Prayer, Dance Parties, Sarees, and Elephants!!

Hello again everybody! Well, Day 5 (yesterday) was another rad day here in Shimoga. Again it started out with some worship in Irene's living room before breakfast. Ben opened it up for people to share what God has been teaching them so far. It was really rad. The consistant theme was definitely "waiting" and "rest." Waiting on God, learning to just rest in His presence, remembering that His timing is perfect. We talked about living out the saying "as the Lord wills." We see that so evident in Roshan and Irene and Reema, and we are all desiring it to be an integral theme in our individual lives.

After breakfast, the guys set about renting a taxi to take us out to the potential new property.....and in the meantime the girls were left in the house with nothing to do....so, naturally, we decided to have a DANCE PARTY!! We started by trying to learn some traditional dances from Reema, but in ended up just being a free-for-all :)

Featuring Manni in the middle :)


This is Edwin...he works on the property here...and he can DANCE!


Jeanne and Manni spent the morning working in Irene's front garden.


Jeanne has the best sense of humour! I absolutely love taking photos of her :) I very much wish I could take credit for this one, but actually it was Tiff who captured the moment :)


John and Theresa and Irene



We took a bus out to the new property to pray over it and have some worship time. It was the first time Irene and Reema had ever seen it!! This place is so beautiful. It is 8 acres, borders a lake, and has rich, fertile soil. Rice paddies on either side, and open land for as far as we could see. No noise or polution from the city....here it is so quiet, with the only sound being the wind on the grass, and the water on the shore of the lake. We can just envision how much the kids would love living here. Our prayer and worship time was extensive and powerful.













After we got back we hung out with the kids a bit, ate, then went back into town so the girls could buy sarees. I regret to say that I left my camera back at Happy Home for this endeavor because it was deluging rain when we left and I didn't think it would stop. Of course, as soon as we got to the Sari place, it stayed dry for the rest of the night. O ye of little faith, right? I won't make that mistake again! Also on our adventure getting food in town, we saw an elephant!! It was just cruising up the street with a guy riding it and guiding it along with a stick! When he saw us gawking out the car windown, he guided the elephant over to our car, and it reached it's trunk INSIDE THE CAR!! I touched it! It was kind of rough and coarse-hairy feeling. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience.....although Roshan swears he can find another one for us to see. So maybe I will have my camera then :)

Anyway.....here are some more pictures of our day....
















Kait and Melis eating our amazing dinner of Masalla Dosa




All in all, it was a great day.....but we do have some prayer requests:

First and foremost, we are experiencing what we think is some spiritualyh attack. Ben and Jeremy started feeling a bit sick, Amanda had a pretty severe headache, requiring her to have to stay home from the Sari expedition and rest, and a few of us (myself included) just experienced some unrest and disquiet in our spirits. We have been praying about it and would ask you all to do the same. This is no coincidence that this is happening on the eve of 7/7/07, on the eve of the decision about the property, or just when our bodies are starting to wear down a bit from the jet lag, from the new food, new weatherl, etc. We are all doing great this morning, feeling encouraged, but we would ask that you continue to pray prayers of spiritual protection on us. Pray that we would see Truth, see Satan's hand for what it is, and be lights in a dark place. The darkness is truly everywhere here.....from the many idols on walls, in the taxi, at our hotel, even on the street that we walk on between the hotel and Happy Home, to the Hindu temples that we pass on the streets. But it is a place like this that Christ's light can be seen all the more. Happy Home is truly a beacon on a hill in Shimoga. So pray for us, pray for Happy Home, pray for the people that we come in contact with.

Thank you all so much....

love,

Rebekah

Don't worry about Ben and Amanda and Jer and the health of the rest of us. I am playing "Dr Bekah" and doling out the necessary meds, giving vitamins to everyone, and making them all drink tons of water and admonishing them all to stay away from uncooked fruit and veggies, street vendor food, etc . I'm doing my best to keep them all healthy :)