INDIA PROM 2009!

Hey Portland Slumdogs!
Jess and Ash here... Quick recap about yesterday's happenings. Started the morning off taking care of the kids, getting them ready for the day, and no big deal... there was a pleasant poop surprise under one of our little ladies' dress.

We were able to draw pictures with the kids, help them with writing, and played a few hand games.



Some of the ladies spent the day cooking an "American meal" for the team and Irene and Roshan. Some others spent part of the afternoon finishing up last minute details for our sarees.
The rain has been coming down really hard and the boys spent the day fixing the holes in the roof. After a long, but fun afternoon, we came home to a fresh, home-made meal: mango salsa, guacamole, and vegetable salad. The beef for the tacos was so fresh that apparently it was slaughtered 15 minutes before we purchased it..?

Later that night, after cleaning and helping around, us ladies were able to play dress up! It felt like Prom night all over again... India style.... We got the opportunity to feed the kids in our sarees. They were so excited to see us dressed up, they were screaming "Supaaaa!" and applauding us.

It's beginning to be more and more of a struggle to tuck the kids in bed and say goodnight to them as we've grown closer to them each day. The concept of time has completely escaped us, and it still hasn't hit us that we're leaving them Saturday... These beautiful kids have become our teachers... We came here to bless them, but more often than not, we feel as though we've been blessed. We try and serve them, but they insist on serving us. We have all learned so much from these kids. All the things we worry about on a daily basis seem so trivial as this place: Happy Home, has been a place of provision and God's grace.




There's so much more we have to share with you all when we get home. Thank you for your prayers. We are all healthy and we look forward to this next week to see what else God has for us.

His therefore yours,
Ashley and Jess.

ps the picutures

Rainy Days

Hey everyone, first of all thanks so much for all your prayers! As our stay at Happy Home is drawing close to an end, we all have felt the Lord's presence and heard Him speak to us in many ways. Yesterday, during our devotional time, we all clearly felt the Lord realigning our focus with His heart, breaking our hearts for what breaks His. The selfless work that Irene, Roshan and the staff do everyday is amazing and tireless. The Lord is truly doing a great work here at Happy Home.



Our day started out with half the team arriving early to help wake up the kids. The morning chores included brushing teeth, washing, and moping floors. The monsoon rains returned full blast and poured down heavy all morning. The rest of the team came at 8:00 and we joined the kids in some praise songs in the classroom. We were excited to welcome back a little girl that had left a few weeks ago because of Tuberculosis. Roshan told us that this little girl and her two sisters had been rescued from being sold into the sex trade. All of us felt so thankful that they were safe and in a place where they are loved and valued.

After many waves, hugs, and high fives, we sent the older kids off to school. We all thought it would be fun to come up with a treat for them in the afternoon so, after creating quite a long list of supplies, we sent Roshan and Mike off to the market to get some fruit and ingredients to make "no bake cookies" (a good American treat). When they got back, some of the girls came together to cut up the fruit and prep it to make a huge bowl of fruit salad for the kiddos. We all thought it was pretty ironic that the apples in fact came from Washington state, a little taste of home. The kids could smell the wonderful fruit and kept trying to get in the door :) Here are some photos of us serving the fruit and the kids eating:





Next on the agenda for the day, Kellie and myself roasted peanuts to make homemade peanut butter. The 'no-bake cookies' reicpe calls for peanut butter, but India markets don't seem to carry this essential product. Therefore, we decided to make our own. Roshan bought us the peanuts and we got to roast them. After much stirring they were finally ready, and they tasted really good if I do say so myself. :) Tomorrow we are going to grind them and hopefully come out with something similar to peanut butter for our cookies.



The rest of the day was filled with playing and loving on the kids. Because of the monsoon rains, the older kids were sent home from school for today and tomorrow. It was nice for us to be all together to play! Towards the end of the day, the guys had to venture off to try and fix some leaks in the roof, which also caused some of the kids to have to sleep in the classroom. A few of the kids are getting sick, because of the weather here, so it would be amazing if you all could pray for their healing. Although there were many power outages and lots of rain, it was a great day altogether. Even though some of the children are sick. the team as a whole is healthy and happy to be here. We miss you all and are excited to see you in a week!





-Kellie and Emma

Bats and Jog Falls...

Hello there loved ones!!

Another exciting day here at Happy Home (and the surrounding area)! But before we go into today we have to share an event that happened last night after the blog was written. For the past several nights we have been admiring the HUGE bats flying over Happy Home, who sleep in the tree in the center of the courtyard, and last night Edwin, Irene's brother, shot one out of the tree with a pellet gun. Roshan, a lover of animals, was upset with him, but the bat was mostly just stunned by the combination of lights and the pellet gun and flew off by this morning. It was pretty incredible to see though!



Here is a picture of the proud Edwin and his prize!

Back to today: It was another early morning visiting Happy Home, the amazing Irene and Roshan, and the incredible children. We sang a few songs, prayed to bless the meal, and served breakfast to the little ones; we never cease to be swept off our feet by the heart of the kids here, the incredible servants hearts they have for each other, and how clearly and purely we see the face of Christ in each and every one of them. What a humbling experience, being broken down in this way yet utterly fulfilled and overwhelmed by Gods love.

While we have been experiencing this love, tenderness, and mercy of Christ at Happy Home, Roshan took us on a wild ride out to Jog Falls today where we got a little glimpse into the power and might of our great God.



Here is Jog Falls...isn't it breathtaking!?!

We drove for a couple hours each way to get there, weaving in and out of cars, cattle, rickshaws, children, and stray dogs, through countryside that looked straight out of a National Geographic magazine. [On a side-note: we hire a driver to take us places since we don't have enough room in the Happy Home van, and it's incredible to see the ministry Roshan and Irene do with these Hindu drivers with their idols on the dashboard. They treat them as brothers, serving them with the love of Christ, and it is obvious they are not frequently treated in this manner. ...One of the many little "side-lessons" I feel we are learning here daily :-) ] When we arrived at Jog Falls it immediately started POURING DOWN RAIN...monsooning to an extent that even us Oregonians were taken aback by (if you can believe that)!! It was the perfect kickstart to the neverending stairwell through gorgeous greenery that led to the falls. We were stoked for the adventure, encountering friendly Indian tourists wanting to take pictures with us, aggressive monkeys battling for our snacks (turns out Mike is somewhat of a monkey-whisperer though!), and so much more.

We'll let the pictures speak for themselves from this point on, but God moves mightily in this place of such great faith, and we are so blessed to be here to experience it and offer up a little fellowship to God's servants here.







Love and miss you all, thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement!!
Blessings,
Craig, Whit, and team :-)

another AMAZING day in India!

Well hello there! We are coming to the close of yet another day here at Happy Home, and I have the task of re-telling the days events. While there wasn't any elephant riding, or monkey feeding today, there was definitely never a dull moment.


The day began with our team arriving at H.H. at 8 am, just in time for breakfast. The kids got some added entertainment today during the meal, because we had Jordan playing worship songs on guitar while we all sang along. Luckily, it seemed like the kids loved it. After that, we headed back to Irenes house to have our breakfast and devotions/prayer.

A highlight of today (at least for me) had to have been getting fresh avocados off of their tree. We are going to be making dinner for everyone here sometime this week, and we all collectively decided that having guacamole would be a must! Even though it was raining like crazy, Melissa, Anthony, Mike, Roshan and myself ventured out to get some off the tree. It was quite the experience! We ended up with 17 total!

When we were finished, the boys ventured off to do man things, and build new bathrooms and shelves for H.H.
I would argue that the girls got perhaps the better job, of being able to just hang out and love on the kids. We joined them while they were still doing class and physical therapy, but we were more than happy to help.



(Kellie helping with the therapy)



(Ashley helping with the schoolwork)

And as always, no day would be complete if these amazing kids didnt do a dance (or two!) for us!



The rest of the day was filled with more laughing, playing, mopping, sweeping, rain, and being incredibly blessed by everyone here. This blog doesnt even begin to explain how much happened in one day! Everyday here has been such a blessing in its own way. Tomorrow we are off to Jog Falls, which is an incredible waterfall. I hope you all are having a wonderful time back in the states!

-Emma

The most CRAZY-AWESOME 2 days yet!!!!

Hey home base! It's J-HUGE (the tall guy)

Sorry things have been crazy (in the best sense of the word) so I'll try to cover the last 2 days the best I can in this blog! A lot has happened in a short amount of time so here we go!


Anthony and I looking in the mirror at how gross we look after being sick!

Day 7----

We survived! The previous day half the team got pretty sick (I got it the worst I think, I stayed in the hotel room for around 30 hours). But today we were all "resurrected" and happy to be alive! After feeding the kids breakfast Roshan took all of us out to the "Lions and Tigers Safari." Roshan went up to the gate to pay for all of us but when Mike went up after him the price to get in went from 30 rupees each to 200 each (which 200 rupees is only like 5ish bucks but still, that's lame). Once we all got inside our tour bus monkeys pretty much surrounded us. I'm not sure but it might have something to do with throwing nuts out the window? The Safari was a lot of fun and we all got some pretty sweet pictures!



After the Safari we headed back to Happy Home for a show, i would argue, way better than the Safari! The kids had prepared a bunch of dances and skits to perform for us. It was a blast to sit and watch all these kids performing to Indian-praise-hip-hop dance music! One of the coolest parts was that some of the older kids did a skit from Mark 5 where the woman is healed by touching a corner of Jesus' garments. Mike had just taught a devotional out of that passage to us that morning! I thought that was pretty cool!



Day 8----

I have never done this much in one day as i have today! Our day started with Roshan getting us up early to go to an elephant reserve. It was INCREDIBLE! We drove out to this place and walked down to a lake straight out of the Jungle Book to see a bunch of Indian men scrubbing down elephants in the water. We got to go help wash them and sit on them and take a ton of sweet new facebook pictures. But this was only the beginning. All 14ish of us loaded onto a big canoe type thing and we went for a little boat ride along this amazing lake. On our way back it started pouring down rain and on top of that Roshan almost flipped the boat over! It more just added to the adventure but if Rosh had flipped us over we would have all been pretty unhappy!




After taking a few more pictures with our elephant friends we took off to see the new property for the new Happy Home. It started raining again so we couldn't stay long, but we all huddled up in our rain jackets and our feet literally covered in mud and prayed over the land. Keep praying that everything will come together in the building of the new Happy Home!




As we were returning to Happy Home Roshan decided to take the scenic route back. However, driving this way with Roshan reminded most of us of the Indiana Jones ride in Disney World. We ended up getting to a part of the road where the mud was SUPER deep so Rosh tried powering through it in his little but mighty van. However, we got stuck. Really stuck. For the guys though, it ended up being a really fun bonding experience as we pushed and lifted this little van out of the mud. It was quite the adventure!




We got back to Happy Home to hang out with kiddos, mop some floors and the MEN are working on building a medicine cabinet and fixing up the bathrooms. Just another eventful couple days at a very special place in this world. :)

Thanks for all your prayers friends and family! Your posts are a huge encouragement (we all sit and read them together)! We are all learning and growing so much each day we spend here! I'm sure there will be tons more stories to tell once we get back about all that God has showed us during this time. Thanks again to all to all you guys! Be blessed!

Jordan HUGE

A day of rest and other India Adventures!

Hello friends and family! It's Jess!

We are several hours into Day 6. Yesterday most of the team was down and out sick. But praise the Lord, by His grace and mercy we are back to normal health!

Yesterday, we got the chance to wake up early and greet the BEAUTIFUL children and feed them, wash their faces, and get them ready for the day. I can say on behalf of everyone that we are learning more from the children than they are learning from us. It's so cool that although communication should be a barrier between us and the children, love is the common language that ties us and we are yoked together even still.

Here are some of the kids making silly faces!



Watching the children sit in their perfect rows, singing us songs while waiting patiently for their meals taught me a huge lesson. I looked at their throats (as weird as that sounds) and it was so precious to see the strain on their faces. It was convicting to see even little children sing of the Lord with their whole hearts; with their whole being. It was such a reminder of true worship, and how as we get older we start to fear man above the Lord. It was such a beautiful picture and a sweet reminder.

We were able to go shopping downtown. It was awesome to see a different part of Shimoga. Probably my favorite part of the trip was seeing sweet Irene "takin' care of business (as Melissa would say)." It was fun to watch her barter for a good bargain. :)


A few of us bought rad Indian tunics and beautiful Saree's!


As the day went on, more people began to feel sick, so we dedicated the rest of the day to rest, fellowship, and time with the Lord. We also got to watch Roshan sing a "worship remix!" He sang "Anchor of My Soul" as a rap! SO awesome!


We love you guys. Thank you so much for all the prayers, comment, and emails. Every day a part of us is being broken and it's so freeing to let go. God is teaching us so much about Himself and so much about His heart. It's a funny feeling.... Feeling like we've been here forever- in a good, comfortable way. :) but at the same time, feeling like we just got here! God is at work and it's so cool to watch and be a part of it!

Grace, Peace, and many blessings!!!
Jessica

This one's for ya Allison! Chitra! :)

Learning the Ropes...

Once the kids were off to school today, it was time to prepare the afternoon meal. As the girls were cutting up onions, smoke was billowing from the kitchen... and the combination caused many tears to fall. Once lunch was cooking, it was off to wash laundry. As the monsoon rains came down, the girls beat the clothes over rocks and hung them "to dry" on clotheslines in the open courtyard. The chickens watched in suspicion...

Meanwhile the boys ventured off in search of supplies to build a roof for the new bathrooms. They also bought tools to build a medicine cabinet and to reinforce the bathroom walls. When they came back we all served the kids their lunch of rice and curry.



Speech therapy class followed soon after lunch, but quickly turned into an energetic routine of song and dance, with the kids grooving to Father Abraham and the Hokey Pokey. After dancing for a bit, Kellie brought out stories and stickers. STICKERS were the BIG HIT!



It was amazing to see each child's face light up at the sight of a colorful sticker. They marched around the room proudly showcasing their stickers as if they were badges of honor. The room was filled with happy chatter (all of which we did not understand) as they placed them on their cheeks, chests and cherub-like faces.



They also were thrilled with story books galore that afternoon. ABC books, farm animals and counting filled several hours. It struck us that even though they could not read the words, every child was delighted with the books. They looked at the pictures and asked us to read them over and over.



As the rain continued to pour down, a friend of Roshan's climbed the palms to toss down some coconuts. The guys likened it to catching bowling balls mid air. Coconut is used in many of the dished here. We also got to sample a bit of fresh coconut meat!



The day wrapped up with the kids coming home from school and a late dinner. Looking back on this day we are still in awe of the children's pure joy in simple pleasures. They have so little and yet they love life and jump so quickly at any opportunity to help one another. The love of Jesus shines through their faces. This truly is a happy home!

We are home at Happy Home!

We are finally here! After months of planning calls back and forth to India and our other family in Shimoga it all became a reality as we loaded 26 X 50 lbs bags onto our 10 hour flight to Frankfurt and a 9 hour flight to Bangalore. Thank you everyone for your prayers on getting us here safely. We arrived on time and all together in one peace. Once we arrived in Bangalore we had a short 7 hour bus ride to Happy Home.


This is everyone at the Portland airport.


Our short layover in Frankfurt. We started our bible study through the book of Esther here and had many people bend an ear to our discussion on Gods word.

We arrived at 7:30 am to happy home after roughly 30 hours of travel just in time to start the day... All of the kids were waiting eagerly for us to come and meet them all. This was profound experience. All of the pictures we see do not do justice the beauty of these children. It is impossible not to get wrapped up in God's heart for the orphan and the fatherless when you are embraced with such a pure love and never ending hugs.


We were welcomed with flowers and coffee (so good, better than peets)



Just in time for breakfast!


The walls each of us had built up in our own lives started to break immediately. This has become home and the name is fitting, this truly is a "Happy Home". Roshan and Irene have welcomed us in as brothers and sisters, sons and daughters. Gods hand is upon this place in such a power way. You start to see a bigger glimpse of the size of God when you enter into to His work in such a pure way.


Roshan has been teaching some martial arts to a few of the kids

We have a full day ahead of us, waking up the kids, bushing teeth and washing faces, school and breakfast, dishes and moping and that will only bring us to 10am. The family does this tirelessly day in and day our 365 days a year with such a joy. It has given me a new understanding of God's word "The joy of the Lord in my strength". The family here prays for you daily and thanks God for there family at Solid Rock for all that God is doing through you.



Jordan is the jungle gym of the team.


This is our faces after driving with Roshan through Shimoga...

God, break our heart for what breaks Yours.

We will now be reading this blog and writing something new each day so please continue to pray that God would lead and guide each of our steps as we humbly submit to His will for us over these nesxt few weeks.

In His Grace,

Mike Melissa, Craig, Whitney, Ashley, Danah, Emma, Jessica, Kellie, Jordan, Anothony Bob,