Thursday, May 24, 2007

Thanks For The Tea

Here we are in the incredible town of Darjeeling. It is a unique place where Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Christian all live together in peace. On one corner you can see Buddhist monks playing cricket and then with just a glance in the opposite direction you can see a variety of Hindu temples and Muslim Mosques.
Its a place renown for its tea. But many people and especially backpackers that come
through here are on a spiritual pilgrimage to find enlightenment and truth. Therefore it has been a perfect place for YWAM and also for we three to be wandering the streets. Upon arrival into this small city in the Himalayan mountains we found such an incredible group of people here. The team that was in from Oz was just so life giving to the three of us. We had the opportunity to worship with them, share stories of our different adventures and just be revived. They also let us tag along as they hung out with a school for deaf and dumb kids. That was an incredible time as well. I got to just hang out and talk in sign language with some of the kids there. It was slow going but over time the alphabet came back into perspective and I remembered what I had learnt as a kid working at camps. Now we are getting into some practical work here painting and building bunk beds for our friends that are living here in Darjeeling. We have also been able to really live out our faith though in day to day life. Just the other night walking home from supper we met three backpackers that were stranded without a place to stay for the night. So after talking with them for a while and sharing about our trip and what we were doing here, we got the opportunity to show them what we were talking about. Our friend here said that we could sleep on his floor and therefore these three could have our hotel room for the night. With this news we grabbed their bags and walked them across the city to our hotel talking the entire time about the amazing God that we are in relationship with. They ended up being able to get a room of their own at the hotel, which worked out great. I don't think that our talk with them changed their belief in God but maybe it changed their view of Christianity. And just today we were visiting with the new group that showed up here and they were saying that last night they had this great conversation with three backpackers from Europe. As the story went on it was pieced together that it was the same three, and they totally remembered us and were amazed that only a day later they were meeting more Christians that were challenging them to think more about Christianity. So our time here has been quite eventful already with meeting some amazing new friends from all over the world and also being able to really get involved in the community. Lehmann

1 comment:

Kelly said...

Glad to see you guys are using scissors. Might wanna swing the scissors over to the back of Jord and Dan's hair!
Love you guys and miss you, glad you met up with the backpackers and the YWAM group, that is cool. God's timing is awesome!
Your SIS
Keli