October 31st through November 4th was my first full week here. I was able to work an entire week at Daughters of Hope - which was wonderful. Here's how a typical day goes:
7am Wake-up, spend time with the Lord (reading my Bible, an awesome book about
Job, journal, pray, etc.), eat breakfast, & walk to the Fila's house (it's about a 30
second walk...they live right next to the k-homes soccer field).
8:45am Ride with Molly to our Daughters building, about 5 minutes down the road
9am Devotion & prayer with the women at Daughters. They alternate who leads. It's a
great way to start the morning with them. I enjoy that time a lot. It's so dear
getting to worship with people in their own language. Most of the women are
Christian; a couple are Hindu.
9:20 Work gets started. I help get fabric out, find thread, hold the measuring tape,
train a new girl that joined us this week, match patterns, organize the nursery
(I'm so excited about getting the nursery up & running), & whatever other help I
can provide. I am able to take over some of the accounting so that Asha, who is
the production manager, can have more time to actually do her job. I love doing
the accounting - I enjoy work like that.
10:45 Morning tea time
11:00 Work resumes
12:15 Lunch. We have a cook who spends all day with us. She's a precious woman. It's a
great thing that Molly has set up Daughters to be such a caring place for the
women. They are fed a wonderful lunch, plus tea twice a day. Sharing food is a
delightful way to build our community, and I love eating with the women!
12:45 Work resumes.
3:00 Afternoon teatime
5:00 Finish up work for the day & start to clean up. There is generally a lot to clean up
everyday because of the nature of what we are doing: thread, cloth, fluff, &
fabric everywhere.
5:30 Closing prayer & dismissal
Spending my time at Daughters is wonderful. I am getting to really live among the amazing women here. They are so quick to welcome me in! Everyday I learn something from them, and they learn something from me. It's a sweet way to live!
When I get back to k-homes every evening I usually come to my room & spend about an hour by myself before supper time at 7. I like this part of my day...so nice to sit & read or sew or listen to music and just be. I get to go to different houses to listen to devotion & have prayer with the kids. All of the staff & interns take turns leading devotions for the houses...the kids call it "taking prayer" instead of "doing devotions." I love hearing the English phrases that are so different from American English. Even though I have only been here for less than two weeks, I find myself starting to be unable to remember if something is local English or American English - I have a feeling my vocab might be a little different when I'm back in April. So I "take prayer" with the youngest boys one week, & then the youngest girls the next week. They are wonderful - I wish you could hear some of the things they say. For example, I was with Melinda & the little boys (ages 5 - 11) and she was talking about the story of David & Goliath - and all of a sudden they just came alive with their creative thoughts of how the actual story happened. They were able to put themselves in David's shoes & really grasp the magnitude of what he did because he believed in the Lord's strength & in the Lord's favor over his life. One of the boys said that David's story was a miracle - & he said it with a grin & a satisfaction of fully taking the story into his heart. That was such a fun night! We had in-depth conversation about how deep the pebble went into Goliath's skull & what his head ended up looking like & whether or not David wanted to remove the pebble to keep it, & how it felt as he chopped off Goliath's head after he was dead. You know, exciting things for a young boy to imagine! I'm so thankful to have spent that time with them. I'll take prayer with them next Tuesday night and it should be great!
On Wednesday nights we have community group time where it's just the Americans together - it's wonderful because we all make food & get to sit & eat together & talk & just get to know eachother better. Sometimes there will be other Americans from the city that come; sometimes it will be just the ones from K-Homes & Daughters. This week we had four people from the city - they are all good friends with Tammy, Molly, & Dylan. We ate good American food - Erin & Melinda brought home-made caramel and chocolate-peanut butter corn flakes (I know that sounds strange but they were SO good), Molly made cheese dip & brought broccoli and carrots, TG brought garlic bread & marinara sauce, Taylor & Harrison brought fruit salad, and so on. Such fun food! Then we watched an incredibly well-done documentary on sex-trafficking called Nefarious. It was made by a group of people from IHOP (International House of Prayer) and is so powerful. If you ever get a chance you should see it. It will open your eyes to the horrific world of sex-trafficking. Seriously, watch it.
I am really enjoying life here. I am surrounded by incredible people. I love my job. I adore the community I have found myself in. More updates soon!
Good morning on the east coast!
7am Wake-up, spend time with the Lord (reading my Bible, an awesome book about
Job, journal, pray, etc.), eat breakfast, & walk to the Fila's house (it's about a 30
second walk...they live right next to the k-homes soccer field).
8:45am Ride with Molly to our Daughters building, about 5 minutes down the road
9am Devotion & prayer with the women at Daughters. They alternate who leads. It's a
great way to start the morning with them. I enjoy that time a lot. It's so dear
getting to worship with people in their own language. Most of the women are
Christian; a couple are Hindu.
9:20 Work gets started. I help get fabric out, find thread, hold the measuring tape,
train a new girl that joined us this week, match patterns, organize the nursery
(I'm so excited about getting the nursery up & running), & whatever other help I
can provide. I am able to take over some of the accounting so that Asha, who is
the production manager, can have more time to actually do her job. I love doing
the accounting - I enjoy work like that.
10:45 Morning tea time
11:00 Work resumes
12:15 Lunch. We have a cook who spends all day with us. She's a precious woman. It's a
great thing that Molly has set up Daughters to be such a caring place for the
women. They are fed a wonderful lunch, plus tea twice a day. Sharing food is a
delightful way to build our community, and I love eating with the women!
12:45 Work resumes.
3:00 Afternoon teatime
5:00 Finish up work for the day & start to clean up. There is generally a lot to clean up
everyday because of the nature of what we are doing: thread, cloth, fluff, &
fabric everywhere.
5:30 Closing prayer & dismissal
Spending my time at Daughters is wonderful. I am getting to really live among the amazing women here. They are so quick to welcome me in! Everyday I learn something from them, and they learn something from me. It's a sweet way to live!
When I get back to k-homes every evening I usually come to my room & spend about an hour by myself before supper time at 7. I like this part of my day...so nice to sit & read or sew or listen to music and just be. I get to go to different houses to listen to devotion & have prayer with the kids. All of the staff & interns take turns leading devotions for the houses...the kids call it "taking prayer" instead of "doing devotions." I love hearing the English phrases that are so different from American English. Even though I have only been here for less than two weeks, I find myself starting to be unable to remember if something is local English or American English - I have a feeling my vocab might be a little different when I'm back in April. So I "take prayer" with the youngest boys one week, & then the youngest girls the next week. They are wonderful - I wish you could hear some of the things they say. For example, I was with Melinda & the little boys (ages 5 - 11) and she was talking about the story of David & Goliath - and all of a sudden they just came alive with their creative thoughts of how the actual story happened. They were able to put themselves in David's shoes & really grasp the magnitude of what he did because he believed in the Lord's strength & in the Lord's favor over his life. One of the boys said that David's story was a miracle - & he said it with a grin & a satisfaction of fully taking the story into his heart. That was such a fun night! We had in-depth conversation about how deep the pebble went into Goliath's skull & what his head ended up looking like & whether or not David wanted to remove the pebble to keep it, & how it felt as he chopped off Goliath's head after he was dead. You know, exciting things for a young boy to imagine! I'm so thankful to have spent that time with them. I'll take prayer with them next Tuesday night and it should be great!
On Wednesday nights we have community group time where it's just the Americans together - it's wonderful because we all make food & get to sit & eat together & talk & just get to know eachother better. Sometimes there will be other Americans from the city that come; sometimes it will be just the ones from K-Homes & Daughters. This week we had four people from the city - they are all good friends with Tammy, Molly, & Dylan. We ate good American food - Erin & Melinda brought home-made caramel and chocolate-peanut butter corn flakes (I know that sounds strange but they were SO good), Molly made cheese dip & brought broccoli and carrots, TG brought garlic bread & marinara sauce, Taylor & Harrison brought fruit salad, and so on. Such fun food! Then we watched an incredibly well-done documentary on sex-trafficking called Nefarious. It was made by a group of people from IHOP (International House of Prayer) and is so powerful. If you ever get a chance you should see it. It will open your eyes to the horrific world of sex-trafficking. Seriously, watch it.
I am really enjoying life here. I am surrounded by incredible people. I love my job. I adore the community I have found myself in. More updates soon!
Good morning on the east coast!
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