Joy in New Delhi!

We have been in New Delhi, India since Saturday! Thank you so much for all your words of encouragement and prayers during this time!!! We reached here good but exhausted after traveling 24 hours. It has been great so far, an overwhelming and amazing experience! It is far from any culture or city I have ever seen! The culture is so complex and interesting. You must see it to understand, no matter how much you study it in the books. The poverty is like nothing I could have imagined. The mass of people (17 million) and traffic with no organization is crazy. We are staying in a nice place with a missionary family here. They are living in a middle class neighborhood, yet the conditions from the outside is the poorest I have ever seen. We have driven around what seems like a large part of the city, but I know there is so much more, and I have not seen any nice or clean place. The dust is constant.

In the past 2 days we had the opportunity to visit 2 new churches in totally unreached areas and visit and speak in 3 home cell groups. Each is located in a different slum or poor area that is totally unreached. The meet in family homes about 8x8 ft. We visited one of the worst slums in India twice where a small group of women are meeting. I can't begin to describe the conditions here, ask me if you're curious. Before our friend went in to share the Gospel no Christians had gone there before. These groups are gathering together everyday for fellowship, prayer, worship, and study. A light in the darkness. They were so happy we were there and very hospitable. We have been so full of joy and gratitude to meet with our brothers and sisters here, give and receive love, see a glimpse of their lives, and hopefully bring encouragement.

We are seeing the huge needs here and trying hard to understand their spiritual needs and how we can show them the love of Christ. It is a process to understand. But we are thankful for the unique ministry our friend has going here that is in line with our vision and what we have been learning about. Many small home churches built on relationships and discipleship. And wow what an immense need for workers here, the opportunity is great. You are surrounded everywhere by people who have never heard about Jesus.

It is amazing to be here as we have seen God's faithfulness in bringing us here and fulfilling the desire in my heart to come. We are praying it will work for us to take a train later this week to Ranchi where we will join Hoola For Happiness. They are already there and we were excited to see them at a kids Christmas program this weekend. I'm confident we will have a wonderful time together there, but for now we are happy to fulfill God's purposes for us here now. Please continue to pray for our protection, for the hearts of the people we are meeting, and that God would use us to bring His Word and love to them. :) :) God bless you!

With girls in the slum who gifted me bracelets & earrings.

New teen group in another slum learning to read, write, and live for Christ.

With the teen group.