Fighting Overseas

After being here for almost four months, I now better know meaning of the title “foreign missionary.” A few days ago we honored all our veterans and all those who are still fighting. Having grandpas and a grandma that served in wars past and two of my three brothers in the military, I am proud and honored by a soldiers sacrifice, especially those overseas. But the word 'overseas' is not for soldiers alone, but for many missionaries as well. As we remember the soldiers overseas, take time to remember all the missionaries to. The soldiers fight for our freedom as a nation in THIS world, but the missionaries fight to reach the souls of many for the freedom of eternity! Both make the same sacrifices by leaving behind everything they know, their friends, and their families. Both the battles they fight are just as hard, and both could be imprisoned and put to death for fighting the battle. Both get discouraged, and look daily for emails or letters from people back home to give them a boost to make it through just one more day. Both see things they wish they could change but can do nothing about. The soldiers arm themselves with weapons and machinery, where the missionaries arm themselves only with the armor of God. A soldier can fight back, but the missionaries must represent the Christ they serve, “he didn't fight back...” One is a soldier in the United States of America military, and is fighting and seeing gruesome horrors.  The other is in the Lord's army fighting an unseen battle against the powers of hell. We have no idea what these soldiers go through and face every single day, but they do it for us. Both soldiers are just as important and the battles just as hard, and both need all the prayers we can give them.

In Him -Katie T- The Daughter of a King

                                   

Traveling Around India

August 14-19

As I mentioned in my last blog, I had the opportunity of traveling with a wonderful group of people from Europe around India. I loved just being able to be a tourist for once, but let me tell you there is a big difference between being here for mission work and being here for a tourist trip. I will try and sum up the whole week for you best I can.

I experienced my first train ride, which I must say I wouldn't mind EVER experiencing AGAIN! So crowded and confusing, but that is how we made it to our first stop, the Chenni (chin-i) Marina. But I have to say I don't know which was worse, the crowded train ride, or the over crowded beach! The beach was huge, but that meant the hike to the water would take a few minutes. Since I was a kid I have always wanted to ride a big beautiful horse on some lonely stretch of beach...what a nice picture... Well I never thought my dream would come true!....almost. A man on a horse rode up and offered to give me a ride down to the water. After saying no again and again, the people I was traveling with finally convinced me to have a ride. So I climbed up on that boney thing and the guy walked the horse through that crowded beach with everyone staring (because WHITE PERSON!) We finally made it to the water, and thats when he ripped five bucks off us by riding off before he had given us change. -_- Not exactly the fairy tale picture I had in my mind, but I did get to ride a horse on the beach and stick my feet in the Indian ocean. Things don't always go how we picture them, and when they don't thats when I can almost see God looking down from heaven just laughing at us! But it was also one of those moments where God knows your secret wishes and wants that you don't ask for, but he gives to us anyway in times when we least expect it . :)

We then traveled to St. Thomas's mount (Right) where “doubting Thomas” was martyred for his faith. As I stood on top of that mountain and looked out it was amazing to think that 2000 years ago Thomas traveled all this way probably by boat, foot, and mule just to tell people about Jesus. And I thought just flying 3000 miles away for the same thing was a big step! It was really neat to see how far his disciples carried the message.

Then we traveled to Puducherri (originally ruled by French) and saw another beach, this place was actually the nicest place I have been to so far in India, because it was the cleanest...and thats still saying a lot! Haha This beach was much better than the one in Chenni but unfortunately we didn't get to spend much time there.

More driving to Coimbatore, where we went to the Nilgiris railway and we took a slow steam engine (Swiss 120 years old) up to Ooty (8000ft) While in Ooty we went to the botanical gardens, tea plantations, and went for a boat ride on Ooty lake. At the lake I got my second chance to ride a horse, and I think the last horse ride I can handle for a while! It was a pure white horse which was neat, but about halfway through the ride it started rearing up and snorting. If I ever saw my life flash before my eyes, that was it! I was so scared it would run off with me on it or knock me off into the middle of all the traffic we were riding beside. Fortunately it calmed down, but I don't think I did until quite some time after wards!

Drove (some more!) to Mysore. I sound excited about the driving but don't get me wrong its all sarcasm, driving here long distances is the worst thing I have ever experienced...i think I would rather go to the dentist than spend one hour in a vehicle here, and believe me that is saying A LOT! In Mysore we went to the palace and toured it, the palace was really spectacular and was built from and contained items found in only certain parts of the world, so that was really neat.

Left top: Steam engine ride!

Left: Horse that went crazy!

And that ended my journey in India! I was back at the girls orphanage on August 19 in Bangalore for the last time till I leave, which at that point was 17 more weeks! Fred came back for a few days before going back to the states, and after saying goodbye to him and the people from Europe it hit me that I was the only one left, from then on it would be just me and God!

Right: Palace in Mysore

In Him -Katie T- The Daughter of a King

Stepping into Bible times?

August 10-11

The last two days my group was here  was filled with things to do every minute. On August 10 we headed out early in the morning to visit an orphanage, where we also passes out goody bags. From there we went to the slums, I shouldn't really call it THE slums as there are many places like this in every city. The missionary we were with, PK, goes and delivers milk to this particular site every week, and recently with funds provided from H.I.M was able to provide every family with mosquito nets! There are so many you can not give milk to all, it is like the beggar situation, you do what you can, share the love of Jesus, and pray for that seed you just planted.

After the heart breaking visit to the slums, we went to pass out rice and vegetables at a leper church. It's amazing how so many things here relate to the bible and make me view bible stories more clearly than I ever have. Being at the leper church really made all the stories about healing the lepers come to life. Everyday there seemed to be a few little things that would catch my eye and remind me of a bible story. It made me stop and think, is this what it really was like? All the way from seeing women in the fields shifting grain, or women gathering water at the wells, to the lepers at the leper church, there is always something here that will make you feel like you just stepped into a particular bible story.

I would encourage you to pray for the missionary PK, as his ministry is stretched over so many different things. We only came and saw a tiny sliver of what he does every single day. What a mighty servant of God!

Right: Leper Church

The next day we traveled back to Bangalore to the girl's orphanage, where Fred and I said goodbye to the rest of our team. In three days I would leave with a group from England to travel a bit around India, and Fred would be leaving to travel up in Northern India to do more mission work. Mr. Fred Kornis is a really inspiring man of God. He can travel day and night on just a few hours of sleep but be up and ready to share the gospel with everyone he bumps into and have enthusiasm to carry out the work God has for him. When most of us would be ready to sit down and just pass out for a few minutes, he was always up and going. I'm glad I have a reasonable explanation for where all his energy came from, because if I didn't I would really have no idea. God will empower us with everything we need to complete His will, and Mr. Fred is a good example of that. I really enjoyed traveling with my whole team, who were all an encouragement to me in some way or another. It is really important on mission trips to have that unity in your group before you try and reach people. If people don't see that love and unity in our group it might be a stumbling block when we go try to tell them about the love of Jesus.

 In Him -Katie T- The Daughter of a King