Reverse Culture Shock

For those of you who don't know, I moved "home" to Nashville, TN from my "home" in Siliguri, India on June 13 (hence the blog's name change...India to Nashville).  Haven't been in Nashville much because of traveling but enjoying seeing my family on a regular basis and even some sweet friends.  Here are some reflections from the past few weeks...

*105 degrees feels awesome in a dress or shorts/tank top.  So I'm the only one sitting outside of Frothy Monkey.  But that's ok because sweating reminds me of India.  And I'm thankful I don't have to wear jeans and a sleeved shirt :)

*I've found myself bobbling my head when I really agree with someone...the Indian head bobble, oh my, it's in my blood.  Hilarious.  Especially when I'm with someone I don't know and can't just say "India."  see an informative video...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ0SuD_ulVk

*I miss eating rice with my hands

*I've almost spoken Hindi to random people at the gas station...who are not Indian

*It's not fun living out of a suitcase.  I want to jump right into life here and make it my own, but it's not really possible right now because I'll be traveling til the end of August and living with my parents til I find a place.  I know God wants me to live in these moments of uncertainty but I just want them to be done.  I want to get an apartment or house and put all my mugs in a cabinet and drink from them on my jolly, garage-sale leather couch.  God is teaching me a lot about waiting.  It's good but hard.

*Learning about long-distance relationships...no, unfortunately not that kind.  Friendships.  I have felt a lot of guilt for not "maintaining" the intensity level of friendships I had with Indians when I lived there. But it's just not possible.  Even just thinking about it is exhausting.  So I'm trying to figure out where the balance is.  Facebook is great for dropping lines every once in awhile.  An Indian calling card is good, too, when Young Life Sila has YL club and I need to talk to them about it.



*Conclusion - I need grace.  I need to receive it wholeheartedly.  Recognize I am insufficient to figure all this out but God's grace is absolutely sufficient.  I must surrender to this overwhelming, unfailing love daily.  Because my sin nature says to do the opposite and work, work, work.

Pray for me to welcome His grace as I transition to life here.

Letting Go

I am saying goodbye this week to people I love and have invested in for 3 years.  Yes, I'll see them again, Lord-willing.  But it's not the same as living in the same city day in and day out.  India is not my favorite place on earth and I'm honestly not too sad to be leaving the place...but it's people here that my heart has been forever attached to.

This week I've been reminded of the importance of handing over leadership.  As much as I don't want to believe it, staying here longer would create more dependence on me instead of reliance on God.  My good friend, and YL Sila leader, Munnu (actually my first close Indian friend) encouraged me yesterday by telling me that God has been leading her and other leaders to have more faith instead of being scared that I'm leaving.  "Unless you leave, we won't ever figure it out on our own."  We'll always depend on you and say, "Well, Megan's here so she can do it."

Me and Munnu in Nepal last September when we visited a Nepal YL camp

How true that has been.  Even me being gone for 3 weeks touring India with YL showed me how much leaders will step into roles when there is no one else to do it.  And it makes all the difference!  It is uniquely different and "Indian," the way it should be.  The way the leaders came together and pulled off the YL Sila Concert on May 26th called "BEATS" was unbelievable!  And 95% of it was without me!  I trust that God will inspire them and motivate them much more in the coming days, weeks, and years.


Another cool story: Munnu's cousin, Ernest, is a college student in Darjeeling but has decided to move to Siliguri to go to college...partly motivated by wanting to be involved with YL Sila.  He even came to our English class yesterday and jumped right into leading a group.  How grateful I am that God continues to show His faithfulness by sending the workers.

Will you take a few minutes to pray for these "workers" in Siliguri - to have faith and not fear - and that God would continue to send more workers to the harvest of teenagers?

Delhi

little sightseeing the second day we arrived

abhishek was telling people he's a famous rockstar from hollywood.  they all flocked for pics :)

yeah, india is HOT right now.  we're absolutely exhausted by 3pm.

all 4 of us on a rickshaw!

on sunday, eric played for a church's 8th anniversary.  this is the pastor and his wife.

i used all of my hindi (and they loved using their english) talking to these guys for almost an hour...yes i bought lots of shoes :)  if you want a pair, just let me know!

one of the best handicraft places in delhi

eric played for about 300 kids

saying goodbye to our sweet friends in the "band" :)

the guys in the band LOVED eric, they were such a jolly bunch!

YL Sila English Class!

This jolly group are some of the kids and leaders at our English class on Tuesday.  We started last week and had 21.  This past class we had almost 80 high school kids!  WOW!  Praise Him for this awesome group of teenagers!  And Praise Him for the leaders that sacrifice their time to teach them!

By the way, some of them are throwin' up the "YL" sign :)  So fun!

Pondering the story of Luke 5:1-11 as we "fish for teenagers."  <><

Motivation

Today I had lunch with one of our key Young Life leaders.  Her name is Javeen Rai, she's 28, and started her own school for poor children 4 years ago.  She's a CHAMP.  Because she takes risks for others and for the Jesus.  Her school has about 40 kids who pay very little, so she has very little income and pays her teachers a minimal salary.  She has also been helping us start Young Life in her part of town by spending time with high school kids...playing badminton, teaching English every Saturday, and tutoring.

As we ate at Subway, we started talking about her father.  He was the first Christian in their village.  He was 24 and was extremely sick.  One day a Christian man from a nearby town came to his house and told him about Jesus.  Her father told the man that if, after praying to Jesus, He healed him, then her father would follow Jesus.  At that point, he had been to so many doctors and no medicine or remedy had helped at all.  The next day he felt better for the first time and was completely healed.  So he committed his life to Jesus and decided he would give up everything for Him and for telling others about Him.  Before Jesus, he was as good as dead.  But this God was actually alive and had given Him life (physical and spiritual!) so he decided there was nothing he wouldn't give up for this Jesus.

So he went anywhere and everywhere to tell people who would listen about Jesus...and the transformation He brought.  Her father was an alcoholic before he met Christ but along with everything else, he left alcohol and never touched it again.  Javeen said that there was no place he wouldn't go to share Jesus.  Not only did he spread the gospel but he helped in the development of their village - roads, schools, water.  My conversation with Javeen today started because she told me that today her village is 80% Christian.  But when her father started following Jesus, he was the 1st one!  WOW!  What a legacy of faith and love he left!

Tears filled her eyes as she said that none of his children (herself included) was doing anything even close to what he did.  Oh how wrong she is!  She is sacrificing her life for the same Love that her father lived for.  And, like him, she asks for nothing in return.  She has never asked me for money.  She lives on a very small amount because she does not make much in teaching these children.  So why does she keep going?

LOVE.

Not from herself.  But from Jesus and HIS sacrificial love.  There is NO way I would be in India or Javeen doing what she does (running a school and loving teenagers through Young Life) if we were motivated by something like money or fame or man's praise.

NO.

It is Christ's love.  That deep, wide, high, and long love compels us to live for Him.  He desires that all would know Him and would experience all that He is.  So we, as followers of Jesus, seek out opportunities to be a blessing to the world in any/every way and to share Him.

¹⁴ For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵ And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

(2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

Friday, Friday, Gotta Get Down on Friday!!!

I teach a little girl named Hannah.  She's 4.  She makes up wild, fun, imaginative stories and asks about 397 questions a day.  She has a little brother, Sammy, who always wants to wrestle and roar in her face.  She also has a baby sister named Phoebe, who we affectionately call "Pheebes" and who has one giant curl on the top of her head like a "who" from a Dr. Suess book.

Anyway, Hannah didn't really want to have school today.  So I quickly tried to motivate her by saying that in honor of Friday we were going to review the letter "D" and have a little dance party.  What did we dance to?  None other than the Rebecca Black friday song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfVsfOSbJY0

Granted, I only showed her the beginning of the video, stopping at the part where she sings about "partyin'!"  haha!  Tonight when I overheard her teaching Sammy the song before they went to sleep, I couldn't help but crack up...especially when Kari (her mom) said she'd been singing it all day!  Kari loves all the things I teach Hannah because she repeats everything over and over :)  Ok, maybe it's me who loves torturing Kari with all those things...

Anyway, she gave me permission to teach Hannah more of the song so she wouldn't just keep repeating "Friday, Friday, Gotta get down on Friday"  over and over and over :)  Get ready, Hannah, next Friday you're gonna be "partyin', partyin', YEAH!"  I can't wait!  I'll have to get a video of it fo sho!

Here's some pics from this week with the kids before bedtime...I've spent the night all week with them while their dad was out of town.  I learn so much from Kari and the way she loves her kids, from singing and talking about Jesus during bath time to being consistent in disciplining them to taking the time to just be with them (reading, tickling, playing).  What a gem she is!  I hope I am half the mom someday to my kids that she is to those sweet "birds," as she calls them :)

this is what sammy does when you tell him to smile!  love it!

this perfectly captures little phoebe!

bedtime stories with hannah and mama kari!

jolly :)

Shanti

Yesterday I went with one of our YL leaders to her college.  I got to hang out with all of her awesome friends and endure a long college program...but SO worth it for the jolly time I spent with her and her friends.  One of the girls was so sweet.  I sat next to her on the way back...an hour bus ride on the most horrendous roads known to modern man.  These should not be called roads, but mountains and valleys made of rocks and dust.  It is like an unnecessary and obnoxious rollercoaster for which you need a chiropractic adjustment afterwards. But what to do!  This is India.  You just have to laugh to keep from crying :)


Anyway, I digress.


3 things she said that day stood out to me:


"I love going to church.  It feels so peaceful, not like Hindu worship at temples which is just loud and annoying."
So many Indians have expressed this to me.  I think it's such a reflection of the longing for meaning, rest, forgiveness, true worship, joy, and longing to be a part of a good thing bigger than themselves.  I shared with her Matthew 11:28 (Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest) and said I thought the reason she felt peace was because Jesus invites us to find rest in Him by being what we cannot be.

"Jesus said while he was dying, 'Forgive them, for they don't know what they do.'  Why did Jesus willingly suffer and why did God allow him to suffer on the cross?"

I had a random, half torn, wee Bible in my purse.  So I pulled it out and turned to John 3:16 to let her read it.  Unfortunately we were just getting off the bus so we couldn't really talk about it.  But I just said the easiest way to answer that question is love.

"I need some shanti (means peace or rest in Hindi)"
We went to the mall and just sat for awhile because we'd been traveling all day.  I couldn't help but think how all of us need, desire, and even long for spiritual peace/rest.  Made me think again of that verse, Matthew 11:28.  Just silently prayed my new friend would find peace in the One who can carry her burdens.

What a privilege to share some things about Jesus with this new friend.  It is good news.  I'm hoping to have more conversations with her, but so thankful for the opportunity yesterday.  I hope you'll pray for her with me, that she and her family will know Jesus one day as loving Savior.