They tell you that once you go, you’re changed forever and I went to India expecting some earth shattering revelation. I am ever one for overblown expectations. The thing about India is that it does change you forever, but not often in some epiphany of divine communication. I’m sure some people get that, but I have yet to be that guy.

The changes it wrought were mostly small, yet deep seated, changes that are singularly more significant than any Mac truck force realization could have been. I find myself awake, alive and with a deeper understanding of what God intended for us to be. I feel more focused and more at peace than I have ever felt. I found my faith shaken to the core, not by disappointment, but by the clear demonstration of the absolute pettiness of the concerns or worries that held me back.

There is no way to truly put into words the things that you see on a trip like this. You cannot communicate the years of pain, betrayal and need behind a child’s smile; perfectly relay the stories of sacrifice, loss and faith in the face of amazing adversity; you cannot understand it on a visceral level until you’re looking that person in the eye and stand in their environment. Disconnecting from the fog of your own perceptions is a truly impossible task until you understand how truly distant you are from your own definitions of comfort and safety, pain and adversity.

We spoke to a child that lived in a train station and ate food from garbage cans; watched a man who had saddled himself with immense debt to care for 15 children weep as months of prayer came to fruition at the very last moment on a happenstance encounter with our team erased it all and gave him money to continue. We heard from a pastoral student that had no place to live, no email address, no phone number, nothing, yet he rejoiced that he could walk the streets and preach the gospel; sat with a pastor that had started his school, church and orphanage in a town that he chose because they had just burned thousands of bibles and witnessed his unshakable faith that God would provide.

In the face of incomprehensible conditions, real persecution, and a seemingly impossible task of changing the course and culture of a country of 1.4 billion people, men and women are stepping out to “suffer with Christ” not just for a couple of weeks or months, but for years or whole lifetimes. Children are being saved from the streets, people are coming to know Christ, and God is moving the impossible to the possible in increments.

I spent much of my life disenchanted with Christianity because of the hypocrisy and pettiness of many of the Christians I encountered as a Pastor’s Kid. At one point, I felt that God was a crutch used to hold up feeble hatreds, justified “us and them” mentalities, and make “train wreck” people feel good about themselves while changing nothing. I had already abandoned much of that thinking as youthful angst, but in India, all I could hear was God in the back of my head saying “Do you see now? Do you see what it’s all about? Do you see what it means to suffer and why it’s considered glory? Do you still think I’m a crutch?” I was crushed and humbled.

I still don’t know all the changes it wrought in me, but it’s coming together. I went to India looking for answers. I came back with those and more questions still. Yet I know this: I am wired for this. I am more alive today than I was a month ago, and I have had any idea that what God might ask of me being too difficult shattered into tiny pieces. I do not know if that will lead me back to India on a less temporary basis or if it will lead to something else. I just know that God answered my question of Purpose; it is the form in which that purpose will be realized that I have yet to see.

I’ll leave it on one last note. If none of that had happened, if it had been just a trip to another place to do some things, and life was not changed in any tangible way, this one moment alone would have accounted for every penny spent and every moment surrendered. If ever there is a moment where you know you’re seeing God in all of his glory doing exactly what he promised he would do, it is this:

Posted by Jeremy Brookins at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After going through thousands of photos, I have selected 99 that I felt best represented the trip. These were the ones that popped out at me and do not include many shots not directly related to the work. I may add more in the future as I get more time to look at the TONS of them that I have.

All of the photos in this batch were photographed by Mary Lyon. Kelly Morrell and Tia Longhouser may have photos they want to put up but I haven't had a chance to see them yet.

i58 Projects in India - September 2006

Finally, a little bit of the video that was taken. Kelly Morrell shot this with her digital camera:

Posted by Jeremy Brookins at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Her name is Reba. She didn't know how old she is or how long she'd been in Tenkasi. All she knew was her name and where she'd come from. When they found her, she was immaciated, filthy,sick and near death. She looked like something out of a WWII concentration camp film clip, nothing but skin and bones.

It was the first real look for us at the reality that is this place. Millions live like this...no concept of time, no family, moving from place to place eating garbage until they're too old or too sick and finally starve to death, alone and unnoted. No one has cared for Reba her entire life, she has no family, only barely even has a name, and now that someone cared enough to notice, it is probably too late.

When the girls reported her to the school, they agreed to take her in. There was no hesitation or grudging cooperation. They simply did. Mary bathed her, one of the girls at the school fed her, and the team prayed for her.

We don't know what will happen. They said they would care for her until she was healthy enough to decide what to do or she died. We're praying that she will become a story that exalts God's glory, rather than a story that rends hearts. It is in his hands.

All I know is that unlike the millions of others, her life will not pass unnoticed. I will never forget what very little I learned of her.

Posted by Jeremy Brookins at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ok, so it's been a bit of a delay. There wasn't an opportunity to really do anything since the last time. Tia was willing to stay up late to post the other night on the hotel's one dial-up computer, but I don't think anyone else had enough energy left. Probably has a lot to do with no one else having a chai tea addiction.

For the record: Chai Tea in the US is total garbage.

Anyway! Tenkasi is now probably one of my favorite places ever. It reminds me of Colorado Springs with a sub-tropical climate. Mountains, waterfalls, a constant breeze, and about 56 orphans plus an additional 65 Bible College students.

The first thing I noticed was that the "feel" of the place was different from the others. To me, it seemed warmer than the rest, with more of a family feel. This is not to say that the others were not. The others were all great places that worked very hard to be the family those kids don't have.

I think it boiled down to a couple things. The pastor and his wife.

Samgeorge was a very affectionate, "you're here so you're family" kind of guy prone to bad jokes and huge bear hugs. He fed us (oh man, did they feed us...if you visit, eat slowly. He figures a plate that is less than full needs more food on it!), he actually put us to work (100kg bags of rice are heeeeavy) and he introduced us to just about every kid that wandered by. Many of the children would walk up and grab his hand or hide behind him while they peaked around at us. None of the children at his orphanage have anyone to claim them, so he introduced each as his own.

The other thing was his wife, Elizabeth. She is Dr. Thomas' daughter, looks a lot like her mother, and is an amazing woman. She was fantastic, and as I understand it, pretty much runs the place. We learned that she practically raised Veer from 5 to adulthood and it was obvious as you quickly saw where he got many of the traits that we love about him. It would make sense that, having been in this since the beginning, she would be a big piece of the orphanage she runs.

Both of them are extremely solid christians that seem to have no doubt whatsoever in God's support of their work. There was no mention of money, no expression of concern of the future despite growing debts, and they expressed that their ministry had been built on faith in God's goodness and would continue to be. Samgeorge said that he came to Tenkasi with a small vision of 5 or 6 students and a few orphans and God had made something much, much bigger.

The stories here were amazing...I wish we'd had more time to hear them. They got children out of train stations, a couple newborns (one only 3 days old), and even a child left unclaimed at the hospital for 3 months after she was born. We didn't even get a chance to get into the bible school students stories, but you could tell just by looking at their faces that there were all kinds of backgrounds in that group.

It was a great time with more kids, some college age kids, and I honestly think I could spend months there. I didn't get the chance to do more than play with some of the kids, learn a few names, and speak (again), but the place just...clicked with me. I enjoyed my time immensely and didn't want to leave. If I had to pick a place to spend months at, this would most definitely be it.

Posted by Jeremy Brookins at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

So we got here last night after a long, and yet again, much delayed train ride. This time in 3rd class, which is 3 bunks high instead of two. However, aside from a single incident brought on largely by poor understanding, the people were really cool and we met a couple of locals.

One thing was interesting was that we met a small boy, 5-6 years old (though he claimed to be 300!), that lived in the train station. He hung out with us quietly, ate chips, drank sprite, and played with Allison's uno cards while we waited for the train. I wish I could remember his name, but Tia has his name written down. Hopefully, she will relate some of his story as she interviewed him and Mary got pictures. He was a good kid with an easy smile and seemed quite content with just being near us.

The hotel is a bit sketchy, but it looks like we may move to another one that's much nicer and only 5 minutes from the orphanage (instead of 45), so I'm happy. Even if we don't move, it's not too bad. Just very loud and without hot water, and quite below the standards of most americans...Veer also has recommended we not eat there, so we've walked down the road to a much nicer place for meals. haha We missed a really nice hotel by about 150ft...and the price differences are insane. A nice hotel here is about 1750 rupees a night. That equates out to about $40-$45 US. Often, the price difference between "nice"and "scary" is about $5.

We went over to Varghese' orphanage today. He has about 125 kids. We only got to introduce ourselves before they had to run off to school, but it was very cool. The kids gave us real flower lei's though I don't know what they call them here. Varghese says that about 70% of the children are true orphans, while the other 30% are from broken homes or abandoned. It's hard to imagine, really.

He also has a school for the younger orphans and accepts children from the surrounding area. He only charges 100 rupees as school fees for the local children and his teachers work for a lower than normal wage. It's very cool to see the "complete" product that was only a foundation and some walls last year...well, complete in the sense that he's designed it to be able to build up to 3 stories, but it only has one.

Down here, they don't speak Hindi (almost at all) so they brought in another pastor from over 125km away to translate for us. That pastor also has need. I don't know if there is anything we can do, but I hope so.

I'm on a 30 minute timer and I don't have a lot to say right now as most of our time since last was travel. Hopefully I will have more to say later, once we've had a chance to hang out with the kids a bit. Today was school for them and market day for us. I want to get the kids some backpacks as many were running around with broken zippers or bags almost too small to carry their books.

Finally, pray for our health. Cliff has been fighting something for a while and though he's getting better, he wasn't healthy enough to go out with us today and remained behind. Everyone else is doing pretty good, and we'd like to keep it that way!

Posted by Jeremy Brookins at 3:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Ok, I'm sitting in an internet cafe at the train station. It's 10pm-ish, our train isn't here till around 11:40, at which point we will have about 2 minutes to dive on somewhere before it starts going again. If we miss it, we're...well, lets just not think about that, shall we?

Yesterday, I spent most of my time with the pastors and Bible college students. I met another Job (making 3 or more of them) that runs an orphanage in Manipur. He teaches the pastor training course they give here every year and travels 6 days by train one way to get here. He's probably one of the coolest guys I've met so far. Very friendly, energetic, and very funny. He's the kind of guy that always seems to be smiling. He's 33, recently married and runs a hostel while taking care of 3 orphans. I think Allison has their names written down somewhere. He was telling us about them, but I'm absolutely horrible with names. haha

The people I've been most interested in are the Naga, which are related to the people of Nepal. Asian in appearance, they speak hindi primarily and apparently are mostly Baptist. I found it particularly interesting that I met so many from there this time. Job, Jaison's wife Melona, over half of his orphange, and several of the helpers, teachers and bible students are from that region. They've managed to keep much of their traditions without appearing to compromise on their christian beliefs. I don't know...something about that area has grabbed me from day one.

I was pretty excited to meet him as I've wanted to go to Manipur since I first got introduced to the idea of India. Manipur is in the north east region, on the other side of Bangladesh. It has been closed to outsiders for years (barring a special visa) and is considered a UN hotspot due to tribal fighting. Job has assured me that if we wanted to come, he could get us the approval and that the fighting has died down significantly. I'm planning it in my head already. (;

Today overall was pretty cool. We visited the bible college, talked to the students briefly, did some worship and listened to one of the teachers share his testimony. It was amazing and words are hard to find that would describe what I saw.

The school is an old run down house, concrete floors, very sparse and utilitarian. The front room was the classroom, students stayed on hard beds lined along the walls in another room and the teachers/professors stay in a seperate room off to the side. The kitchen is in the back, which consisted primarily of a gas stove, some counter space and all the non-refigerable food laid out on burlap sacks on the floor. I think there was a small refrigerator, but I'm not exactly sure. It's pretty crazy by our standards, for sure.

The best part was listening to Mukesh, the "warden" (Dean?) of the school share his testimony after we sang some worship songs. I kept looking over to Mary thinking "you're recording this, right?" His style strongly reminded me of the Black gospel churches in the states, and while I couldn't understand much of what he said, it was hard not to get into it or not be encouraged by what you heard.

Jaison and Trevor had referred to him as the biggest man in Goa, even though even I seemed to dwarf him. It became obvious why very quickly. He was passionate and his story was amazing. He talked about how he actually started at the bible college before he was a christian. He grew up very poor, and a pastor in his home town would come by every so often and feed his family. He didn't know God, but he felt he should repay him for helping his family, so he went to the bible college when the pastor asked if he'd like to go.

Mukesh could not read, write or speak any language but Hindi. He didn't even know John 3:16 when he was asked what it was 1 week into the school. On June 19th, 1998, he committed his life to Christ and was baptised. Furthermore, his embarrassment at his lack of education spurred him into working very hard to overcome those obstacles rather than becoming discouraged, and within 3 years, he graduated with his class able to speak at least 3 languages, read, write and had an indepth knowledge of scripture. Just his accomplishments alone were amazing, but it's even more amazing to see him become a leader inside the very school that gave him a chance. He does it with great joy and thanks God every day for this amazing opportunity.

Today was also the first day I got to really talk to the kids at Jaison Job's orphanage. I've been running around with the adults and the students. It's a great group of kids. I'm sure the rest of the team will be pouring in tons of details, but from my perspective, they were great! They all were very happy, full of personality and some of the coolest kids I've ever met. Some of the younger ones will kill you just with a smile (Of which I think is all Pough does...He and another Jaison are the cutest boys I've ever seen, but I don't think I heard either of them speak once!)

We took them to the market to get clothes, hung out with them, played badminton and taught them things we never should have taught them (I hate the Gators!). We also did some other stuff that I don't know if I'll discuss quite yet, but Jalali is going to love it. All in all, it was a great day and none of us really wanted to leave.

Oh yeah, and Cliff: You were right. Malona is an amazing cook. We made her day when we told her you had made a big deal out of that and she proved to definitely live up to the hype. (; I don't think I've had food that good at any point here and I doubt I will get food that good before I leave.

Posted by Jeremy Brookins at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Soooooo I didn't get to update like I wanted to. I will try to do some over the next couple days. Anyway, it's been pretty great. We lost time due to unfulfillable plans, but it also gave us great opportunities to see more of India and it's people.

The other night, we spent 4 hours sitting on the floor of the train station playing cards. I think we were more amusing to the people than we were amused by the cards. We had a large number of people watching us discretely (or not so discretely) and our poorly played game of slapjack brought many laughs. Veer says that cards are extremely rare in these parts.

It also gave us an opportunity to shine a little light into a couple kids lives. They may not have been huge things, but they were a chance to do a little something. Eric showed his iPod to an inquisitive 12-13 year old (It's hard to tell ages around here.) He wanted to know where the batteries were as it was so small. He got to listen to some Third Day (I think) and loved it.

Cliff gave another boy his extra set of headphones to listen to his radio with and a piece of gum. He was no more than 12 and traveling alone. His smile was priceless even if he understood nothing of what we said. The kids here grow up much faster than they do back home...I watched a one year old drinking from a regular cup with no difficulty and many kids are taking care of themselves on the streets by 5 or 6. These kids have very little time to actually be children.

Like I said, little things, but in a place like Mumbai, it seems to me that kindness is a commodity little seen.

Today was quite difficult, I assure you. Hanging out with 65 or so pastor students and the orphans on a beach. I don't know how I ever made it. The volleyball, soccer (those kids are GOOOOOD) and getting to see some of the most amazing shoreline ever is quite draining. No, really....haha

It was fun! We taught the pastors how to play volleyball (albiet without the net) and got to spend time watching the kids play football (soccer) as there was no way we were going to be able to even get involved without losing badly. (;

The beaches are amazing. Rocks jutting up out of the surf, some in places you can walk out to and climb up onto. Green, rocky hills that drop right down into the water, and the obligatory shacks on the flat places. It was a great opportunity to just get to know some of the pastors and create frienships.

Later, the team split up and Cliff and I ended up having to speak VERY briefly to the pastoral students. I don't know if what I said was any good as I think I was sparse on details due to nerves.

However, it was a chance for me to pass along something I had been feeling from the first glimpse I got of Mumbai. These guys walk a walk every day that is almost completely incomprehensible to us. They live out the concept of our glory being to suffer for God every day. They have been jailed, beaten, insulted, starved and chased from their homes. We were sent to encourage them and give them a little hope.

The truth is that they very deeply encourage me as well. How can I not look at these guys and not see the example of what I've always thought christianity should be? These men and their families walk in solid faith and amazing compassion that is challenged every day, even unto their deaths. I can only hope to one day be even one tenth of that.

Posted by Jeremy Brookins at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Quick note: I'm posting right now from Jaison Job's orphanage in Goa. This place rocks! Goa is definitely much nicer than Mumbai.

We got in late as our train was 5 hours behind schedule, so that hurt our time today, but not to be discouraged, we ran over here real quickly to introduce ourselves to the kids. They're awesome!

It's a small orphanage with only about 13 boys. Jaison's parents are also in town as well as a Pastor from Kota named Trevor. They are doing a 10 week pastors' training conference here as well, so tomorrow, we're going to the beach with all the kids and the pastors...it'll probably still be raining. hahaha

They all remember the team that came last time, though they refer to Cliff Rainer as "Camera" as they thought it was very funny that he was walking around taking pictures of everything. We also passed on his high praise of Jaison's wife's cooking and so far whole-heartedly agree. Between the cake, the banana chips, and the coffee, I don't think I'll need to eat for a while. (:

Ok, that wasn't so quick. I'll post more later from the hotel as writing with people standing over my shoulder makes me twitchy.

Posted by Jeremy Brookins at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yesterday, we visited our first orphanage. It was amazing.

We started the day by driving through some of the worst slums I have ever seen in my life. It's almost impossible to believe that people live in these conditions. Squat brick buildings, trashbag and tarpaulin huts, and the occasional tin and wood shack. Even the high rises that stood in the middle of these mini-towns looked like something out of an apocolyptic movie.

Break that up with a couple small towns and some rural landscape reminiscent of Hawaii, and you've got this part of India in a nutshell. I must admit that the Indian techno that the driver was listening to made it all the much better. (;

So after driving about an hour and a half (40km....), we arrived at AM Matthew's orphanage/school. School was actually in when we arrived, so there were about 180-200 kids on site as well as the teaching staff. There was also a government social worker there as well. We are unsure as to whether his arrival was coincidence or if he was there to observe us. Fortunately, he seemed to be a good guy and we did not get the impression that he had a hostile agenda. Veer says this observation is correct.

We got to spend time with the students, speaking to them and answering questions. Most of these kids are not orphans, but their parents pay for their education, in turn helping support the other operations. It's pretty funny when you realize that from culture to culture, the adults are different, but the kids aren't all that much different. Much like young american kids, once they warm up to you, they're pretty energetic...throw in them being extremely curious about us, and it gets pretty crazy. My tongue ring was a huge hit. They all think I'm crazy for having done it. I tend to agree.

Eric, myself and Kelly went with AM and his wife into town to do the shopping. We spent a bit of time running around buying sleeping mats, cooking utensils, a new computer (Less than $400 and it's better than what I have at home!), and a manual washing machine for the orphans (AM's wife actually refused the automatic as she was afraid the kids would break it). All in all, we were able to get an amazing amount of needed items for a very small amount of money and got to spend some time running around town.

Crossing a street here is an exercise in faith. No traffic rules, no crosswalks and tons and tons of traffic. You have to kindof slide between cars while counting on them to actually stop. Note to future volunteers: Look LEFT before crossing, not right. Yeah, I almost got hit by a bus. A BUS.

After returning from that, school was out so we were able to actually play with the children. We answered their questions, did a bible story presentation (others told all about it) and played football (soccer) in the courtyard area...Despite the extreme smallness of the area, I couldn't keep up! Boundless Energy...I was exhausted when I got back to the hotel. I gotta start working out or something!

It took me a while to warm up, to be honest. Children have never been a group I can mesh with easily, but once they get going, it's pretty hard not to let them pull you along. They were authentically excited to see us and to have us involved in things. I can't even begin to communicate what it's like to have a mob of kids wanting you to come play and you know you have to do something else, even for a moment. You hate every second of it.

In the space of a couple hours, you can't help but see why these pastors and their families sacrifice so much to make this happen. It's not just the kids they teach or care for, even the kids in the surrounding area were coming around to check us out, watch the "play" from the wall (they wouldn't come in) and piling into groups whenever they saw a camera. It's heart-wrenching.

I could do this forever.

Today, we have some unplanned downtime as the leper colony is out due to some persecution issues. We're going to knock out the admin stuff that we weren't able to do and go check out some touristy type locations. It will be good, but annoying at the same time. I'm not sure I like "wasted" time as it's less time to actually devote to what we came for.

As a team, we've started doing the daily devotionals from "My Utmost for his Highest" (thanks, mom). The ones for this trip are amazingly relevant and it's giving us a chance to keep our focus on God. It's proving so far to be a great idea.

PS. "Jesus is a winner man" has got to be the greatest kids song ever.

Posted by Jeremy Brookins at 1:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I'm not particularly sure what to say here. Today, we got an unexpected, but much needed, free day. It turned out that Matthew AM wasn't expecting us until tomorrow, and with the missing bags, we needed to get clothing and a few personal items. So while we did get some shopping for the kids done today, we got to spend much of the day focusing on getting re-prepared and a chance to check out Mumbai.

The city is...interesting. It's hard to describe something most of us have seen in the movies or watched on a documentary as it's not the same as seeing it. If you can imagine a whole city of slums or uncared for buildings, filled with Garbage, random animals and 23 million people, you have it. The city is a living paradox of abject poverty and modern luxury. You will often see ramshackle buildings, street vendors and 'homes" made of trashbags and sticks, with a well kept computer store or tech industry business tucked along the way.

The traffic is insane. 8 lane highways with all the traffic and no lanes, few if any traffic lights or signs, and the occasional traffic cop where they just can't operate without it. It's like New York City but without any of the control. Ironically, I found it much easier to ride around in traffic here. It became apparent that while everyone is extremely aggressive, it lacks much of the hostility and viciousness I observed in the bigger cities. It was crazy, but you never get the impression that anyone would actually try to run anyone down in a fit of roadrage.

One thing is for sure, it really makes me realize how good we have it. In the US, there is a continual effort to help the poor and disadvantaged. Here, they sleep in the dirt median of a highway teeming with cars and no one cares. It's one of the saddest things I have ever witnessed. I hear we haven't seen the worst parts yet, but will get a good glimpse of them tomorrow on the way up to Matthew's place.

I am glad to be back "out". I realized in the run up to this trip that I love to travel. I haven't been to many locations out of the US, but the last two years of staying home had placed a greater wieght on me than I think I realized. I thank God he provided the way for me to come.

We're out of time here as the cyber cafe is closing, but I will note this: I am excited to see what God is planning to do with us here. This will prove to be quite unlike anything I've ever experienced. I think I could do stuff like this for a long time to come, and I truly hope God challenges us in ways far beyond a few lost things. It's truly amazing and encouraging to me to see him move in ways that I cannot mistake for coincidence or luck. Any light shined here is worth every single penny of the cost.

I apologize if this isn't as coherent as it should be. I have no time to edit. (;

Posted by Jeremy Brookins at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

So we made it! After 30 or so hours in transit, we arrived in Mumbai 20 minutes early with hardly a hitch. I was tired, sore, and ready to hit the hotel as we were expected to have an early day. I figured we'd be at the hotel in under an hour. Instead, after 5 hours of filling out paperwork, prayer, and admin stuff, we finally crawled into the bus to the hotel

Alas, it was not to be. Of the 7 bags checked by the team, only two made it to Mumbai and of the 5 missing, only 3 made it to London. My bag was one of the ones that decided it liked NYC more than a jetsetting lifestyle of fun international travel. Thankfully, I had anything I absolutely needed and was permitted to carry on with me. Also, Virgin Atlantic gives out this nifty little packet with toothbrush, toothpaste, earplugs and such. My absolute needs are taken care of.

This means that while I went and had to spend a "great deal of money" on things I had not planned to or budgeted for, I now am the proud owner of 3 new complete sets of clothes that I have nowhere to put. It's pretty amazing what you can get around here for relatively cheap. It was easily $600-$800 worth of clothing for about $180.

We have been told we should recieve our bags tomorrow evening. Keep praying that we do as if they do not come in tomorrow, we will not have a chance to get them until the end of the trip, if ever. We can survive without, but I hate to think I spent all that time packing a bag when I coulda been sleeping for the same effect! (;

Posted by Jeremy Brookins at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hello Friends,

As you know, i58 Projects is sending another team out on September 16th, 2006. While this is not the first team to go, this is the first team to go with blog capability, so keep an eye on this spot, as we will be updating it as often as possible!

The September team members are:

• Jeremy Brookins
• Tia Longhouser
• Mary Lyon
• Kelly Morrell
• Allison Rehmeyer
• Eric Stockton
• Veer Singh
• Cliff White

Please keep us in your prayers as we go forward. I personally am very excited, though I am a bit nervous. Years of military service have prepared me for some aspects of this trip, but other parts are quite new. It will be amazing, I'm sure.

Thank you all for your support, prayers, continued interest and friendship. We could not do this without the overwhelming help of others.

Posted by Jeremy Brookins at 5:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)