We are now on a bus back to Delhi. We are all safe and debrief went very well. It was a great time of fellowship and reflection on what God did in each one of our lives. We were all able to recognize how God gave us amazing oppertunities to share the Gospel with Israeli backpackers and that through that we grew too.

Please pray for our 10 hour bus ride to Delhi. God has protected and kept us on all our travels so far and I’m confident that He will continue to. The team will depart Delhi early Wednesday morning and Eli, Josh, Yossi, Liz and I will be in Delhi a bit longer debriefing.

Quick update. As you may have read in the news, there is much craziness in Leh right now because of a “cloudburst”. We didn’t have a team in Leh at the time, we are all fine, and God’s grace has continually been shown to us in our travels. Everyone on Massah is doing great! Thanks for your prayers.

Aaron

I am finishing up the end of a very hard week. I have been in a place that is very spiritual and full of drugs, especially chilum (a drug used in Hindu worship). I has been very hard to talk to people, but we have. We went to a small village and were able to talk to people. There everyone knew who we were and what we believed and we left on good terms. God can use any interaction and I pray he used these in particular. We have traveled back to the main town for a couple of days. Here it is hard to find a place to talk to people, but we have ran into people that we met in the village. Even though we did not bring up the Gospel on these conversations I know that every time they see us they remember what we believe.

The climate and mountains have been amazing. It is so beautiful here. Also we have had a lot of rain so we have walked across washed out bridges, driven over waterfalls on the road, driven over half roads with a hole and a 300 foot drop 6 inches away. Right now it sounds that the road that connects us to the rest of the group (which we wanted to travel on tomorrow) is washed out. I would like to end this with prayer for everyone’s safe travels as well as all of the seeds that have been planted while we were in India. May God continue to work in peoples hearts.

Our team has been a bit sick the past few days. Please pray that Liz S and Shmuel A will feel better.
There are less people here then there were last week but we’ve still been able to have some great interactions with backpackers.
Please pray God will bless our last few days of evangelism and give us even more oppertunities to share His live with others.

After a week in Leh our team made the long trip down south over the second highest pass in the world (5600m). The trip was obstacle after the other but everytime our driver got us through. Just to mention some of them: a flipped over truck or two, closed road blockade, a truck stuck in the waterfall that the road goes through and so many more.

We spent 2 days together with the whole team and have now split up again and went to different areas for our last week of evangelism.

There have been many great oppertunities of evangelism and altogether we’ve talked to over a hundred Israelis about Yeshua.

Yesterday Isaac prayed with 2 Indian men to recurve the Lord!
God has been protecting us and watching over the group.

Please pray that God will fill everyone with Boldness and anoint the interactions we have this week. Please pray for his protection and that we will stay focused on Him.

…learning that the most water-efficient way to shower is not to shower.

…learning from new Israeli friends which poker hands are worth betting on.

…learning to always take Joel with me when fighting Tibetan ninja gangs. (I would elaborate, but I’m still working through some psychological trauma.)

…learning that when Daniel asks, “What’s your problem, Liz?” he isn’t actually interested in hearing about my problems… :/

…learning, most especially, how honored I am to have Jesus in my life. He’s more than someone to pray to when I’m afraid, more than someone to talk to when I can’t fall asleep. He is someone who has loved me enough to ask me to help him, who blesses my life with purpse. Truly, sharing the gospel with others has been such a blessing to ME. Does this make sense? They say you learn something the best when you explain it to others.

I’m learning. Hallelujah.

Oh India, you are nothing of what I expected. Delhi was worse then I expected and Dharamsala is better then I expected. Delhi smells so bad it tastes bad. I was wondering how I could be in this smell, dirt, mud, and what ever else that stuff was, for a month? Luckly we were not in Delhi long, but traveled quickly to Dharamsala. Dharamsala is up in the mountains and is very lovely. The forest and Mountains are amazing. It reminds me a lot of the California Mountains that I have been missing. It even adds a bit of Washington rain and Fresno fog (I am at home-ish).
We have been here for a number of days.  We have talked to a lot of people, and have given out 5 New Testaments. Some people are more open then other, but God can use anything. I would like to ask for prayer for the seeds that have been planted, especially the ones receiving books. Also since we are spending a lot of time in coffee shops, the people around us are often smoking (cigarettes and other stuff), so if you could pray for our groups discernment on who is really open and who is not. Also this is a spiritually dark place with a lot of idolatry and unusual spiritual practices, so if you can pray for God’s protection. Thanks for all of your support. I know that we would be unable to do what we are doing with out this prayer support back home. Thanks, and my God’s grace and peace go with you all.

I think I am in a much better place today than I was a mere 48 hours ago. Which feels like an eternity ago, btw.

I’ll try to paint a better picture of Delhi, because I don’t think that I was really doing it justice. Delhi is dirty. Delhi is crazy. Delhi has flies everywhere. Delhi is smelly. I actually have clothes and a sleeping sack that still smells of Delhi. Delhi has chewed us up and spit us out and I am so thankful. I think that coming off of 24 hours of traveling and then watching two team members get a bad case of something nasty from ICE CUBES (who are much better now. don’t fret), the eminent goodbyes to our friends, and the fact that we had a 16 hour bus ride ahead of us put me into a less than optimistic mood.

Now though, the air is sweet. And I did some shopping. So, life rocks.

Dharamsala is incredible. We’re situated in the Himachal Pradesh region of India, almost to the foothills of the Himilayas…but don’t let the “almost” fool you. Our guest house has the most exquisite view. We’re tucked into a mountain and look out over several thousand feet at small villages below. There’s a waterfall in the distance, and the snowline is a five hour hike north. This place is incredible.

I will say this about dharamsala though. There’s a darkness here. I imagine that it’s all over India, but it’s this palpable yearning that the people seem to have. Like, they light up but are already looking for the next high. I can see that some feel full of life after some super spiritual experience, but they seem to droop within hours, wanting more.

So, prayer requests? For boldness. For wisdom. For joy. For delighting ourselves in the Lord and trusting that He’s at work even if we can’t see much beyond the smoke from the backpackers’ temporary high.

I know it took a long time for me to finally add a blog, but here I am. The first stage in Israel was awesome! but the second stage has now begun. India is a very interesting place. I’m currently in a village called Bhagsu, a hotspot for spiritual Israelis who are seeking. God help us be a light to people here.

Do I feel that strongly about Delhi, yes I do. The Pahar Ganj is a crazy mass of people as the city is being renovated for the Cricket and Rugby world cups later this year (or so I hear). Delhi was crazier than ever, and it didn’t help that Eli and I both got sick on something we ate (or drank). Yesterday afternoon we boarded our bus and had a very bumpy 12 hour bus ride to our destination. Sleep? yeah right. Ibuprofin? absolutely. Keep the team in your prayers as our outreach has officially begun, and as God has already provided opportunities to share His gospel with the Israeli travellers here.