Letters

The letters are finally out....

I just realized that I never mentioned in this blog that three of us are going to India with CCS....Lynn, Megan, and myself. I mentioned earlier that Lynn told me about CCS but I never told everyone that we told Megan about this opportunity and she was so excited about it that she is joining us. We decided that since part of the mission of CCS is to develop a cross cultural world view we would share with people before, during, and after our trip. This sharing is allowing people to join in on the trip by supporting us emotionally, spiritually, and/or financially. Hopefully developing more of a cross cultural awareness as they join in the trip with us through our stories and struggles. So, we wrote a letter to tell our dear friends and family about this trip...hopefully, it allowed people to see our hearts with the entire trip.

My heart is more focused on the development of women in that culture. This may mean teaching them business skills so that they can create a successful weaving business, advocating their political rights, caring for children as the mothers receive an education, researching possibly solutions to better the life and health of woman, or other possible volunteer avenues. As I mentioned in the first blog, CCS does not place me until closer to the date of our arrival and will place me in a volunteer position that is close to my skills and interests to help both the Indian organization and myself have a better experience.

So, the letters explaining the organization and my heart (along with Lynn and Megan's heart) have been mailed (at least most of them)...along with a complimentary Indian tea bag so people can experience a little tiny bit of the culture.

Purchasing Tickets

We are off....we just finished purchasing the plane tickets. The only way out now is to lose a lot of money. I am not sure if this makes it feel any more real. I am looking online for good hotel prices for New Delhi. We will be spending a week in New Delhi before we go to Dharamsala for the volunteer placement in CCS. I may have mentioned going to Hyderbad before but it looks like those plans may change...actually, we are kind of waiting for the adventure and going to see if we end up in Hyderbad or New Delhi. But I think it will be New Delhi. Looking for the hotel is sort of exciting because I get to research a little about the area and it builds my anticipation.

I was just given a book by Ed Sena entitled "Revolution in World Missions". It talks a lot about Gospel for Asia and redefining our American view on missions. Rather than sending people to Asia to support the native missionaries that are already there. It also has challenged me to be more of a steward about my resources and to care more about the spiritual aspects of people than just their physical needs. I am not exactly sure where it will lead me but it has begun to challenge a lot of what I am thinking. I really would like to meet with some Gospel for Asia missionaries while in India but I don't know if that will be possible. In the meantime, I am exploring the possibility.

Initial Interests

Ever since I was a child I had a desire to visit or move to other cultures. The most dominating culture was Africa. So, when I graduated from college and was actually able to afford to the travel to other coutries I began by embarking on a Grace Brethern International Missions trip to Central African Republic to teach natives and missionaries basic computer skills. The trip was quite an adventure. I did not really know any of my team mates, I spoke absolutely nothing in the local language (there were a million different tribal languages so it wouldn't have mattered anyway), we taught computer to remote areas with little electrical power, I was a blonde white girl whom all the children followed after chanting "boongu" (I have no idea if that is the right spelling) which means "white person", I slept in basic areas with mosquito neets (which actually I really loved), and we traveled over the largest pot holes I have ever seen. And I loved every minute...my teammates were great and the people were absolutely beautiful.

After Africa, I went to Italy with two college friends on a tour of the entire northern Italy. We visited Rome, Venice, Como, etc. Again, I loved it. I had the best time saying "chow" and trying to communicate with the locals. I am sure they got annoyed with me but the trip was very nice. I didn't have to worry about my travel or lodging. I was dropped off in a town and told to meet everyone again at a certain time and then we were off to the next location. It was a great time to enjoy the country and my dear friend.s

Then I traveled to Turkey on a missions trip with Grace Community Church. We stayed with Turkish citizens for a week in Ankara and then visited Cappodocia the land of rock cities and rock churches. It was a stuning mixture of modern and traditional turkish cultures. The land was beautiful and I developed a thirst to explore more of this early church land. It was like a rich desert, with deep tradition, and many stories.

After Africa, Italy, and Turkey, I did not travel to another country for two years and I was beginning to develop an itch for the adventure of different cultures and people. I began exploring different places like Thailand, Isreal, Japan...basically the east and middle east. Then my friend Lynn found a website for Cross Cultural Solutions (CCS). It provided the opportunity to volunteer with local communities while visiting the culture. The focus was on developing more of a world wide cross cultural view. I loved the idea. It was not affiliated with any church or religious organization but was focused on allowing people to help develop various different. I was excited to see how others engaged in various different cultures without my religious background. CCS allows me to tell the my skills and interests and place me in a volunteer program that will benefit both me and the organization I am volunteering in. I decided that I would do this program. If Lynn wanted to go with me then I was going to India and if not I was going to Thailand. Well, Lynn decided to come so we are off to India. The trip is planned for June 2005 in Dharmasala, India which is in the Northwest corner of India nestled in the Himalayan Mountains.