India update 12-30-06

We have been in Sambulpar for a couple of days mainly ministering at Pastor Lemuel's church. Tom spoke last night at the watchnight service which did not end until 3:00 am (we left shortly after midnight).

Tomorrow we travel to the villiages where the Birhor live and the following day (Jan 3rd) we will have services for the Birhor and do not know how many to expect.

Before we left KolKota we visited the house where Mother Theresa lived and the wonderful ministry she left behind (very inspiring and moving) there are about 300 orphans currently being cared for by nuns and volunteers, many of the children and babies were rescued from the streets after being abandoned. I decided to bring about 100 of them home... I'm sure Bethany will understand.

I found a place here to send e-mails and later tonight I will try to send a few pictures of the services and people. It is not high speed so we'll see about if and how many pictures I can send.

God is so very good!!

I stay on verge of tears often as the need is so great.

Continue to pray for Tom and me.

In His Grace - Randy

India trip

12/28 3:54 pm We arrived in Singapore about an hour ago (18 hours and 30 minutes in the air). It is still dark here (6:45am). We departed at 8:30 pm from L.A. and stayed ahead of the sun all the way. Somehow we lost December 28th during the night.

We are going to see a little bit of Singapore, get some rest in a hotel room and leave for Kolcuta (new spelling of Calcutta for those unfamiliar with the change) at about 8:30 tonight.

We will begin an 12 to 13 hour train trip into the interior and then on into the jungle area within the next two days.

I'll check my e-mail (rlhbbh@yahoo.com) when I can and possibly send a few digital photos.

Randy

Singpore Pictures

12/29 10:37 am Arrived in Kolkota this evening. The weather is good. It is night here (we are 12 and a half hours different than Phoenix). Tomorrow we will prepare for the trip to Sanbalpur. We will depart at 8:00 tomorrow night by train, travel all night and begin the meetings. I am quickly losing track of what day it is but I believe we will be in Sanbalpur on New Years Eve.

Randy

Here are a couple of pictures from Singapore (you can click on a photo to view it larger):

Scandalous Freedom

I have a very simple recommendation. Every evangelical Christian should read Steve Brown's book A Scandalous Freedom. Period.

Steve is a PhD Presbyterian who pastored for years and runs a ministry in Key Biscayne Florida. His message is simple: God means it when He says He loves us, and we cannot do anything to make Him love us either more or less. Rather remarkable for a Presbyterian, or an Evangelical. The liberals stole grace from us, Steve Brown tells us where to find it.

Go get a copy today. Read it. Then tell everyone you know about it.

Trauma Bonding

In my last posting I mentioned that I had spent 4 days and nights in the hospital with a friend who was recovering from surgery. Since then I've noticed something interesting, helpful, and reassuring.

This experience was exceptionally difficult for so many reasons. The sleep deprivation was immense; watching my friend be in horrible pain with no relief was almost unbearable; and dealing with the hospital staff was less than pleasant. During all of this, I was also conducting phone sessions with some of my clients ( I am psychotherapist in private practice) since I had taken time off to spend with my friend and wasn't in my office.

It has been interesting how my friend and I have communicated about this experience now that she is more recovered. Just about every time we are together for any length of time we talk about different aspects of this time we spent in the hospital. These conversations are completely unplanned but seem to be "routinely spontaneous" at present. As a psychotherapist I can see very clearly what is happening; it's kind of like an "out of body" experience at times! We are working through the trauma by processing that week over and over from different angles. It can feel very odd to watch myself do for myself what I help others do all the time!

I haven't shared with my friend what we are "doing" and why it is so important. It's just helpful, interesting, and reassuring about how important it is to have people to "do life" with.

Little Things

Recently, I spent 4 nights in the hospital helping a friend who had just had surgery. After bringing this friend home with me to recuperate for another week I noticed that I had lost a ring that I had had for 21 years. This ring was a present from my parents for graduating from college.
For days I thought that I'd find it after my friend went home and I actually had time to sort through my things and get organized again. My friend went home, and I did not find the ring.

Then one day as I was feeling bummed while putting on the rest of my jewelry, I realized that I hadn't ask the Lord's help in finding it. So for the next couple of days when I would think of the ring I simply asked the Lord to help me find it. And you know what, HE DID!!!!
It was at the bottom of a jewelry box where I keep my bracelets! He is very kind and has repeatedly shown me throughout my life that He, the King and Creator of the universe, indeed cares about the little things!

Happy Thanksgiving

On the way to my nephew's house today, Scott and I were listening to Dennis Prager. (How do I spell his name?). He had a fabulous show (at least the hour we heard) where immigrants, or children of immigrants, called in saying how and why they were thankful for America. If it's possible to get a copy of today's show, I think it would be worth it. It is so amazing how incredibly patriotic immigrants are. It is so immensely disappointing how non-patriotic many non immigrants are. Due to several different circumstances and conversations in the last couple weeks, I have been thinking a lot about how much America changed in the 1900's. I think (from what I've been studying with my kids), Americans used to feel so blessed to be here and felt honored for the opportunity to work hard and to help each other succeed (for the most part). The immigrants I heard today all had that kind of attitude. It is so sad to me what an incredible "right of entitlement" so many American's have today. Does it have to do with the fact that most of us Americans are many generations away from the "original immigration" in our family? No one owes you anything. It is a blessing to be in a country where you work hard to succeed. How do we turn the tide back to being honored to be a part of this fabulous country? One immigrant said something to the effect that it is "like winning the lottery to be born in the US." Isn't it sad that so many "natives" think it's "cool" to degrade our most fabulous country?

Several years ago I heard Michael Medved speak at the homeschool conference. I frequently think about his speech. One of the most interesting and I think true statements he made was that we must teach our children gratitude. Teach them to be grateful for what others fought for (and are still fighting) and worked for (and are still working) to make this great country. It is embarrassing and shameful to me that so many "popular people" in this country are so quick to degrade it. They should be ashamed of themselves.

I pray I am able to do a good job teaching all the children in my realm of influence that no one "owes" them anything and it is their responsibility to work hard, help others, and be grateful to God, their families, those who are protecting us as we speak, and those that have gone before us to give us what we have!

Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of being born in this wonderful country. May we make you proud.

Total Mom blog...

If I had my own "personal" blog, I'd put the following comments in there. However, I don't have a personal blog, so I'm going to put it here.

The highlight of my day was listening to my 9 yr old and 6 yr old chasing each other around the house, laughing out loud. I love being a homeschool mom.

The highlight of my day yesterday was when I asked my 3 yr old if he wanted me to help him or if he wanted grandma. He said, "I want you to help me cuz...you're my best ghoul (3 yr old version of 'girl') in the whole woold." Melts my heart.

And my one other *mom* thing comes from an article I read about motherhood making you smarter. It had lots of good stuff, but the one that I said "SEE!!" about, was the following fact:
In the first year of a baby's life, the primary caregiver looses approx. 700 hours of sleep.

No wonder I'm so tired! I'm sure the first 350 hours are lost in the first 4 months. Of course, my exhaustion might have something to do with the fact that it's currently 1:10 am and I'm typing this blog. Have to say -- it's worth it to me to stay up late once in a while just to enjoy the complete silence.

Here's hoping my kids sleep till 8:00.