Training...(Email to Parents)

Hi Mommy and Daddy!

Things are going well- our first day in the new town. We went to a service this morning, and are here in the hotel resting and then we’ll have prayer and share this evening.

I’m feeling a little sick. Throat is sore, and my system is a little uneasy- not sure if it’s the food or something else. As long as I can get to a bathroom in time, I’m okay. I’m going to wait another day and then take something. I know I need to drink more- which then also requires a bathroom, but I don’t want dehydration to confuse whatever is going on with me.

Everyone else is doing okay. Our room is about twice as small as the other place, and Robin says
that the pillows are more “rock-ish,” but otherwise, it’s very nice. Actually, it is nicer than the other place. We even have laundry service! Hot water too!

I told everyone in the jeep (before the rain on my luggage and before the flat tire) just how happy I was to be here, in South Asia. They were all a little surprised at me saying that after what we’d been through and that was only half of our trip….but really, it was exactly where I wanted to be.

My hair was just about oily enough to look as if it was wet and almost so that I could form it to curl- perfect! I know I didn’t smell very good, but nobody did, so it was okay.

Anyway, just another adventure. Am I still in the honeymoon stage or transitioning? Either way, I am enjoying it, just the same.

Love you and miss you.

~ Elizabeth

Hello from South Asia! (Mass Update)

Photos!!! Also, I’m attaching two photos. One is of Vivian, Robin and myself. Vivian is a girl from Guatemala who will be with us in our people group and is here with us now at training. he other picture is of some young boys who walked down the mountain with me from the temple we visited (about ½ hour in the rain!!). They talked in their language, I talked in Hindi- we laughed a lot, I think it is the highlight of my trip here thus far!

Elizabeth Wilson Update- July 24, 2005

I’m Here!
I’m here in South Asia! (I’ve been here one week so far!)

I have to start with a huge thank-you to all of you for your prayers for traveling.
Things went very smoothly. Even in the New Jersey airport, I met one of my Indian
friends whose fiancé was traveling on the same flight!

No more room?
We arrived at 5am Tuesday morning South Asia time, welcomed by dark faces,
humidity, people speaking foreign languages, flies, and I think I saw a cow or two.
We were met by Barry (one of the leaders here), and a little man with a white
taxi/van thing. He put Robin's suitcases in the van and there was absolutely no
more room for more suitcases. Oh, no problem, I forgot about the roof! He threw
mine up there...no straps or anything. Need I worry? Of course not. We did
swerve around some busses, and go over a few bumps, but we made it.

It’s as if I never left!
While riding from the airport I looked around at the "sights." The people
sitting/sleeping near the side the street, the dogs, the dust, the painted trees, the cows,
the trucks, busses, rickshaws...I felt completely as if I had never left India before.
It was a great feeling.

I want to go home…
Then, when I got to where we are staying for training (which is not yet our final
destination), I just started to realize, how little I have (2 years packed into 2 suitcases!),
yet how the “little” I have is still more than most of the people around me…
And just thinking about really being here for 2 years. I had a few moments of just
wishing I could come back home. However, thinking about the faces of the
people here and why I am here got me excited again about being here.

Praises!
- safety in getting here
- good connection with family at home (cell phone and internet!)
- for your encouragement and prayers!
- adjustment to the culture hasn’t been too difficult (at least not yet!)

Main Prayer Needs:
Please continue to pray for adjustment and transition. Robin and I are both
adjusting to a lot, including to each other! And we will be moving around/adjusting
to things for several months and then finally in our destination- and need to get adjusted
to that! Pray for patience and wisdom to know what to say and do to make things easier.

Also for traveling on the bus and the train over the next few weeks- pray that
we’ll be able to take our luggage and still get off the train in time at the 1 minute stops!

Future Events
Next weekend: As part of our current training, we are taking an overnight train
trip to visit a Wycl. National partnership (Nationals who do things to help translation works, etc).
After that, we head north to learn language for a month before getting to our people group.

~ Elizabeth

Culture Stress (Email to parents)

Hello!

Well, the second day is going okay. There are so many issues and things that we don’t know or don’t have control over that are a little stressful...

It was interesting, in the stress thing today, Barry put up a chart showing how we go through Culture Stress. There are various stages:

* “Fun/honeymoon stage”

* Flight/avoidance stage

* Anger (different and bad) or mockery (different and foolish)

* Indifference

* Fit/Acceptance (different, but okay)

* Understanding (different, but reasonable)

* Creativity (different, but open to living)

It was a neat chart with “length of stay”: being a factor as to when you hit different stages, but I can’t really draw it out here. On that chart also was a line with “desire to go home”- and it was funny because he said, “Some of you may have hit that already, or hit it at the airport!” I thought “yup.” Then Linda said, “I still think that at times, or feel that ‘oh I wish I could just go home.’ Wow, that was encouraging…could have been discouraging, but since I had felt that already and felt like that was something I was not supposed to/allowed to feel,
but then hearing Linda- a veteran Worker. Hearing that, I felt I was okay.

We got here! (Email to parents)

Greetings!

We're here and fine. We arrived on time, welcomed by dark faces, humidity, people speaking foreign languages, flies, and I think I saw a cow or two.

All our luggage arrived, though we must have looked really silly with all our bags hanging from us and pulling some behind us! We were sort-of wishing some of our luggage didn't arrive! Haha.

We got showers and Robin went to breakfast while I tried to sleep. Our training actually started 3 hours after we arrived, but it was debriefing from the previous training, so we did not need to go. I couldn't sleep for about an hour even though it was the middle of the night American time. I finally did sleep- and was awakened a few hours later for lunch- I felt like I could have slept the rest of the week!

I love you and miss you lots!!!!

Okay, I will try to call you later if possible...

Love ya!!!!

~ Elizabeth

Hello and Goodbye! (Mass Update)

Hello!!! (And Goodbye!!!)

I'm leaving tomorrow (July 17th), and the emotions are so mixed, it's hard to say what I'm feeling at any moment! I have appreciated your prayers andencouragement the past few weeks as I prepare to go to South Asia. Please pray specifically for travel logistics to go smoothly and a safe trip. We (Robin and I) leave approx. 9pm on Sunday and will reach around 9pm Monday evening (USA time, 5am Tuesday morning South Asia time), so about 24 hour trip!!! And we have training the day after we get there! It was a special blessing to have some of you share with me at the farewell celebration or the commissioning service.

Thank you to all of you who came! Some of you have asked about the prayer calendar that I started very recently. I learned from a co-worker at training camp a unique way of developing prayer support and that is to have a calendar where people can sign up to pray for you on a specific day each month- and that you will also pray for that person! I really liked the idea! Thank you to those ofyou who already signed up- it's exciting to have your prayer support onthose days specifically! Some of you have asked what days people did not sign up to pray for. I will list the days below that I still need prayer support! If you are interested in praying for me on one of those days each month, please let me know.

And remember, I will mark your name down on a calendar and I too will pray for you on that day! (This is not just one-way communication- please send me your prayer requests as well!). I still need prayer support for the following days: 2nd, 6th, 7th, 11th,12th, 15th, 18th, 20th, 22th, 23rd, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th,31st.

I'm so excited to have all of you partner with me in the work God is doing in South Asia. It's a blessing to know that you are here praying for me asI go. This will be my last state-side e-mail to you and I look forward to writing more to you from South Asia!! Thank you again!

For the Least-Reached!!

~ Elizabeth

My parents and me!