Arrival at Anurag (Nov 12-13)

The Team could hardly wait to arrive at Anurag. The trip was about 30 minutes of hair pulling, horn blowing, and heroic navigating by our drivers Belli and Binder. You will never believe us when we tell you about the traffic in India where four lanes of vehicles manage to share only two lanes of road. The final leg of our journey was on a street so narrow that we could shake the hands of people sitting on their front steps and almost scraped the walls with our autos at every turn.

Finally we arrived at the Anurag Society in one of the poorest areas of Dehli. Nevertheless, the rich welcome and warm hospitality that we received by the people of Anurag has been amazing. We were quickly greeted by the entire primary school with garlands and flowers as we were ushered into the assembly area to share devotions with the staff and technical school students. After devotions, we spent the entire morning visiting each classroom and corner of Anurag... from the toddlers in the day care through primary school up to the sewing technical school. Again and again we heard stories of God's provision for the school and profound impacts that Anurag has made upon the lives of students and staff members. Lunch with the students was very delicious - the simple kitchen serves up to 1,000 a day - with no dish washers or stoves!


For the past three weeks the students have been working on a special production for our visit. We sat amazed at their recitation, music, dance and drama. I shall never forget the students dressed in the customary outfits of each region across India and in the colors of the India flag as we were serenaded to "Pray for India". By the time we arrived home we were exhausted, but managed to meet for a time of reflection and prayer. God is clearly at work in India... we are so glad that He allowed us to join Him there!





On Tuesday, November 13th, we were back to Anurag with the Franks leading us in devotions. Jerry and Mary did an excellent job telling the story of the lost coin and had the students sitting at the edge of their seats learning of a God who searches for them. The young girls could not take their eyes off of Amanda as she told her stor and how God found her and saved her. After chai (were is my coffee?) we shared the devotional once again, only this time with over 75 parents of the students that are sponsored at Anurag. Many of the young mothers took time off from their factory or housekeeping jobs to dress in their best clothes and show us true Indian hospitality. Our sponsorship is changing the lives of students... and entire families.

In the afternoon we split the teenage boys and girls apart. The boys went to a local park and taught us to play cricket. It was quite an adventure travelling some distance by foot to the only park that would allow us to play games - stepping over buffalo pies, crossing crowed streets, and experiencing a variety of smells: peanuts roasting, naan baking, flowers hanging, diesel fuming, garbage piling and even a community septic system flowing over the park - we chose a different spot to play cricket. If I remember Jerry had an amazing catch, Rob was quite a bowler, and Dan - Kurt - Brandon hit some sixers. Imagine playing in a park surround by Hindus and Moslems under the shadow of a King's 14th century palace - check out the team photos. Game Two will be played at the same park beginning at 3:00 PM - join us for front row seating, but this time we are going to ask the students to toss the American football and frizbee.

The girls remained at Anurag for crafts. We expected 30 teenage girls to join us as we made colorful friendship bracelets. But the word got out and over 70 girls and staff members showed up. Everyone had a great time... especially the students as they made friendship bracelets and tied them on the wrists of our team member.

We have really enjoyed the Indian food. It is spicy (and gassy), but filling and tastes great. I have been popping the peptos frequently and eating seconds at each meal. Tonight we sought a break from the spices and rices and went to the local shopping area, Conaught Place, for some homestyle cooking. The Team enjoyed some delicious T.G.I. Fridays fixings, but I wanted to try something different so I wandered over to the local McDonalds for a McVeggie with fries and chai (at least they didn't serve McBeer like the the McDonalds at the Frankfurt airport). Most of the team decided to head home for sleep while a couple of the team members courageously staying behind to check out the local market. On their auto-rickshaw ride home, the local driver who only spoke Hindi got lost and we had a lenghty tour of the center of Dehli before finally getting dropped off a at huge Sikh temple that we new was somewhere close to our YWCA hotel.

Kurt and I decided that we might as well visit the temple since we were standing at its front steps. We navigated past the beggars and proceeded barefoot through the "holy water" up the stairs to the golden dome. Even though it was after 9:00 pm there was a multitude surrounding the worship leaders, pausing to pray, kissing the fixtures, dipping their hands in a giant pool teaming with huge fish, and gazing upon a lighted pole in the court area. Iit was personally fascinating, but also spiritually challenging as we were reminded of the great news of Jesus and our mission to India. Please continue to pray for us as we seek to encourage the Anurag leadership and bring light into a very dark place.

See you on the other side of India... Dan