agra and delhi.

before i can write about agra, i have to write about our train experience from varanasi to agra. our train was delayed, so we ended up hanging out on the train platform at the varanasi station for about 3 hours. i can't put into words how hot, sticky, and exhausted we all were. this place was literally the very bottom of the well. we all hit our absolute lowest point of the whole trip. there were fleas literally flying around the beggar children.... rats crawling all over the train tracks.... the most raunchy stench ever coming off of the tracks.... it was definitely the dirtiest and most unsafe i've felt the whole trip.

but good news: we made it. the funny thing is that agra is the most touristy city in india, so we wasted no time crawling up out of that well. we checked into a nice hotel (finally!!) and spent the afternoon touring around the TAJ MAHAL!!!! quite a contrast between the varanasi train station and the taj. there's a reason it's one of the seven wonders of the world....it's absolutely beautiful! the architecture is incredible...so extravagant, but so much attention to intricate detail. so of course we had a photo shoot....but not just with our team--indian men were literally lining up to take pictures with us girls. hilarious.

another highlight from agra was our team meeting yesterday morning. we've taken turns sharing our life stories, and yesterday was finally dr. stroope's turn. that man never fails to challenge and inspire me. after he shared, we took communion together--with naan (indian bread) and limca (an indian sprite-ish soda). it was such a sweet time of serving one another and talking about the suffering and death we'd seen around us in india, the suffering and death christ went through on the cross, and the suffering and death we're called to as his followers.

after a long bus ride yesterday afternoon, we made it to our last stop on the trip--delhi. today we went to a sikh temple, a bahai house of worship, and the place where ghandi was killed. super interesting stuff. tomorrow we're spending time with some of dr. stroope's friends that live here in delhi and do life with hindus. i'm eager to learn from them and excited about the MEXICAN FOOD that they're cooking for us!

late tomorrow night we'll head to the airport and end this journey through india. i can't believe it's almost over. our travel home will be about 24 hours total. crazy! please pray for safety and no delays.

delhi to hong kong to san francisco to dfw.....to birmingham. for those of you going to the hardekopf/hefner wedding this weekend, just know that i can't wait to see you.

varanasi. the holy city.

i can't really explain varanasi to you. this place is so surreal. it's the holiest city of hinduism. the ganges river is the holy water, the lifeblood of the city. hindus come from all over to worship in the ganges. good news: our hotel is literally right on the ganges, so we've gotten an up-close view of all the madness. a couple of times we've taken a boat out on the ganges to see it all from that perspective. the river is where life happens for these people. it's where the sacred and the secular intersect. people are bathing, brushing their teeth, washing their clothes, and performing worship rituals all right there next to each other. so crazy! last night we went to an arti, a worship celebration to the ganges. you can't even begin to fathom the number of people there. it was like a carnival--bells ringing, music playing, people selling things, beggars everywhere, holy men who look like they're dressed up in costumes.... it was sensory overload. so much to take in.

this city is also a big deal for buddhism. today we went out to the tree where buddha received his enlightenment....like where buddhism began. what?! pretty crazy.

on wednesday night, we met with one of stroope's friends, swammi. our time with him was worth the entire trip to india. he's a hindu christ-follower, and his perspective on what it means to follow jesus is absolutely fascinating. i was so challenged and inspired by him. i wish i had more time to go into more detail, but hopefully i can share more thoughts later.

stroope has been saying that this trip is like a journey into a well....and varanasi is the bottom of the well. it overwhelmed me at first, but now that we're about to leave, i think i can say that this has been my favorite city we've visited so far. there's just SO much going on here. so many people, so much devotion, so many stories....it's incredible.

tonight we have another overnight train experience...this time on our way to agra. tomorrow we'll see the taj mahal!!!! what in the world?! this country is amazing. can't wait to post pictures when i get back. i feel like my words fail at describing it.

thanks for your prayers. continue to pray for safety. pray that we'll maximize our last few days here. can't believe it's almost over!

just some thoughts.

quotes i've been thinking on:

"mission is the announcement of a fact. it is not the launching of a program. it is not the promulgation of a new doctrine. it is not a call to moral or religious reformation. it is, strictly speaking, a news-flash. something has happened. there is a new fact to be reckoned with. the kingdom, the reign of god, has come near." --lesslie newbigin.

"for not for this life and its concerns do we exist: this is only a pilgrimage, and its concerns are only for the temporary needs of the pilgrims. heaven is our country, hence our care should be about heavenly things." --john amos comenius.

"we have been created for greater things, to love and to be loved." --mother teresa.

things i will never get used to:

• dr. stroope eating with his hands.
• never ever ever not sweating.
• naked babies begging on the side of the road.
• massive amounts of street children.
• saying no to people asking for money or food.
• trash everywhere....i mean, literally everywhere.
• men peeing on the side of the road all the time.
• being stared at always.
• crazy traffic and psycho driving.
• elephants, camels, horses, donkeys, cows, dogs, cats.....everywhere. just hanging out in the middle of the street like they own the place...maybe because the cows actually do. the animals here are treated better than a lot of the people. terrible. oh but sidenote: i got to ride a camel on my last night in jaipur. yep. i freaked out.
  
• a BILLION people in this one country.
  
• favoring tea over coffee. no no no.
• no tex-mex.
  

questions i can't quit wrestling with:

• what is mission?
• what is the westerner's role in a place like this?
• what is the kingdom of god?
• what would it look like for the gospel to intersect this culture?
• is this way of life somehow ordered chaos or just a chaotic mess?
• do i love well? do i live with purpose?
• am i devoted to what i know is the truth even half as much as these people are devoted to golden calves, elephants, and handmade idols?
  
• do i really believe that god created every single one of these people?
• do i really believe that god loves every single one of these people?
• for someone who literally spends their entire life picking up trash and begging--what is their purpose? why where they created?
• is god going to save some of them?

just some thoughts. thanks for not thinking i'm crazy.

i can't come up with words to describe calcutta. the poverty here is so in-your-face, so intense, so unlike anything i've ever seen. seeing mother teresa's tomb and where she lived was kinda overwhelming for me. working in her house for disabled children is even more overwhelming. we're here until tuesday night when we'll take a train to varanasi. this trip is so unbelievable, but so good. thanks for your prayers.

jaipur. jai ho!

jaipur is such a cool city. the old part of the city is all painted PINK! they painted it back in the day as a sign of hospitality, and it still remains a dusty pink-ish color. pretty cool. so jaipur is in a desert, in the state of rhajasthan. just know that desert = CAMELS. y'all. like walking down the street in the middle of the road. so we're talking monkeys, camels, cows, horses, donkeys, elephants....not like at the zoo, but in the midst of everyday life.....what?!? this place is so unreal. i LOVE it.

dr. stroope has a friend here who loves on hindus in this city. it's been cool to get to know him and his team. they're doing a good thing. they have to be super careful with their cover, so i can't write much, but pray for them. if i were in their shoes, it would be so easy to be overwhelmed and feel so unbelievably hopeless....but they have such great faith. it's inspiring.

walked through the city this morning praying and reading scripture. talk about powerful. it was an incredible experience. so much going on here....so many people, so much life and energy. this place is so unique.

tonight we're going to the choki danni cultural center--lots of music, dancing, acrobats, elephants, food, etc. it's going to be AWESOME.

remember how i'm in INDIA?! it blows my mind every single day. pray that i'll make the most of every opportunity and take advantage of my time here.

headed to calcutta tomorrow morning. to walk and serve where mother teresa walked and served will be a dream come true. can't wait to write about it.

cochin.

okay so cochin is beautiful. as far as scenery goes, it's easily my favorite place we've been so far. everything is so lush and green here! it's incredible! it's only about 10 degrees north of the equator, so it's pretty tropical. also, it's monsoon season, which means it rains at least once a day--definitely thankful for the cooler weather. another random thing you should know about cochin--it's one of the most christian places in all of india. it's about 1/3 hindu, 1/3 muslim, and 1/3 christian. that's HUGE. i kind of love that they all know how to live with each other peacefully...maybe another thing we could learn from them...

the place where we're staying is literally across the street from the arabian sea....no big deal. we watched the sunset last night on the beach--maybe one of my favorite moments of the entire trip.

this morning we went to st. francis church. it's somewhat like india's version of westminster abbey. vasco de gama died here in cochin and was buried at st. francis for fourteen years until his body was moved back to portugal. pretty cool to see his tomb i guess.

spent some time at a fishing market. fishing is HUGE here. we even got to help bring in the nets! the fishermen LOVED us.

there's a part of cochin known as "jew town." unfortunately, all the jews that used to live here have moved back to israel, but it's still a cool part of town. the oldest synagogue in the entire british commonwealth is there--pretty neat.

tonight we went to a kathakali show. basically it's a play/dance with no speaking but lots of music and crazy make-up and costumes. it was definitely a cultural experience....i mean, way bizarre, but definitely fun.

bright and early tomorrow morning we leave for jaipur. it'll be quite a transition from the tropics to the desert, but i'm excited to see the city and be hosted by some of dr. stroope's friends. thanks for your prayers. can't wait to update again soon.

highlights from hyderabad.

the three days we spent in hyderabad were three of the most fun days i've had in a long time. the majority of our time was spent preparing for and attending a WEDDING--we got to go to an indian wedding!! how fun is that?! i could write forever about our time there, but i'll try to stick to bullet points again...

• meeting sagar and his family. sagar is a truett alum that has now moved back to india to minister to the banjara people with his family. they have an incredible story and are just overall really great people. his laugh is so contagious and his wife is one of the most graceful people i've been around. his brother, vijay, was the one getting married. keep reading...it gets really fun.
  
• shopping for indian clothes. all the women in india basically wear two types of clothing: the shalwar kamis and the sari. (go ahead and google image those. so cool.) most of the girls that have come with stroope on past trips have purchased a shalwar kamis, but we also got to get saris for the wedding! they're absolutely beautiful. the entire shopping experience took at least 2 1/2 hours--there were no two shalwar kamises alike, so of course it took forever for us to pick out our favorites, then we had to pick out material for our saris, get measured for the blouses, then buy petticoats to match. sagar's sweet wife, kalyani, helped us through the whole thing--it was crazy, but so fun!
• eating at a kfc in india. fried chicken never tasted so good.
• attending a 10 year anniversary service for a church in the middle of the slums. incredible people. they sang for us, we sang for them, stroope gave a message, we did a skit...it was way fun.
  
• hyderabad is the major city for islam in india. this was my first encounter ever with islam--mosques everywhere, women in burkas....it was really interesting.
• conversations with sagar and his wife over chai and cookies at their apartment. america needs to pick up this afternoon goodness.
• HENNA TATTOOS!!! all the women were getting henna for the wedding, so of course we wanted to too. both hands and both forearms are covered. it's SOOOO cool. i absolutely love it. (don't freak out, sarah. it should be faded by your wedding...)
• preparing the bridegroom (vijay) for the wedding. the night before the wedding the family and close friends have a big celebration to prepare the bridegroom, and we got to attend! they asked dr. stroope to give a blessing--he did an amazing job. every guy needs to hear his thoughts on marriage. unbelievable. okay so then it turned into a paint party. basically vijay got covered in yellow rice and a yellow curry/paint concoction. then everyone joined in on the fun--yellow paint on the feet for all the women, on the face for everyone....it was so unreal. then it turned into a dance party!! some of the indian girls taught us some moves, which you know i absolutely loved...and i may or may not have ended up having a dance off with an indian boy named kisho. it was SO fun!! i thought it was all fun and games until he brought his dad to meet me....what?! no thank you, arranged marriage...
• shopping at charminar--the main marketplace area in hyderabad. the central point is a roundabout, and from there stem all these different streets full of little shops. the street we went to was bangle row....i mean, shop after shop after shop of BANGLES!! every woman in india wears bangles everyday--so for a wedding they really bring out the bling. so again, of course we wanted to participate. i probably spent too much money, but come on, you can never have too many bangles, right?
  
• getting ready for the wedding felt like we were getting ready for prom. a sweet indian lady helped us put on our saris--it took about 20 minutes per girl. crazy, huh? we were so pumped. saris, bangles, earrings, henna tattoos, make-up (for the first and only time the whole trip)....we were lookin' good....and the boys looked pretty sharp in their kurtas, too.
  
• crashing the wedding. seriously. all attention was on the 13 white people wearing indian garb. ha! but the family loved it. everyone wanted pictures of us and with us. it was crazy! the wedding itself was pretty interesting. both families are christian, so it was held in an anglican church. the reception was outside--probably about 1500-2000 people there--oh and don't worry that they just let random people off the street come join the party. kinda crazy, but kinda cool, huh? lots of food, lots of picture taking, lots of music....so fun.
• mango party. it's definitely mango season here and hyderabad has some of the best mangoes in the whole country. dr. stroope surprised us with a ton of mangoes one night during our team time. they were absolutely delicious!
• long delay in the hyderabad airport waiting for our flight to cochin. spent lots of time at the coffee shop...definitely some much needed down time. this country needs to increase their intake of brewed coffee...just throwin' that out there. i told dr. stroope i was addicted to coffee and he said, "as a fellow coffee addict, i like to think of it as a devotion." yep. couldn't agree more.
  

sorry that was long, but i hope you got a glimpse of how much fun we had in hyderabad. pray for sagar and his family's ministry. they've got incredible vision and they're doing some really amazing things.

now we're in cochin--a city on the coast of the arabian sea (OMG!) and the most southern city we'll visit on our trip. it's absolutely beautiful. can't wait to see more of it tomorrow. thanks for reading these long posts. hope to write again soon...

more on mamallapuram.

on our tour day in mamallapuram i think we literally saw every ancient hindu temple or structure that ever existed. okay maybe not really, but it was a long day and so unbelievably hot. keep in mind, too, that we take our shoes off every time we enter a temple....which means walking around on scorching hot rock....which means our feet were burning. good thing my feet are tough, right? i've never been so thankful for callouses in my life.

we really did see some pretty unreal stuff--some of the oldest hindu temples in all of india--like 6th century kind of stuff. one of the temples we saw doesn't even function as a place of worship anymore because it's been turned into a national monument--like india's version of stonehenge. at one of the temples we were each individually prayed over by a hindu priest. after the prayer, he gave us all jasmine flowers and marked our foreheads. pretty interesting, huh? at another temple, the town was having a temple celebration, complete with a parade around the entire town. the temple chariot was about three times larger than any baylor homecoming parade float i've ever seen. we thought it was a building until it started moving. highlight of the day: ELEPHANTS. clearly they were the best part of the temple parade. i absolutely freaked out. the temple tour was long, but it really was interesting and we got to interact with a lot of cool indians along the way. the secular and sacred are so intertwined here. i think christianity in the west could learn a lot from that. just a thought.

i think when i saw the elephants in the street is when i realized--india is absolutely unlike any place i've ever been. i mean, there is nowhere else in the world like this. it's so unbelievable.