The village life is the village life for me.

OKAY HERE ARE YOUR TASKS FOR THE NEXT 15 MINUTES:
STEP 1: GO GRAB SOME COOKIES. (You don’t have any cookies in your house?! Wow……So so sad. Fine than skip to Number 3.)
STEP 2: Well if you got cookies than you NEED MILK to go with it. (No dieting here! You need whole milk for MAXIMUM DIPPING CAPACITY!!)
STEP 3: Find a nice cozy place to enjoy your refreshments, a summary of my village trip, and some world renown (okay more like amateur) MARK VOLZ PHOTOGRAPHY.
STEP 4: If you wanna know what is happening in the pictures than READ THE CAPTIONS!
STEP 5: Find the nearest person to you.
STEP 6: Tell them to READ MY BLOG. Cause let’s be honest reading a blog that DEMANDS you to eat cookies at the beginning…. Is pretty worth it!

The village life is the life for me.

Let me describe to you the adventures in the woods I have had through the use of a short summary and some pictures.
This past four days I got to visit a village called Tuivel (pronounced Two-E-Ville). The name of it kind of sounds like a town in a Dr.Suess book to me. The village has about 100 households and is located about two and a half hours down a long bumpy road. Realistically the village is only about 50 miles or so away but when you are going 15-20 mph over the bumps it makes for a long slow journey. I’m not a person to get car sick, but let’s just say that by the time we arrived at Tuivel my stomach was ready to sit still for a bit.

 The reason for being at the village was they were hosting an annual conference for the women of their presbytery (8 churches) where they would be hearing sermons from the pastor from Rayburn. Pastor Lam was the pastor I was going with from Rayburn, and was the perfect guide for the trip since he grew up in this village town. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were days filled with churches, and by the end of the week we had done 6 total. Those services were awesome times to worship with the people and see how all the people from different churches got to gather in one place. It was a neat experience! 12 hours of church services can get a bit boring when you can’t understand any words other than “Amen” at the end of the doxology. Don’t get me wrong that was an amazing experience to worship with all those people. I really did enjoy it!
But some of the funnest (it’s a word in my dictionary!) moments were when Pastor Lam and some friends decided to show me the fun things to do when you are growing up in a village. This included FISHING WITH DYNAMITE, jumping from trees, removing leeches, cooking and drying our own fish supper, getting a view from the top of the mountain, bathing in the river with the locals and getting searched by the Indian Army. I could go on and on, but I’ll let the pictures speak for the adventurous fun we had!

 To be honest I loved the village life. It reminded me a lot of the village in Ecuador I went to two years ago! I mean a lot like it! All the villages seem to be moving slower, they feel more relaxed, the air feels cleaner, the life seems simpler, and nature is more a way of life. Take away my American toilet and clean water and a shower, and I think that makes everything more of an adventure. The simple things in life make things nice but I find it fun to rough it and slow down sometimes. Maybe that’s why I do things like backpacking the Appalachian Trail during my summer or going camping on my spring break or taking a bath in a muddy river.  My point being I love the adventure and the simplicity that the village life was like in Ecuador and was like again in Tuivel. Was it God telling me that maybe that’s where He wants me? Maybe he wants me in villages where some missionaries are too “uncomfortable” to go to? Maybe.  Needless to say living in a village for a couple days here or there is easier than a few years, but I’m just thinking about what God has for me in the future and would love for the village life.

Taking a detour for a mountain view. Beautiful.

Fun roads to the village just over those mountains!

Tuivel Presbyterian Church

Got to talk to the students in their classes.

Trying to get her to take my candy. She was so shy.

Giving candy to the students of Tuivel School. The school is classes kindergarten through 6th.

Got to pray over the teachers and give them a little devotion to encourage them as teachers.

DYNANOOOOOOMITE! Hands theeasiest and funnest way to fish.

Throw dynamite, it goes KABOOM, swim around and collect the floating fish. So fun.

Exploring down a stream.

Rice fields are pretty neat.

Swimming with leeches.

Gone fishin.

Taking a bath under the bridge.

Pastor Lam, Rayburn Pastor and hometown boy.

I think the guns a little big. 

Competition between church choirs.

Can you find the one white guy? 

Great time worshiping with Tuivel Church.

Received a shawl for visiting the village. So sweet.

Bathing day two. 

They loved the Glow in the Dark wristbands.

Thanks for reading. God bless you for the support and prayers.

Off to the Wilderness...

A nice sunrise to wake up to before football practice for the tournament.

Today I trek three hours over bumps road, and slight rain, over the mountains and rolling hills, to a village. I will be in this village for four days. I'm beyond excited for this experience but even more nervous. I therefore ask all my PRAYER WARRIORS TO UNITE!
I will be going with some Pastors from Rayburn Presbyterian. They will be leading a Seminar and I will just be tagging along. They said I will have time to play football with the kids and "just be a local". I will also be talking to the teachers there, the Pastor told me to talk but didn't tell me what to actually talk about. So I'm a 20 year old kid with no teaching training telling them how to teach.... great. haha. So I'm pulling a little speech together and well see how it goes. Also from what I heard village life is roughin it, which if you guys know me I'm gonna love. They said its like camping basically, no electricy or running water, the kind of thing you'd expect in a far off village. That part just adds to the adventure and has me stoked.
So if you could just pray for the talking with the teachers and interacting with the kids, that'd be awesome! Safety is also a kinda big concern. There has been some insurgency all over here before, so if you could pray for safety that'd be sweeeetttttt.
Thanks so so so much! Be looking so a super duper big update when I get back, with a bizillion pictures about the trip!

Turning 20 in India. A birthday I'll never forget.

My 20^th birthday was different today to say the least. Literally on the other side of the world and thousands of miles from my family and friends. In no way am I complaining though. Today was an amazing experience that I will never forget. I mean how many people get to say they grow out of their teenage years and turn the big ole two zero in India? I won’t bore you with the specifics, but if you would like to hear how I spent my birthday today in Lamka, India than continue reading! If you don’t care than feel free to… well… read anyways!… cause I mean, come on, what else better do you really have to do.

My day started off amazing not because it was my birthday, but because exam week (more like exam two weeks) finally ended today. Exams ending today and a full week off of school next week for semester vacation? Sounds like a birthday gift to me.

 Exams ended and immediately after a group of my 5^th and 6^th grade kids came running up with cards and hugs. Such a sweet moment, all of them were so happy to give me handmade cards. (In one card a kid drew a shark holding a flower… I don’t know what he was trying to tell me.) But I really appreciated the time the kids put in to make those cards and gifts. Truly a blessing.

 The afternoon was just a good time of relaxing and finally getting a much needed nap. Moonson season should be ending soon but today it was raining “the meat I eat for supper most nights”, aka “cats and dogs”. (Lame joke about Asian food.) But it really was raining pretty hard, but it made for a nice peaceful afternoon to catch some ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzs.
The evening is when the real good stuff happened. The hostel kids held a special time for my birthday after devotions tonight, which was very sweet. At the hostel when it’s your birthday, they always sing songs for you and some people say things that appreciate about you and they pray over you on your birthday. So when they did for me tonight it was so nice and I truly felt like another part of the family at the hostel. The Vice Principal of the school (also in charge of the hostel) gave me a traditional shawl and lots of the kids gave me little sweet gifts that showed everyone really cared. It was an amazing evening with amazing people. The night concluded with a movie night.

“NO CAKE?” you ask. No worries, when I got back to my room late tonight I found a nice KitKat Bar and jammed in the candles my parents gave me. Sounds like a perfect birthday cake to me. (SEE the picture below.)

IF YOU READ JUST ONE PART OF THIS READ THIS.             
If I learned one thing today it’s that the main thing that makes a person happiest is most likely not the biggest present or the most colorful card, it’s the people that surround them. Like tonight just the way that the kids sang and smiled when thanking me, made me feel so welcome. I felt at home tonight. Yes I desperately missed my family and friends, but concentrating on that would do me no good. And yes, for my birthday today, I was far away from the original place my good mama birthed me, but in no way did I feel alone today. I was surrounded by people that cared about me and joked with me and made me feel loved. I got witness tradition today and share a special time with a different group of people. I got to have new experiences and new memories that I'll never forget.
 I miss everyone back home. But I am in a place I NEVER EVER would’ve thought I would be in, surrounded by such sweet people. God is better than things we imagine, He put me in a better place than I ever could’ve accomplished by myself. I’m blessed to be where I am today and I am so very thankful for everyone all over the world who celebrated my birthday with me or wished me a happy birthday over Facebook! Thank you for supporting me and making it possible for me to come over here to India and celebrate my birthday. Without your prayers and support I couldn’t be here.
God is good. God is very good.

 PICTURES … below don’t miss em.

My KitKat birthday cake.

A traditional shawl showing appreciation for me on my birthday. (The vice principal and his wife.)

Receiving a special necklace they made and dedicated for my mom.

Surrounded by lovely people.

Surrounded by bros I'll never forget.

An awesome kid.

Thanks for reading. Pat yourself on the back for being awesome and reading my whole post.