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.