BLORE!

Those are John's flip flops, not a new pair of skies.

Blore is Indian slang for Bangalore.

We took an all night train to Bangalore. I think we stayed in the same car with a Mahatma Gandhi look alike. He didn't talk a lot (not at all), he just meditated a little, read his worship books, and wore white. I found it difficult to fall asleep on a bunk suspended in the air, with Mahatma Gandhi looking straight up at the ceiling of the moving train car. If you've been in a train, you know, it doesn't move just forward, in fact, if you're not looking out the window, you'd be convinced it was moving everywhere (well, at least on the trains in India). I did fall asleep, however, and we made it.....barely.

John was thinking that we had more time than we actually did on the luxury train. At 6:30 or something a.m., John happens to hear a different language than Malayalam. There are about 200-300 languages in India and 1000 or more dialects. So, anyways, this one happened to be a different one, imagine that! He gets up off his bunk to look outside and comes running back to wake me up, "Babe, We're Here! Get up!"

Since I am such a morning person, I was sitting cross legged on my bed with my hair brushed, clothes in order and a smile on my face. For those of you that know that I'm lying, you can imagine me falling off my bunk in a frustrated frenzy, trying to focus my eyes and my mind on the situation at hand, and the HAIR.....oh my goodness.

I gathered myself and tripped my way off of the stopped train, only to find out I left something stupid on the train like my lipstick, of course. John said, "Go back, and get it." After I got passed being angry that he wouldn't help his wife, whose hair was screaming "distressed!" I realized it was better I got lost and he find me, than him lost, if the train happened to take off while one of us was on it. I think he figured that, too. We landed in Bangalore, with a stray dog as our escort (she wouldn't leave our side), safely.


You know what else I just figured out about blogging? Here's another "kicker". I figured out that you can "cut and paste" pictures. You don't even want to know what I've been doing. I've been dragging them all over the place! I really need to be in the "Nit Wit Blogger" Hall of Fame. I don't know how many times I've failed the handicapped test in the comment windows.

I wonder if they were having a discussion of who really is in charge.

We visited some relatives again, and had some really good food, again. We stayed with long time friends of John, Josh and Jessy. John grew up with Jessy. They have two cute daughters, Julianne, and Jade (above). They also have a new German Shepherd puppy. I would like to mention that I really appreciated the bathrooms in India. They were fully tiled with a toilet on one side, a sink, and a drain somewhere on floor, or maybe two. This made it extremely easy to give "Pepper" the puppy, a bath, which I was more than willing to volunteer to do.

The girls were deathly afraid of the dog. There are tons of stray dogs in India and few of them become pets. People down there are not use to having pets. I spent a lot of the four days there trying to get Pepper and the girls acclimated. I, obviously, fell in love with the puppy, and started some discipling, like a 'swat' on the nose for biting new clothes. :)

Josh and Jessy have at least one non-family member in their house 24/7. Their house is open to everyone. Josh is the kind of guy that leaders of the city want to pray with. We got some really good news about what God was doing in the Bangalore area.



It was a busy time in Bangalore, but we met some fabulous people. Mohan and Janis are missionaries. She is actually Canadian, but has spent her whole life in India. She even has an Indian accent. Mohan is from the Brahmin caste of Hinduism. Needless to say, he risked a lot by becoming a believer. I don't have a picture of them, but I do have the memory of a couple that is willing to live for the Lord and sacrifice of themselves. They don't even have a car. Pray for them.

We went and visited the couple above, she is an expecting mother with a 3 year old, I believe, and he works for a radio station. He said that he just got an opportunity to share his faith over the air, so that is neat.


Dear Journal

Something in the way.

There is something in the way here. I'm not talking about the old lady, ahead of you in the grocery story register line,
taking every item out of the cart,
one at a time.
In India, there is "something in the way" of progress, of spirituality,
of liberty.
The devil has his thumb on this place.
D.L. Moody called India "Satan's battlefield."
Oppressed women, abject poverty, idolatry...
These are the fruit, but
One of these days
God is going to swing the doors wide open!

The fields are ripe for the harvest there. I don't know if the Lord would have us go back there, right away, but we are definitely willing. Pray for India.