The Post That Was Suppose To Be A Video

I made a video. It was me sharing about my thoughts on the religion here and my personal experience with the Lord. It didn't upload. I've been trying for days to upload it on here and youtube. But the internet is too slow. So i will type the thoughts out instead. Kinda a bummer but it's better than not filling you in at all.

I have realized (being with a hindu family) that they are really into rituals. What you have to do, how you have to do it, how many times you have to do it... and so on and so forth. At first I asked myself why they felt the need to do this and it made me really sad. I actually cried after experiencing my first puja (worship) because I couldn't believe the bondage they were enslaved to...and all for these idols. I started to seek God. I knew that this was going to be my everyday life and I had to find a way of realizing God's power and truth in the midst of my grief for this religion.
First I thanked Jesus that my faith in Him does not have to be a list of rituals. The Lord requires a life of justice and for us to be pleasing to Him as an outflowing of God's grace. I thanked Him that I don't have to go through any motions in order to appease Him.
Next, I began to praise God. Everytime we do puja and they are praying to these idols, I praise God for how great He is. I offer thanks for this experience, my relationship with Him, and for being with me even as everyone around me worships falsely. I praise Him for who He is and all He has done. These moments of glorifying His name are some of the best and it is an amazing experience that cannot be described.
After this, I pray. I pray for my family and friends here to know the truth, to see a difference in my life, and for them to open their eyes as God reveals Himself. I also pray for God to bless them, despite everything.
Hindu puja is a challenging time for me but it has gotten better because I know that the Lord is right there with me.
I respect the hindu people though. I see how passionate they are for what they believe and how much they do for their gods. I think hindus think about what they have to for their gods. But I am thankful to live knowing that God will supply our every need. However, I think that we need to offer the Lord more honor and more praise. I mean, if they are doing all of these things for statues and idols...shouldn't we be offering our God, the God, so much more than that?

My time with God here is so rich and fulfilling. I don't sit in my room too often because I enjoy being with my family and friends (soaking up the culture) but when I do come in here it is my time with God. I gave this room to Him when I arrived here and made it like my sanctuary. My dad gave me a letter before I left which encouraged me to run towards the Lord and cling tight to Him as I am moving through this experience. I re-read that letter all the time. I have also been reading Oswald Chambers "My Utmost For His Highest" which gives me so much food for the day (thanks Kayla). Then, there is my daily calendar which my mom gave me. It has a new scripture everyday and then every few days my mom wrote me a message too. It always cheers me up. The scriptures always fully apply to whatever I am going through at the time and it is such a refreshing way to start my day. I am so thankful to my family for this. Such love I have been shown. God is faithful and true.
I can see a change in me already, and it has only been a month. It's hard to think about because I know in another month I will be even different from who I am now. But I look forward to the many hours I will spend with the Lord here in India. My faith in God is the only "familiar" I have from home. EVERYTHING else is different. It's great to know that the Lord never changes though and that He is the only thing I need to have be familiar while I am here.
I wish that all Christians could come live in India, not travel for awhile, but live here. Live with rich hindus while there is poverty right outside your window. To see the puja everyday, as you sit, in an expensive flat, with maids serving you water, while your family feed their gods an abundance of food, and yet there are kids starving right outside your front door. Find God in that. Because that has become my new reality. I wish that every Christian could experience that and be humbled. Be humble before the Lord.
You know that joy that is talked about in the Bible? I finally know what that is. I've experienced it. Sure, I'm not happy all of the time but I have this immense joy that comes from the Lord. I pray that you experience that joy too. He's grown me and shown me so much. I can't thank Him enough. I also want to thank you for the prayers and encouragement. Please continue to pray for me because I will continue to need it.
This year is going to prove to be a defining moment in my life and I praise God for that. I praise God that He is already bringing me to my knees. I'm in love with the same God that the church there is. It's great to know He is with all of us. I'm feeling the love of the Lord is Nasik, India. And in that I can say... hallelujah!

A Microscopic Fraction of My New Life Here

I have been purposely not writing this blog. Why you ask? Well it is because I do (and see) so much on a regular basis, that I find it impossible to choose what actually should go into my blog. Daily life is so much different that I can barely put it into words. Plus, when I get home at night I am so tired. However, I am deciding to sit down and force myself to update all of you about things. Just know that what you are about to read is only a microscopic fraction of my new life here in India. But be prepared...for this is still a very long post.

Some things I've gotten to do...
-Attend a rally to watch women in traditional Indian dresses, doing traditional Indian dancing
-Go to the mall and the market (two totally different experiences)
-Take a drive outside of the city and saw the mountains, river, green grass, livestock, and wine yards (Nashik is famous for the wine).
-Meet some amazing people
-Watch a competition of human pyramid building. It was a race to reach the goal of 50 feet high in the air. It seemed like the whole city came out for this.
-Be a model in a fashion show for Sari's (Indian Dress)
-Have a famous actress come to my house and eat with us. She was a huge actress in Bollywood and still very well known even though she is older. She brought along a women who was a Bollywood dancer back in the day and another women who is a writer and director now. I got to share my ambitions of acting and production with them. The director took my information and her daughter e-mails me a lot now!
-Go to two birthday parties and an anniversary (all in which were a very big deal).
-Attend a dinner party at a very modern restaurant, with a big group of my family friends
-Go to an exhibition that came to town with all sorts of handy crafts and Indian clothes and decor.
-Traveled to the city of Nagpur to meet the other exchange students in my district. It was a 12 hour train ride there and back, which I did two nights in a row.
-Play a karaoke/singing video game that we own. It has Hindi and English songs on it. Kind of makes me miss Rockband (a video game I play at home).
-Learn a bunch of random words in Marathi and Hindi which I use a lot now :)
-Ride around in the crazy traffic on my sisters two wheeler (I wish I could drive it though). Everyone has these here.
-Go to the movie theater to watch the newest box office hit "Bodyguard". It was all in Hindi but I was able to follow the storyline and explain the entire movie to my host dad and sister.
-Hangout with the other two exchange students in my city. Meleah is from the Portland, Oregon and Carmen is from Ontario, Canada. I love having them so close!
-Go to McDonalds. They don't have beef obviously.. but they had McChickens, fries, coke, and ice cream. Everything tastes the same too. That was the only meat I've had so far while being here.
-Give a speech to the Nashik Rotary Club and I also performed a dance to a Bollywood song, with the other exchange students and our host siblings.
-Go to an engagement party for my friend (who also lives next to us). I kept thinking "If this is for an engagement, what is the wedding like!?" It was amazing!
-Put on a magic show to like one hundred people. It's neat to think my love for magic tricks all started because of another exchange student I met last year
-Eat some really good and really spicy food. We eat a lot here. Everyone feeds me. But I am starting to figure out the Indian food that I really like and the stuff I don't like. Since it is southern Indian food, it is different from what I grew up with because my mom makes northern Indian food. But I am getting use to it and really like it so far!

So besides these things which I've gotten to do, I have left out the one thing that I've spent most of my time doing. As you know my family here are Hindu's. Well they are very devout Hindu's. Their passion for their religion is like my passion for the one, true, living God. Now you can imagine how hard these two passions would clash. Which, yes, inside of me it has been a challenge. But God has taught me so much from living with my family here. I have prepared a video of my thoughts and the things that God has been doing. I will post that soon. Please watch that when I post it, because it has a lot of insight and I share it from my heart.

However, right now I want to at least give you an picture of what they do here. The past ten days has been the Ganesh Festival. This is the Hindu god of the man with an elephant head. There are 9 names for Ganesh and the one they use the most during this festival is "Ganpati". During the 10 days every family buys a Ganesh sculpture or statue for the home so they can pray to it. There are also tons of these all over the city. We also decorate our home with posters of Ganesh's wives and they pray to them too. They give their god's food  (like actually lay food by them). They give gifts, clothes, fruit and meals. It is so hard to explain though.
The biggest aspect of the 10 days is that each evening, every colony (or neighborhood) gets together for puja (worship) where they sing songs, perform rituals, and pray to this statue. Then after the puja we have games and competitions; such as musical chairs, 3 legged race, cooking contest, races, and many more. We also eat together as a community. I have gotten to know people in my colony (which is 3 condo buildings) very well during this. At the end of the 10 days (which was today) we dance for hours and hours to really loud Indian music and throw colorful powder all over. We also had a talent show and then had a prize distribution for everyone who won the contests. (all the kids got something for participation). Then tonight, we all went to the river together (where hundreds of people were) and as a colony we immersed the Ganesh statue into the water. There has just been so much to this new culture and religion that I can't write it all in an orderly fashion. They always chant "Ganpatiu Bappa, Morya" which basically is like saying "Oh Ganesh, my lord".

I received a few questions that I will take a moment to answer now.
1. The way I am dressed in the picture on my last post is not a typical days outfit. Young girls are dressing more modern now with jeans and a longer top. But they wear a punjabi dress (like the one I was wearing) when they dress up for special occasions. Then they wear a sari only for a wedding or something really fancy. I cannot say they dress like Americans because the girls are actually modest here. I like that aspect a lot. Adult women wear sari's basically everyday. Men and boys dress pretty much the same as in the U.S. except for special occasions they wear long tops. The guys also care about what they look like too, like in the U.S. fashion isn't in a boys mind too much, here they care.
2. I can still wear my style of clothing but definitely not to the extreme level that I did back home. I do not have to conform to the way the dress here but I want to because I really like it. In fact, I wear Indian dresses more often than most girls do here. But I wear jeans a lot too!
3. I said in my last post that they treat me different after they find out I am an American and an exchange student. I meant that in a good way I guess. Before they figure it out they just treat me like my host sisters friend or something. But when they come to know who I am they first start offering me things like chai tea and food. Then they ask "What are your thoughts about India, coming from the U.S.A.?" and then it is just question after question about why I wanted to come here, how I like certain things, when my birthday is, how their English is, what my future is going to look like, if I like Justin Bieber, if I can be their best friend, and things like that.

I have more that I could write about, but that will always be the case when I post a new update on here. Besides I already wrote a novel anyway. I guess I will wait a few days and then write some more about the way I have been feeling lately. I haven't really shared too much of that yet. I will also be posting that video soon too. So check back in a couple of days.

I pray the Lord's blessings on all of you as you read this. Continue to pray for me too!