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.