you give them something they'll walk away, but she just stayed and kept repeating whatever it was she was saying about the baby. The shopkeepers came out and shooed her away, and she kept coming back to me. I shook the baby's hand and sort of talked to her for a bit to get her to laugh and smile at me. She was so sweet. I really wish I could have done more for them.

Water, Water Everywhere...

2009-07-18T07:52:00.001-04:00

I forgot to post these pics the other day. I went with several folks up to the mountains to get some GPS coordinates and water samples from some villages. I had no idea how far we'd be going. We went up into the mountains, not as high up as I had been at the beginning of my trip, but still pretty far up. These mountains were different, though, because they look like a desert. All the vegetation on the sides of the mountain is little shrubs and such, and there are no big huge trees like where I was before. The farthest site we went to was not really a village, just a house or two next to a park around a lake. This lake was really nice looking. The water was clear and full of fat, greedy fish that were being fed constantly by tourists (see the bottom picture).

However, we went up to a Gujjar man's house, and his crops were short and dying. We asked him if we could have a 1L water sample, and he said no, because his well was dry and he was having to depend on rain water (which hasn't been coming very reliably like it should this time of year). It's pretty sad that this man lives 100 yards from a huge lake, and he can't use any of that water. I wish I could have gotten more pictures of the villages we passed. They were full of huts, but they were different from the one I stayed in. They had arched roofs covered in straw, unlike the flat roof I slept under. The man that lived at this site had a concrete house. Not real interesting. He had also built a small mosque on his land. And by small, I mean small. It was just one square little room with a loudspeaker attached to the outside wall to blare the call to prayer. But if you look to the back of his little field, you can see a little Muslim cemetary on his property. This is the first cemetary I've seen in India, since the vast majority of people are Hindu, and Hindus usually cremate their dead.

All the language you need to know in India

2009-07-17T09:49:00.004-04:00

There are 3 words that are extremely helpful in India. If you know these 3 words, you are set.

1. Tik-- pronounced Teek with some air behind the T. It means Ok. The word is the same in Hindi, Urdu, and Gojri, so it's awesome.

2. Accha -- pronounced A-chah. It is similar to Tik in that it means Fine, or good, or understand. Another good one that works in multiple languages.

3. And my personal favorite, and the one I use the most, Bas (pronounced sort of like Bus, but said quickly). It means Enough. You can say Bas when someone offers you tea and you don't want it, or when they try to give you refills on drinks, food, etc. It also works for Stop when you're riding in an autorickshaw, as I did by myself for the first time today from the TB hospital across town back to home. Hand motions make Bas even better. Cover your cup/plate with your hand while saying Bas and they know you mean business.

Day 2 at the TB clinic

2009-07-17T08:55:00.004-04:00

Well today in the TB clinic I went to the lab. For the science minded who read this blog, let me take a second and describe this "lab" for you. And remember that this is a place that handles samples of a highly contagious disease.

The room is about the size of a dorm room. There are no windows, just screens, and no lights. Dividing the room in 2 is a tile wall about 6 feet high, and on one side there is a registration / record keeping table of sorts that the 3 lab techs congregate around, and on the other side is the lab. The lab half is not exactly what you'd call sterile. People go behind the barrier to produce a sputum sample, so there's no telling what kind of spray is on those counters. And of course no one in the whole hospital wears masks, but almost all of the patients cover their mouths with rags or their dupattas (for women). So the sputum samples are fixed and stained and examined to determine what category the person's disease fits in. It's a pretty simple outfit, actually. There is no special lab equipment there other than a microscope, slides, and containers to collect sputum (although some people bring their own samples in babyfood jars or other small containers). The stains are not in labelled bottles, just in old stained DI water bottles. Even the bottle of sulfuric acid was not labelled. woo. The sink there hasn't been cleaned in a while, and is purple from the combo of red and blue dyes. And they wash stain off the slides with tap water! Not ok.

Anyway, the lab tech guys spoke minimal English, so they gave me their lab manual to read because it was in English. I've done the stain they do before, so I just ran through the steps real quick and paid more attention to how they grade the disease. After I finished reading, one guy went through several pages of the book with me line by line, reading it slowly in English and ending every sentence with "Tik?" (which means "ok?"). I would nod and say Tik at every line. So yeah, there wasn't much for me to do today. However....

This morning when I was in the head guy's office I saw that he had maps up of the 4 regional Treatment Units (TUs) around here. I said something like "so you have someone at each TU who visits patient's homes, right?" hoping that I could then ask him if I could go. Well, I didn't even have to ask! He said, "yes, you would like to go? You can go next week, Tik?" So yeah, hopefully I'll get to go on some home visits next week. If they can hook me up with a translator...

Keep your fingers crossed.

You know you're in India when.... Driving edition

2009-07-16T07:27:00.003-04:00

You know you're in India when...

1. Vehicles "share" the road with horse drawn carts, buffalo, sheep, cows, goats, and elephants. And let's not forget beggars washing their clothes and dishes, religious pilgrims dressed like the monkey god Hanuman (a costume that looks like something straight out of Power Rangers), and naked children.

2. Horse drawn carts carry cows.

3. Buses and heavy trucks are decorated with all sorts of patterns and fringe in colors that God never intended to be on vehicles of any kind.

4. People drive on the left AND right sides of the median of a 4 lane highway, dodging oncoming traffic.

5. Your side of the road is the side that's the least bumpy.

6. A short horn beep signals pedestrians to move over or see if reincarnation exists.

7. A long horn beep means get out of my way so I can pass you. On mountain roads a long beep can also mean "I'm coming around the corner so if there's anyone there, get out of the way so you don't fly over the cliff"

8. Two inches is a perfectly acceptable following distance at 40 miles an hour on a curvy mountain road.

9. Signs like "road closed" or "stop at police checkpoint" are just suggestions, really.

10. No trip is complete without seeing 4 or 5 people bathing in the muddy canal water on the side of the road.

You know you're in India when.... #1

2009-07-16T07:24:00.003-04:00

You know you're in India when:

1. Buildings are painted with all kinds of logos and advertisements that give no indication as to what type of business is housed in the building. Usually the ads are for cell phone companies.

2. The hired help serves you iced tea in teacups.

Adventures with TB.

2009-07-15T07:04:00.005-04:00

This morning I went back to the TB clinic to see what I could see. I stayed with a doctor the whole time and saw patients. Once you've seen 5 or 6, it's pretty much all the same. He explained the whole DOTS program to me--how people are expected to come to the clinic every other day so they can be observed taking their medicine, how someone goes and visits the homes of all the patients to ensure compliance with treatment, etc. He let me examine a few patients, just listening to their lungs and reading their x-rays. There were some pretty nasty looking x-rays in there. He explained the categories of patients -- category 1 is a new patient, category 2 is someone with a relapse from an earlier infection, and category 3 are patients with pleural effusion TB. I saw people from all 3 categories today, plus someone with extra pulmonary TB. One guy had taken the normal 6 months of treatment for what started out as a very mild case of TB, and ended up with a very bad case of multiple resisitant TB, so he was sent to the CD (chest diseases) hospital next door. It was pretty interesting, but now I know why the head guy only wanted me there for 2 hours at a time--there's really not that much to see.

I got some information from the doctor about what areas of the city have higher concentrations of patients, but he wouldn't tell me specific neighborhoods. Hopefully I can coax that out of him on Friday. I'd really like to go along with the visitor person to see patients in their homes. We'll see what I can do. There's only so many prying questions you can ask in 2 hours without people getting really defensive and suspicious of you.

Today I was supposed to go to some water collection sites too, but 2 guys went instead and I got a new project. The folks I'm staying with have realized I'm pretty good at making charts and such, so I got the task of making a list of people groups in Pakistan. Sounds easy, right? Not. No such list exists, which is why I'm making one. So we started with Wiki, a very scientific source. Wiki lists about 400 people groups for Pakistan, and each one has a link to it. The problem is that they aren't organized into tribes, clans, or larger groups, so you have to figure out the relationships among them by reading each article. And some articles will have tribes, subtribes, and clans listed under the one heading you clicked on (from the original 400). It's pretty tedious. I worked on that for about 3 hours today, and I'm almost through the B's. Woo. This is going to be a several day project.

So what's the purpose of this list? To aid people who are already working in Pak and who may go in the future. Many of the people groups overlap with the ones here, so it may make people's jobs easier. Once I get all the groups listed out in an organized fashion, I'll arrange them geographically, if at all possible. Woo. Tiring.

Top 10 Reasons Young Adults Drop Out of Church

2009-07-14T07:51:00.003-04:00

http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2009/07/presentation-at-icrs.html

This is something I'm really passionate about. It really drives me crazy how poor of a job most churches are doing at targeting people 18-30, especially singles. Very few churches have established programs for college-age people. We put so much time and energy into childrens' and youth ministry (which is awesome, don't get me wrong), and then we just drop people once they graduate high school. That's one of the most challenging times for our faith! You go to college and constantly get challenged about your beliefs, and you need a group of older people to pour into you and help you keep your faith strong. I understand that the point of children's and youth ministries is to build a strong foundation of faith so people can make good decisions when they go out on their own, but it shouldn't stop there. I was exceedingly fortunate to find Mabel White where I could be part of a wonderful college ministry, but I feel like many churches put no effort forth trying to keep people my age in church.

We can't necessarily be thrown in the "adult" classes because we are not getting married and having babies yet, so we can't identify with these people. I'm kind of stuck because I'm in a different situation than the people in the college class, but the class for my age group is tiny. Plus I love my current class and will have a really really hard time leaving it.

The thing that saddens me most is that the church seems to target women more than men. Think about it: there are 10 times as many women's programs as men's, and a thousand more children's programs. So we end up with churches that are full of 40 year old women and lots of kids and are seriously lacking in strong Christian men. In my age group, the male:female ratio in the church is pitiful. It takes a lot to draw in 18-30 year old men. BCM at Mercer (for my class at least) was like 85% female. It's ridiculous. How are we supposed to have Christian families if we aren't raising up a generation of young Christian men who are passionate about their faith? You end up with moms trying to be the spiritual leaders of homes, little boys who don't have a good example of what they should be when they grow up, and little girls who grow up to struggle with Biblical submission because they've never seen it in their own homes.

Anyway, I'll step down off my soapbox. I just get frustrated because there is no one around me at school to be an accountability partner or anything because they've all left the church. Come on, church, work on keeping my generation! Make some good husbands for girls my age! Get busy!

Monsoon finally started?

2009-07-13T06:06:00.001-04:00

We're pretty sure monsoon season has started, although people are debating it. It rained a few days ago and then nothing for 2 days. Then last night around 10 there was a crazy big storm. Doors inside were slamming because of the bit of wind coming through cracks in the doors to outside. It was nuts. There was lightning every 2 or 3 seconds and a good bit of thunder. I never saw the rain, but I heard it. This went on for at least 2 hours, and then I went to sleep so I can't really say how long it kept up. But this morning it was completely dry outside. But now it's starting to look stormy outside again, so I'm thinking this is the start. After another day or two of rain we will go out to a bunch of sites and take samples for water testing. There are about 45 sites the family has tested so far, and they want to continue testing them each season and try to clean up the more harmful contaminants, like E. coli and arsenic. So today I worked on making handouts for each site that showed the results of their testing for the summer season and what it means for their health (on about a 3rd grade level). So we'll take those handouts to the villages and then retest, since monsoon is a different season here. There are 3 seasons: summer, monsoon, and winter.

Also today I cleaned out all the water testing bottles and tested about 8 water filters that the family has made to see if they had leaks or anything. 3 did. Gotta see about fixing those...

Sunday!

2009-07-12T08:53:00.004-04:00

Today I went to a town about 30 minutes west of the city I'm in (3 miles from Pakistan border) to visit a fellowship that I was invited to. They asked that I also see people with medical problems afterward. The service was definitely interesting, as are all services I've been to in foreign countries. There were two long carpets inside for people to sit on, men on the left and women on the right. I was given a chair on the women's side even after I insisted that I could sit on the floor like everyone else. We sang several songs, 3 in Hindi and 1 in English, although one of the Hindi ones was a translation so I sang along in English. Then there was a time for people to stand up and talk about how God had helped them through the week (I found out what this was after the service), and then there was a lesson. There were maybe 30 people in attendance-- a few Christians and the rest Hindus from the village.

Once the service was over, people came to ask me about their medical problems. Some of them were very clear, but others I just had to say, "I'm just a student, and I'm still learning." I made very clear with each person that I am not a qualified doctor and that they should seek doctors advice as well. I felt like I wasn't doing much good, just listening to people's problems (which is more than what they get from doctors most times, so maybe that was helpful to them). The biggest problem I had is that everyone wanted me to write down a medicine for them, because here you can just go to the chemist shop (Pharmacy) and get whatever medicine you need. I didn't feel comfortable doing that except in a few cases where people's problems could be solved with over-the-counter stuff.

Some people were very specific with their problems, while others were extremely vague. I had 3 people come ask me to give them a medicine for "weakness". I asked over and over again about other symptoms, and they all just said "weakness". Well geez, weakness could be 1,000 different diseases! The only thing I could tell them was rest from the heat and drink plenty of water and go see a doctor. Also, people here are very keen on having their blood pressure checked. It's like magic to them or something. So I checked about 20 people's BPs. Most were normal, but I had one 160/110 on a 50 year old man and a 150/95 on a 25 year old man (my translator). I warned them both about the pressures and gave some dietary advice and told them to see doctors, but they both kind of just laughed it off. The young guy says he uses salt as a "sauce"... sounds like a Southerner to me.

After all the "patients" were gone, I ate lunch at the translator / pastor's house next door. His mother cooked, and I have to say it was probably the best food I've had thus far in India. It was just rice and rajma? (garbanzo beans) dahl and chicken, but it was really good. She made it "less spicy" just for me. It was still spicy, but just right. Maybe a bit too much for people like my mom who can't even handle a drop of hot sauce, but just right for me. And the spices on the chicken were amazing. So good. By the time lunch was over it was like 2:15, so my translator said we'd leave at 3, but we should rest first. So we sat and talked a while, and 3 came and went. Then he suggested we go at 4 when maybe it wasn't so hot. I agreed, even though it's just as hot at midnight as it is at noon here. 4 came and went as well. At 4:15 he said, ok, we will take tea and then leave. This means another 30 minutes at least. So we had tea and cookies and sat around for a few more minutes and finally left at about 5:20. And that was after he asked me 4 or 5 times if I wanted to go see the border. I wanted to go, but my host told me I couldn't go, so I told him I couldn't. So yeah, long day in the heat.

I have 8 bedbug bites....

2009-07-12T08:36:00.003-04:00

on my left hand.... No telling how many over my whole body. It's weird. I never feel a bite, but I wake up with a new little bump somewhere. They're not really itchy, just little red bumps. Very strange.

Pakistan, India Meet

2009-07-12T08:35:00.001-04:00

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSBOM46060220090712?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

At the Gujjar village

2009-07-11T06:25:00.001-04:00

The house we went to was about the size of these.

That ain't camera blur, it's just that hot here.

2 of the 3 kids. So cute. A lot of the little kids have short haircuts here to keep out lice, so it's hard to tell if they're girls or boys. But yeah, the one on the right is a girl. The boy is Farman and the girl is Farmin. Yeah, the names are funny here too.

Some village meeting going on. Gives you an idea of the size of the houses.

Oh bureaucracy...

2009-07-11T05:38:00.007-04:00

So I've been trying to get in to doing some work with TB patients, but Indians are crazy about having to go through official channels. People low on the totem pole feel like they don't have the authority to help you so they send you to the higher ups, who dismiss you because they're so far removed from the low post you're trying to get in to that they can't see the need for your help. Yesterday we went to 2 hospitals to try to figure out who to talk to. The women and children's hospital said go to the chest diseases hospital. Once there the folks in the statistics office at the TB clinic said come back at 6pm and talk to Dr. Singh, the head honcho of the government medical college and also the only chest diseases specialist around. So at 6 Dr. Singh had about 50 patients waiting so they said go to his office this morning. This morning we finally got to Dr. Singh's office at the school and he would not give his permission for me to work directly with patients in the hospital because all the hospitalized patients have multiple drug resistant TB. He also wouldn't give me permission to work in the lab. But when we suggested I go visit patients in villages to ensure that they are taking their medicines, he gave some small word of approval, plus a word of caution that people in villages probably won't admit they have TB because it carries such a social stigma with it. Then we went back to the TB clinic at the chest diseases hospital to talk to the TB director guy there. But of course, he was out to lunch and we were told to come back in an hour.

During our wait we went to a Gujjar village on the other side of town to see the family of the guy that does housework for the family I'm staying with now. His house was a 12x12 concrete block square with a sheet of tin for a roof...talk about an oven! It had an extra small room tacked on as a kitchen and an outhouse behind it. The only things inside the house besides the couple and their 3 small children are 2 beds, a tv (which I was really shocked to see), some trunks full of all their stuff, and a swamp cooler. They are probably more fortunate than a lot of the folks in the village because they have a water filter for their drinking water, and strangely enough they have electricity. There is a proverb here that "you visit someone on your own schedule, but you leave on your host's schedule," which basically means you can't leave until they've fed you all the food in their house. They gave us a glass of coke when we first came in, followed by boiling hot lipton chai (super sweet black tea with milk) and "biscuits" (aka cookies). Then when we were getting ready to leave they served us lunch! It was rice with green beans and onions in a chili sauce. Every Indian meal I've had so far has been toned down in spiciness for our delicate western palates, but this definitely was not. I love spicy food, but I drank 3 glasses of water with this plate. Nuts. The point of us going there was to see if anyone in the village had any medical needs like infected wounds or something that I could treat, but he couldn't find anyone with a problem. However, his daughter who was probably about 4 years old possibly has a parasite because she has been getting weak and sick about every 2-3 days for the past 7 months and has lost a bit of weight too.

Anyway, back to the TB story.... we went back to the TB clinic one more time and met with Dr. Chib who said it would be fine for me to come and help out. We suggested every day, but he said that wasn't necessary and suggested Wednesdays and Fridays from 9-11. So yeah, not much, but it is a foot in the door. Hopefully I'll be able to get a list of people we can go visit between days or even the name of a village that is particularly concentrated with TB patients. Visiting them would be a good way in to building a longterm relationship with a new village. So we'll see how much I actually get to do next week. Should be interesting.

Also...

2009-07-10T11:20:00.004-04:00

Monsoon started today! The roads were a foot deep in water in some places. It got all cloudy and windy and the rain started really fast. Little beggar kids were running around naked in the streets to bathe.

And... I had Domino's for dinner tonight....with Diet Coke. It was amazing.

And............. we passed an elephant on the road today. For reals.....

Little update of yesterday and today's events...

2009-07-10T10:01:00.004-04:00

I spent all day yesterday on water testing stuff. There were records from about 45 water testing sites that needed to be compiled and recorded in Excel. Then I went through each test performed to see how many sites had significant results from that test. After all that, I did some research on what each test was for to be able to explain the tests to the general public (so they can then be explained even more simply to the Gujjars). I looked up how different chemicals and bacteria affect the body and how they get into the water and how they can be cleaned up. We still have yet to find a cheap, easily reproducible water filtration system for the Gujjars.

Today we ran a bunch of errands. I went and got cloth for another suit and went to the tailor, who commented again and again on how poorly made my suit was that I was wearing. We tolkd her it was made in Sanasar, and she made one of those "Oh I get it" faces and went about her business. We tried to go see some hospitals (you don't really go through official channels for anything here). We went to one thinking it was a general hospital, but we found out it was a women and children's hospital instead. They sent us to the chest diseases hospital to see some folks about possibly volunteering with TB patients. So we went to the chest hospital and got the run around and they told us to come back and talk to the doc (who happens to be the head of the local medical school) tonight. We went back but he had like a million patients so we're supposed to go to his office tomorrow morning. Should be cool. The goal is to see if there's a list of people who need to be tested for TB in the villages that we can go out and test and get to know. Anyway, I hope something works out tomorrow.

2009-07-09T01:07:00.003-04:00

These 2 girls wer supposed to be watching the buffalo but they saw my camera and had me take a bunch of pictures of them.

This kid wanted to be in every single picture. Kind of obnoxious.

Kids try to grab the camera just after the shutter clicks. This one was a bit premature.

The drive down the mountain pt 4

2009-07-08T23:41:00.002-04:00

Really pretty riverbed at the bottom of the mountain.

A labor camp. The tents are made out of sticks with tarps thrown over them. Harsh living.

Monkeys are everywhere. We probably saw at least 100 on the way down. They look like the ones that were around in Malaysia. If so, they're probably not real nice monkeys.

Dry riverbed just outside of town.

The drive down the mountain pt 3

2009-07-08T23:38:00.003-04:00

Building a house. After walls are up they are covered with mud and whitewashed.

Military and police are everywhere on the road. We must have been behind some official car for a while because we kept seeing people salute the car.

The drive down the mountain pt 2

2009-07-08T23:30:00.003-04:00

This is just about as high as you can get on this mountain.

A very common site. I've seen folks carrying much bigger jugs than this, and believe me, they're pretty heavy.

Super curvy roads. The bumpiness you can get used to, but the winding is crazy. You're constantly shifting your weight to avoid crashing into the person next to you in the car.

You can look down and see a road that looks close and then realize you have 4 more curves to go around until you get there.

The drive down the mountain, pt 1

2009-07-08T23:28:00.003-04:00

The very beginning: near the top of the mountain. The family I stayed with had a son who died at a few months old and is buried in this field. You can't see his grave stone in this pic.

I love when kids wave...

The first of many roadblocks.

There's really no "peak" to these mountains. They're all connected and just come out of each other. It is a really gorgeous ride, but taking pictures from a moving car riding on a very narrow, bumpy road can't do it justicce.

Me in one of my suits

2009-07-08T23:24:00.001-04:00

This is for my mom, who wants to see me in one of my "swami kamis" as she calls them. Actually the suit is called salwar kamiz (pronounced shalwar camise). The pants are shalwar and the shirt is kamiz. And the head scarf is called a dupatta.

2009-07-08T23:10:00.002-04:00

Iqbal, the hired guy who chooses to be mute. He plays his radio all day long and wanders around finding the best reception.

This girl is another gujjar. She came and asked me about a medical problem she was having. We worked on figuring out her problem and a home remedy for it for over an hour. I think she's about 16.

The rope swing turned out to be a very popular attraction.

2009-07-08T23:08:00.001-04:00

The whole family up in the mountains, minus Uncle R who was taking the picture, and plus J and P who were short termers doing different things.