india beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

passport came! thank You, Jesus. i went downtown today with Drew to apply to get my visa. i'm so glad i didn't go alone. something about the place was just kind of... creepy. i sort of felt like i was on a secret mission or something. plus, i'm told that my passport picture looks very spyish. just call me jackie bauer... anyway, i called the consulate later to ask a question about visas and got treated like a terrorist. it was weird. but, i think we were there for a total of fifteen minutes. maybe not even that. fifteen minutes, $150 later... i should be good to go. i'll have to go back downtown next week to pick it up.

so i am going to india in february. i'll be gone for three weeks. we are going to be helping out with ministry stuff and serving at an orphanage in Itarsi. i don't really know what else to say about it. it's going to be amazing. i think the Lord has been hinting at this for some time now. little things throughout the last few years i think have been pointing to india. i really love the people of india. i see them, and my heart moves. i'm not quite sure where this fits into my "prophetic destiny", as it were... but i think it does, somehow.

the Lord has done SUCH a phenomenal work in providing all the finances for this trip. between both of my parents and their spouses, my grandparents, a few friends, and some anonymous generous givers at my church, i more or less ended up with with about $3500. i cannot even believe it. i didn't even ask for money, except that i wouldn't get anything for christmas or my birthday. and although the entire trip costs less than $3500, i basically needed that much to pay for the trip, the passport, the visa, supplies, and living expenses while i'm gone.

if you were one who have so generously given for this trip (and even if you have not), i pray the Lord's extravagant blessing on your life in every way. definitely in finances, but especially in knowledge of Him. the Lord has used your giving to so perfectly answer my prayers, and i know He takes pleasure in answering my prayers for you, friends, when i ask Him to pour out an abundance of His resources, love, and knowledge of Him on each of you. get ready. thank you for investing in what the Lord is doing in me and in the people of India. i pray that you will also share in the fruit of it.

when i was first preparing for this trip, i was trying to figure out how i was going to scrimp and save and cut corners to make sure i could afford it. i remember thinking, "Lord, i just won't buy groceries until i leave. i'll live off of bread that GWAYO gets from panera and water." or i would say, "i'll turn off the heat in my apartment and bundle up to save on electricity." stuff like that. and although i haven't quite lived up to either of those extremes, i really have tried to cut back to the bare necessities. but i have been really seeing well in the past couple of months that the world's resources are at the Lord's fingertips (i don't think i've ever seen $3500 at one time!). He can sovereignly move it all around as He pleases. which is all the more reason for me to freely give what i have away and to freely accept what comes my way, i'm learning. hey, that rhymed. sort of.

in other news, i got a flu shot vaccination today. don't know if i actually needed it, but hey, it was free. and i'm going to india.

i'm really looking forward to indian food. i'm not looking forward to peeing in a hole in the ground. i'm definitely going to have to get over not having some very common american luxuries. it's possible that i may come back and shower even less than i normally do. and you're just going to have to deal with it.