city of joy-journey home-health

So....an update is much over due. To make a long story...shorter. I'm back in the states. Got in 2 days ago. I got a nasty virus from an ear infection 2 weeks ago. Its another nerve condition...me and those nerves haha Here is an update and I'm sorry if its not the most coherent because I am still kind of out of it.

God has provided so much for me through all of it. I could have been a day away from paralysis of the right side of my face, my head aches are still there but doing much better than before, i only have minor hearing loss on the right side and some muscle issues with my mouth but its not too noticeable. God has given miracle on top of miracle. My fever is broken and I was well enough to get out of the hospital and to fly back home. I am continuing treatment back here and recovery is coming step by step.

All is going well and I should be feeling much better in the next few weeks. I already feel incredibly better than when it was all at its peak.
The virus has been dormant in my body until the ear infection and could come back and flare up any time but it should never progress like it has because I will know when its coming on and be able to take antivirals.

Well I am so terribly sad to have had to leave early from Kolkata, I feel in my heart I will be back again. Who would have thought I would experience so much dang joy in a city where there is so much need. My heart will forever be with the people of West Bengal. The ladies and children I got to spend time with in ministry and do life with were amazing! They are my role models and helped me find my passion for life. Jewels in a Crown quickly became my second family. The staff I worked with became my best friends. I was able to befriend the most incredible, Christ passionate people!

It was so hard to say goodbye. Especially not being able to do all the different ministry outreaches one last time. I can say with joy in my heart that I will see them again, its just a matter of when. God's timing is perfect and although I don't understand this rapid change of events, I can trust that He has a plan for it all.

Please continue to pray for the ladies and girls, especially as this next week we have the new girls starting at Jewels in a Crown. It'll be a hard adjustment time for them as well as very overwhelming and causing a lot of issues and pains to come to the surface of their heart. I cannot thank you all enough for the support, prayers and encouragement you've given me through this season of my life.
It's been an incredible one. I am so excited to see where God leads me next.

Prayers for continued recovery in my health would also be very much appreciated. The worst is over and I could not have had better people in my life in India to help me through all of that.

Unfathomable Love

(Closer by Steffany Frizzel)

God's been lavishly pouring His love on me, and I've come to a point here where I am experiencing His love in ways like never before. He loves us deeper than we can ever imagine. Who would have thought I'd be taught so much about love while doing missions in India in some of the darkest areas. Yet, here I am in Kolkata, India experiencing so much of the Fathers heart for me and His people. Step by step I can see more with His eyes and the way He views His people. 

The people here that I've made relationships with are people that have changed my life in such beautiful ways. From the staff here at JIAC, my host family, or other staff and interns the Shaw's oversee, I am blessed by having them in my life. I am overjoyed by what I do and the fact that I am here to love on people in dark places. Such stories of God's redemption I've witnessed take place here. Christ works in our lives chasing after each one of us, all we have to do is walk into His presence and choose Him. He has all the plans, he knows what will happen from now on in through eternity. Much of what I see around me breaks my heart, but God shines His light in even those darkest of places and I am seeing revival take place. 

I saw a lady in the brothels whose face was beat up badly, her sari was ripped and worn in so many places, she had garbage in her hair and was sitting in the alley crying out. I assumed she had just been beat up, because that is quite the common occurrence in the brothels. I'm standing next to this weeping lady, picking garbage out of her hair while she talks to one of our staff members.  While talking to her, we found out she actually had done that to herself. She was extremely drunk and had been falling over left and right, throwing fits and letting herself get hurt. This broke my heart all the more, because it was not a case of someone else abusing her and treating her poorly; it was her doing this to herself because she thought so little of her life. She was abusing herself and hurting the people around her. She was believing the lies that people had been telling her in regards to who she is and what she is worth in this life. I was reminded of the women caught in adultery in John 8;1-11. All I could think of was how God showed her his unconditional love and how it was His powerful  love that it caused her to change her ways, value herself and experience God's grace in HUGE ways. 

While my story isn't like either of these women, God definitely spoke to me through it.  He has been trying to show me more and more of His love and it is such an awesome experience to reach a deeper level of love with my Creator. So good.  

It's His love that has caused me to cross oceans, He wants me to show His love to some of the poorest, most unloved people. Some of the greatest leaders and most beautiful jewels in the King's crown are in these brothel and slums, they just don't know it. God is pursuing them, and I'm so blessed to be able to play even a part in showing these people His love for them. A love that when they accept will take them on the greatest journey of their lives.

"37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. "

Romans 8:37-39 

When staying is a new beginning

SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED.

I am STAYING in Kolkata for a few more months. I feel God calling me to continue missions here!! I'm so stoked. I know God has not finished loving on the people of Kolkata through me yet. As I love the broken people here, God continues to show me His love in new ways as well. Things have been busy trying to get everything figured out, but I'm so excited for what God has in store in my semester here!

I would really appreciate your support, prayerfully and financially if you feel God calling you to. Your prayers and encouragement means so much to me. Thank you! 

I don't know the details of how everything will work out but I know God will provide just as he always has. (: 

Continue praying for the ministry here with the ladies in the brothels and the kids in the slums. They need to see God's light in their darkness to know there is hope.

"Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy." Psalm 126:5

For those of you who feel they can contribute to my missions financially, please click on the link below.
http://rpecinternational.org/donate/
Scroll down on the options and be sure to have McDonnell, Erin on the line below.
Thank you so much!

Five of our ladies graduated last week and it was such a reminder of God's power and how His unconditional love sets us free and redeems us all. I couldn't help but cry when I heard them share their testimonies, along with what ministry they are getting involved with to help others who are still going through what they went through. The way they shine Christ's light has taught me SO much! Please pray as we have replacements coming in the near future. They are coming straight from the brothels and will have to be taught about the Gospel, how to deal with anger, manners, and holding pencils and reading. For them, coming here is their first time in formal education. We will be starting at the very bottom and working to the top, just continually lifting them up and loving on them with God's love.

  

 

 

My painting  

Game time! (:

 

At mother Teresa Home right by the brothels 

Slum dog Millionaire

Slum dog millionaire is a famous movie. All about a  boy in India who goes from a life full of tragedy to a time of triumph. It's a movie that pulls at your heart watching the things these kids have to go through. Watching that movie this summer over here, I can honestly tell you that it does a good representation of what things look like in Kolkata. I've spent a fair amount of time with people in poverty, but never have I seen this. It reaches a new level. This week I've been going to the feeding program where we give food to the children who live on the train tracks. They have no where they belong and have no one to love them. They go crazy with us because of the affection we show them, we are pulled every which way by the children. They were climbing on me, always wanting me to sing or hold them or swing them around. My body actually would hurt after it-not exactly a shocker for me- but it was the best reason to be in pain i've had yet.


I went in the back of the slums where countless families and children are living on mounds of garbage with nothing but a roof of metal sheets to call home to so many. I spent time inside one of the lady's homes. The kids were so shy because we are white, but they warmed up.  holding the two babies while sweat was dripping down me was one of my favorite parts of this week. What a blessing. I pray those children get to have a future where they can break the family cycle and have a bright future filled with the joy God has for them. Malouse, one of the older brothers of a child in our children's home, lives there and has TB. He is getting very sick, and is loosing so much weight on an already skinny body. He won't let us take him to the hospital though because he doesn't see a reason to live. He wants to die and not have to live in the conditions he's surrounded by. its heart breaking. Regardless of how many people I see living in terrible poverty, living a broken life or the number of people who are lost; my heart never goes numb to it and continues breaks for them.


I often become overwhelmed with emotions after all the people I work with and encounter.  It's also been an incredible blessing to have the support system that I have here. Between my host family, the other intern and the staff from JIAC & children's home I never feel alone or filled with despair. We continue to have awesome experiences from the goofy times to the hour prayer sessions we have with each other. There is a team that's here too, they are great and I've really enjoyed spending time with them. It's beautiful to see how coming here to serve has already changed their hearts as well. It's all so encouraging.

There's a lot of planning events that will happen before I leave here. It's been busy but a good busy; a busy that leaves me content and filled with joy. Seeing prayers be answered again and again is always incredible and that continues to happen. Keep your prayers coming though, we could use many prayers for the people in Kolkata, those in the brothels, our women who are healing from trafficking, the slum children and the children at the home. I have two more weeks left and while part of me wishes I could skip school and stay another 4 months, I just want to make the most of every minute here in Kolkata.

 

One of the ladies who was in the sex trade and is now a bright light to the ladies and children in the brothels! She is absolutely amazing! 

 

Us at JIAC being silly 

 

My supervisor/close friend (: 

The rest of these below are from online because a lot of places i spend time in, it is not appropriate to take pictures of/in.  

 

Living in the slums, filled with garbage 

 

Children living by the train station

 

 

An example of a brothel lane...but looking a lot nicer than ours. 

 

this is Kalighat road, all the people lines up on the sides of the street are the ill and disabled and beggars. 

Growing hearts

Most of the time my writing is all over the place because I'm writing in a hurry and have so much to share! Tonight I actually have down time to myself and thought I'd write a little bit more about the women/children and what I am learning while in Kolkata.

God is always working in our lives on thousands of things, and we are normally aware of...three of them. My time here though is opening up my eyes to more of what He is doing in my life. The way God radically transforms lives regardless of circumstance, background, or how long you've followed Him seriously amazes me. I am in awe of the things number of things God is doing here. I realized that when i walk through Kalighat (area where mother Teresa's home for the sick and dying is, as well as the red light district) I judge all the men for taking part and demanding sex out of these women and even children. The idea just disgusts me. I realized I am holding this judgement on them and have to forgive them.  They are broken people who need Jesus just as much as the females. its a hard concept especially when I know the women and children personally affected and the way their lives have been completely altered because of it. I do think its still very important that I do that, even if its just to free myself from the anger I will get inside of me.

I just spent the last 2 days at the children's home! It was so nice to be out in a quiet village and be with the children. At this home there are 20 kids and they all came from living off of garbage on the train tracks. It's so sad and hard to even picture these little children (who i will post down below) living around the railways wherever they could find a place to sleep. I am hoping to go to the feeding program at the train station for the kids who were not able to be placed in homes, I think its going to be really eye opening to see that. There are just hundreds of hundreds of the kids living there. I'm actually going to suggest the movie slum-dog millionaire for those of you who have not yet seen it. I think it gives you a good idea of what these children have to face and slightly brushes on the topic of human trafficking. The children have quickly captured my heart and could really use your prayers.

The staff here I work with are incredible! I am so blessed and encouraged by having them in my life. It's through them and the experiences here that I've been able to grow deeper and reach a new level in my prayer life. Prayer has always been a big thing for me, but being here the importance and focus of it has increased exponentially! I love it. It'd often been my concern that I would go back to being the same person I was once I'm back in the States, but with where I am at in prayer I am confident that that will not be possible.

I seriously am tempted to stay here longer. My visa gave me 6 months here.... and I love this ministry and working with children and females in human trafficking. But when I pray about it, I know God wants me to be back at school, so I can become a counselor. I am sure I will be back here though, no doubt about that.

Prayer requests for me would be to focus on the time I have left here so I can enjoy these last 3 weeks. For JIAC women, prayers would be best for continued healing spiritually, and mentally. For the children at the children's home please pray for them in their studies as they try to catch up to the rest of the people their age and that they may understand just how much God loves them. For all of those I know in the brothels- pray for them to understand the Gospel and for them to be freed and given the chance to heal.

Thank you! God bless.
Shanti

Miracles of God

 So much happens in a week….i don’t even know where to start! It’s been amazing; the experiences I’ve had are unreal. The ladies at Jiac and I are getting a lot closer. I love them so much. They are such wonderful believers. I am honored to call them my friends. When I am with them, in this ministry I feel like all my God given talents, interests and hobbies are used to give glory to God.

     I spent all of last Saturday at Kalighat with the women. It was such an eye opening time, seeing where all the ladies live, spending more time with the children who are raised in the brothels. This one girl in particular captured my heart, pia. I play with her every Saturday there. She is such a cutie and it breaks my heart that she has to be raised up in the brothels staying under the bed or outside when mom has customers. It’s just such a dark place for children to grow up in. hard to think there are so many of them in the brothels. I just pray she doesn’t become another number in the prostitution business once she is older. I really pray she can break that cycle.

    that same day i experienced jesus healing a lady After hours of praying she begin to proclaim jesus as lord and was healed and she accept Christ! She went with me to the Bengali church service the next day and was able to talk to a Christian counselor from the church!!!!!

 

   During one of my prayer walks in kalighat I saw a vision of God’s light shining through us with every step we take, making it a brighter place. God brings hope and hope does not disappoint us because god’s love has been poured into our hearts through the holy spirit (romans 5:5). 

     So much has happened, I was supposed to finish the blog for last week but its almost a week late,  a lot has happened since then. A teamed has arrived here for 3 weeks. We are excited to see what god does through them. Yesterday we spent a lot of time downtown showing them around, and the traffic was absolutely terrible. We spent 1+    hours looking for 3 taxis to fit the whole team, we ended up walking the whole way there because we couldn’t get a taxi. It was madness. Today I lead a day of prayer and fast, which we called “greater things are yet to come”. It went beautifully,; the holy spirit really moved and healed people in powerful ways. 

   My work is really picking up, the responsibilities are increasing and all the projects to get done in the next 4 weeks. Suddenly feel that my time here is coming to an end, it saddens me. I am however going to become an ambassador for the states for jewels in a crown!!! That way I will at least feel connected to the ministry and the ladies even when I’m not in Kolkata. 

I have been growing so much as a person here; spiritually, mentally and physically. I love it. It wasn’t until recently that I noticed the change, it happened subtly as my time here went on. When I think about how god wants his church to be, I always look in Acts of the Apostles. and In Kolkata I feel that I am living more in that manner, it’s beautiful, humbling and dreamlike all at the same time.   

Streams of living water

God has been doing so much around me and in me here this past week! It's been so wonderful to witness and be a part of. I think it's so wonderful the way God chooses to use us to show His love on earth. He sure doesn't need us to do His great things but he allows us to become a vessel in which He can do His work through. I experience that back in the states but that's really something I've been meditating on while here really focusing on service.  

This past week a team came here to run a a 4 day retreat that was all about the different ways we can worship the Lord. It was beautiful and something even I and the other staff members were able to learn from. Plus the ladies that came had such a wonderful heart for the Lord and we were able to bond so much and develop some awesome friendships! We talked a lot about the living water Jesus gives us and how it cleanses our bodies- making us whole and pure.

JIAC is continuing to restore ladies' lives in powerful, godly ways. I am filled with so much joy from these ten females! I cannot contain it. I wish i could live with them forever!  One of them got baptized this past friday!!! it was such a wonderful testimony of how God redeems the lost. She is one of the ladies graduating from JIAC this summer and will be going on as a missionary in another area of Kolkata!!! (:

We went to Kalighat, as we do every saturday, but we did a prayer walk around the temple of kalighat (goddess of death and destruction). There is so much darkness in that area. it's unreal. It's like a cursed land, all along the streets you see people with disabilities sitting and sick people dying. This is also the area where mother Teresa has her home for the sick and dying is located. We spend some time there as well. I really loved being there, talking to some of them and praying over a lot of them, just showing them love any way I can, but it was a sad image that is hard to erase from my brain. One of the ladies I spent time with was a girl that was the frailest one there- which is saying a lot- and she was shaking from pain, couldn't even speak. And through her shirt I could see this huge gaping wound all across her chest. It looked like she was bombed or someone ripped out her skin all across her chest. And she was just here lying on a wooden bench with dozens of other ladies who are all dying. I showed her love and prayed over her for some time. I just pray she knows the hope that Jesus gives and can be out of this suffering and be with him. 

After that I went to the care group and got to see one of the prostitutes, that's been coming for a while now, praise Jesus and share how he has healed her and saved her from dying. It was so incredible my heart melted in ways that words cannot describe. 


I also helped organize and run a party for the children at the children's home. This was the 4th birthday of the Home. The kids loved party and Bibles given as gifts. it's always such a blessing to spend more time with them. My host mom was actually saying she may have me come over their more often to help the girls, especially the preteen girls. She is going to pray more about it but that absolutely thrilled me- just the idea of spending time there once week would be great. 

God also continues to transform my heart here in India. Such beautiful ways too. My heart for missions only continues to grow. God is stretching my faith and making my heart bigger. The process of my heart growing is sometimes so painful but I know that it leads to good things. I truly want God to continue to break my heart for what breaks His. I've also learned that I must not look at the number of people in need but rather to listen to God and do what He calls me! I can't help every child that's homeless living on the train tracks, or the women and teens that are being trafficked. This outlook has changed my heart and allowed me to have hope. And meeting people who have equal passions are also very encouraging. God gives hope and love and I get to watch Him work through me for that and in return He also continues to pour me sooo much love. 

"Jesus said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water I will give him will never be thirsty again.'"   - John 4:13 &14

 

পূজা ঈসা --> Praise God

Jesus is doing so much here in my life and the lives around me. It's incredible. I wanted to write this weekend just about what I learned from spending the weekend at the children's home but everything has just been so busy! Can' t believe its already friday night here. Kajol, one of the ladies at Jewels in a Crown was baptized tonight!!! such a beautiful celebration!

  I really enjoyed the children's home. There are 20 kids there and they melted my heart right away. All different ages. All of them where street children where their parents are either dead or in addictions. It's hard to picture that when you spend time with such beautiful children. They all ran to me and call me auntie. I love it. They were so excited we (Hope and I) were staying over. One of the girls was named Sweetie. She clung to me most of the time and was so precious. And they all called me Auntie! I cannot wait for the surprise party we are throwing for them. These children have little but are filled with such joy and the home radiates with Christ's love! It's beautiful.

Soma and I having some fun in art therapy in JIAC

All the next are the children from the Children's Home.

I keep starting to write the blog but then have to move away from it. Things are busy here but I'm really enjoying it. The ladies in Jewels in a Crown are such a blessing. Working there fills me up with so much Joy. to see their progress in the Lord and to have them share what their past was like is life altering. They are mighty soldiers for the Lord. I'm honored to be a part of their life. Please pray for them and their continued healing and peace. it's a long journey but this week we've seen some major progress.

My heart for missions is growing and growing here. I knew I wanted to do long term missions in my life at some point but now I think about it all the time.  It's crazy to think that God uniquely gave us all specific talents to reach certain people in a way that only we can. It's so exciting! I don't know what my future will look like but I know I want to be helping people and sharing the Joy that comes from God. That's what truly matters. And perhaps God will show me this summer what He wants for my future.

I thank you for your prayers for my safety and my heart. I know God is protecting me, especially when I go to the women's homes in Kalighat. I have never not felt safe their. the women are very protective of us and men typically wouldn't even try to touch white people. haha Here white people are looked up to. It's kind of weird. the culture here is very much affected by the caste system..... It's pretty foreign to me. It's also the first time I've been a minority for my faith. It's very Hindi and Islam orientated.  It's eye opening to see what that's like. I've always read about it in the Bible or other stories but this time i'm actually living in it. 

God's been giving me so many blessings and time is just flying by here. I can't wait for this weekends adventures!
Peace.

I have arrived!

Namaskar from India! I made it safely! Hard to believe this is already my 8th day in India! So crazy! I am really enjoying it here. The staff and ladies I work with are amazing! So beautiful to see God working and extremely present in this ministry. His work here is unfathomable.

 --> my room here in Kolkata! 

Kolkata is everything you would expect it to be haha. Loud, very overcrowded and hot and smells.These things don't even bother me anymore. It's just the way the culture is here. And  that's nothing in comparison to the wonderful people I have had a pleasure of getting to know/work with.  The culture is a complete 180 and while I don't appreciate their outlook on women, there are still many other great things from Indian culture that I know I will be able to learn from! 

Here I am working as an Intern for missionary work with women you have been in the sex slave trade! Right now, In Jewels in a Crown we have 10 ladies who are working at Jewels in a Crown making jewelry here for a living. Its amazing to hear their stories and how God is healing them. The girls I work with at JIAC are all Christians! They have already accepted Christ before I came here. The ladies who are still in prostitution that we help are not but now the ones working here are saved. 

They are light shining in  such a dark place. They still live with the prostitutes because the rent is so cheap. This is beautiful in a way, because they are able to share with the others. It is such a dark gloomy place though, with very little, so that makes me sad. They don't care though, they just praise God for all that He has given them! I can tell I will be learning and changing from JIAC ladies a lot. 

This is such an amazing ministry that the Shaw's have going on. Jewels in a Crown is just one of the ministries they are in charge of here. They are doing so much goodness for the Lord, its breathtaking. They also have a daughter who is 18, Hope. She and I are really getting along well! I feel like I've known her for so much longer than a week! She is a great friend and I've really enjoyed all the time I've spent with her. Such a wonderful family- I think that is why the adjustment has not been hard here. They are Canadian missionaries, so I think it helps a lot that they understand the culture that I came from. So excited for the rest of my time with them! 

My typical day during the week starts off at 9:30am with devotion time where we (the staff) take turns leading the time of the Bible study, then at 11 we start teaching english for two hours, have lunch downstairs with the poor kids from the area who have school here. They then spend the rest of the time making their gorgeous jewelry! I really enjoy the teaching the english class! I love seeing them improve even throughout the 2 hours! It awesome! Also, once a week in place of english class we have art therapy. I have made a program for that and been placed in charge of it. It gives me sooo much joy and the staff really likes the program. Yesterday we had my first session about how God heals us and our hearts. I talked about Jesus healing the disabled spirit in Luke 13 and also about Ps 51:10. I spoke about how I used to think God would heal the wounds on my heart but I'd always have scars from those pains. And how that was a lie from the devil, because God makes our heart new, purifies it and makes it whole again! Those scars don't have to stay in our life when we have Jesus!

 I am so impressed with their jewelry, it is really top notch! Now they can't sell the jewlery online because of money and lack of a license BUT I will be able to bring home with me whatever you guys would want to buy. I will be taking pictures soon for the website and I will post them on fb with the prices. Anyone who would like to order something, contact me to tell me and if you can mail the money to my parent's house. That way they can put the money in my account.  

Please pray for these women, that they continue to grow closer to the Lord and have patients as God is healing their hearts. Thank you all for your prayers for me and my safety. Everything went well with the travels (clearly) and I am very excited for this opportunity to grow closer to the Lord!

This weekend I am staying over at the children's home- where street kids whose parents are dead, alcoholics or addicted to drugs come to live and go to school! And right near by is the train station where we will be serving the homeless.