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We live in a beautiful world... This is my beautiful India :) 

I don't know if you can tell but not only is it raining but it is hailing!
I was going crazy because this is the closest to snow I ever got here... frozen ice
falling from the sky.

The Ganges river at sunset. 

This is a ghat in Rishikesh. People wash here because
the ganges river is supposedly able to wash you
from your sins.

My beautiful roommate, Lene and I. 

A monkey joined us for lunch.

I've been told that the pictures of the Hindu gods are there to keep
people from peeing on the walls because "god is watching you"
I guess it's one way to get things done.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, moon and stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 

Life Goes on Forever...

"Before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil having already having put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God, and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him." John 13:1-5

This week I'm coming upon 7 months in India... And it is just crazy to think of everything that has happened, and that I have a mere 4 months left if I leave as planned on the last week of May. I do think about the future quite a bit, what I will do after this, what God has planned for me next. I've come to the conclusion that I should stop making plans, I should stop creating scenarios in my head of what it might be like coming home... good and bad. I need to live, live with the conviction of this:

 "Whoever receives His testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true." John 3:33.

 And when I was reading John 13 something in it hit me like I was just kicked by a horse and tears just came out- that Jesus... knowing he would die, knowing he would be betrayed by someone who claimed to love him, knowing he would suffer, and knowing that God had given all things into his hands. He could have said no and lived a normal life.. he could have been satisfied with the fame of few and the power he already had. He could have said no... He knew he was from God. He knew he hadn't done anything deserving of death, let alone a painful death. But instead of saying "no" instead he humbled himself before the disciples. Removing his clothes, wrapping himself in a towel, he washed the disciples feet (any of you who have lived in a second or third world country would know how dirty your feet are!) and dried them with the towel tied around his waist. How amazing is that.... How humbling is it to realize the God who created you is washing is your feet... in his underwear! All to give us life. To give us a new life, an eternal life, in Him and His Father, to give us the Spirit.

I've been thinking about life lately. There was a new life, a baby girl, Simyana, born  to the son, Asher,  and daughter-in-law, Lara, 

to Frieda and Ken who run this place. They have recently become the houseparents of the older boys and are just really an amazing. Lara has been a good friend and mentor to me in the months here.

The other volunteers and I made a baby mobile for Simyana

Something I appreciate about life is that you can always have a chance at a new one, or a new opportunity to understand and appreciate the gift given to us. Especially an opportunity like moving to a new country for a year. It really does give you a new perspective, a renewed perspective. Not only of your own country and home, but of the God who created it all. It's been nice to come here and have the chance for God to teach me so many things about himself that I've always known but never really known before. 

This was one of our activities in "Activity Time" at school. 

There are so many new things for the boys when they come here. One big focus is education. Many of the new boys who have come here don't speak any English, many of them don't even speak proper Hindi. When they come most of them have never been to school regularly before. So my roommate and I get to teach them. Which are not only new experiences for them but also for us as well.

These are two of my best students. Devender and Vijay. I've been teaching Devender for  nearly the whole time I've
arrived here and I'm just AMAZED at how we started with the alphabet and now he's trying (and succeeding!) at reading so many other things. 

Vijay is my little professor because he loves to learn. He's so funny
when he finally understands something... "Ohhh yess Mam Yess!!!!!"

I have to say that I really do love my students. They can be so sweet sometimes. "Mam, are you happy? If you're happy we're happy!" 

We are also reminded of life at our birthdays each year. Sometimes I think I often to forget to be thankful just for being alive. 

It was my roommate, Karo's birthday on the 28th of January.

We almost always eat chow mein for birthdays... all the boys have chopsticks but they
were trying to eat with one in each hand!

 One of the boys school books called for a family photo. So I luckily got a couple snaps of this family!  Something that I've been quite impressed with is that this really is a family. It's diverse, with 16 boys from India (and with 2 from Nepal), it can be a bit chaotic and messy sometimes... but somehow it works. But I think that somehow is a somewho... aka God. Because slowly, steadily, faithfully, God renews them. He renews the houseparents, he renews and heals the boys... its plain and clear that God is working in their lives. And I'm so thankful to be a part of that.

Beulah, Ruth Auntie,Devender, Rahul, Vijay, Bharat, Ashish, Ratan, Miraj, Rohan Preetam, Gautam, Harsh,
Daksh, Bhaskar, Shivam, Anit, Shiva. (Not pictured: Kirran Uncle. He was feeling sick this night).

                       This is Shivam. When he got here he just hung on his brother's back for the first week. I didn't see him smile for at least one month. Now it's been a quite a few and he doesn't stop talking to you, he will run and play and scream like a normal 4 year old. He can already speak some basic English. And God loves him so much. It's the only way I can explain a smile like this. And I can't help but smile back. Because not only does God give new life to us, he makes it new every day. With every blessing, with every smile from the boys here...with every tear shed from sadness or frustration, God is breathing His life into me.

And I am so thankful. That even when we feel uncertain, or our hearts are just broken from the loss of someone close, the upheavals of life are still God's way of reaching us, of finding our dead places and breathing his life into them. Because he loves us.