Namaste!

Dear friends and family, I miss you all so much today! I was out running a few errands after school and I just felt incredibly conscious of the stares from everyone. Sometimes it's hard to be the only white person! And sometimes when I'm in the city in the middle of a large crowd, I stop and realize that (in that moment) I am alone. Okay, you can count God always being with me, but you know what I mean. Alone. So even though I love India and everything about it, I miss you all!

Sorry for not writing for so long. It's been a busy week! On Sunday morning I stayed home and watched the kids so John could go to church and give the message. They were no trouble at all, and I like noticing the differences between them and the kids at school. Also, playing and talking with Harley makes me miss Jay a lot. But in a good, appreciative way. He's a very perceptive and empathetic kid. Also, he told me that he likes the Disney Princesses who are brave, which was heart-warming to hear. Don't ask me why I was talking about Disney Princesses with a 9 year old boy. Laura and Jana came over in the afternoon to hang out and do some laundry at the apartment. They were also cleaning out some of their things, which was really sad.

In the afternoon we went to "the farm", aka Sunita's parents' house and school/orphanage, Bensons International Academy. I LOVE spending time at the farm. It's 20 minutes from our apartments, and adjacent to the plot of land where BGSS hopes to relocate within the next two years. The farm is the very tangible result of Mr. Peter's (aka Sunita's Dad) 30 years of hard work. He has now passed on most of the responsibility to Sunita's brother Steve, but his presence in the school and with the orphans is a really comforting constant for everyone. Bensons houses over 30 orphans who take classes and live there for free. These kids are the BEST, and I love being with them. They are respectful, joyful, incredibly hard-working, and really in love with Jesus. Some of the older girls are house help for Sunita's parents, and they are so kind and like I said, very hard-working. We ate dinner there and basically just hung out for the night. It was good to get Harley, Hayden, Rachel, and Joshua out of the apartment and around some other kids with the fresh air and open spaces. John and I sat with Hayden on the front wrap-around porch of the main house for a while drinking coffee and talking about the school's creation and evolution, and plans for the future. The entire Peters family has done SO much to advance the kingdom of God here in India, and I love hearing about it.

Every morning of this week I was over with John and the kids helping to get them fed, dressed, clean, and ready for school. Even though Laura and Jana hadn't left India yet, they didn't come to school on Monday or Tuesday, and the children asked about them. That was pretty sad. They understand, but also don't. And you should have seen the look of horror on Sujay's face when he realized that I have to leave on Thursday. He was very unsure about who would teach the language class. Being back in school without Laura teaching the language class with me also made me realize how blessed we were to be able to tag team the teaching. Especially in language, the children really need constant help and attention. If you turn one loose to copy while the other one reads to you, things can end badly. But I managed, so it's okay!

On Tuesday after school Laura and Jana came over for the last time! We exchanged gifts and goodbyes, and I did really fancy henna for them on both sides of both hands. It took a really long time and a lot of patience, but it was so worth it! In my humble opinion, it came out very nicely. But really, I am so thankful that our paths crossed here in Mysore. They gave me the confidence I needed to explore the city and enjoy my time to the fullest. The foundation they laid in the school made my transition so much easier. And while they may have feared that I would just be the American they'd have to babysit, we ended up being genuine friends. I'm praying for a spiritual awakening for both of them, because I want to do some more exploring together on the new earth in eternity!

The rest of the week was normal (if you could call my life right now "normal") and I don't have much to report. Tomorrow I am going with one of Sunita's friends to Bylakuppe, which is the second largest settlement of Tibetians in India. It's like 80km from here, and she and he husband go there frequently to do ministry with the Buddhist people. They even learned the language fluently! I'm excited to spend time with Asen and see Bylakuppe from the perspective of someone who knows it well!

SO MUCH LOVE

Friday was Laura and Jana's last day at BGSS, so we turned project day into party day! After our normal morning routine of songs and prayer with the children, we broke out the party hats and started decorating. The older children helped to blow up balloons and hang streamers all over the main room. We played games with them like musical chairs, hot potato with a balloon, and a game where they had to grab pieces of candy tied to a string without using their hands. Although we were a little worried that they wouldn't understand the games, everyone (teachers included) was having so much fun. The joyful laughter didn't stop all afternoon and the happiness and excitement was so tangible. It was great.

After the party games were over we had a time to appreciate Laura and Jana and pray for them. They sang a song in German and played the guitar, and John, Sunita, and Il Young made little speeches thanking them for their dedication and joyful service to the kids over this past year. They started crying and it was so sweet to see the kids get up to pray for both of them. Then we had a really big lunch with everyone together.

Although I still get to spend time with them before they leave on Wednesday, it made me really sad as well. We weren't sure if the children really understood what was happening, but some of them seemed to know that this was goodbye. As the three of us closed the gate and walked away from the school, they were all waving goodbye. It was adorable and really, really sad. We went out to our favorite cafe and just talked about how much they would miss the children, and all their good memories from the entire year.

Yesterday I went with Sunita and John to this lunch hosted by the Mysore YWAM DTS. They were saying goodbye to a Korean team who is leaving today. It's the same team that came to the school and gave us our day off on Tuesday! I love hearing the testimonies they give after their time working in various ministries around the city. We had entirely Korean food for lunch, none of which I had seen before. But I am willing to try everything, and it was really good. But hard to describe, because I have no idea what it was.

Sunita and her friend Shiro (along with Sunita's mother) left yesterday to go to Madurai for 5 days, so John is alone with all four kids. I came over this morning to watch them while he goes to speak at the church in the bar. I'll see Laura and Jana today for a while, and then start a new week at school on Monday. It will be my last full week; I can't believe it!

Thank you for all your prayers. I miss everyone so much, but I also wish that I could stay longer! If you remember, please pray for a productive week at school, for my last days with Laura and Jana, for Sunita and the other ladies who are traveling, and also for my plans for this upcoming year. I am trusting it all to God!

On Monday afternoon Sunita told me that a girl named Sabrina who is a volunteer in Bangalore was coming to see Mysore and needed a place to stay. That was basically all the information we had, so I had no idea what to expect. She arrived right after school was over, so I went over to John and Sunita's apartment to say hello and take Sabrina over to mine. Over lunch I learned that she is 21, going into her senior year at Bethel College in Indiana, she grew up in Peru and Bolivia as an MK, her siblings are very close in age to mine, and (most surprisingly) that we have the same flight from Bangalore to London on August 4th! It was unbelievable to both of us. She was great company on Monday evening, Tuesday, and this morning.

She has been volunteering in a HIV clinic and orphanage 1 hour from Bangalore for around 3 weeks now, and it's also her first time in India. She heard about John and Sunita and BGSS from a contact of a contact (the way most things work around here) and emailed them a few weeks ago asking if she could stay with them while she visited Mysore.

So yesterday I took her into the city to see the inside of the Mysore Palace and a few other things. The palace is incredible inside, with lots of ornate carvings, tiled floors, and stained glass.

I don't have much time to write now, but I thought I should share how crazy it was to meet someone on the same flight as me! God works in weird ways!

Friday was another project day at the pre-vocational school. We followed through with our plan from last week to batik dye the hankies with the children. We used "holy" coloring powder which you can get in all different vibrant colors mixed with water, vinegar, and salt. They really enjoyed dipping the hankies in the color and then using rubber bands to create rings of the first color when we dipped them into the second color. They came out beautifully, and because the project was multi-step, it was a very successful project day that held their attention.

I went into the city on Friday night to get dinner and read up on the news. Unfortunately, the English newspapers aren't very good here. Even The Times of India has very short and not well-written pieces. They also tend to be light on international news. But I still wanted to get a sampling of what newspapers are like in India. I went to one of the news stands and bought a few, and then went to sit at a favorite cafe of ours in the city center.

On Saturday we had a base cleanup at both schools. Once a month we try to do a really thorough cleanup where we disinfect all the toys and materials and try to get some yard work done as well. With so many of the teachers present, it only takes about 2 hours to clean both schools. In the afternoon I went with Laura, Jana, and Hannah to the Mysore Silk Factory, something that Hannah wanted to see on her last weekend. She leaves for Germany on Wednesday.

Mysore is famous for its silk, used to make beautiful sarees and scarves. They say that you can be sure it's Mysore silk if you can fit the entire saree through a wedding (or any other, I guess) ring. The factory is completely operational, but not very visitor friendly. Although we were able to see the raw silk threads, the weaving, dyeing, and drying process, and the finished product, there was no one to explain to us what was happening. My favorite part was watching them prepare the vats of brilliantly colored dye and dip the cream silk fabric in to absorb the color. After they spin the excess dye off in a machine, they hang them up to dry in a large open room. The long pieces of colorful fabric waving in the breeze were beautiful.

Today I went with John to Mysore Grace Bible Church, which is another church where he preaches once a month. Their service is conducted primarily in Kannada and Tamil, but when John speaks they also translate into English. Messages have to be kept a little bit shorter because it takes a lot of time to deliver the entire thing in three languages. It's also really hard to follow the train of thought. It must be really difficult to translate for people! After the first church service we went to Hema's church where they had a giant birthday celebration for their Pastor Joel. There were probably 200 people there, and they prepared lunch and had a gigantic cake big enough for everyone, plus leftovers. Joel has been a really influential Pastor for so many in this congregation, and I've heard stories of his impact from Hema. She really looks up to him as a strong male figure in her life since both her father and husband are deceased.

In the evening we (the Locklears, Shiro, Joshua, and Rachel, and I) went to Sunita's parents farm, which is about 20 minutes away. This is where John and Sunita have the land where they hope to build the new BGSS soon. Mr. and Mrs. Peters (Sunita's parents; Tata and Agi to me) run an orphanage and school with their one son (Sunita's brother) who recently moved back to India from the states. The school is called Benson's and both the facility and the work they do are amazing. About 30 orphans live in two dormitories and receive a full education plus Bible instruction. There are also many more students, like Hema's two sons, who come during the day only for school. We arrived just in time for me to come to the chapel service that the children in the orphanage have on Sundays. Their singing was so joyful, and I loved hearing them recite their memory verses for Tata as he quizzed them on the Bible knowledge he has been teaching to them. We ate dinner at Tata and Agi's house, which was amazing. Seriously, Indian food is the best. Sunita's parents are so great, and I wish that everyone could meet Agi. The best word I can use to describe her is regal, but she is also so warm and loving. I'm jealous of Harley and Hayden who get to have her as a grandma.

I miss you all so much! Please pray for a good week at school as I finish the curriculum and for my planning for this next school year coming up. God is in control of everything!

So far this week I've experienced feelings on the entire spectrum, so it has definitely been interesting. I'm finally beginning to understand how working with special kids can be really hard, because you can barely tell what progress they've made. It's frustrating sometimes, so I just have to check myself and remember that every bit of attention, positive reinforcement, structure, and love they receive is incredibly important.

We celebrated Joshua's birthday on Tuesday with a party at school in the afternoon (He is Sunita's friend's 7 year old son---the family staying in the apartment with me). It's interesting to spend some time with kids who aren't special! I've gotten so used to them. I have to remember to speak normally to Rachel and Joshua, because they understand me perfectly and don't need anything simplified. It was a funny problem to have. The children love meeting new people, and it was adorable to watch them introduce themselves to Rachel and Joshua and include them in our playtime during snack at the pre-vo school.

Today was another day of prayer and fasting at school, and we focused again on Hayden. We decided to choose one child each month, and spend all four weeks praying for them. We also spent time in prayer for the land conversion and the building project, and for the teachers and parents of our students. As teachers, we really need wisdom from God. None of us have any training, so we are completely dependent on him for guidance to know exactly how to respond to each child and help them in any way. It's also important to remember the parents in our prayers. Many of them have a difficult time structuring their home for a special child, and so much can happen to either help or harm the work we accomplish with each student once they leave for the day and go home. It's very stressful to be the parent of a special child, especially in India where there is such a stigma against disabilities, mostly due to the belief that they're punishment for bad behavior in a past life.

The more time that I spend with the children, the more I can pick out their unique personalities and what makes them tick. Harsha, for example, loves to tell the others what to do. If I ask him to sit down, he will immediately find another child who isn't sitting and order them to do the same. During class, he is constantly worried about what the other children are doing. He won't settle down to do his work if there's something he can tell another person to do. And Sujay thrives on structure and knowing exactly what is coming next. He will constantly repeat the schedule to himself partly for reassurance, and partly for motivation. His conversations usually go something like this:

Sujay: Emily?

Me: Yes Sujay?

Sujay: After reading then lunch time and then singing and then play time and then the van will take us home, right?

He loves the consistency of our schedule, and hates the thought of not being able to go home. So we joking threaten him with sleeping overnight at school if he won't do his work.

I went to Harley's (John and Sunita's son who isn't special) school this afternoon to see all the French students present songs and research that they did about France in honor of Bastille Day. It's a private international school, and so seeing all the children from different countries sing the French children's songs was really adorable. Harley is very proud of the French he has learned, and I loved seeing all their hard work. It's a really great school, and Harley loves going there.

Prayer would be much appreciated for continued perseverance at the school, and for clarity of thought as I finish the curriculum. I'm also working through some messy stuff with Moody right now involving my transfer to Chicago and tuition. As you can imagine, it's really difficult to manage things from so far away. I can't believe that it has already been 3 weeks, and that I only have 3 weeks or so left! It hardly feels like enough time. There's too much to be done and to see here!

On Friday another Korean team came to the school for the day. We had a project day planned out batik dye (similar to tie dying) some handkerchiefs with the children, but when the team arrived in a large bus and announced their plans to take the children to the zoo, project day was changed! Only a handful of the teachers went to the zoo, because the children were already outnumbered 3 to 1 by volunteers. Laura, Jana, and I stayed back and hung out in the office of the pre-vo school with Hema, the young woman who works in the office.

Seriously, I have been praising God a lot for the work he has done in Hema's life! She is only 29 years old, but has been through so much. Married when she was 16, Hema had her first son when she was 17 and her second when she was 18. Her husband physically and emotionally abused her continually for 3 years, and committed suicide when she was 19. This means that Hema has been a widow and single mother for ten years. She moved back to Mysore to live with her mother, and first heard about Jesus Christ from a relative who had begun praying to Jesus in the midst of her idol worship. Hema read the scriptures, abandoned her idol worship, and got connected with a local church. She has been such a blessing to me already. I had the plan to go to church with her one sunday, and then we hatched a plan to get Laura and Jana to come to church as well. Her church was having a special service today with the focus of inviting friends. Since I was already going, we knew that I could convince them to come with us. It worked! More about that later.

Another one of Laura and Jana's friends came to Mysore on Friday to spend the weekend, so we made dinner at the apartment and welcomed her. I've been doing lots of mendhi (aka henna, the beautiful skin designs that are common in India) for Laura and Jana because they are somehow convinced that mine are the best. About 3 hours on Friday night were spent putting intricate designs on their hands in patterns I had just seen in a book.

On Saturday we decided to take a trip out of Mysore to see Shravanabelagola, home of "Lord" Gomateshwara, the largest monolith in south India. Gomateshwara is a 3 hour bus ride from Mysore, so we left fairly early in the morning to make it by 11 am. The farmlands and small villages surrounding Mysore are picturesque and incredibly beautiful, so the bumpy and crowded bus didn't seem quite to annoying. The statue of "Lord" Gomateshwara stands 58 feet tall on top of a very large hill in the middle of the town. Around 1,000 steps were carved into the very steep slope, so we removed our shoes (because it's a holy place for Hindus) and began the climb. Because it's a site of pilgrimage, and because there was no lift, even 80 year old women in saris were faithfully headed up the hill to give their offerings to the monolith. There are several smaller temples at the top as well, so we stopped to see those before entering the large one where the statue rests. Ah yes, did I mention that the statue is completely naked? It's meant to symbolize complete holiness, as though he has nothing to hide. I took pictures, but may not post them on facebook? haha. Hindus bowed before the statue to pray, and a priest stood by the bless their foreheads and lay their offerings of coconuts, rice, and hard-earned money at the feet of the statue. Although it was an incredible sight to behold, I can admit to feeling both anger and deep sadness while visiting this temple. Satan is really good at deceiving people! The view from the top of the temple once we were finished seeing Gomateshwara was incredible.

Laura and Jana agreed to come to Hema's church this morning, which was very interesting. The assembly was much more charismatic than I am used to, so it was strange at times, even for me. Their worship was simple and heartfelt, but their pastor was ill this week, so a guest speaker delivered the message. It was a woman from Kenya who recently spoke at a conference in Bangalore and happened to be in the area. Although there was nothing wrong with her message, her voice registered somewhere around a scream for the entire sermon, which sounded like ranting and raving to Laura and Jana despite the topic: Christ's love for us. They also told me that it was strange to hear someone say "Hallelujah, Praise the Lord" at the end of every sentence. I enjoyed that each person in the room seemed to be involved in the service. Except for maybe the message, people felt free to share and pray and sing at any time. Laura and Jana were completely scared, however, when she began speaking in tongues during the prayer time after the message. Hema was so glad that we came, and introduced us to all her friends there. She told me to let her know if Laura and Jana asked me any questions today about the service, because she was very curious. She and I both know that they can be convinced to attend church while in India, but aren't likely to attend once they go back to Germany. Their comments today were, however, mostly of surprise at just how "crazy" things seemed. I'm definitely praying for them to ask more questions and to find the answers they need.

After church we went up to Chamundi Hill, which is the tallest point in Mysore, only a short bus ride away. We have a spectacular view of Chamundi from my apartment, but I hadn't visited the temple at the top until today. As the most sacred place in Mysore, Chamundi is a really big tourist place. The Golden Temple at the top was especially busy today. Hindus will wait up to 3 or 4 hours in lines that reminded me of amusement park lines in the U.S. to give their offerings at this temple. We saw the temple, but walked a bit further to the village of Chamundi which sits just outside the temple area. The view from the village of all of Mysore City was spectacular, and you could even pick out our apartment building from 3500 ft up. The best way to leave Chamundi Hill is to walk down maybe 3000 hand-cut steps to the city at the bottom. Some people even choose to walk up all those steps to get to the top. Women will mark the edge of each and every step as they go with red and orange holy powder all the way to the top. Halfway down the hill is Nandi, a giant stone bull, and another sacred place to give offerings and pray. Nandi was massive. And there were lots of people draping flowers on him and leaving burnt offerings around his hooves. Chamundi village was a very beautiful and relaxing place, so I will probably take a few more trips to the top before I leave.

If you remember, please pray for another good week at the school building meaningful relationships! On of Sunita's friends just arrived with her two young children and will be staying in the apartment with me (it's a 2 BR) basically until I leave. Please pray for good interactions with them, as she was not pleased with the cleanliness of the rooms last night and paid two Korean girls who live in the complex to clean them today. (I promise I had just cleaned!!!)

Love and miss you all!

Hello Friends :)

Things have been great at the school this week! I started in on some of the plans that Sunita and I came up with for each student, and it has been good. Today we learned about the weather and different words that you can use to describe the weather like sunny, rainy, cloudy, windy, etc. It worked for most of the children and in the span of the day we experienced sun, clouds, wind, and rain, so the children could look out the windows at any moment and see exactly what we were talking about.

Yesterday I went to the cinema and saw my first Hindi movie with Laura and Jana. It was comic, and the plot line basically followed three college-aged guys who are roommates and how they accidentally got mixed up in a diamond smuggling ring. At one point in the film (to get the diamonds back from a jeweler they sold them to) they dressed in burquas and pretended to be Muslim women. Obviously, hilarity ensued. It's surprising how much we could understand with only a few English phrases here and there. The audience's reaction to the film is almost better than the film itself. Their cheering, hollering, and laughing were completely exaggerated and really funny.

John and Sunita decided to make every Thursday a day of prayer and fasting for a specific student, so we started today with their son Hayden. It's optional for the staff, and you could obviously just do it for half the day or the whole day. So instead of sitting with the children to eat lunch, John, Sunita, Ngaanba, Hema, and I sat in the office of the pre-vo school and prayed for Hayden's healing, for God to give him the ability to speak, and for the land conversion of the school as well. It's a wonderful idea, and I really enjoyed the time to spend in prayer. I'm looking forward to this being something we do every week.