SURREAL..........

That's pretty much the only way to describe this entire week!!  It has truly been surreal.  We've had many conversations starting with, "how often does this happen?"

The past 3 days have included the following:

Wednesday - visited the Taj Mahal, which was absolutely amazing!  Even the 2nd time seeing it, it was incredible.

Thursday - we spent the afternoon with the kids at the orphanage, took them to a biodiversity park that's run by the University here in Delhi (which, is approximately .5 miles from their house and they had never been), and played with the kids.  I had a great conversation with Pastor Raju, who cares for the children (Raju comes from a Hindu family and his wife is from a Muslim background).  The sweetest thing that we saw with their interaction with the children is that they call Raju and his wife "mom" and "dad" (of course, in Hindi, not English) and they don't make any distinction between the kids that are orphans and their biological children.  It was incredible to spend the afternoon with the kids that we met in September and that some of us are sponsoring.  AMAZING!!!  Raju introduced me to Ankit as his Aunt.....which was pretty incredible!!  They sang songs for us and recited scripture too.  The story that Raju shared with us about praying for salvation for his family was amazing......he prayed for 6 years for them and finally one came to Christ, then another.  This is after his family had told him that he could live any type of lifestyle that he wanted (indulge in drinking, smoking, etc.....) and they would take him back, but not if he followed Christ.  He said, "I wanted Christ that badly."  Now, he has been redeemed and because of his prayers, his mom and 2 sisters are also part of the body of Christ.  After this, we visited a mall in the city and then went to eat an Indian dinner.

Friday - let's see.....where do we start?  Well, we all decided to wear our sarees/suits today, which definitely opened many hearts to us throughout the day.  Our first stop of the day was at the Sikh temple of Gurudwara and we learned more about their beliefs.  When we started to leave, the elders asked if we could stay and have some chai with them and we took a few pictures with them as well.  Seriously, how often does that happen?!?!?!  Next, Shayna and I got lessons in how to appropriately wrap our sarees by the ladies at the first training center we visited and we all had henna applied.  We were able to talk a little with the ladies there, but most of them speak no English.  We went from there to eat lunch at a side-shop/cafe/road restaurant (we are not sure what to actually call it) and ate lunch, which was delicious!!  It's a place where the locals would eat regularly and to feed 6 people was 350 Rs, which comes to be about $8......CRAZY!!  Then, we headed to the other training center operated by COI and we were greeted by a very excited teacher who seemed overwhelmed that we were wearing our sarees. She said many times how happy she was that we were wearing clothing that reflected the culture.....she said, "my culture, my culture."  They then did some eyebrow threading, applied more henna and fixed our hair.  Vijay tells us that most of them are from strict Hindu families and have not accepted Christ, although, the main instructor has become a Christ follower.  It's very difficult for them to follow Christ as there is much family pressure and persecution for those who do.  But, today, while we were there they were able to have fun and by happy for a few minutes.  They even taught us a few Bollywood dance moves, which Shayna and I enjoyed thoroughly.  :-)  After that, we went to Pastor BN's house where we visited with him and his family.  I asked Cara at one point, "isn't it interesting that the same word we've used to describe this whole week, surreal, is probably exactly what BN is feeling right now too."  It's just so amazing that they invited us into their home, we had "crunchies" and visited with his wife and children.  Pastor BN has never been a part of a visit with a short-term team until this week and Vijay said that BN was incredibly honored to have the opportunity to visit with us.  It's been so hard to communicate to everyone that there is absolutely nothing special about us at all with words, but I really feel like that we have shown it with our actions.

Please join us in praying for our day on Saturday as it's our last day here and we are all very sad to be leaving, but know that we have to get back to work/school/life in the US.  We will be leaving early, early, early Sunday morning (around 1:00 am-ish local time is when our flight leaves) and should be back in Birmingham around 4:45 pm on Sunday.  Also, please join us in praying for the people of Japan as we got word about the Tsunami earlier in the day today.  We know that God is in complete control and will be glorified through this disaster and we know that He has a plan that we can't understand and this will further His kingdom, according to His plan.