update 3: in Kolhapur

Dear friends,

Thank you for your concern, prayers and encouraging thoughts. We had
considered sending an abridged update for those who are a bit prone to
worry. Instead, let us assure you that we are quite safe and go ahead
and inform you all of the basic issues on our hearts. We are planning
a separate intercessory prayer update for those of you who desire to
make intercessory prayers for India or want more detailed information
about what we, along with our local and indigenous brothers and
sisters, are sensing in the spiritual landscape. For reasons you might
intuit from below, we will set up a new email for this purpose. You'll
receive an invitation to that list from an interesting address,
probably on Monday.

Now on to the usual update.

SARAH
As the sun sets over the farmland surrounding kolhapur the colors
nearly match the brilliant sarees splashing red pink greens and blues
amongst the sugar cane fields, cow patty mountains and red mud pits
for making bricks. Small villages are scattered among the low Hills
and mountains and it has been amazing to have the opportunity to enter
in as guests. We bump along dirt roads swerving around cow driven
carts ladden with sugarcane and narrowly missing motor bikes on the
other side as a huge truck brightly painted with "goods carrier"
written across the front barrrels down on us. The chorus of different
pitched honking is quite amazing actually. And it's ok because as we
somehow squeeze through to continue on our way the retreating truck
has " honk OK please" written across it's bumper.Entering villiages we
pass children playing or working, women bent down grinding spices or
washing dishes animals wondering in the streets and men going about
their work or sometimes just standing against the crumbling brick
houses watching. We are ushered into a small home - women in
multicolored beautiful sarees are sitting crosslegged on a straw mat
with wide eyed children and men show us to our plastic lawn chair
seats. I would much rather join those on the mat but I obey. This is
where they worship as a core group- waiting to have 25 adult members
to become an official church with the kcc. Often we sing some songs
and pray together in Hindi or marati or sometimes english. Some of the
pastors or evangelists are working with over 20 different groups in as
many villages! There are thousands of villages around kolhapur and God
is doing amazing things throughout the area. Of course the Hindu faith
is very strong and the spiritual battle rages- especially in the
churches. Thankfully the kcc hasn't experienced much persecution but
Nika and I both sense that the enemy is watching closely. On Sunday
one of the churches we visited didn't have a building yet so they were
meeting in the village hall where the community worships their village
god. As we were singing praises to Jesus the idol sat there in the
corner- caged in - just a thing. The darkness hovered in corners but
could not do anything- there was no power over the light of Christ and
his people! Thank you all for your prayers- they are part of the
spiritual sheild around us as we are here. It has been so encouraging
to see the response from some people when we talk about trafficking
and how to end it. Often these conversations are merely moments here
and there and Nika and I will have more time to follow up when we get
back- but we did have the privaledge to talk to a group of women
representing 9 different villages about trafficking and they were
interested in hearing how they and their curch communities can get
more involved. I think they won't need to look far. As Nika mentions-
the kcc is already very involved - they just don't always recognize it
and I don't think the church has connected into it directly yet. So
many exciting oportunities to though! I am getting more glimpses of my
role here and ways to communicate things- sharing my experience. so
thanks for praying! It's fun to work together with Nika as we bring
different strengths and experience to the table and I continue to
learn so much from her. I am also learning from everyone else on the
team and From those we are visiting. I knew that trafficking was
compex and I knew India was complicated but seeing the layers of
complexity right up in my face every day has been quite an adventure!
I am so thankful for the lessons God has been teaching me over the
last few years and even days before leaving of giving the complexity
over to him. To see and take note and let it influence my
understanding but not to get burdened by it or overwhelmed. That does
not help anything! We are the vessals and tools- we do not have the
whole plan and that's ok! So seeing the brick cilns and small children
working among the stacks or red bricks as we drive by- or watching a
mother talk down to her little girl - or grappling with the caste
system and the mentality of holding tight to what is mine with no
thought to help those who are not seen - those right outside my
doorstep washing their other shirt in the gutter. It is hard but also
motivating to see change. This world is a broken place and we are all
a part of that brokenness - that's the sad reality. Yet not the end of
the story! I truely believe the people - the church of kolhapur can
change and be the change for this state and for india! And I firmly
believe that we all have a part to play in our own communities as
well. So- sorry for the sermon :-) thank you for the notes of
encouragement and support! I love hearing from you! Internet is
challenging so I might not reply right away. Personally I am doing
well- feeling a bit off now and then but not bad at all- mostly head
aches- not stomach issues so that's a praise! I would really
appreciate prayer for strength and decernment against the lies and
threats of the enemy. He has no real power- but could have the ability
to dicourage or distract if I am not paying attention. Well I will
wrap up my part and we can send this off :-) Blessings!

NIKA
- praise for emotional and spiritual wellbeing. I'm feeling more
balanced and peaceful than I have been and feeling enormous love,
tenderness and grace from God. Also, more in touch with my negative
emotions (so not shutting them down), like anger, disappointment,
concern or irritation, without them dominating my mood. I have more
focus too.
- nutrition: I've struggled lately with the lack of fresh raw
vegetables, which we aren't allowed to eat bc of bacteria in the
water, and whole grains, which just aren't as available. We eat LOTS
of white bread and similar simple carbohydrates. And, mostly
overcooked but tasty, tasty vegetables smothered in savory, spicy,
oily sauce. I'm not used to this. I'm also not getting much
exercise, which is ok. But I've been feeling slightly anemic and
getting head rushes and dizzy at times. My bowels are fine, which is
great. I've nearly run out of the nuts I brought, so my protein
sources are limited. This feels like a problem I can solve with help.
I just need time and a plan.
- Consuela has been terrific. She wants to interact more with the
kids. Mostly we've been visiting in fairly formal ways, watching
presentations and limiting the question and answer time to private
meetings with leadership. However, this week a few of us will spend
the night and two days in a KCC youth hostel, which is a combination
boarding school and orphanage. We got to have recess with some of
those kids earlier this week, and we all thoroughly enjoyed each
other.
- marcos was exuberant with the children, as usual. But unfortunately
he threw his back out again . :( It's worse this time, and he can't
get out of bed. Please pray for his rapid recovery. He is missed on
the "field." The beds are quite hard, almost like wood. The pillows
too. I like this, but it's worse for his back, even with two
mattresses. We will look to buy a softer one tomorrow. Stores here are
sort of, well, tough to explain. Kolhapur isn't a very modern city,
despite the prevalence of wealthy people in gated homes. So it's hard
to find things, and most shopping places feel partially like open air
markets. That's partly a limitation of the way we roll and who are
particular connections are, which is kinda cool, really. But even
buying an envelope to courier a letter was a little adventure. So pray
for our success at locating a good mattress and transporting it, haha.
:) Packed and busy dusty dirt roads, hundreds of vehicles, random
farm animals and pedestrians all mixed together, a rickshaw and a
mattress. The scenario promises some comedy.
- pray for marcos's work, both on the KCC website and for his job. Or
hotel doesn't have Internet, so while he can't move much, he can't do
much work either. He has been able to upload some stuff at the cafe
and to download some work to his laptop. But he can't test it from the
hotel.
- praise for very personally encouraging friends in Mumbai and Pune
and for the good connections that are developing in Kolhapur.
-praise for our team. Each one is a special gift.
- praise for beautiful weather- not too hot.
- I really enjoy the one-on-one emails. Even though it takes me a
while to get back to the authors, even the one liners are so
encouraging when I feel a bit lost out here. And they are an even
greater gust and confirmation when I am already feeling the wind on
the sails of my heart.- I am so encouraged by the youth development,
administrative capacity building, church planting and
seminary/leadership training work that the other members of the team
are doing. I feel so honored to be able to observe, learn and help, as
needed.

MISSION
- The Kolhapur Church Council (KCC) is doing amazing work. It takes
time to find out all they are doing that touches on trafficking and
exploitation, because they don't describe their work in those terms,
for a variety of reasons. In fact, many members of the churches and
leadership seem to think the KCC churches (60 in all) don't do much
that involves trafficked persons. In fact all of their schools,
orphanages and hospitals house or help many children from trafficked
families. We suspect there may be many trafficked women, in
particular, among them who are not known as such in the larger
churches. Pray for wisdom, guidance and Spirit inspiration for us and
KCC leadership as we discern wheher God is calling their churches to
focus on this more directly and to involve church members in the
movement that ministry leaders, doctors and teachers are working on
without sufficient volunteer and financial support.
- Pray that the ministries and programs that have space for more
participants could partner with KCC ministries that don't know of the
resources available to their poorest families and children. We'd like
to be used by God to help with this, if that would delight him.
- We delight with God in the emphasis on anti-corruption and prayer.
The KCC ministries have sophisticated systems of accountability that
they have been diligently enforcing. We also praise God for the health
and intelligent design of their micro business programs. They are
contributing to the explosion of the middle class in ways that build
up poor communities, rather than push the poorest member further into
poverty. This is the opposite of the national and international trend,
which has been toward a widening wage gap.
- It is so exciting to see all the new church growth. Can't say
specifically what I mean here. Or use numbers. But it's cool. His love
and mercy is spreading to dozens of surrounding villages, and it
shows. We've visited half a dozen of them.
- This trip has been largely about learning what is going on amongst
God's people and churches, as he raises a movement to defeat sex
trafficking and slavery. So many churches or groups who are working in
this area labor in neighborhoods or villages, and they don't know
about each other. Pray that our ministry would be one of encouraging
and connecting folks here, first, and then facilitating partnership
with Boston, to the extent that this furthers God's plan.
- Continued building of relationship among team members. It is a fun
group that loves Jesus and people. Everyone has traveled before and is
sensitive and respectful too.
- Pray for wisdom and protection around security, particularly the
security of our conversations and Internet communications. Due to new
regulations, we have to register our passports, visas, local
residence, home address, general travel plans, and reason for travel
at many locations, including internet cafes, hotels and some churches.
These are collected by regular employees, sometimes along with copies
of our photos, and are supposed to be forwarded to a government
agency. Clearly this is not a secure process that maintains the
confidentiality of these documents. At one church training led by two
team members, we discovered that a guy who was asking a lot of
questions and listening in on team conversations was actually known to
no one in the church. He knew Sarah by name and that we were from
Boston. He may have known this from listening in during the early part
of the training, or he may have come in knowing this. It isn't clear,
because no one saw him enter. The churches and buildings can be fairly
open, including our hotel. He seemed to be a religious zealot of some
sort but left before anyone could be sure. This is the most striking
example, but several incidents of photo taking have drawn some concern
as well.
- Because of the above, we don't feel safe using the Internet cafe.
They require you to use their computers. So all our email would be
visible to them at will, once we logged on there. Theoretically we
could log on remotely to a Boston computer, but we don't fully trust
this process and plan to use it as a last resort. Consequently, in
Kolhapur we have to rely on my little iPhone for all our missives. And
we have a megabyte quota to keep, which Sarah and Nika purchased from
AT&T with Marcos's help. In Pune and Mumbai we have more flexibility.
Except that we may be affiliated with some folks whose emails are
being monitored. We have no evidence of this, so we aren't too
concerned. But we don't want to get anyone in trouble (or in more
trouble).
- We attract attention as a multicultural team with several lovely
ladies. Some people here worship certain white goddesses and are quite
taken by white skin. Sarah and Consuela attract quite a bit of
attention due to their beauty and light skin tones. Others hate white
Americans in particular, or Americans in general. It is sometimes
unclear why people are staring at us, but given the above bullet, it
can be disconcerting to draw attention, particularly when traveling in
smaller groups or without a man or an Indian member of the group.
Please pray that we would continue to be a bold witnesses of Christ
and the Gospel but also wise. Pray that God would use this attention
for His good, even as he protects us from evil or distracting designs.
Also that we would not be paranoid about people's intenions.
Especially those intentions of Christians and seekers, as "spies" are
sometimes sent in to figure out whether and how much proselytizing is
being done. We want to trust God and, as Scripture mandates, cooperate
with His Spirit in maintaining unity among believers. This can be
difficult when we don't know whether to trust people's intentions in
their questionning and invitations. We welcome any advice on this
regard.
- Sometimes cell groups or village house churches relying on the
kindess of Hindu neighbors have been forced to shut down after
visiting missionaries asked offensive questions. This happened at
least once with the KCC, our host church council. Their cell groups
tend to be in village homes with few doors and no windows. And they
are open to anyone.
- Next week Sarah and Nika will stay in Mumbai for several days. We
will be staying at a Christian hostel wihout any other team members.
Local friends will be checking in on us. We will also travel for about
12 hours by train to ge back to Kolhapur. Pray for our safety, peace
and good witness.
- We may speak to students about trafficking and legislation at a law
school in Pune. We are also connecting in deeper ways to connections
in Mumbai during an eight day (probably) visit there, part of which,
as mentioned, will happen after the rest of the team leaves town.
Please pray for safe travel for the other members and for God to
continue to guide our connections, interactions and work. We want to
be fruitful for his Kingdom!

PARTIAL REWARD (for those who read or scroll to the bottom ;))

We'd planned to waaay splurge on our Megabyte quota to send you the
photos indicated by the labels below and a whole poem, rather than the
clipped version below. Due to technical challenges, we ended up
splurging on a send that didn't work. So you get this foretaste and
the joy of sharing in our technology drought :). No worries. Hundreds
more photos will return with Marcos and Consuela and freer Internet
and technology access. We will also try to send the full "reward"
again this weekend, with the invite to the intercession list. So sorry
to make you wait with baited breath.