Finally, we landed in the City of Joy! Crazy to be back after all this time. We had an uneventful flight and landed in a much updated airport than I remembered! One of my friend's co-workers picked us up from the airport and took us to dinner at... wait for it... Pizza Hut! #BestPizzaEver!
Cafe Coffee Day... THE place to get coffee in India. Funny how excited I was to see it again... and I don't even drink coffee. But it was kinda an "aha" moment, as if to say "hey, you really made it back here!" I smiled!
We stayed at the Baptist Missionary Society guest house for the first part of our stay. The BMS is built on what used to be a portion of William Carey's land when he lived there. This is where my team stayed 2 years ago when I first came here. It was so fun to walk back into something so familiar! We even had rooms on the first floor (and since there is no elevator there, this too was a blessing!). My friend A met us when we got there. We had a fun time talking to him (and then a not so fun time of him being sick) before we headed to bed.
Tuesday morning we woke up and put our running shoes on. OK... not really, but we should have! We spent the day sightseeing in the city. It was a busy day, but so fun! We started out just down from the guest house visiting the Mother House, the headquarters for the Missionaries of Charity. This is where Mother Teresa lived and where her tomb is located. It is honestly one of the most peaceful places I have ever been. There is a small museum type area that chronicles her life. She is one of the most amazing women to have ever lived (in my opinion)! I am always reminded that Believers can have many different faces when we visit there! Talk about a woman who loved her Father!!
At the entrance to the Mother House. True to Mother Teresa, it is simple, and easy to miss, if you don't know what you are looking for!
Mother Teresa's tomb. This is the only place in the complex you are allowed to take pictures. They "decorate" the top of her tomb differently every day. While you are there you can also see the room she lived in. Her room was the one just above the kitchen. It was the hottest room in the complex, yet she never used a fan! (Can you tell its one of my favorite places?!)
After we Mother Teresa's we set out on some more sight seeing. We visited Hogg Market. This is one of the more crowded markets in the city. We didn't shop for clothes, but we did get to walk past all the flowers and spices and vegetables.... and even the meat section, where we all held our breath and walked very quickly!
Jenny and I were most excited to find these little bananas. I am not sure what the difference is between them and the ones we eat here, but they are so good! I will refrain from telling you just how many we consumed in our week there!
Next on our tour was William Carey's church.
Under these pieces of wood is the baptistery (which they still use). It is said that Adoniram Judson and Corrie ten Boom were baptized here!
This is the pulpit from which they say William Carey preached.
And this is a chair back there that they also say he sat in.
We all had a moment of reverence while we were there (and there may or may not have been some not so reverent moments.... but since there are no pictures, I guess you will never know!)
We went to the Bible Society of India. It was a cool little shop with shelves and shelves of Bibles in different languages, as well as CDs and posters.
We used many different forms of travel this first day, and I'm glad we did because it gave us confidence to move around the city on our own later in the week. First we used bicycle rickshaws. Jenny and I became quite adept as doing this on our own during the week! Next was the subway. We also rode in a taxi, an auto ricksaw, and we did a TON of walking this day!
Side story: I had the privilege of meeting the sweet lady in some of the pictures above 2 years ago. She and I spent alot of time talking one evening in 2012. She has been severely persecuted by her family for trusting our Father. I have kept up with how she is through friends in the city and was super excited to find out I would get to see her again this time! Y'all, she's beautiful and has such a sweet spirit and such a love for our Father!
Tuesday evening the guys went to a rehab home and shared the Good News with the guys there. The report when they got back was that several of them were interested in learning more and that the owner of the rehab home (who is not a believer) was in tears, thanking the guys for coming! So cool!
Wednesday morning we woke up and headed to a village a couple of hours outside of the city to spend some time encouraging the believers there and sharing with the non-believers.
Our driver for the day was pulled over before we ever made it out of the city. Turns out the van we were in was not supposed to be used when hiring a driver (or something like that). After a short stint in the little makeshift jail hut, our driver was released back to us and we continued on our way without difficulty for the rest of the day!
While we were waiting for our driver to return to us, we looked out the window and saw a John Deere tractor. We had to take a picture to show Thomas. And because it was kinda cool!
On the way there and back we stopped at this little road side stand. They had the #besttoastever (I'm not kidding), and of course Limca!
This was the view at at from the stand.
Once we got there, the wonderful people in the village gave us a very warm reception.
They even gave us these beautiful leis made with real flowers (they smelled so good!)
One momma let me hold her cute little baby!
There was a family there that prepared lunch for us. It was absolutely delicious, but somehow we managed to end up with no pictures of our food. :(
And then we set off to pray over some villagers. They were most receptive to having us petition the Father for them, but did not want to hear us share the Good News. So we sprinkled as much into our discussions with Dad as we could! :) Several of them asked us to ask for healing for their loved ones. Please join us in asking Father for physical, as well as spiritual healing!
Up next... some days at New Hope School! Since I have so many pictures and stories I want to share about that, I think I will separate our time in The City of Joy into 2 posts. Stay tuned...
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