en route

kathryn and i are in the london airport on our layover. we left mumbai at 3:00am, and are halfway home. as she said we have not had real access to airport signal for the past 4 days in mumbai, thus the lack of posts.

we had a wonderful time in mumbai. our friend bill leep left us at the airport, and we had phillip and alfred, the pastor from dhaka, with us for half of our time there. we spent two days with an inspiring man named devaraj, who is an indian native. he was born into one of the highest castes but was disowned by his family when he became a christian. he’s since devoted his life to helping the least in mumbai through his organization, bombay teen challenge. their ministry is very broad. they have a campus-like safe home 2 hours outside of the city called ashagram. there are women rescued from the sex trade there, as well as men going through drug and alcohol rehabilitation, and street boys, most of whom have mothers who were or are in the trade. in a nearby town there are three separate buildings, called jubilee 1,2 and 4. two of them have girls whose mothers are in the trade or were street kids, and one of them is for small children who are infected with or affected by HIV. In the city, bombay teen challenge also has a dentist office and HIV clinic in the red light district, an ambulance, a feeding program, a church, a drug rehab center, and a daycare/nightcare center for kids whose mothers are in the trade. its truly unbelievable.

we spent about a day and a half in ashagram. kathryn was there for a week this past summer so many of the girls freaked out to see her again. phillip and i hung out mostly with the boys. these boys’ stories are unbelievable. one of the kids i connected with the most was taken to ashagram 10 years ago when he was living on the streets. he and his mom are both still at ashagram, and he’s 15 years old now. story after story from these boys were incredible. they were mostly all streets kids whose moms were working in the redlight district, so they were forced to fend for themselves. begging, stealing, sleeping on railway platforms and getting beaten by policemen, razor blade fights, gangs, watching their friends die in train accidents. but the beauty of where these guys are now is the exciting part. most of them speak good english, they’ve gone to school, they’ve learned music, they’re worship leaders, they are truly passionate about their faith. i was so blown away and so inspired.

the night we were there we ended up putting together a spontaneous worship event. phillip led worship, while the kids all set up a sound system, they played in the band and sang backup. all the women, boys, and men were there (probably about 125 people), and it was seriously an inspired night. phillip did an incredible job leading the group, and the chorus from the song “how he loves” was sang over and over for probably 45 minutes to an hour. it was one of the most emotional worship experiences of my life, singing that song with all these boys who had just shared their heartbreaking stories, but had experienced such profound redemption. kathryn was on the other side of the room with the women, and watching these women sing that song so passionately pretty much broke me. it was a highlight of the trip.

after that we played with the kids at jubilee 4, these are the kids who are infected. hand slapping games and simon says were both huge hits and these kids captured our hearts.

we spent the night at ashagram and got to hang out the next morning with everyone. ashagram is unlike anything i’ve seen. its a beautiful, peaceful place, i can’t wait to go back. once we left ashagram devaraj took us to one of the redlight districts in mumbai. we saw the centers that they’ve started, as well as walked the streets. we went into several rooms where women work, just off the street. it was heartbreaking because several of these women have actually become christians through bombay teen challenge (one of them was reading a joyce meyers book), but for whatever reason have not made the decision to leave the trade yet. devaraj is constantly loving on them and makes it clear that whenever they want to leave he will help them get out. we also saw many eunichs. these are men who operate in a cult and are dressed in womens’ saris, its one of the strangest things i’ve seen or heard about. the filth is very similar to that of calcutta. the piles and piles of trash everywhere is hard to explain. the human and animal waste everywhere. in mumbai there were goats and cows everywhere in the city, even stray sheep, feeding on the trash heaps. the whole thing was very hard to see. devaraj is an amazing man, and he took really good care of us. we all left inspired and so thankful for what he’s doing! phillip left that night.

kathryn and i ended up having an unexpected day off after that because the schedule had been shifted around a bit. so we rented a car ($30 for the whole day) and got to take a tour of the city. our driver barely spoke english, so i’m really looking forward to doing some interweb research on what we actually saw! there was a giant outdoor handwashing laundry area, apparently the largest in the world. we saw the gateway to india, the taj hotel, we ate at cafe leopold (a famous cafe here). we went into a muslim mosque which is in the ocean, but there is a walkway from the mainland. we went to a beautiful, green park in the middle of the crazy city. we had such a great day. even though we were going all day it was nice to actually take it slow for we hadn’t stopped for a week and a half. that night we had dinner with my new friend james pond (founder of transitions global). james is from portland, and has opened several safehouses for rescued girls in cambodia. he’s in the middle of starting 4 of them in mumbai. such a great dude, we really connected with him.

yesterday was our last day in the city. we met with another great organization focused on rescue and rehabilitation (i can’t say the name of who it was on this blog). they met with us, took excellent care of us, and took us to one of their safe homes. we met many girls who are all minors that have been rescued from the trade. again, so heartbreaking to know their stories, but so much life and joy in this place. there’s also an adjoining house with all young girls who were born with HIV. beautiful girls who have an average life expectancy of 15 years. but this place takes care of them, gives them the medicine they need, has a school for the girls to go to. its a beautiful place.

we then had a couple hours to wander through some of the markets, which was really fun. then we had dinner on the rooftop of a building at a restaurant called sheesha. i think it was the best food we had on the trip so it was a great way to end. we met up with about 6 people that we’d met that day and had a great time eating and connecting. and that’s about it. we went back to the hotel, packed our bags, had one last drink on the roof of our hotel, and left for the airport. we shared a car with a man whose son is getting married this week. its an arranged marriage that this man and the bride’s father set up. very interesting to hear about it.

ok, this is long and crammed in but i just wanted to share the highlights of where we’ve been the past 5 days or so. thank you so much for even keeping up with this blog and caring. thank you for praying for us. the trip could not have gone any better. it was unbelievable and truly life changing. i know there is lots of processing to do, but i’m just humbled and honored to have gotten to take this trip. i’m so proud of kathryn, she put together a stellar itinerary for us, and there were literally no problems at all through our travels. we board our flight in an hour then we’re on our way home. love you love you love you all!

chris

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