Home Safely! -- Steve

I know this is a day and a half past due, but I wanted to confirm for all of you non-Tulsans that we made it home safely yesterday morning. It was a LONG trip home, but we made it safely and uneventfully. We had a nice welcoming committee that met us at the airport: our families, my mom, David Knight, Bert Morphis and Derek Bullard. Thanks to all of you who came to welcome us home! Also a belated "thank you very much" to Gina Stewart and David Knight (along with our families) for seeing us off at the airport when we left.
Just FYI for any of you who have been following our blog and are interested: Daryl and I are giving our report on our trip (complete with photos and some video) to our congregation at the Sunday morning worship service (10 am) [NOT at 5 pm, as I indicated previously] on November 30th. All of you are welcome to come!
Thanks to all who followed our blog while we were gone and for all of the encouraging comments that you posted. They were a blessing to us!
And a special very big THANKS to the Gootam family and all of our Christian brothers and sisters in India who extended such wonderful hospitality to us and whose faith was a constant source of strength and inspiration to us. May God bless you all richly!

latest from India

I just talked to the preacher, and they are in Vizhag (?), India.  They are catching a flight to Dehli where they have arranged a tour guide to show them around since they have a long layover there. After that it's a 17-hour plane ride from Dehli straight to Chicago.  Then finally they will be home Wednesday morning!  Woo hoo!!!  If you have nothing to do Wednesday morning, I'm sure they'd love a big welcome at the airport.  Their flight arrives at 9:50.

Daryl hardly has a voice, and he sounds really tired.  He said they got lost in the jungle for 5 hours yesterday!  And he said this time it was REAL jungle.  It was too dark to see much, though.  I think he said they will post some more pictures and final thoughts when they get home.

Thanks for all the support for Daryl and Steve through your generous donations, your prayers and your comments on this blog!  I have enjoyed reading them, too!

Fond Farewells - Daryl

In some ways it is hard to believe that it is time to start packing to come home.  It seems that our time here has just flown by, but when I think of all of our traveling and all we have done it seems like a long time.  It also seems like forever since I have been home.  I'm sure my boys have grown and changed just since I have been gone. 

I am so glad we got to spend a little more time with the children today.  They really are some of the most special people I have ever met.  I took a quick video tour of the home this evening with my camera.  I hope it turns out because I really want people back home to see how these kids live.  It is amazing they have such a positive attitude and are always so full of joy.  When it came time to say goodbye they all had to shake our hands and bid us "good journey" and "happy travels".  I think I must have shook some of their hands 10 times.  I also had to have a few rounds of group hugs.  During one round some one whispered in my ear, "come back to India."  I don't know which of them it was but it was a simple phrase that really meant a lot to me.

I did pretty well emotionally until it came time to say goodbye to Raju & Niranjin.  They are the oldest boys and they have traveled a lot with us.  They have served as bodyguards, interpreters, pack mules, photographers, and guides.  These 2 are really amazing.  I know no other 15 & 17 year old boys who are anything like them.  They are so selfless in watching after all the others.  I feel like I have watched 2 modern day Davids all week long as they have watched over their little lambs.  They took exceptional care of Steve and I as well.  I doubt they will ever know how much they taught me this week about being a true servant like Jesus.   I think the only thing I might have taught them was "hasta la vista, baby"  and "monkey in the middle" which is what we called Raju when he got stuck riding in the back seat between Steve and I.

We just had our last meal with the Gootam's.  Ms. Gootam made my favorite, her special recipe of fried chicken, wow!  I wasn't really hungry but I couldn't help but gorge myself knowing it was the last I would have for a very long time.  After supper we had a devotional with the family.  We sang together, Steve & I in English and all of them in Telegu.  Then it was time for us to say our goodbyes.  We have really been treated like royalty here.  I don't know that I can adequately thank them for their tremendous hospitality.

One more day and one more time to preach and then we head home.  I hope my voice holds out.  Late this afternoon it just started to go.  I am praying that when I wake up in the morning I will have at least enough for one more lesson and to be able to order Mazaa.  Yes, I have a new obsession.  I believe Mazaa is India's largely undiscovered gift to the world.  It's bottled Mango juice and I love it!

I just reread this posting and it has been kind of random.  Guess it is time to sign off.  We will probably be able to post one more time tomorrow evening and that will be it.  Sorry I never got the video to work but for some reason no matter what I tried I could not get it to upload to the blog or to Youtube.  Oh well, gotta save something for when we get home.

I almost forgot.  Don't tell Amy or my mom but I got a true taste of life in India tonight.  Ricky took me on a tour of Kakinada on the back of his motorcycle.  You can't say you have really experienced India unless you have been down the road on a bike.  The longer I am here I feel more and more Indian.  Now if I can just master that head bob thing they do, hahahahaha

Last Day In Kakinada - Steve

Well, it is Sunday evening (here) and we are starting to pack.  I'm anxious to get home, but I'm dreading packing and the travel.

Church went well this morning.  With the power out all day yesterday, I didn't have a chance to prepare a new lesson, so I preached the Gideon lesson I preached our first night here (regarding how God can use people who are afraid and have weak faith to accomplish his purposes if they will only rely on Him and His strength).  It seemed to be well-received.

Afterwards, we came back to the Gootams to eat lunch (one of the best meals we have had--beef that tasted like pot roast), then we loaded up and went back to the beach with the kids.  It was great to spend some quality time with them before we leave.  It was really hard to say good-bye though.  They are SUCH sweet kids!  They have a tough life, but they don't seem to know it.  They are so happy.  A powerful lesson for us all.  They all gathered around us and shook our hands (hugs are not really the cultural norm here) and all said "happy travels, sir"--most of them multiple times.  Daryl and I were both tearing up when we left.

Got to talk with Emily, Anna Kay and my mom this morning (last night your time).  It was great to talk to them, but I was sorry I missed Samantha.  Gotta go! Not positive we;ll be able to post tomorrow night, but we'll certainly try!  If not, see you in Tulsa!

Love, Steve

One Day At A Time -- Steve

As Daryl said, today was a pretty slow day, which was nice since we have been on the go pretty much non-stop since we arrived.  The cyclone Daryl mentioned was a pretty good ways from us, but we have gotten a lot of rain nonetheless.  As a result, we didn't do much (anything besides eat lunch) between our shopping trip this morning and our trip to the hospital and children's home tonight.  In fact, with the power out all afternoon, it's fair to say it was pretty dull around here.

Daryl and I pretty much laid around all afternoon reminiscing about 70s and 80s TV shows and songs.  It was every bit as exciting as it sounds.  Actually, that's where I came up with the title for this post--because Daryl and I spent about 3 hours trying (unsuccessfully) to remember the name of the TV show by that name that starred Bonnie Franklin, Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli.  We finally looked it up once the power came back on.  Your missions dollars at work! :-)  Since we are both getting anxious to get home to our families and all of you, it seemed an appropriate title.

It was great to see Chandhra (pic on the right) tonight at the hospital.  We have been worried about her.  She seems to be doing fine (she sat up on her own when we were there) and should be released on Monday.  She seems to be mostly getting her strength back now.  As Daryl alluded to, the hospital was pretty grim.  Chandhra was in a large ward with about 20 other kids.  It is fair to say that it didn't strike us as particularly clean (ahem).  I have to hope they don't put kids in there with communicable diseases!  Ricky said that hospital was built in the 1930s.  Looked like the beds were the originals. 

Tomorrow after church we are spending the afternoon with the kids (beach if weather permits) and then we have to pack up b/c we leave EARLY Monday and won't be coming back to Kakinada.  Tough to pack for home when we won't be leaving for 2 more days.  I'm sure we'll manage!

I'm preaching at church tomorrow.  Gotta go and get some sleep!  Sorry I didn't get to call you today, Samantha.  The power outage did me in.  I'll try tomorrow (tonight your time).  Love you all!

Rain, Rain Go Away! - Daryl

Today was our day off and we were grateful to have it.  We woke up and discovered by reading a rather small article that a Cylclone (Hurricane) was coming ashore today.  We hadn't heard anything about it until this morning.  Apparently it wasn't a major one and it went north of us.  We have had light to steady rain most of the day, but at least it has been cooler.  That was a blessing since the power was off and on (mostly off) throughout the day.  Not that we have air conditioning but you really notice when the ceiling fans are not working.

We did a little more shopping this morning.  We went into what is considered a higher end department store here.  It was probably the equivalent of an Indian Macy's.  We found some pretty good stuff there and at good prices compared to what you might pay back home.  We returned home for a little lunch and rest.

Also visiting this weekend are some of the Gootam's relatives from the state of Orissa.  That is the state where there has been a lot of violence against Christians.  Several have been beaten, at least 41 killed, and thousands have lost their homes.  Those that have lost their homes have moved into camps set up by the government.  One of the camps is near where these relatives live.  We told them that the we and the Christians in Tulsa had been praying for them and would continue to do so.  We were also able to use $500 of the money that was sent with us to purchase blankets and clothing for those victims.   That may not sound like a lot of money, but here a very nice blanket can be purchased for about $6.  They told us that things had settled down a lot and that they expected many of the Christians to eventually return and rebuild.  It is all just another reminder of how blessed we are in the US.

This evening we were able to go to the hospital and visit Chandhra.  She is the little girl from the children's home who had the encounter with the cobra a couple of nights ago.  She is doing well and will go home on Monday.  She is in a government hospital and I am not even going to go into what that was like.

After we left the hospital we went by the Children's Home again for a quick visit.  All the kids were in one room and they were singing.  We enjoyed listening and even joining in on a few.  Ricky has even taught them the Hippo Song which he learned from Tom!  They really get into it and so did I.  We got to see and enjoy the effects of the new ceiling fan that was purchased with money sent with us.  The kids were very appreciative of that gift as well.  When it was time to go they all had to shake our hands and tell us goodnight.  We decided group hugs were better.  They are very sweet kids.  It is unbelievable how polite and well behaved they all are.  The older kids that do so much are really impressive as well.  I could go on and on about them and the conditions they live in but I will save that for another time.  

Steve is wanting to post and go to sleep so I will sign off.  Before I do, I have to say that Ricky took me back for some more Indian Pizza.  What we got tonight was totally different from the other night, so I don't know what we got the last time but it was not the Indian Pizza (it was good though).  However, tonight I did get the Indian Chicken Pizza and it was awesome!  It was very spicy.  My lips were burning and I was sweating but it was good.  The waiter told me if it was too hot I could put on some of this sauce they had to help with the heat.  I was determined to prove I am "built for India" as Mr. Gootam said, so I told him "No thanks!"  I will probably pay for it later but it was awesome.  I would like to think I represented America well tonight at least in the eyes of about 5 or 6 Indians who were watching me to see if I could take it!  All I needed was some theme music from Rocky!    Good night all!

p.s.  The pic was taken today in Kakinada on our way to go shopping.  The hottie in the middle is one of the 1 million Hindu gods, Shiva.  My eyes are closed in this pic so I am hoping the one on Steve's camera is better

Made it back "home" to Kakinada -- Steve

 We made it home from the jungle this evening--dirty and exhausted.  Much of our travels are over semi-paved roads and we always have all of the windows down, so we get coated pretty well with grime in the car.  We also breathe an unbelievable amount of diesel fumes along the way.  I think the dust, smoke (trash and fields burning constantly seemingly everywhere) and diesel exhaust keeps us both a little green in the gills a lot of the time.  I think that is why I have this nagging cough that I can't shake.  We are always grateful to get where we are going!

We had a another great day in the village where we were on Wednesday, this time with a preacher's workshop.  I'd guess there were around 30-40 preachers present.  Daryl already drafted a post about that, but he is waiting until he can download some photos to go with it, so I will let him tell that part of the story.  Overall, it was another great day with a bunch of faithful and humble servants of God.  These guys preach in several places each week with very little in the way of financial support.  We certainly cannot support all of these guys--and it likely would not be good for the long-term health of the Indian church if we could--but we greatly admire their faith and dedication and sympathize with how difficult their lives are.  Maybe we can find ways to help them (e.g., by providing bicycles and Bibles) short of providing monthly support.  

Tomorrow is our first day "off" since we've been here.  We are looking forward to getting some rest and (we hope) going to see "our kids."  I think we plan to drive to Rajamundry (about an hour away) tomorrow evening to visit Sudeepa's parents (her dad is a long-time preacher) and the children's home they run.  We've also been told that Rajamundry is a good place to shop, so we will likely do some of that as well.

Bye for now!  We love and miss you all!  Thanks again for the comments.