India Update # 2

(I started this Sunday while flying back home and just finished it lastnight. Enjoy!) 

We have now reached cruising altitude as I sit here looking out at the bright white clouds below. The last leg of this adventure looks to be soon coming to a close. 

It is such an interesting adventure to follow The Living God wherever He wishes to take you. It is such an interesting way of life to belong to Someone so far beyond our minds comprehension. Someone so very good and loving and faithful. 

Step Two: Visa 

For two years I worked with my parents and their ministry "Again-In". I learned SO much during those two years. 

During this time of business and life, the question often nagged at the back of my mind "Am I really ever going to go anywhere?". For my birthday one year my Mom got me a Rosetta Stone Hindi learning program and I began to work on it daily for about 3or4 months. Then I got busy and got out of the routine, and it became mostly one of those things on the "Oh! I should do that" shelf in the back of my mind. 

With the beginning of the new year a sense of expectancy blossomed in my heart, "Something is about to happen! I can just feel it."

Then January came to a close...then the days under the heading "February" on the wall calendar began to be ticked off... And with them excitement began to wan into questions... "Was anything ever REALLY going to happen?" "Would I ever REALLY go over seas?"

Wow! How short our endurance and patience can be some times! 

Whew! I had to wait a full two months y'all! Such a LONG time ;) (said in my most sarcastic drawl) 

But you see, the trouble wasn't so much the two months that I had to wait, as the 5-10 years that the enemy kept dangling in front of my face. "You are NEVER going to go ANYWHERE. You are ALWAYS going to do the same thing you are doing right now." I find that the Great Deceiver likes to use superlatives when it comes to describing things we don't want to hear. 

And if we won't buy that, he stretches it out as far as he can. I find my time limit seems to be about 5 years, so he will whisper things like "yeah, that's nice, but it probably won't happen for, like, at lease 5 years!" Or "yeah, but you will probably be doing this for the next five years".Haha! 

So during this time of waiting my dear friend, Rachel Baker, told me that she and another friend of ours were planing a trip to India. 

"Oh? That's nice" I responded and went on with my work. 

With the work I do here I am very tied down. A trip to town by myself is a big deal. A day off, a treat. And a night over at my sisters house only happens once in a great while. So a trip to India at that time didn't even strike me as a possibility. 

We talked about how it would be fun if I could go too, but it was not at all as if it would actually happen. 

Then one day Rachel told me that our other friend's visa had been denied. She was now not planing to go. 

"Why not?" I asked her. Still feeling that she was supposed to go. 

"Well, uh, she's not going anymore..." Rachel responded. Our friend had been the one coordinating the whole trip. 

So Rachel started praying about whether she were still supposed to go. 

"I keep thinking about how someone said that when I went to India to take Kourtney with me"she texted me one day. 

"Well, I guess I could try" 

Our friend had told Rachel, who told me, about a new Visa called an eVisa, which you can get online within 4 days if you are approved and is good for 30 days. 

After talking with my Mom and Dad I decided to turn in an application. 

I also decided to go ahead and start packing and preparing, because it would be allot easier to be ready and have to undo then have to try and get everything ready at the last minute. 

So one day, about five days before my planed departure, and a couple days before my Visa was expected, I went shopping. On this shopping trip I prayed and asked The Lord what I should get and to guide my shopping trip. I don't think I have ever gone shopping and had more specific instructions. I would pray "Lord what should I get?" And He would answer "that" and I would see something I hadn't noticed before or know what specific type of something to get. It was pretty amazing. 

So after that I was feeling pretty confident that I was going. 

The next day I got the confirmation email saying that I was approved for a Visa to India! I got on the phone with Rachel and started buying tickets. We decided to meet in Washington DC and fly out from there together. 

I told very few people about my planed trip and asked no one for money, but within a day of getting Visa approval my ticket was completely paid for! God is so good! He doesn't have to have weeks to work :) In this case it was only a few hours:) 

I finished packing. Kissed my family and said goodbyes and headed for Washington DC.