After spending the day in Calcutta we caught the train north to Malda. From there it’s a two hour jeep ride to Gangarampur. Everyone seems a little tired as the travel is catching up with them but the train ride was good: quiet, air conditioned, and about 8 hours total. We all at least got to catch up on some of our lost sleep. I was laughing to myself yesterday because team members were so tired they just couldn’t stay awake. We were on noising, bumpy streets in a taxi and someone had dozed off. We were in the restaurant eating lunch and I was dozing off. It was comical because here we are surrounded by this “other world” that is India, and were all taking nap. But yesterday was an amazing day for everyone. Calcutta is India at it’s finest. The organized chaos of its streets, the pollution mixed with the gross over-population, the rampart poverty. One of the team members commented on the dichotomy between the advertisements with very American, very clean, very happy and rich looking Indians, with the bulk of Indian society. It’s a good observation. India has never made much sense to me. It’s like the country wants to improve but just can’t get ahead of its own problems. Sometimes it makes you feel hopeless, but then you get to the orphanage, see the kids and it doesn’t matter that India doesn’t make sense or you feel hopeless. Because right in front of you is a practical, simple way to do something that makes a difference. From that point forward, coming to India is a very practical experience spent on the children. I just want to love them and play with them and do something, anything to make them smile. I just want to know that every day they are getting education in a safe environment so that someday they can “rise above” their circumstance. It still hurts my heart that I can’t do more, but “saving India” is like trying to hold back a flood anyway. You just don’t have the power to do it. But you can make a difference it at least a few children’s lives. You can do something, and that’s all that matters to me now. It blessed me to know that support we sent them last year was the only way they survived. There was a lot of persecution from the government on the administration last year and support was slim to none. When you here that you were used by God to help keep 6 orphanages going and all that that really implies, well, it just blesses you. It makes you feel significant, and I think that secretly, significance is what we are all searching for anyway. I just thank God that He’s allowed me to be a part of something like this. It’s cost sleep, and time, and comfort, and money and tons of emotional stress, but that’s a small price to pay. I’m not a martyr, nor do I want to act like one. I just want to obey Christ by helping some kids that truly have no one else to help them. Anyway, the train ride is almost over and we’ll be back to work. Thankfully the heat hasn’t been much worse than the mid-90’s with low humidity so at least it doesn’t feel that hot. If we can survive today, we will be able to really start catching up on our rest for from this point forward we stay at a hotel in Gangarampur and make day trips to other places. That means that each night we at least have the chance to get close to seven solid hours of sleep. Blessings to everyone.

PS Those of you reading who have been to India, funny story. Yesterday a team member who will remain in confidence couldn’t figure out how to use the Indian toilet, so they literally sat down on it! YUUKK! I guess they have the right to get angry at their leader who is supposed to be training them, but giving bathroom demonstrations just isn’t in my job description.

Posted by Mike Townsend at 7:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

After spending the day in Calcutta we caught the train north to Malda. From there it’s a two hour jeep ride to Gangarampur. Everyone seems a little tired as the travel is catching up with them but the train ride was good: quiet, air conditioned, and about 8 hours total. We all at least got to catch up on some of our lost sleep. I was laughing to myself yesterday because team members were so tired they just couldn’t stay awake. We were on noising, bumpy streets in a taxi and someone had dozed off. We were in the restaurant eating lunch and I was dozing off. It was comical because here we are surrounded by this “other world” that is India, and were all taking nap. But yesterday was an amazing day for everyone. Calcutta is India at it’s finest. The organized chaos of its streets, the pollution mixed with the gross over-population, the rampart poverty. One of the team members commented on the dichotomy between the advertisements with very American, very clean, very happy and rich looking Indians, with the bulk of Indian society. It’s a good observation. India has never made much sense to me. It’s like the country wants to improve but just can’t get ahead of its own problems. Sometimes it makes you feel hopeless, but then you get to the orphanage, see the kids and it doesn’t matter that India doesn’t make sense or you feel hopeless. Because right in front of you is a practical, simple way to do something that makes a difference. From that point forward, coming to India is a very practical experience spent on the children. I just want to love them and play with them and do something, anything to make them smile. I just want to know that every day they are getting education in a safe environment so that someday they can “rise above” their circumstance. It still hurts my heart that I can’t do more, but “saving India” is like trying to hold back a flood anyway. You just don’t have the power to do it. But you can make a difference it at least a few children’s lives. You can do something, and that’s all that matters to me now. It blessed me to know that support we sent them last year was the only way they survived. There was a lot of persecution from the government on the administration last year and support was slim to none. When you here that you were used by God to help keep 6 orphanages going and all that that really implies, well, it just blesses you. It makes you feel significant, and I think that secretly, significance is what we are all searching for anyway. I just thank God that He’s allowed me to be a part of something like this. It’s cost sleep, and time, and comfort, and money and tons of emotional stress, but that’s a small price to pay. I’m not a martyr, nor do I want to act like one. I just want to obey Christ by helping some kids that truly have no one else to help them. Anyway, the train ride is almost over and we’ll be back to work. Thankfully the heat hasn’t been much worse than the mid-90’s with low humidity so at least it doesn’t feel that hot. If we can survive today, we will be able to really start catching up on our rest for from this point forward we stay at a hotel in Gangarampur and make day trips to other places. That means that each night we at least have the chance to get close to seven solid hours of sleep. Blessings to everyone.

PS Those of you reading who have been to India, funny story. Yesterday a team member who will remain in confidence couldn’t figure out how to use the Indian toilet, so they literally sat down on it! YUUKK! I guess they have the right to get angry at their leader who is supposed to be training them, but giving bathroom demonstrations just isn’t in my job description.

Posted by Mike Townsend at 7:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well the “no more parachute Dr. Jones” plane ride ended up not being so bad after all. I think all the chickens are hidden under the plane flapping their little wings to keep us in the air. Either way, it sure does beat taking a 24+ hour train ride from Delhi to Calcutta. In a few minutes I will be reunited with my good friend Rev. KK Ullas again. I can’t wait to see my wife’s reaction with him after all these years of speaking about him. I wonder if he will be to her what I described him to be. I wonder if he’s aged or changed. Probably not as that man’s is all Indian: durable and stout but soft and playful. Today we spend time at a new orphanage in Calcutta that I have never been to before. I think it’s still rather small, but if I know my friend, money or no money, he will have it full of orphan children sooner than later. The team plans on doing one of our Bible skits (of course we’ll just wing it as we procrastinated on practicing) and then just playing and loving on the kids some. If time allows we will take them into town to buy clothes, shoes, school supplies and of course toys! Right now some Indian kids are waking up and don’t even realize that a few crazy Americans are coming with Christmas today! Got to go. They are serving breakfast and I need to determine if it’s edible. ;) Feeling fine and frisky and amazingly not so tired…Some one back home please hug my baby for me.

PS Breakfast wasn’t bad: fresh fruit, and something unidentifiable that tasted like spicy vegetable stew with Indian stuffing on the side.

Posted by Mike Townsend at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well the “no more parachute Dr. Jones” plane ride ended up not being so bad after all. I think all the chickens are hidden under the plane flapping their little wings to keep us in the air. Either way, it sure does beat taking a 24+ hour train ride from Delhi to Calcutta. In a few minutes I will be reunited with my good friend Rev. KK Ullas again. I can’t wait to see my wife’s reaction with him after all these years of speaking about him. I wonder if he will be to her what I described him to be. I wonder if he’s aged or changed. Probably not as that man’s is all Indian: durable and stout but soft and playful. Today we spend time at a new orphanage in Calcutta that I have never been to before. I think it’s still rather small, but if I know my friend, money or no money, he will have it full of orphan children sooner than later. The team plans on doing one of our Bible skits (of course we’ll just wing it as we procrastinated on practicing) and then just playing and loving on the kids some. If time allows we will take them into town to buy clothes, shoes, school supplies and of course toys! Right now some Indian kids are waking up and don’t even realize that a few crazy Americans are coming with Christmas today! Got to go. They are serving breakfast and I need to determine if it’s edible. ;) Feeling fine and frisky and amazingly not so tired…Some one back home please hug my baby for me.

PS Breakfast wasn’t bad: fresh fruit, and something unidentifiable that tasted like spicy vegetable stew with Indian stuffing on the side.

Posted by Mike Townsend at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well its only two hours out and counting now before we arrive in Delhi. The flight has actually been quite pleasant: no layovers, uncrowded, decent food, and of course the free video games. How can it get any better than that? Well maybe if I could beat the computer more consistently in Chess…Anyway, I’m sitting here doing my best to read and study while not letting my mind wander off. But I can’t stop thinking about how amazing it is that God has a plan for our lives that He designed before we were even born into the world. Here I am, a boy from back woods Central Florida getting ready to go to India on my fourth trip! Could I ever have imagined as a little boy that anytime in my life I would be able to afford to go to India? Could I ever have imagined as an agnostic college student that I would go to India to serve in the name of Christ? Could I ever have imagined that the first trip to India I took by myself (which was so difficult) would be used by God to later help coordinate and lead future teams? The first trip I didn’t even know why I was going as I was going! I sit here on this plane knowing now with my heart that God has a purpose for each of us that is extremely significant in His eyes. Look back in hindsight at your own life and see where some of the periods full of questioning and doubt were later answered and clarified by future events. Stop and really think about it. Stop and ask God to “align” at least some of the “pieces of the puzzle” that has been and is your life. It’s mind blowing how Sovereign our Lord is! So here I go again. I should say, here we go again. After two years of confusion over the direction that God had taken me, two years of my life that still doesn’t even come close to making sense, I have peace knowing that in time it will be used by God as part of His plan for my life. I will see the hand of God in it someday. I guess I just want to share with you that while life is confusing and painful and lonely sometimes, God is there in the midst working for the greater good of you and of others. You have to see it that way. That’s hope I guess, that expectation that God is somehow working to bless us. I just want to say, thank you God for the blessings in my life. Who am I to deserve the right to call you Father? Who am I to deserve to have such a beautiful wife and baby and home? Who am I and what is my family that you would choose me to love people from the other side of the world? Like Jeremiah, we were all with God and known by God before we were born. Paul writes that “we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” and “for God’s gifts and call is irrevocable.” God has wonderful things to do with you and your life. You have purpose. Your life has purpose. And know this, regardless of what we have done or what has been done to us, we are not disqualified from the plan that God has for us. If you need proof, just look at my life and the ton of mistakes I’ve made, the utter faithlessness that I often live. And yet He still uses me today. God wants to reveal to you the plan, the path He has for you. Mostly He just wants you to trust him given your uncertainties and pains. Ask for eyes to see it. Ask for faith to believe it. Ask for hope to have the strength to chase it. Thank all of you who have continually believed in me in spite of myself. Today, may God use me to bring Him glory through the “earthen vessel” that is my life. Pray for us guys…here we go again!

Posted by Mike Townsend at 7:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)