Day maybe 10...

Hello again worried parents and co, we hope you are continuing to enjoy your peaceful homes. Today has been a hot and sunny one, with only two torrential downpours...as monsoon goes that's fairly mild. All of us on the SMGoa team wish you a great start to the week, and we would like to update you on how our own has panned out.



Considering the sabbath day to be the beginning, we should start there. So Yesterday our own, very talented re:route worship band had the privilege of serving the church alongside some members of their own team. From the point of view of the re:route worship team members, it was a significantly liberating session as the spirit of The Lord completely washed over that room on the 5th floor of a mighty fancy Goan hotel! From the point of view of the congregation, it was such a joy to see our friends indulging in the gifts God has given them and using those to help others engage on such a deep level. So if I haven't emphasised this point quite enough, that service stood out to all of us on the team to the extent that it made it to the highlight short list of every one of us. We all stated afterwards how amazing it was for two completely different cultures to come together so intimately in the presence of The Lord who is constant.



On a slightly more shallow level, we have enjoyed some silly and joy-filled moments among us these past two days. Some of these are as follows:
- the BLC bus taking us from church back to our accommodation broke down on its way up the dreaded hill...

For a split second after the event, we all questioned whether or not it could be recovered. It couldn't. So persuaded by the sight of smoke and the smell of burning oil, we all got off the bus and proceeded on the journey up, alongside the giggling girls with the sun shining. It was a good moment.
- yesterday evening we went to a hotspot tourist beach with Martin and Beena including their children. As fun as it was ordering mock-tails and chicken nuggets, it was also very eye-opening to see the contrast between real joy and seeking contentment with God next to others who try and fill this gap with alcohol and attention from others. So as we pondered on this point, we were 'serenaded' by drunk men partaking in the karaoke. We've never heard a cat being strangled but for some reason we're all sure it was a similar noise.
- today we started painting the girls home. Let us describe the colour for you. Imagine the pink marshmallows you have surely tasted at some point in your life and enjoyed hugely, well let's melt them and put them in a pot. The paint resembled this in colour and consistency. It was almost cruel. We had a slow start,waiting for the paint to be delivered, which in the meantime allowed us to sort through clothes and their library whilst they were out at school. However, we're well on our way now and excited to get fully stuck in tomorrow!

As for the rest, it has continued much the same. Ukele being played, curry being eaten, water being drunk, paint being splattered, naps being taken, horns being honked, mosquitoes biting, fans spinning and dogs barking. But most of all, people being loved!

How Things Are Going

So it’s been a couple of months since my last blog & I thought I would update everyone on how things are going with everything I talked about in my first blog.

Firstly my fundraising is going really good, at first it wasn't so good and I wanted to give up before praying, but I prayed together with a very good friend and God started providing and telling what I needed to do so I can get the money to go, at the beginning of January I need £1000.00 to pay, now I only have £329.17 to pay and its only the beginning of March so in over two months I have raised £670.83, the only way I have done this is by praying and having support from family and friends. The ways I have raised this money is by babysitting and working.

Secondly, I HAD MY JABS, YAY!!!  In my last blog I was talking about needing jabs and tablets for India, well I had all my jabs apart from one which I don’t need until June just before we go, and the best bit of having my jabs was that I wasn’t ill like I normally am, which was amazing. Having my jabs makes it exciting because I am one step closer to going to India, whoop whoop. I also have my malaria tablets, I have got the ones called doxycycline which I think most of the team are going to be taking.

Overall, things are going well with fundraising and the medical side of things, I think we will be doing our visas soon which is exciting but also very stressful for us and our leaders to sort out, so I ask for prayer for that. I also ask for prayer for the team to be united before we go away to India. 

It’s Finally Time!

Even since I was 14 years old I wanted to go to India with Christchurch youth but my Mum has always said no because she worries about me being okay, but it wasn’t until 2012 when I was applying for India summer mission 2013 she said I could go.  Then I suddenly had God saying no because he didn’t wants us going to India he want us as a youth to do something else, just like we did. So back in October 2013 when the application form came out for India 2014 I felt straight away this is the year and it was right my mum and God both said YES!!

When I’m on the team India I’m so excited because I cant wait to develop the relationships I have with the rest of the team stronger and being there for each other when we are struggle when we are out in India. I’m always really excited seeing all the kids and serving them, I have heard so much about the India mission and how fun it is to play and spend time with the kids, and now it just makes me so excited that that I get to see what everyone is talking about when I go out in the summer of 2014.

Even though I’m excited about going to India, I am also really scared. The main reason is that it my first time going to India. I’m always scared that I’m going to miss my Mum and family. Going on mission to India does mean that we need things, jabs and tablets so that we don’t get ill. I’m not scared of jabs but they don’t like me, the doctor has to lay me down and leave me there up to half and hour after the jab this because my sugar levels go really low and this is what really scares me getting them done, so prayer for this would be amazing. I am not that keen on curry but the more I eat it the more I’m starting to like it, so I’m hoping that by the summer I will like it like other food.

One of the big things I’m scared of is getting the money so that I can go to India.

Fundraising is really hard and trying to work out what I should do for fundraising is really hard. I keep writing to my college asking to do cake sale but not getting anywhere at the moment. The only way which is keeping me going and not giving up on fundraising is the support of my friends/team and praying to God asking him for his help.

Overall I feel excited about going to India because we have a great team and a lot of us are going for the first time, which makes everything even more exciting. We have to two great people (Sophie and Ian) leading the team to India, which is also really exciting. I think the main thing I need and also the team needs is prayer and lots of it. I think the things I need prayer for are jabs and fundraising.

Dani