Discovery South Asia: from a participants eyes and some photos for your own

South Asian discovery trip by numbers:

49 hour train adventure

30 (ish) words down in the new-to-me language

9 team members

7 mosquito bites

3 learned stories to tell from the book

2 weeks quickly gone

1 new piercing (just kidding, Dad! This one is NOT true)

Hello friends and family!

I hope you all are doing well!
This email is coming to you from the other side of a 49 hour long train traveling adventure, so please forgive me for any disorganization, rambling or nonsense due to exhaustion.

Besides being tired, I am doing well!

The train was certainly an adventure,

and it was a good time for our team to bond more as well as meet new people. A couple of us had an interesting conversation with a woman who studies and teaches a traditional South Asian dance style. It was fascinating and she even offered to give us free lessons! We'll see what our leader's think... :)  It was sad to say goodbye to our friends in Banana Town, though (but don't worry, we said goodbye with a big barbecue).

This past week with our friends in Banana Town, we had a program for about 50 kids while they waited to receive dental care in an area where the children may not regularly get their teeth checked out or have their lives saturated in Truth. They were a little shy at first, but by the end and despite language barriers, the kids seemed to be having fun with us. This week we also had more chances to use our language on an impromptu shopping adventure (we're still trying to figure out the local dress).  

 One of the highlights for me this week was learning some storytelling and telling some stories with two different groups of women who in turn told us some of their life stories.

Now, my team and I are in D-town, looking forward to meeting more workers and friends and building relationships. Please pray for us in this new-to-us town, as this place is more sensitive to the truth than places we were before. Please pray we will continue to be faithful in all we say and do. Pray for the people we will be meeting and interacting with here. Please pray for our team as we continue to experience different phases of culture shock.

Thank you for your prayers!
We cannot and would not be here without the Father's work in you!
I'm praying for each of you even as I type this. I feel very privileged to be here.

Hoping to write again soon,
Stephanie


By the time you read this, the team will be beginning their debrief; your prayers are much appreciated as Elizabeth and John help the participants process their experience and begin to see how they can integrate it into their lives from here on out.