Gracious Uncertainty

A lot of people ask me , "Why?"
Why would we go to India?  Why would we give up our cushy OC lives, our friends, our family, our jobs, the 72 degree weather, mexican food, etc...
IT'S JUST NOT PRACTICAL to go live in Thrid World country, there are just so many uncertainties... and uncertainty is not a very American trait, especially living in Orange County.  We spend a lot of time and money to make sure things ARE certain.

I'm not going to lie, I definitely have a lot of those thought go through my head when I think about what we are going to be embarking on in a few months.  Moving to India is NOT practical.  Who know's what's going to happen.  The uncertainties are ENDLESS!

So when I read today's Oswald Chambers devotional, it struck a big India chord for me and addresed where God stands in reagrds to our uncertanty and practicality.
:)

Our natural inclination is to be so precise—trying always to forecast accurately what will happen next—that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing. We think that we must reach some predetermined goal, but that is not the nature of the spiritual life. The nature of the spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty. Consequently, we do not put down roots. Our common sense says, “Well, what if I were in that circumstance?” We cannot presume to see ourselves in any circumstance in which we have never been.

Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life—gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. This is generally expressed with a sigh of sadness, but it should be an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task He has placed closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with surprises. When we become simply a promoter or a defender of a particular belief, something within us dies. That is not believing God—it is only believing our belief about Him. Jesus said, “. . . unless you . . . become as little children . . .” (Matthew 18:3). The spiritual life is the life of a child. We are not uncertain of God, just uncertain of what He is going to do next. If our certainty is only in our beliefs, we develop a sense of self-righteousness, become overly critical, and are limited by the view that our beliefs are complete and settled. But when we have the right relationship with God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy. Jesus said, “. . . believe also in Me” (John 14:1), not, “Believe certain things about Me”. Leave everything to Him and it will be gloriously and graciously uncertain how He will come in—but you can be certain that He will come. Remain faithful to Him.

new team, new adventures, new phase in India Residency!

Friends,
A blog post outlining the new residency team is long overdue...but we are excited to announce that we will be going back to India October 2012-January 2014! Each team member has a different story as to how and why they applied and decided to join the India residency team, but ultimately it was the hand of God being placed over all of us, beckoning us to join Him in His work in India. Please stay tuned for more stories of our preparation and team building along the way as we get ready to move to India.

For now, fundraising has officially begin! Please check out our team website and individual team member fundraising websites for more of each person's story and ways to support!

God bless and may we continually be seeking His kingdom together!
Kacie

Kevin and Angela:: https://rockharbor.webconnex.com/rogers
Kacie:: https://rockharbor.webconnex.com/residency/hamilton
Cory::  https://rockharbor.webconnex.com/hill
John::  https://rockharbor.webconnex.com/clanton
Renee::  https://rockharbor.webconnex.com/austin
Residency team ::  https://rockharbor.webconnex.com/residencyteam

one last goodbye

It is nearing 7:30am on Tuesday morning and the team is busy packing and getting ready to bring this leg of our journey to an end.  We are headed out of Tenali this morning for Hyderabad (a 7 hour drive) where will we part ways to either do a little traveling or head back to the United States.

I have mixed emotions as I write this, it is truly very bittersweet to leave here...on one hand we are all very excited to travel, see our families, sleep in our own beds, and eat whatever we want, we are definitely welcoming the break.  On the flip side, for many of us, India has really felt like home lately and Harvest India, Suresh, and everyone here has grown to be our family.  Saying goodbye to one family and hello to another is the root of why there is joy and sadness intermingled in the air this morning.

Yesterday Suresh organized an event at his house that encompassed several wonderful things: Cory's birthday, Lizzi's pregnancy, and our team going away party.  It also happened to be the Hindu New Year so there was celebrating all around us.  Cory was given a cake and an awesome Indian birthday candle to go with it that spouts flames and plays "Happy Birthday."  Lizzi was given a Seemantham celebration which is the Indian equivalent to a baby shower.  It was super fun to see the whole HI staff and to celebrate so many events at once.  We said our goodbyes to most people here and had some great fun in the process.  Sorry there are no pictures of these events, I don't have time to upload them this morning but possibly in the next few days.

Look for another blog post soon, I am hoping to write a better recap of things in the next few days when I have more time to think.  In the meantime, we are loading up the car and preparing to say goodbye to Suresh and Christina and deal with separating from our Indian family.

Thank you for all your prayer and love, please keep in coming as our journey is not yet over!  We are reeling in the emotion of today and are thanking God for His immense provision and blessing over the past 3 months.  See you all soon!

cheeky monkey

Once upon a time, a monkey broke into our house and stole our bananas. Chaos ensued...

Watch the chaos here.

prayer and praises

We can't believe it but we only have 6 days left in Tenali working with Harvest India before we start heading home. These three months have blown by and left us shocked that we're going home already. God has done so much in our time here and we are so excited to see what He has planned for us as we come home to process and plan the next steps for this RockHarbor & Harvest India partnership.

That being said, we are struggling to get through our last few days here. The Indian Summer has arrived. It's become stiflingly hot, humid, and pretty much miserable. From what we have heard from the locals, when Summer arrives, life slows to a near halt. Nobody does ANYTHING, and we have quickly realized that we also don't feel like doing ANYTHING. It's too hot to even think. On top of the heat almost everybody on the team has gotten hit with some sort of flu/cold/sinus/diarrhea bug that's laying people up for 2 to 3 days at a time.

So it comes down to this... we are in major need of prayer. Pray that God gives us the strength to get through this last week spiritually, physically and emotionally. Pray that He guides us as we process and assess all that we've learned, experienced, and seen in our time here. Pray that those of us who are ill are healed quickly. Pray that the few of us who have not gotten sick would remain healthy. Pray that God's will would be made clear to us as we wrap things up here. Pray that God would give us the diligence to finish out our time here strong and thoroughly. Pray that it would somehow miraculously get COOLER here in India. Pray that God would grant us the patience and faith to trust in Him as we figure out jobs, living situations, and futures upon our return home.

At the same time we are praising God that our time has been such a huge blessing and success. We are thankful that our team as a whole has remained healthy, aside from a few sour stomachs and Lizzi's morning sickness. We are thankful that we have been blessed to work with such an amazing group of people as the staff of Harvest India. We are overwhelmingly blessed by Suresh and his family in the ways that they care for and love us. We are extremely thankful to Rama Raj and his family for looking after us in our beautiful home and for showing us the ropes around town. We thank God for the Harvest India residency team and all that they have walked along side us through and for being patient with us in learning this foreign culture. Thank you, thank you, thank you Lord for all that you carried us through and all that you have provided for us in India!

We were also blessed with a visit from our dear friends Chris Ward & Andrew Richards this last week. They got the four day whirlwind tour of many of the ministries that Harvest India is blessing the people of India through, and I know that they were both blown away by all that God is doing. God is doing amazing things in India!

THANK YOU CHIRIS WARD & ANDREW RICHARDS TEAM!!!

the month in review

How is it that the time goes by so quickly here?  It's mind blowing that it's been a month since we wrote the last team blog post...and we have done a whole lot!  Here it goes...

Shortly after the last blog post recapping our Bridge event dancing, we said goodbye to our dear brother John who went back to the States for the summer.  It was an interesting transition considering we lost a team member and the person who took care of most of our team-to-Harvest India communication.  We desperately needed to figure out the dance of communication with HI here so ultimately it was a great time of learning even though we miss John.

You can always count on India to be extremely unpredictable at times.  We had a monkey sneak into our house and steal some bananas...which presented some amazing video footage of Cory, Bethany, Taylor, and myself trying to protect our homestead against the attack monkey.  I will hamper Cory to get that footage up here so you can share in it, but in the meantime I was able to snap a couple of pictures during the chaos of the event which I will share below.  We had a great laugh about the whole thing when we shared the story with the rest of our team who had sadly been out working while it happened.  Luckily, Mr. Cheeky Monkey has not been back to visit us since, for which we are very grateful.  The reasoning behind that might have something to do with our latest house addition...a dog!  Suresh, not even knowing about the fateful monkey incident, sent over (the VERY next day, post-monkey) a dog to "protect" us.  We named him Baxter and he is mostly a good dog, though he barks non-stop if we ever have to put him on his chain in the yard.  We have also learned another interesting India fact through our acquiring Baxter...most Indians hate/are terrified of dogs...and they also think that EVERY American owns a dog, so naturally we would automatically want one.  Ah, the joys of cross-cultural living!

Monkey stealing bananas from our table!

Taylor and Bethany keeping a safe distance

This past Wednesday morning, our team left bright and early to board a train headed for Chennai, Tamil Nadu.  Our sole goal of hitting the town was to track down some pizza (oh, and to pick up Andrew and Chris, two pastors from Rockharbor at the airport).  After a 6.5 hour train ride in a mostly comfy AC chair train car, we arrived in Chennai and set out to eat as much Pizza Hut as we could manage...and we did.  It was glorious!  It was great taking a break from rural life and seeing Chennai, which is a huge and fairly Westernized Indian city.  We visited 2 malls in one day, the second of which was literally nicer than South Coast Plaza (for those of you OCers) and had a movie theater that would rival any Vegas nightclub!  We watched a movie and relaxed in the leather arm chairs of the theater (which also boasted an internet cafe and video game room with big screen Macs.  We stayed that night at a hotel and then Thursday morning once again ventured out, this time to actually get a little work done.  We visited one of the HI children's homes that is a couple hour drive outside Chennai so we could gather sponsorship information and pictures.  The home was so wonderful and the kids and staff offered one of us the best experiences we have had at any of the children's homes.  We went back into Chennai in the late afternoon and visited one of the huge beaches there.  We put our feet in the ocean and sat and relaxed in the wonderful ocean breeze.  We also got to visit St. Thomas Basilica which is built on the supposed burial site of the Apostle Thomas, who is credited with bringing the Gospel message to India.  That same evening we headed to the airport in Chennai to pick up Andrew Richards and Chris Ward, the two pastors on the annual RH pastor's trip to India.  We were super excited to greet them and have some fun new visitors in our midst.  Andrew has never before been to India so it's been fun teasing him about cultural nuances (such as eating with your left hand, a no-no, which he did the first meal we all ate with Suresh).  

Crystal took a short ride on a horse in Chennai

Since getting back to Tenali yesterday morning with Chris and Andrew in tow, we have been very busy, as the pastors are getting the royal ministry tour of HI, and we are joining them in most of their outtings.  It's been so awesome to see the ministry again through new eyes, as neither of them have before been to Tenali or seen the breadth of the HI ministries.  Last night was the annual HI Bible college graduation which brings together Bible college students from all over South India for a huge celebration and graduation.  Chris and Andrew were VIP guests and spoke a message and greetings at the event.  The rest of us from the team were also honored by being sat in the front and given caps and gowns to wear.  At the end of the ceremony, all of us got to help pass out diplomas to the graduates, which was really fun.  Many new pastors (men and women) were commissioned last night and we were able to take part in their joy and accomplishment as we prayed for their new callings and ministries.

Andrew speaking at a leprosy camp

Andrew handing out food to a leper

The team working hard to pass out rations to the lepers

Chris Ward praying for woman at the leprosy camp

This morning we held our last Bridge event for this 3 month Residency Team.  It looked very different than our other Bridge events.  We held the first church service ever at the site of the new HI church building on the HI campus!  Suresh and his team made sure we had an awesome set up and sound system under the church structure as we christened the site with the first official service, calling the local youth to step up and pray for the church plant, and possibly even step up to get involved.  It was invigorating holding a service at the church site and seeing the incredible turnout of youth and young adults, even during the education system's statewide exams.  God is so faithful!  We lead a Western-style service complete with English contemporary worship songs, communion, and a great sermon from Pastor Chris.  Afterward, we all ate lunch together, the whole team, the HI staff, and all the attendees of the service.  We were able to really fellowship with a lot of the youth and hear their heartfelt excitement to serve the Lord.

It's difficult to believe we will be leaving Tenali in only 10 days.  Much of our ministry and work will be wrapping up in this next week and we will begin our debrief and preparation to go back to the States.  Thank you for your continued prayers and thoughts over the next week and half as we prepare to step back into Western culture.  Please pray specifically for our reverse culture shock, which always presents many challenges after living an extended time abroad.  We will SEE you all soon!

i came to dance, dance, dance, dance...

Last night our team put on the first program at the Harvest India campus that we are calling The Bridge. We've spent the last few weeks performing at local colleges to promote the event and rallying college age students to attend from the surrounding area. The hours of preparation, practice, planning, and promoting paid off ten fold as the event was a huge success, but not without it's challenges.

Our team has been learning quickly and thoroughly in our time here that nothing in India comes easy, and nothing worth doing comes without its challenges. If we weren't experiencing difficulties, then we would know that we weren't doing something right. We've tried to recognize that each conflict and difficulty is God's opportunity in disguise. It's our lion to slay.

We received news just before the event began that two of the colleges we had previously visited were not allowing their female students to attend because they felt it wasn't safe for them to be out at night. One of those two colleges is an all girls school of roughly 500 students. Once again, the Indian culture caught us by surprise as we were under the impression that the schools had already confirmed that they would be participating. So there we were, staring at about 70 students when we expected over 600 to be in attendance. This was our lion.

So before we hit the stage, we rounded up the team and the Harvest India staff and prayed over the event and whatever God had planned for it regardless of our expectations. It was out of our hands and we knew it. We had to just let go and trust that the seats would be filled even though we had no idea how.

The show kicked off with our MC's John and Bethany and slowly the seats began to fill with people coming in from the main highway. The Bridge band came up next and performed two songs, one of which was Billy Jean, and the crowd went nuts! They absolutely love Michael Jackson here in India and they showed it. Next up were the Minute To Win It games hosted by Lizzi and Taylor that gave the students the opportunity to win prizes such as sunglasses for the boys and bangles for the girls. After the games, Crystal gave a message on the importance of community and how God intended for us to live in it. The whole team took the stage after the message and performed an amazing dance choreographed by the very talented John Brokenshire that can be viewed by clicking HERE. Needless to say the audience went absolutely crazy! Afterward, The Bridge band came back on to perform one last song before the Harvest India team honored John with a plethora of garlands and hugs.

By the end of the night nearly all the seats were full and we had a rambunctious crowd of students dancing, laughing, and shouting right along with us. It just goes to show that if you put your faith in God and let go of your own expectations and worries, He is faithful to provide all that you need and more!

The Bridge band rockin' out

Crystal bringing the message

The Bridge stage and crowd

John B. with Christina & Suresh Kumar

The team in all its glory