Meat on a stick

Thailand was an amazing experience and really opened my eyes to the way the God is working in other parts of the world and how there is such a need. The sin in Thailand was so think it was hard to process. I thought that I was going to go and have selfishly unwind there with..
Thai fashion

Thai food

MALLS

McDonald's

Thai massages

But.........

God on the other hand wanted to show me something else.

I am not sure how to even talk about what I saw but please do Pray for Thailand!

Pray that missionaries go and make the invisible Kingdom visible.

DONE!

I am sorry that I have not posted anything lately, it has been crazy.
As I was wrapping everything up, I was amazed by the peace that I had as I was leaving. I really thought that I was going to be in India for the next 10 years. My pastor said that he felt that I was to be there for a season, but that I would return. I was not to sure. Yet, around January, things began to change. I really saw that I was not needed there as much as I used to be. Which is such a good thing. I really felt a calling at home and knew that was the direction that God was taking me.

The last two weeks I was able to finish EVERYTHING that I had started.

The boys finished all their homework in one week which was supposed to take them 6 weeks to do.
Susanna finished so well!!! She was reading, understanding, and could speak English so well.
Thapa. who struggled in math, worked so hard and did ALL his holiday homework.
I finished my garden that I had been working so hard on.
I got all the materials organized for school.

I am not looking for praise, I want to praise God for the amazing opportunity that I had with the boys.

The peace that I have is only from God because I love and miss the boys but I know that God has different plans for me.

"Hogaya"

Hogaya means finished

Friday was the last day of school, Praise Jesus. No more being unorganized, waking up at 6 in the morning by the buses, or having to control 35 crazy kids that can not understand me. I am going to miss the kids that I worked the most with. I have peace about all the work that I did at school. I gave it ALL that I had.

I was excited to see the change in the kids. The kids loved learning about Moses and everytime I walked in they would start to scream, "Moses story!" Yash, one of my favorites, when I would ask about what they ate in the desert he would always shout out, "Manna, What is this?" I was excited about teaching them Old Testament, my favorite, and the students really got into it. One of the parents wrote...

Thank you for arousing the eagerness of writing and reading sprit in my daughters conscious.

I really feel that my mission that I set off for is complete. The students are excited about both Jesus and reading, the two loves of my life.

Now it is 3 hours a day of holiday homework before the boys go home. Last night, we all watched Little Rascals, the boys loved it. We plan to spend all of our time loving on the boys as we make our exit. Katie left on Sunday, but I will see her in Chicago and Kalana leaves on Wednesday. It is weird to see everyone go, since it feels like we just got here. The boys keep saying, Goodbye, even though we have not left. Sorry, boys you are stuck with us for another week.

comfort

The other morning I heard all this giggling coming from the neighbors when I got up to see what it was I saw the father plowing his field with a cow and his two daughters sitting on the plow laughing away. It was so cute.

When in the states am I going to see that?

Even though it will be the hardest thing to leave this place I have peace in my heart about going home. I also know that I am going to struggle with reentry. Last night as I got a spoonful of way too salty potatoes, I realized how comfortable it is at home. If I do not like something at home to eat, I can go to our huge fridge and pick something else out, or hop in the car and get anything my heart desire. I want to bring simplicity of India home. I want to not always fuss over everything and depend on Jesus for comfort, not food or friends.

27 Reasons that this was the BEST Birthday Ever

27. All the boys dressed up and were not crabby about it.

26. It was a beautiful day.

25. The Tooth Fairy came. " I do believe in Fairies I do, I do."

24. I had 3 parties.

23. I made a three layer cake.

22. My best friend was with me.

21. I wore the coolest wedding bindis in the world.

20. We had a parade.

19. Billy Bob teeth.

18. Girls were able to dress up like princesses.

17. Boys were able to dress up like their favorite superhero.

16. We all watched Planet 51 together.

15. Everyone got a huge plate of chowmein.

14. We served three colors of Jello.

13. I had amazing cold coffee, very rare, but amazing on a warm day.

12. The boys made me so many cards.

Miraj wrote, "you help us in H W (homework)

you help us in stuies (studies)

you are faithful

you are kind"

11. The kids at school also made cards. ( they need a little help in writing)

you are my Best teacher I like you very much
you tell us good thing and about God How give us live to home and life thank you to God and Jesus to Help the poor people tearcher plese pray to God for me and us. Thank you Nandi

10. We had a huge fruit salad.

9. It cost me $ 20 to feed 60 people dinner and lunch. (You can not do that in the states.)

8. Nanda was super nice. Instead of kicking me out of te room he said that I could stay because it was my birthday.

7. Friday night when I went for dinner the boys had covered the whole porch with chalk that said "Happy Birthday, Kelly Mam." There was also drawings of my cat.

6. It rained so the mountains were beautiful and the weather was perfect.

5. I wore a crown for two days!

4. All the girls got ready together. My favorite part is running up stairs and downstairs sharing make up clothes, pulling random things together to make costumes. We are not working with much here.

3. I am older, wiser, a Christian, well traveled, but feel the same as I did for my 22^nd Birthday.

2. I get to have another party with my friends and family when I get home.

1. Shubaum, the boy that I am probally the closest too, dressed up like Wolverine. We had been having problems the last week with him being nasty to me. One afternoon he said that he hated all the volunteers, hated our cakes, wanted us to go home, and was not going to make me a card. He was SO mad that when I was teasing him and hugged him, he burst into tears. BUT, even though he is very shy he wore no shirt and was MY favorite super hero. He truly is the love of my life!!!!!!! I will miss him more than he will ever imagine, but I was able to spend this birthday with him again.

Ashutosh

Ashutosh, so cute, said the other day to Kara,
"Mam, I was thinking the other day and wishing that I was so small that I could fit into someone’s pocket."

He is so precious.

Unfortunately. he comes from a really bad situation at home. His father is a Hindu priest and he has the Fairy Tale horrible step mother that beats him. He really did not want to go home last year and has mentioned before that he rather stay at the farm as the other boys go to their homes for two weeks. We talked to the leadership and they said that was a possibility. The boys are so blessed to have this safe haven here.

Please Pray that his father will let him stay and does not take him away, as that is a possibility.

Also pray that all the boys are protected when they go home and they ALL return. Two to Three boys will not return every summer. Please Pray against this, they have so many opportunities to do something with teir lives, as long as, they stay here.

Piñatas, Parties, and Persian Rugs

Watch out Thapa's gotta stick

the "Eiffel Tower"

my girls in 4th class

Can Ajay be an cuter?

Last week was so busy. During the past 6 weeks of the summer session we have been doing more "hands on" work. We had a History Fair the first part of the session. Then last week we had a Geography Fair. My 4^th class worked on Iran. It was really cool to learn about Iran, and I really want to go. The architecture is amazing. I had the class make a huge mosaic of a city and we worked on Persian Rugs. It turned out really cool, but was a lot of work. Amanda’s group did Mexico, Katie’s class did Japan, and Kara’s class did France. The Eiffle Tower turned out to look like a rocket, very Indian. Kara said that she had nothing to do with it.

Mexico

After the fair we had a Birthday Bash. Since all the volunteers birthdays are so close together we had a big party with all the boys. Pinata’s, chow mein, and soda! I could not move, but then we had a fire and made smores. The boys and I had so much fun! I am planning on having a super hero and princess party this weekend. You can never have too many parties!!!!! All the Birthday Girls

"Who am I?"

"Who am I?"

Is a question that you might hear from one of the boys every other day. The answers vary from...

I am the hero of the zero

I am Bhorot Thapa

I am a child of God.

I, on the other hand has to answer, I am selfish.

I say about a million times a day, "Sharing is Caring!" But as the boys pointed out, "Kelly Mam always says, "Sharing is Caring, but when she has something that she doesn’t want to share she says, "Sharing is not caring in this situation."

CONVICTED!!!!

Okay so true I did not want to share my food. But as I talk about going home it is ALL about me.

I am going to miss this place.

I really need a strong community.

I will miss the boys.

Pray for ME, ME, Me!

As I read through Ruth the prayer are never for themselves it is always for someone else. I do not have the same prayer life. I thought that the boys will not miss me. I thought that they would be glad not to hear my silly saying, listen to the songs that I have made for them, or nag them to brush their teeth because they might fall out.

It hit me yesterday after Susanna’s mom said that she is counting down the days that we are going to be together, that even though I am super selfish, I am loved.

Pray for me. tee hee.

We can do it!

I did it!!!!!!! I can live without all the things that I thought I needed- a good job, a car, my friends and family- ( I really do miss the last two!) But I know that I can do anything.

It has been fun living with 7 other girls and doing life with them. All of our lives are different but we all have a common goal-

Please God and go in HIS direction not our own.

Amanda has been struggling to figure out direction in her life. She is such an inspiration to me. She has said, "I really want my life to matter." I have learned so much from her.

There is a seventeen year old girl here that has come on not the best circumstances. She has been helping with the boys, at the school, and also preparing for testing as soon as she gets back to school. She has been here for a month now and is admitting that she is really proud that she has been able to do it. She was taking away from everything one of the hardest blows was that she was a way for her social life. The girls did have prom for her. I am really proud of her.

The other girls Katie and Kalana had every choice that you could imagine but choose to come to India. They too had to give up their social life, dating, everything to grow up have a ton of responsibilities and help take care of 16 crazy boys that are not always nice to them. I could not have done it at their age.

Iam so glad that I have had the opportunity to share live with these girls. I am really going to miss them!

HOW?

How am I going to find a balance between my life here and my life at home?

How am I ever going to grow up?

How am I going to save the world?

How am I ever going to change?

How am I going eat everything at once when I get home?

How will ever find someone?

How did I get lice?????

How can I have million babies that never grow up?

How do you raise good kids?

How does Jesus love me so much after all that I have

done

I know one answer

God is love 1 John 4:8.

That is all that matters!

Fractions

I did the I love Jesus

The boys love to take pictures. I can see you, Rahul.

We did stations of Jesus's life, as the other groups went the boys had time to draw with sidewalk chalk.

trekking, or eating as much as possible

I feel like I am half here and half home.

I call them half days. It was so much fun to have my sister here and to hear about everything that is going on at home, but not that the countdown has begun- the last trip to Mussorri was this weekend. It is hard to be all here. I am excited but also really scared to go home. I have been here for so long it is hard to think that I will not be with the boys and living the farm life. I have been waking up in a bad mood because I have to boil the milk again and the laundry is still in the same bucket that it was in the other day. I am missing the washing machine, my car, and my friends. I love the girls here but I really miss my friends and my life. I know from past experiences that I am not going to sugar coat all my relationships because I know that everyone else has moved on and I am in Never Land.

Easter was a half- half day. Being here with the boys on holidays is a lot of fun, but I missed the sun rise service and the sheep but looks like a dog cake. It was a good time to really reflect what Jesus did for me. I want to be WHOLE. Not a good Christan one day and other day hope that Jesus can not hear my thoughts.

Pray

that I am in one place and my heart is all here as the countdown to going home starts to creep up on me.

I am back.

I am sorry that I have not posted anything in so long. I have had a nightmare with the password. But in the end Jesus came through !!! I had given up on ever getting my password and a hacker guy here said the same thing, but in the morning I woke up and there was an email that said, " Here is your new password" I quickly typed it in ( since electricity is limited) and ta da it worked !!!! So a lot has happened in the past 6 weeks. I have lots of pictures and stories, but where to begin?

Testing is over!

School is out for the next two weeks- Ashish announced at Friday devotions that he wanted to praise God for passing him and he is now in First classes.

Shubaum and Thapa studied soooo hard and Thapa got 22 out of 25 on his Science test. Thapa is special needs, but I let him use that as an excluse. He does need help with math. NEVER ask him a question about numbers. The teacher said that he had finished too fast and did not know the topic. She asked him, "How many bones do you have in your body?" Opps, wrong question. He said 2. But with this test score his teacher was so proud of him. The week before she came up to me and was complaining that he was not studying and not answering questions in class. I assured her that he was studying and the test score showed how hard he worked.

My first class all did so well on their test. They now know so much English and are asking questions, which is a really big deal.

Susanna got a 87% on her test- last year she got a 10%- it is amazing to see so much improvement.

All the boys did so well,

Praise God!!!

From choices to PEACE

Since I got here in August I have been praying about what to do with my life. I really thought that I was going to be here forever. But I really feel that God is has a different plan for me. I am so excited to have seen so much change over the past couple of months, but I really want to do more and that is not really an option. The boys here are so blessed. They have amazing house parents, a good school, they life with their best friends.

The sky is the limit.

Over the test time one of the boys from school snuck over to see where the boys lived. I am very protective of them and was scared of what an outsider would think. But I am not a boy. He thought that it was so cool to live with 14 other boys and he said, "this is so cool, you get everything for free." Not really ,but he is only in thrid grade, so I do not think he fully understands.

I feel that God is pulling to help other kids that do not have a Shishya.

Please pray that God opens doors for me when I get back.

Shishya Summer

The seasons change so quickly here that the trees are even confused. Some of the trees are in full bloom and are beautiful, while others the leaves are coming off as if it is fall. It has been fun
hanging out with the pools and not having all the pressure of exams. We have played Uno and I taught them Slap. It is nice to have lunch in the shade and dinner and devotions out on the porch. We have new story books thanks to Diane and have been reading those. The pool is such a relief. It is such a blessing to have this time with the boys.

I am enjoying now before monsoon season starts and it becomes to hot to even think.

I heart my sister!

Diane came to India!!!!

It has been a whirl wind the past ten days. I took a overnight down to Delhi to get her and then off for a day of shopping in the market. Not a lot of shopping with her because of jet lag, but then off to the Taj Mahal. Diane said that, We go to places that people dream about." It was amazing! I have never seen anything so bright. After a million pictures, you need to make sure that you get the perfect shot. We spent the rest of the day loughing around. Then back to Delhi and than ALL the way to the farm.
It was so fun for her to met all the boys that I have been talking about and see what my day to day life consist of. Which includes waking up early to fill up your water bottles, watering the plants,. No you can not wear that, and spending time reading with the boys. She said that she has never seen kids run to read stories.

I had so much fun with her and am excited to spent the summer with her!

Relief

Why I am here....

I love to celebrate Birthdays,

I love there little personalities,

I love them even though they are always killing each other,

I love them because they are all special and unique,

I love them because they love me.( even if they do not show it all the time.)

I am finally back to NORMAL!!!

The last three weeks have been hard with school, helping te new girls with their transition, and the boys have not had the best attitutes. It was really hard the other day when I hard a really hard morning, day, after noon, and then went to the boys house and they were teasing by hiding and closing the door on me. I was really upset. I have been trying to teach them about respecting people and all the things that they have. I really did not need a door in the face, even though, they said that they were playing.

I just had a dark cloud over me. On top of it Uncle was gone for the past couple weeks so the boys get away with more. It is so good to have him back! I woke up so much better. Thank you for those that have been praying for me and those that I know I can always call on. Continue to pray for me and all the girls.

I need Joy, joy, Joy, Joy Back in my life.

So month two in the year and my New Years Resolution, JOY, as gone down the drain. I thought that you stop your resolution in March, I have not made it, even to there. I am working with a class that will not sit down, I give them a test but they fail because they can not read, and I am tried all the time. I feel like there is a huge mountain in front of me and every time so go up a little bit, I realize that another student is having a really hard time, and fall down again. I thought that it was going to be smooth sailing because we would have so many volunteers, but now this just the two of us helping with 14 boys, trying to get all their homework done. It is so stressful. I feel like it is always rushed and I know that the boys feel it too.

I have been praying a feel better, but pray that I get my JOY back.

PLEASE PRAY FOR GOOD TEACHERS WE ARE SO SHORT AT SCHOOL.

boys will be boys

What is with boys and fighting. I love being with the boys, but I do not get the whole fighting thing. When we went to Goa the boys that we went with all they wanted to do was wrestle. It is something that I will never understand. I guess I could join in, but I really do not want to get hurt.

So last week the boys had these little winter gloves and were calling them boxing gloves and invivted me to their boxing match. I the past they would put on ALL their clothes and be sumo wrestlers. They had so many clothes that they were not able to put their arms down. So cute. In the "boxing match" Thapa and Shubaum would swing at each other, they would do the little boxer dance, and would fall on the ground. Predeep would encourage them and play his little bango, that he made out of a old paddle ball paddle. In the middle of the fight little Ratan came in with chai. You can not have any kind of meeting with out chai. So here comes Ratan with the top of a pot filled with cups that were filled with water.

He was super cute.

I realized how blessed I am to be spending these play times with the boys. I really want to press the Pause button and not let them grow up Ajay scolded Bharat for eating after we had all finished, because he did not have good manners. I thought, Wow, they are such little gentlemen.

But, wait, wait, wait!!!!

Ajay, Shubaum, and Predeep could not watch the movie because they were all in punishment for saying a bad word. My thought of them being perfect little gentlemen went out the window.

There here!!!

On the way home from Goa the train was over 6 hours late, yes 58 hours on the train not fun. But, we had to run to make the next train plus pick up the new volunteers. The train stop we said, "Good Bye" to Frieda's family and rushed off to the next train station. Of course the taxi after we got all of our stuff in it would not start. YIKES. But, it got started and we were off. But at a major stop light the taxi again broke down. Asher had to get out a push the taxi, What would we do without him? We made it, but of course we sat there for another hour. They are always late. But we met everyone and it all worked out.
Katie from England is an artist, super cool!!! She is really a answer to my prayers. I am excited to learn more about her. She is really funny.
Kara and Jeremy are from the states, it is really cool to have a couple here. It helps me grow as a person to see Christians do life together. He is really sweet and is a "handy man" so he will be a really good since there is so much work to do on the farm. Kara is excited about teaching and she brought a lot of teaching material.
I have been waiting and praying for them for months, so it is excited for them to finally be here.

Praise God for them!!!!!!

Chillaxing in Goa.

Goa is the most beatiful place in the world. It was such a blessing to go and to see what I call, "India's best kept secret." The days consisted of swimming, eating, and more swimming. I actually had a real Hamburger. It was good to feel like I was at home wearing make up and putting on a dress. You don't realize how much you need a break until you are in the middle of it. It was also a good time to quite down and think about the last year, and my plans for the future. I realized that I feel the most like Kelly, being busy. It was something that I have been struggling with but now I have more peace about it. I will post pictures as soon as I can.

I've got the joy, joy, joy joy, down in my heart....

My New Years Resolution is JOY.

J esus, o thers, y ourself.

If you see me and I am not being joyful...please call me out on it.

Lonely, but not alone.

All the other volunteers left on Saturday the 19^th in the afternoon. That night as I was walking to the boys house, I almost started to cry. I was all alone!! But the second I got near the boys house, Anshuman screamed, "Mam, are you lonely?" Followed by a parade of questions...

What is this?

What is that?

When are you leaving?

When are we going to do our holiday homework?

I need paper!!!! No, No, I need white paper. Chart Paper!!!

I need lice shampoo, my head is itching.

Even though having all the girls here is such a blessing and when school is going on. I now know that I CAN DO this. I thought that I needed the girls, but I am selfish and I love having all the boys to myself, if only for a little bit.

They were so cute, I came in and the tackled me. They told me all about their families, which they never talk about. They said, " we are supposed to talk about our families, right?" It is really cool to hear them open up.

I am keeping myself busy. I got back into gardening, which I love to do. You gotta see this place. It is a process but they let me do anything so I am loving it.

I am off the week to the beautiful beaches of Goa. Please Pray that I use this time to really pray about where God is leading me. I seem to always be busy, I really need time to stop and quite down. You all know that I can busy myself in a box.