Saturday, April 28, 2007

Newsletter! January to April 2007

http://elizabethasia.googlepages.com/ElizabethNewsletterJan-April07fullpi.pdf

Here is my newsletter for January to April 2007. If you don’t have a program to view it, you can download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat in order to view the file.http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Friday, April 27, 2007

Out the train window...

I’m on the day train from the closest city to the capitol- and thought I should document some of the things I can see from the window.
- women with piles of wood on their head- bringing it from the jungle to sell in the market
- children in barefeet roaming around on the train tracks- why wear sandles?
- a guy wakes up, and roams out onto his “front porch” – just 5 feet away from the train passing by- talk about a view
- A young boy squats down to you know what.
- Two old men squatting, but carrying on a conversation.
- The bikes, motocycles, trucks, jeeps, cars all waiting as the train crosses the road
- Various men on the train move their right hand towards their ears in a motion that signals we just passed a temple.
- Little villages here and there- separating by vast fields of green and golden crops growing.
- A farmer with his ox plowing a field.
- A tea walla (guy) comes through the train, “chai, chai.” Another guy comes through, “cold drinks, cold drinks.” Another one, “newspaper, magazine, newspaper, magazine.”
- A boy herding sheep.
- A girl with a metal bucket of water on her head- I don’t see any river, I wonder how far she had to go to get it.
- The looks of people as we pull through a station- I wonder if they come out every day to watch the train going to the ‘big city’ and imagine themselves riding it, and what that kind of life would be like. I bet none of them will ever know.
- A boy holds his goats by the ear for fear they might run onto the tracks.
- A father picks up some old plastic that he’ll use to repair his roof- but that piece of plastic is larger than the one he currently has for his roof.
- Women and girls dressed in what we would call rags, search around for scraps of anything useful. They’ve been doing this every morning, what could possible be new today that wasn’t there yesterday?
- A dog munches on something that might result in his death.
- A woman kneads dough for chapattis- again just 5-7 feet from the train tracks. I bet they have a slightly different taste than when Panna makes them.
- A daughter uses a plastic cup to throw water on herself. She has a light shirt on and trousers, as she bathes. This will serve as her bath for the week.
- The boy in the seat in front of me leaned back, and his mint in his mouth dropped out onto my pants!
- Women in saris with their heads covered work in the heat of the day to harvest their crops- will they even get to eat from their own fields, or will it all be sold?
- The mud and brick and cement houses look like they will fall down any minute- although they look more sturdy than the plastic tents nearby.
- What is that- a bike path? There is a skinny paved road next to the train tracks- a motorcycle and a bicycle are the only vehicles I have seen on it- it looks too small for big trucks or even cars…Interesting.
- A crew of farmers use shovels- two men per shovel (that’s what you do in a community-based society- don’t ever work alone!), shoveling the wheat, grain into a big truck.
- A man with a sickle chops grass
- Some houses are beautifully decorated with colored paint, but next to them are shanty towns.
- Monkeys swing from the trees.
- Boys, girls, goats all share the same path- some going to school, some going to the field.
- Buffalos rest and bathe in the green mucky water
- The brick wall running along side a road has advertisements in Hindi written in paint. – their billboards.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Good and Sad News (Email Update)

Update- April 12, 2007

The good news: We made an initial recording of the last story in our set!!!
The sad news: A fellow worker’s son committed suicide - we have to cancel/delay the storying workshop next week.

: ) THE GOOD NEWS: Our story-crafters, Heather, Gina, and Precious have been working hard the past few weeks to craft stories, and check them and re-craft them, and record them. This past week, we were able to record the last few stories in our set. This doesn’t mean we are “done”- of course, it just means that we now have an initial recording (or, as for some stories, up to 9 recordings!) of every story we have planned to do. I have been making almost daily trips to the neighbors to test stories, and took a trip to Grace’s village on Wednesday and was able to test some more stories there. Some days, it’s been wonderful to record a story in the morning, back-translate it into English in the afternoon and test it that evening!

Robin and I have both had some interesting conversations with our story-crafters lately. Please, please pray for all of them as they seek the Truth in these stories that they are telling! Please also pray for wisdom for Robin and me as we try and find ways to answer their questions and model what it means to be a follower of the Truth.

: ( - THE SAD NEWS: We received a call this morning from a friend who said “Mr. A’s (a man who has been helping us with the preparations for the workshop) –son died last night and so you have to cancel your storying workshop (previously scheduled for next week- April 17-18).” It is very sad, as his son (around 16 years old) committed suicide by swallowing poison.

Because of his son’s death, not only will Mr. A be unable to help us, but the location where we were planning to have the storying workshop will be in mourning for several days. Many of the leaders in our city will be involved with funeral services and it would be culturally inappropriate for us to carry on with our plans in this situation. We are very sad about the death, and also sad that this will delay the workshop and thus delay stories from reaching more Kahani people.

Thank you for your prayers for Mr A’s family as well as praying for those who were planning to come to the workshop- pray that they will be able to come at a later date.

Also, as we near the end of our project (about 5 more months)- pray against the Enemy and his evil schemes to delay/hinder the work.

Thank you, as always for your faithful prayers. Without your support, some Kahani people would never have the opportunity to hear of Him!

Til All Have Heard,
~ Elizabeth
“Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love.” ~ Ephesians 3:19
Pray today that the Kahani people would know His love.

Monday, April 2, 2007

Easter! (Email to Parents)

Hey Mommy and Daddy,

I got some nice Easter candy yesterday! :) THANKS SO MUCH!!
And the butterfly is BEAUTIFUL.

Honestly, I can’t tell you how little things like that make my day, and add so much…I have it hanging in my room, and just looking at it makes me smile…it’s so beautiful in spite of the dust and dirt I live in! :)

I love you!

~ Elizabeth

Sunday, April 1, 2007

March Quotes (Email Update)

April 1, 2007

“O Lord, my God, you have done many miracles for us. Your plans are too numerous to list.
If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them!”
~ Psalm 40:5


Check out some quotes from this past month:

- “I heard a lot about this stuff before, I heard a lot of stuff from the Bible. I even went to a Christian school, but I never understood any of it…after hearing these stories, I understand more.” ~ Gina, (story-crafter from the city)- after hearing several of the stories.

- “Yes, my sister had an evil spirit in her a few years ago” ~ a testing subject after listening to the story of Jesus healing a demon possessed man.

- “I just washed the feet of 9 little girls yesterday. It was the end of a 9 day fast for 9 lesser goddesses- and so, I washed the feet of 9 little girls, and prayed to them also- as they were representations of the goddesses I was fasting for.” ~ Heather, story crafter- in a discussion about Jesus washing the disciples feet.

- “Who would believe in a god that does that?” ~ neighbor in response to the last plague of death on the firstborn in the Exodus story. After some frustrating discussion, and using a word picture about fairness, she then said, “It’s good you are doing these stories, so we can learn more about God.”

- “Every story you tell me, I tell the story to my mother that night” ~Grace- our (non-Christian) language helper (we didn’t realize she, and possibly others are already telling the stories to others!)

- “It doesn’t sound like different parts, it sounds like one story.” ~neighbor who listened to 4 stories about David.

- “Our gods say I shouldn’t pray for 10 days after someone dies…I was thinking that your God is somewhat different…” ~Precious- story-crafter, on deciding if she should come to our prayer time that week or not since it was only 5 days after someone in her village had died and she wasn’t sure if it was okay to pray to God. She did end up coming…and praying.

- “Did Jesus want the disciples to kill people? ~Heather (story-crafter) after hearing the part of the calling of the disciples story, “You were catching fish, but now you will catch men” – after all, when you catch fish, they usually die, right?

- “I’m glad you are planning to have another workshop. The information you shared with them in the storying workshop is something they can really apply to their ministry, since they mainly work with those who can’t read and write.” ~ one of the local leaders in reference to the workers he had sent for the workshop last month, and his excitement that we are planning to have another workshop in April.

- “It’s raining in our house” ~ me, trying to describe to the shopkeeper that water is seeping through our roof and walls from the rain!

P & P
Praise for:
* Heather and Gina (new story-crafters) have had a lot of time to work on stories- and we’ve been getting a lot of stories recorded and tested.
* People telling stories that we don’t even know about!
* Precious continues to see how God is different from her god.
* The positive feedback we’ve had from the workshop- and the excitement about having another one (April 17-18!)

Prayer for:
* Robin’s trip to the capitol- she is taking a trip there for a few days to rest and meet a friend.
* Connections with Heather (story-crafter) and her family- I’m planning to spend at least one night at her home while Robin is away.
* Our consultant – who has been busy doing ‘on-site’ checks for other storying projects as well as trying to check all of our stories- pray that she has time, energy and wisdom as she returns to the states and continues checking stories J
* Kahani people- that they would see the Truth.

Til All Have Heard,

~ Elizabeth