How do I say it? - I cannot! - As we have traveled the orphanages over the last two weeks, and traveled the streets of India - I look - homeless people everywhere. - The Orphans we see are slender but are being taken care of - still in need. - But...

There she was, A women - not yet gray, likely not that old. ......Cliff and I were sitting with Elizabeth (Sam George's wife, MA Thomas's daughter, and Sam Thomas sister) - gathering the children's stories when up runs Allison Thomas (Elizabeth's daughter) - Though I could not understand the words, I could clearly see that she was speaking of someone in distress and was pointing down the road. It was then Cliff and I abruptly left our meeting with Eizabeth to take our bus to 'Reba' who someone had noticed was laying on the side of the road - not able to move. As we jumped out of the van - I could not believe my eyes - What? I have only seen this on the TV... someone laying on the side of the road, not moving, lifeless, 'stuff' coming from her mouth... and the smell without even being near her was literlly the worst smell I have ever smelt in my life. - I began to cry - trying to hold back the tears... Cliff then went to her, picked her up and layed her in the back of the van. - Silence - what could we say? As we got back to the orphanage, Allison T. then looked at me and asked ' Do you want to help me bath her?' - It is amazing what you can do with God's grace.

As we were awaiting for them to prepare the bath items, I prayed over her - and cried - and prayed over her - and cried. Our Allison and Kelly had joined us by now - and they began singing over her. - Still we wondered, what could we say.

The bath (a bucket of water, soap, etc..) was ready. -Allison T. and me picked her up to move her to a place to site her for the bath - Cliff commented earlier that she could not have weighed more than 40 pounds - I have to agree, there was NO weight there. - We moved her to an open area - outside, on cement, near a drainhole. Allison R. and Kelly then held a mat to at least somehwhat block the view to others. - As Allison T. and I began to undress her - my herart began breaking even further - As now I could truly understand the reason she weighed so little. - I cannot descrbe in words what I was seeing - right in front of my eyes. - This woman was literally nothing but bones - Everyrib, everybone in all parts of here body was seen, only the skin over them - I could touch my thumb to my pointing finger and completely wash down here arm and most of her legs - Every vertebra... - I am sorry, to speak so bluntly - but It is the only way I know how to describe so that you can understand. - I did not see any meat on her body- Anywhere. - Not being a docter... I don't know how much longer she would have lived. - In my opinion - it was not much longer. - God rescued her physical body - I asked that he rescue her spiritiual one.

After cleaning her up, and after she took some rest, we tried to learn what we could about her - She was not coherant - we did manage to get here name and that she was from somehwere in Northern India - far from here. - She did not know her age - and from what we gathered she had no family and no one had been taking care of her. - Sam\Elizabeth were to take her to the hospital today - we will follow up to see how she is doing once we return to the states.

For us - This was death - staring us in the face - for us - it was new - for us - it was beyond our comprehension - even though that is what we are here to do - we have not fully seen these as up close and personal. - Yet, Those working the orphanages.. and those here in India see this everyday - I heard that the TenKasi group takes on this situation about once a month - though I would belive they see more.

What else can I say - There is so much need here. guess I will share more when we get home.

I Love you guys - keep up the prayer... and thank you for those you have provided.

...ml

Posted by Mary Lyon at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We finally arrived in Angamaly late last night - We got up this morning to meet this children before they went off to school. We also met some of the other local pastors. - We are now on our daily shopping spree for the orphans while waiting for them to get out of school. -

Mostly just wanted to give a quick hello and let you know we are here safely - Though we did just hear an 'Air Raid Siren'. - Since no one here flinched I guess it was normal.

We only have a few minutes so will give you and update on our next trip.

Love you guys... Keep up the prayer... ml

Posted by Mary Lyon at 3:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Over the last several days, as most all of have written about, we spent the last several days in Goa - One of the most beautiful places I have seen in my life (landscape - beats Hawaii hands down - but can't say the water does). - It is amazing to see this beautiful place that God has created, yet it somewhat confuses your brain when within that masterpice you see the desaltion, opression, and starvation... amongst other things. - Actaully Goa is one of the weathiest places in India and you can tell - but it does not escape the poverty and the opression.

Spending time at.. and with the orphans has been wonderful - each day has been special - from walking in on them during their bible study the first night, to spending the day at the beach with them and the pastors yesterday, or taking them shopping for clothes today. I asked Jaison (the man running the Orphanage) if they had ever been taken shopping like this before - He said no, not all at once. - They have only been able to take one or two at a time - It was really neat to see them all in the store together and being able to pick out pants and shirts that THEY WANTED...not what was passed off to them - From the littlest to the Biggest - There was first a sense of 'what do we do' to then big smiles... that we will never for get.

After Shooping we went back to the orphanage for some of Melona's (Jaison's wife) home cooking - Indian all the way with spices toned down - It was by far the best meal we have had while in India - Yes Cliff the 'younger' - we agree - she is the best cook in India, and we ate some for you too!

From there, Cliff the 'Elder' and I broke off with Melona and began getting stories of some of the children - We learned that four of the older boys were able to particiapte in school Futball (Soccer), and criket and running - all four were asked to participate in state level games for Goa last year - and were given a 21 day trip throughout India to play for the state of Goa - What a blessing this had to be - they beamed as they spke about it. They brought us their ribbons and tropies. - However, the story of these boys past is not special - Each were either left by thier living parents, one or more of the parents may have died - or some were just received with no knowledge of any family - Many of the children here, including several of the boys mentioned above actually came over from Manipur - As state in the far North-east - The is the same state when Sam Thomas has mentioned the 10,000 orphans that they are taking in due to ethnic clashes. I got to meet many of them two years ago - but time was limited so didn't hear many stories. After spending the aftenoon talking to Melona, who is also from Manipur, and meeting many pastors from there (inlcuding her cousin 'Joe' who is a riot!) - My heart once again breaks for so many little ones with no control over their lives - where will they go, what will they eat. - She left me with a picture she had taken of her 'Manipur' - so that I could see it and pray for them in Manipur. - I did not want to take her picture - as I know it was special to her - but it was more important to her for me to have this picture to remember the people and the heritage she cares to deeply about - I think I will scan it when I get home, and send it back to her.

As I leave my thoughts with you, Manipur has many' recent' ophans...but the other 80 million still walk the Indian streets everyday - looking for somthing that you ... and me... both have an opportunity to help with -

Pictures cannot express it - though I try my hardest - it cannot capture the essence of India.

Live from a training station - somewehere in India...

Love you guys... and keep up the prayer.

...ml

Posted by Mary Lyon at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well - I did it, I drank coffee for the first time in my life. Really - I've have never drank it before, I have tried on a couple of occasions -and could not stand it - bitter...bitter...bitter - Tried forcing it down (you know those long car trips) but could never get past the first sip. But... out of courtesy to our host orphanage, it was all they could offer and therefore I accepted - And man was it good!. They make with mostly milk, lots of sugar and a little water - no bitterness whatsoever, I couldn't belive it. - Then tonight, I did another first - hot tea...with Milk, basically the same as the coffee but wiith tea instead. - It wasn't too bad either.

I could write about all we did today - which was awesome, but I know that everyone else is already writing the details so I'll save some of mine up.

One item to note, I did get my luggage last night - I know that everyone around me (litterally) is happy now. It really didn't bother me... I've been able to hack it in the woods for weeks before - this was relatively - not too bad - I pack light anyway. - I thought we were supposd to be roughing it here.

We tried to download some pics tonight, but it crashed the PC - We will try again at another site.

Once again, Love you guys...and Keep praying.

BTW, How is Mark and the Girls doing? - Is someone looking after them? - We seem to keep missing each the on the phone. - And yes, Mark...you can post a comment here.

Lots of love, ...ml

Posted by Mary Lyon at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Remind me never to follow Jeremy again. - As Veer warned the stop was very quick and we must get off the train quickly - we all line up with our bags attached Jeremy first - then me... the train was still moving but at a reasonably slow pace... Jeremy lept... and so did I - But as someone yelled just before my foot hit the ground "Watch out - it's slippery' - I got caught in the slow motion movements of my mind - Run fast when getting off...or watch your footing to not slip.. - It was then things sped up again, I took about 5 or six steps and the next thing I knew my HEAVY camera bag was thorowing me forward and... down I went - I don't know how many rolls I took - But I know it was fun and it was a good laugh for everyone. - No worries - It was more funny than anything.

So that was leaving the train - but getting there was a whole other stroy. - As we had spent the day out and about it began raining.. and raning and it rained most of the night (actually I think it has been raining ever since). After dinner we left the for the train station around 9:30 pm for and 11:00 overnight train ride - upon getting there, we learned the train was running about 4 hours behind - So we got to spend an enjoyable night at the hotel de Mumbai train station. Veer took us girls and all the luggage to a 'Ladies Waiting room' - He said it would be safest there and for our luggage. We must all stay together and physically be attached to the luggage - we could not go to sleep - we had to stay alert for both us and the luggage sake. The guys stayed out in the 'general boarding area' it was not pretty there - We spent the first hour playing cards and then Allison slept, Kelly charged her ipod, Tia read and I wrote in my journal. - Which if I was smart, I would use it when writing here - but never seem to have it with me when writing here. - At any rate, we were fortunate, the train came in earlier than we expected and as I wrote my last line (which commented that we will leave when God is ready for us to), up in the window shows Cliff and Veer - The train was about here and we were ready to leave.

God's timing is always perfect - We just have to learn that... and learn that... and learn that.

Most of you know, I prefer to share my thoughts through pictures - vs words - so without being able to share my pictures has been hard for me - but soon I will. - So yes Cliff, I do have plenty of pics, I brought an extra battery and a little bit more memory - next time we can share - thanks for the thoughts.

God is Good - and I love you guys - Keep praying, the fun is just beginning.

...ml

Posted by Mary Lyon at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Just wanted to update everyone on pics.. The place we are blogging will not allow me to post any pics... We will check at the next place we go, If no success we will post some when we return.

...ml

Posted by Mary Lyon at 1:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Once again, I find myself sitting here wondring what to say - We vistied all day with the Mumbia orphanage yesterday = First visitng the school with 180 students and then after they left we got to spend the rest of the day with the 33 orphans. Playing with them mostly- hand games, like thumb wars, coloring, futball... we then did the skit of Chadrah, Mesach and Abednego, including the kids.. Prayer time for them and the Mathews (who run the school and orphanage) came next... All was good.

Oh yeah - good news - everyone got their luggage.. But ME... they say it will not get here until after I leave - so we are going to try and have it shipped to one of our future locations. - Everyone wants to take me shopping for new clothes and supplies - I keep asking "What is the matter? - Do I smell bad or something? :)

God is Good - Please remember to keep us in your prayers.

Love you Guys! ...ml

Posted by Mary Lyon at 1:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

As we first stepped on the mini-bus from the airport to the hotel, the air was filled with that sweet sweet smell... What is it?.... Oh, I remember - it is Deisel! It is so hard to image but yet in the middle of the night, millions of people stilling running around everywhere. - Horns are honking, everyone is changing lanes and my remembrance comes back. - Man this place is cool.

As we drove around today... It was a fresh reminder of culture here that is so far from ours - And here it is right in front of us. Yet still a strong reminder of why we are here. - As Kelly flinched everytime the big truck or the small rickshaw drove within inches of us I couldn't help but smile and think I was so glad she, and the other 'new' team members, were here to see and experience this first hand. - As eveyone knows... I take plenty of pictures - but they can no way express the reality of life in India.

The Cafe is closing now - so I have... God is good and I can't wait to see how the rest of our journey fills out.

Continue to keep us in your prayers - and we will update soon.

Love you guys! ...ml

Posted by Mary Lyon at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

THE TRIP.
We're here.. and all is good. - After 30 hours of travel we finally touched down @12:40 am India time. - The flights were good - getting to each one was fun (NOT) - thanks to the recent security events, we had to go thorugh security and a full check-in at every Airport - Orlando, JFK, and Heathrow. After all that, and actually making every flight (just barely) we ended up with only one hiccip - actually make that five. Five of our seven pieces of checked luggage went missing...We 'heard' today that they may have them us by tomorrow afternoon.

We were supposed to go to the Mumbai orphanage today, but a little confusion on communication so we were not expected - this was actually a good thing because that allowed us time to run out and and shop for a few needed things since the luggage went missing. - God new this was going to happen - so he gave us the day off.

We met later with MA Thomas, the man running the Mumbai orphanage, had lunch and got to get an update on the orphans and their needs, that allowed us to do a bit of -pre-shopping before getting with them tomorrw. - Soccer Balls, Badmitton rackets, cricket balls, jump ropes, chess games. - We will shop for them again tomorrow - clothing for each child and crickket bats.

It is such a neat experience to purchase for a man who gives his life for the care of these children - very humble and very grateful for what we are able to provide. - I can't wait to see the Orphans tomorrow!

Veer just got in as we were heading hear to update the blog. He is a great man and we can't wait to spend more time with him.

Posted by Mary Lyon at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)