India: Old Friends

Tuesday night, we were able to eat dinner one of our good friend’s sister, Neha.  Last time that I was in India, my friend, Becki, and I stayed almost a week with her here in Bangalore.  Neha is now Becki’s sister-in-law . Anyway, Neha is so fun and spunky; we had a blast together when I stayed with her almost 5 years ago! She is now a Manager of Operations at an international hospital on the out-skirts of Bangalore. Below are a few pics from that night!  Hopefully, we will get to hang out again before we leave.

Row and I have been busy shopping lately and writing my winter newsletter(click here if you want in on that). Here is a pic of the traffic; we have been riding in autos since Babes works so far away and feel bad for making his driver drive back to take me someplace that is a 5 minute car ride. Here is Commercial street where we went shopping last night.

Today, Row and I are planning to go get some sarees for friends and go to the grocery for the makings of cookies that I am going to bake for my “friends”, aka people that are serving us at the hotel. Maybe I’ll make some real friends if I can figure out how to use this oven…

This weekend, we are headed to Bombay for our friend, Aditya’s wedding! We will be staying with our friend, Nishant’s family. Don’t worry, we will post lots of pics when we get back!

The “man store”

-jen

India: Purpose

It seems things are a bit different here then what I imagined they would be.  My role has shifted a lot since the beginning of all of this.  At first I was heavily involved with all the Indians and now it seems especially after having lil’ babes that my role in all of this is shifting much more than I imagined it would.  I am not certain of what that all means but I do know that it feels freeing to not have guilt hanging over my head.  Because really the fact is, God has called me to be a mom and wife and those come before all of this.  These days that is a little bit more demanding. This quote from Jim Elliot has guided me in many transitions in my life. “Wherever you are, be all there.  Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.”  But its funny how the things that can challenge you can also become a thing that throws guilt on you, which clearly is not from God. So Jesus, help me to know what it means to “be all here” right now, here in India, on this trip.

Needless to say, yesterday was a normal day as just a mom. It was mostly about trying to get Rowen to nap at normal times, so we could sleep at night(which worked!!). All we did was go out to exchange money and hang out by the pool a bit. Rowen rolled over for the first time!, which I thought was a fluke, but he did it about 4 times in his 10 minute tummy time this morning! What a pro This morning we also got to Skype in to our Missional Family’s white elephant party which was such a blessing.  We couldn’t imagine life without them.  Lil’ Babes and I also got to skype my Mom, which was just really fun to see Rowen really excited about seeing her.

This weekend we are going to Chennai, a 5 hour train ride from Bangalore, to see a family that are like-minded.  We are really really excited to get to hear their hearts and share ours/get wisdom. Please pray that this would bring clarity to our lives, and that we would mutually encourage each other.

We are so thankful for all of you who are praying for us and following our trip.

-jen

India: Adjusting

It’s an early Wednesday morning here in Bangalore.  We got up at a grand ole time of about 2:30 am once again. Can you say jet lag? Yikes.  Here is a recap of all that has happened this week.

Monday:

We slept in till about noon cause we didn’t get to the hotel till 6am… and then went outside of the hotel to get some lunch and head to get some groceries.  We are staying in a part of town called UB City, which is apparently India’s first luxury mall.  It has stores like Rolex, Louis Vuitton, and Burberry.  I remember coming to UB City when I was in Bangalore almost 5 years ago.  This was seriously the fanciest place we visited in India and now here I am staying in the hotel there. I feel a little weird about that.

Tuesday:

Yesterday was Babe’s first day of work, and it went great! He met several guys and went to lunch with them. He found out that he will be doing 4 or 5 trainings over an area that he sort of specializes in at Cerner.  It seems that almost all of Cernerworks India is signed up for one of these classes (almost 50 people). My husband is a rockstar .

Wednesday(today):

After much crying, praying and asking people to pray, I had enough guts to actually get out by myself (and Rowen).  For some reason I thought this would be easy when I was planning everything; however, I didn’t realize until we got here that the last time I was in India, I had people with me 24/7. I now realize that I am completely naïve and scared because of it! But this morning, I had Babe’s driver drop lil’ Babes and I off at the money exchange place when he took Babes to work.  Apparently everything in India, or at least the shops and whatnot don’t open until later, like 10. So they dropped me off only for me to find my way back to the hotel without getting run over .  Later in the morning, Row and I went to a chain coffee shop, Café Coffee Day, here pretty close to the hotel.  He slept a little while I studied some Hindi and drank some coffee. I wasn’t crazy about the environment.  I wanted to do this every day so that I could meet some people but I don’t think that is the place.  In Luke 10, Jesus talks about finding peace in a person/place, and it just wasn’t there. So I will “dust off my feet” and move to a different place next time.

Jesus in our days:

It seems Jesus requires obedience from us; however, you have to actually listen to what he is saying now. I had set all these goals for this time(not that goal setting is a bad idea because I know those were prayerfully considered). However, my piece of obedience for yesterday was to sit with him and to sleep. Today, my obedience piece took a little more courage but I am thankful that he provides that.

“My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness”. 2 Corinthians 12:9

Thank you Jesus

-jen