I am leaving home, and going home.

Goodbye curry. Hello cold sandwiches.
Goodbye cricket. Hello hockey.
Goodbye rupees. Hello dollars.
Goodbye modest women. Hello swim suit models.
Goodbye Bollywood. Hello Hollywood.
Goodbye lessons learned. Hello application.
Goodbye new family and friends. Hello family and friends.
Goodbye chai. Hello black coffee.
Goodbye oil. Hello boiled and baked.
Goodbye simple living. Hello American living.
Goodbye Hindi and Marathi. Hello English y espanol.
Goodbye summer. Hello senior year.
Goodbye beautiful people. Hello beautiful people.

Goodbye India, see you soon.
Hello America, it's been awhile.

Traveling alone.

Traveling alone.
At first I questioned my call from God to come to India. I questioned Him on everything that comes with traveling: finances, time, language barriers, living accommodations, is it God calling me to India or is it just me wanting to go to India. Not on traveling alone though. This question did not arise until I actually started my trip.

Traveling alone.
Not to point out the obvious or anything but you spend a lot of time...alone when you are traveling alone. Airplane, layovers, waiting for an English conversation, lack of social life...

Traveling alone.
Because I'm only one many things are easier. My schedule is up to me, more food for me, accommodating a single guest is easier on hosts, I get more time to debrief on personal experiences.

Traveling alone.
It means that when you see something horrific you have to hold it in because it is only horrific to you. When you want to laugh at silly cultural differences you are the only one laughing. A pun is hard to translate so you hold them in.

Traveling alone.
Eleven weeks of traveling alone is not a piece of cake. I am unsure if I would have come to India knowing that some days it hurt to be alone.

Traveling alone.
God needed me to travel like this. He needed me to be singled out from all of my comforts. By having me travel alone God has been able to pour Himself into my life without me being bombarded with my weaknesses at home. And God has placed many wonderful people along my path these last ten weeks to care for me and guide me. He needed me to believe that I am traveling alone so I could learn maybe the most important lesson of this trip.

That lesson being, although it may seem as if I'm traveling alone, I'm not.
I would be a fool to go anywhere alone. I would be a fool to believe that God is not with me in every breath that I take. I would have been a fool to have not listened to God's call because I thought it would mean I would have to be alone in all my experiences.

When God calls you, you go. Whether it is only you, or you and your best friend, twelve strangers or forty strangers. You go, because you are never traveling alone.

Hannah Joy.

I have sunshine, on a cloudy day.

Please excuse my lack of updating.

All is still well here. Everyday I enjoy more more and everday I experience something new.

India has a funny way of highlighting my weird quirks. Animals for example. I find so much joy in animals. (Shout out to Darby and Rivers...my dogs at home.) And oh, there is a lot of joy to be had in watching animals in India. The other day I had to weave in and out of about two dozen /rams along a motorbike path. I was so afraid of making noise or touching one of them but at the same time I kept laughing. All I could picture was this scene in America and how outlandish it would have been. And here? Just another day.

I was sitting in the classroom at the slum yesterday waiting for students to come and I watched a goat patiently watch a fried corn-on-the-cob  food cart. After about ten minutes he made his attack and got away with a prize in his mouth!! He didn't just run away he sort of jumped with glee in every trot. I was proud of him and again just smiled because I knew that it was one of those "only in India" moments.

When it starts to get dark out the bats come out. Yes, there are bats in America but I hardly see them in Kansas or Chicago. So it's a pleasure to see a bat sweeping across the dark blue sky.

Enough about animals.

I'm still loving teaching the kids in the slum (Ramtedki). The numbers vary every day. One day last week we barely had ten kids and some days we have had up to thirty. Most of them are working. Either for money outside of the slum or doing house work with their moms. Sometimes you can see them dozing off because they are so exhausted. Other times they all have so much energy you can't get them to sit down for two minutes. I'm a familiar face there now too. The women all great me and the children come running up calling out "Dee-Dee!" (big sister in Hindi.) They all wish me a good afternoon and as of recently they learned how to reply to my question of "How are you?" with "I am fine" or "I am happpy", sometimes I even get "I am not hungry." (That's the one I'm most happy to hear.)

Last week we had three sewing machines moved into the CSW Rehabilitation House. The women will learn how to make simple dress/blouse designs and cloth bags. A couple weeks ago we had a week long program with another women's project here in Pune where everyday a group of women all gathered at the CSW House and learned to make different kinds of paper bags and perfume. They already have an order for 1000 bags! The house will also be recieving a vapour machine within the next two weeks. (Vapours are used for the bread in the Holy Communion.) A great effort was put forth to get this machine and there is a lot of excitement about it. 

HCC works in a very unique and effective way. They do not hand out money. Simple money handouts are too temporary for the needs that need to met. HCC provides training and the basic resources for the people to get on their feet. Rather than just letting the women live in the CSW House until it is time for them to move on, HCC is preparing them for a new career. So the time is right, the women can move out be self-sufficient and strong. 

A few weeks ago my friend Rajesh did my henna:

I can hardly believe that I only have three weeks left until I'm back to dancing like mad with Erin, having fika with Kaj and enjoying my mom's cooking  for two weeks... AND moving into a new house with five of the most awesome girls in the world!

I can hardly believe that I only have three weeks left until I won't get to go to the slum every day, I won't be enjoying the fellowship of the CSW women and I won't be eating Indian food three times a day. 

Lets just say I'm teetering in the middle of being ready to go home and not ready to go home.

Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart.

Proverbs 3:3

Hannah Joy.

P.S. Mosquitoes love me here just as much as they love me in the States. Eck.

Who are our neighbors?

The Bible says that the greatest commandment is to love your neighbor because for the most part it fulfills all the other commandments.

So who is our/yours/my neighbor? What does it mean to love them?
I've had a chance to really take in what it means to love your neighbor, how different my neighbors have become and how loving them is more complex than I ever would have imagined.

It stretches beyond the matter-of-fact mail box neighbors, it streches across all state, country and continent boundries, it soars over rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans. It goes deep within every corner and every forgotten about piece of earth.

The Bible clearly states what love is. It is kind, patient, not rude, not for self gain, does not envy, it is always there, is not jealous, helps whenever there is a time of need, not easily angered. LOVE NEVER FAILS.

In Kansas my neighbors were: Shawnee Heights students and faculty, Brookwood Covenant Church members, Supersonic Music employees and it's guitar/drum crazed customers, the international students my parents opened our home to, friends who loved me and friends who hurt me, those in my quaint Shawnee County neighborhood. --These are comfort neighbors.

In Chicago it is all the Albany Park/North Park neighborhood residents, North Park University students and faculty, coworkers in the library, students in the Chicago Public School System, the homeless, Edgewater Presbyterian Church, all the girls I have lived in close quarters with, all ethnicity's that color the city. --This was a new challenge for me. Learning what it meant to show the homeless love and acceptance, understanding the children in the classroom and how important it was to love them at school because it may be the only place they get it, loving the 40 strangers I share a bathroom with because that is what living in a community is about, showing love to the foreign born residents of Chicago in order to show respect to their culture and give them comfort in this new country.

In India. Love has never been so heavy or loud in my heart. Love has been easy to give in some places but sometimes I've had small challenges.

In India my neighbors are the HCC members and friends, children in slums, mothers in the slums, the drunks in the slums, the commercial sex workers, the ex-commercial sex workers, the men who are pursuing sex in the commercial sex worker area, begging lepers, begging children in the road, eunuchs, all of the watchful eyes from strangers wherever I go.

All these neighbors require a different way of receiving love. The love I show the child in the slum is different than the love I give to the commercial sex worker. It is still love. It is not rude, it is kind, it is there when the person is in need and it does not fail.

Jesus did not stay with only the his comfort neighbors, like the ones I only surrounded myself with in Kansas. (There are many what I'm calling "non comfort neighbors" in Kansas, I just didn't seek them at the time. I am not saying that Jesus work cannot be done in these places, it most certainly can.) To love as Jesus did we have to walk down the red light district and love all the people in it. To love as Jesus did we have to walk into the slum, passed all the drunk men (loving them even if they are drunk at ten in the morning leaving their wife and children to work harder than they have worked a day in their life just to provide food and feed their husband's addiction), to get to the upper room where anywhere between 15-30 children may come to receive the simplest of education and give them love no matter which side of the bed you woke up on.

What's true love if you aren't challenged to love those neighbors the commandments were talking about?


Do something that makes love a challenge, that makes you so uncomfortable that you just want to turn around instead of going forward. Always remembering that Jesus was once in your shoes.

Hannah Joy.

There is always a reason.

There was a reason my dad taught me to ride a bike: so I could bike in Chicago and in India. There was a reason my mom fed us spicy Thai currys: so I could eat spicy currys in India. There is a reason why I always loved to sit cross-legged (or "Indian style") at my mom's dining room table: because one day I'd be eating on the floor, cross-legged in India.

Everything is going great still. I spend several hours everyday at Ramtedki (the slum). Visiting homes and teaching the children (English, Marathi, Math, Drawing). I see the CSW women at least once a week. Hope that in these next five weeks it is more frequent than that.

My birthday celebration was really nice. In the morning the HCC office celebrated with cake, the children in Ramtedki sang me Happy Birthday and ate candy, then I had a dinner at my place. Surita (who I go to Ramtedki with) helped me put it together. I helped her make chicken curry and rice for twelve guests. And I wore a saree for the first time! I would not have picked any other way to spend my birthday in India. Thank you for all the birthday wishes!

I've been able to attend many prayer meetings. I'm learning a lot about prayer.

Something else I have had a chance to spend more time doing: keeping life simple and trusting in God.

Hannah Joy.

My God is awesome.

After four weeks:
Learned to enjoy the incredible amounts of tea consumption. I have stopped asking "Where is that cow's owner?" Shaken the hands of thousands of Indians. Learned that English is weird (think about it: The soles of our shoes are very different from our souls.) Most importantly is that daily I'm being reassured on how awesome my God is.

I have relocated to Pune. This is where the HCC headquarters are and a city my group from North Park visited in January. My living accommodations are great.

Everyday from around one to three I help teach ~30 children in an upper room in the middle of a poor-slum area. The children are so excited to take in whatever it is we have to teach them. I'm working with a church member named Surita (she is a lovely women) and a lady from the area named Maya (very very kind). (I'm up for suggestions on fun games to play in a 15x15 room with anywhere from 20-30 students!) Tomorrow morning Surita and I will start visiting the homes of the parents of the children. We'll just spend time with them and pray for them. Not many people in this area are Christian but a church has been there for several years now and they know about the Christians and their willingness to come to their homes, listen to their stories, provide an informal education for the children, and pray for them.

In the afternoons I have been visiting with ex-commercial sex workers. HCC (with the funds provided by the Evangelical Covenant Church!) constructed a rehabilitation house for them. It's a beautiful house! The view from the room is amazing!! Because it is a new home the women and I have some decorating days ahead of us. Four women live there as well as a few children. In the coming days I will start tutoring the children in English lessons.


Those are the basics of what I have been up to. A quick list of other things: prayer meeting with another church ~30 minutes from here, lots of motor bike rides, eating out, eating at Surita's house, lots of rickshaw rides, visited Akshay's (the guy helping me plan all my work and my roommate) family, and help in Sunday School.

Everyday I'm learning how to lean more on God and look for ways he can use me. I have a heck of a lot more to learn in this area and others.


I hope that all of you are well. I'm disappointed that no one is leaving comments. Many tell me that they are reading, but I want to see some feedback people! Words of encouragement. Advice. Anything!

Love from India,
Hannah Joy.

You have to sail.

Sometimes you just have to stop, and listen.

"I wait quietly before God,
for my salvation comes from him."  
Psalm 63


A five thousand word essay wouldn't do justice to the feelings you get walking through a slum for the first, second, third, even fourth time. A picture cannot capture what sharing a cup of tea with a quaint Hindu women means for your heart. Listening to Indian music cannot begin to encompass all the sounds you hear in the frantic city or sitting out in a far off village. You have to sail [or fly] here if you want to understand.

India is indescribable. It's a country you cannot help but at first want to take a few steps back, eventually though you enjoy it's quirks. A couple examples: the stray dogs and the traffic "system".

Many of you are still not sure of what I have been doing here. Sorry for that, I just have not had a lot to say about my time. The last three weeks have been simple. I have visited many homes of the members of the HCC Panvel church, watched Hindi television, worked a small amount of time on learning Hindi, finished Stones into Schools (the second Three Cups of Tea book), eaten a lot of delicious food, had tea at least twice a day, visited a few villages and slum areas, and got to know the Patole family.


After a lot of prayer and talks with my parents and Kaj I have decided to move on from Panvel. On Thursday I will be going to Bombay to stay for a couple days then go on to Pune. In Pune there is the HCC headquarters. Nothing that is of any concern is causing me to leave. Things have just not worked out in terms of me being actively involved in the programs I had hoped to be committed to. I have limited time to spend here and am listening to what God has put on my heart for what is best in how I spend my time.

As for pictures I have put some on Facebook. Please view there because due to the new design of Facebook I cannot simply copy them and post them here. If you do not have a Facebook, find a youngster who does.

I know that many of you are praying and thinking of me. Thank you, God is working here. I ask that you continue to pray for what God has in his plan.

Hannah Joy.

Monsoon season.

Namaste friends and family!

India's monsoon season is in full swing. Talk about a relief! We get cool breezes all throughout the day.

India is hot, but not as hot as I was expecting. The temperatures are pretty much in line with Kansas and I know that Kansas isn't even in the worst part of the summer yet. The part that is tricky is the lack of air conditioning. I am lucky and get to sleep in a room that has air conditioning. I also get a nice breeze during the motor bike rides. (Motor bike=our mode of transportation.)

The food has been treating me well. No sickness yet! My mom prepared me well for Indian food by cooking spicy food growing up. I had my first scoop of peanut butter for the first time in over a month this morning. Delicious! And the bananas are fantastic. The water I drink is purified, so no complaints there either.

As for what I'm actually doing... there is not a lot to say. HCC stopped all their projects at the beginning of April. If you want to know more on that matter I'm not the person to ask, I only know the simple fact that they have been stopped. And many of you know, the projects were my main reason for coming to India. And to put it plainly, something I don't want to admit but I'm afraid I have to: I'm bored in India. 

India culture is a lot more slow than American culture. There is a lot of time between everything and when someone says a time to be somewhere it's basically considered a suggestion. This is proving to be a hard task to learn. I'm used to waking up and going non-stop until A. it is time for bed B. it is time to relax with friends.

My host family here does plan on keeping their women project going. I've visited the site of a children's program that I hope to be starting soon. Again when it will start is unclear. I have been told many different start dates but none have been right. When we went to the site we were asked not to come back for two days because a boy in the village was badly beaten and they didn't want us to be there for the drama it has created. The villagers lives are something that is out of our control, and something we must respect.

A few highlights so far have been going to Alibag (a beach city), seeing a Bollywood film in the theater, eating Indian food, learning some Hindi, and the simple pleasure of having a lot of time to read.

I have met a lot of kind and wonderful people. I'm hopeful that my trip will start to look up and my boredom will become infrequent. Please pray for this and for me to find peace in my personal challenges here.

Hannah Joy.

P.S. I'll post some pictures within the next few days.

Sensitive toothpaste.

India with 12 other Americans is one thing. India on "your own" is another.
In January we got to settle in to our American comfort zones with each other: debrief periodically, keep our American humor all day, be moved together, understand why the other does what they do, possibly question the flavor of a food or a peculiar smell.

After six days, I'm feeling settled. I'm coming to terms with being on my "own". (Sending lengthy emails to Kaj and parents helps me get-out my American-ness.) And best of all, my sleep is on schedule.

For those of you who were so worried about me and the heat: I'm doing just fine. There is an AC in my room that I use at night, and during the day I just deal.

Having a younger brother, Anu, is a lot more fun than I was expecting.We spend most of the day together.
My sister, Kalyani, returns from Sweden (five months at SVF) on Sunday. I'm so sure that having another sister will also be a joy. Shireen, my Indian mom, keeps the family going. And Daniel, who we (Shireen, Anu and I) are helping with his English, is a wonderful man of God. The pet fish are great too. Extremely active in their close quarters.

Yesterday Daniel and I went to Mumbai for a bus tour. Our tour at-a-glance: Gateway to India, boat tour, aquarium, modern art gallery, gardens, Bollywood stars' sea side homes, Mumbai Indians in the bus next to ours, beach along the Arabian sea. I made good friends, well as good as friends as you can be with someone who doesn't speak the same language and you only see for a few hours on a bus tour, with three girls from south India. We shared Sprite and a Rose drink by the sea together.

On Monday I will go to a local village, where the woman's empowerment project is, and start a program for the kids. I'll teach them the English alphabet, a rhyme or two, then venture off into having fun with games. I'm really looking forward to this.

As most of you know I love photography. And I have my camera with me. I'm finding it difficult to take a lot of pictures. There are many things that are memorable, and I think you all should see, but I can't help but think many are intrusive. Because most are of people and their environment. It's hard to point the lens at a situation where the person feels the most comfortable and I observe as an alternate universe. So when I do post pictures, you will get what you get. Otherwise, you will have to visit India on your own, or look at photographers who are more brave than I am.

D-Mart, the Wal-Mart-like store next to our flat, not only has bins full of great looking toothbrushes, but sensitive toothpaste. Something I have recently learned that delicate teeth really want. God provides. (If this doesn't make sense to you, read here: toothbrush.)

Do not fear anything except the LORD Almighty. He alone is the Holy One. If you fear him, you need fear nothing else. - Isaiah 8:13

I could type for hours. This is good for now.

Warmly,
Hannah Joy.

Today is the day.

"Stay with me; do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life, for you are safe with me." 1 Samuel 22:23



Take off time: 9:07pm. I'll be in London for 10 hours, then off to Mumbai (Bombay for the old school folk). I'll officially be in India, assuming there will be no delay, at 10:30 Thursday morning, which is Wednesday night Chicago time. 


Good news: I'm leaving full of vaccinations.
Pray for my safe travels, health and peace.




Team India, I'll be wishing you were all with me.

India & US of A at a glance.

                                India                                                 US of A
                             

Population:           1,189,172,906                                          313,232,044
Area:                    9,826,675 sq km                                    3,287,263 sq km
Median Age:        26.2 years                                              36.9 years
Literacy:               61%                                                       99%
Years in School:   10 years                                                   16 years
Language:            "World's most linguistically                       "English only!"
                              diverse country."
Government:        Federal Republic                                     Federal Republic
Constitution Written:  1950                                                    1787

India's National Anthem:

US of A's National Anthem:



It is now less than a week away.

Finding a storage space for all of my apartment related things is proving to be difficult and getting immunizations isn't as easy as one might think.

Please pray for the moving out shenanigans and getting my immunizations.

Warmly,

Hannah Joy.

P.S. Kaj graduates on Saturday!!

Toothbrush.

I spent a lot of time thinking about the "what ifs" in life. Mind you, they usually are not practical and quite irrational.

As for India I've spiraled a little out of control in my "what ifs." Three weeks ago I layed awake for hours reviewing my packing list in my head. Laying emphasis on toothbrush. What if I forgot my toothbrush? What if a toothbrush there is 600 ruppees and I'm too much of a penny (ruppee) pincher to want to purchase one? Or what if I'm too embarrassed that I forgot it that I spend a month not brushing my teeth but I finally cave in and get one? Now for the most extreme of my irrationality... What if Indian's mouths are different so they use different toothbrushes that make my mouth hurt and there are no more "American mouth" toothbrushes left in the whole, entire country?! Yes, it crossed my mind.

What if I gave my fears (because now I label forgetting my toothbrush a fear) to God?

John 4:18 - There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

Psalm 27:1- The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 

I'm learning to give my fears to God. Today: packing list, specifically toothbrush.

Hannah Joy.

Docked.

In 2008 I was introduced to these two tid-bits that have shaped my life into what it is today:

              "Ships in a harbor are safe, 

                        but that is not what ships were built for."

                                                                -William Shedd

Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; 

write them upon the table of thine heart. Proverbs 3:3 (KJV)

After a lot of inner dialogue of deciding whether or not to make a blog for my trip, I have decided to go for it. I will have my own journal so this blog is for you. Entries may vary, but as my best friend, Erin, says "It is what it is."

Countdown: two weeks.
To do: get typhoid vaccine, second Hep A shot, malaria vaccine, pack, finish Junior year.
Prayer requests: That I do not become anxious in these coming days. I need to leave it in God's hands.

And I am not sorry for all the cheesy references I will be making to ships being at sea.