Day 12: Green Sprinkles

I am thankful for birthdays. And fiestas to celebrate birthdays. And pinatas. And cupcakes. And green sprinkles. :)

Day 11: Hiding Place

"You are my hiding place..." Psalm 32:7

Living in a city that never sleeps with 22 million people can be a bit overwhelming at times. (Or all the time...) I am thankful that He is my Hiding Place.

I am so thankful for our home. It is a "hiding place" in a physical sense. So I took a picture of our door since I couldn't exactly capture God, who is my Hiding Place no matter where I am.

Day 10: Call to Prayer and Cold Medicine

Today I woke up to the Call to Prayer at 5:30am with (what felt like) an elephant on my chest and a sore throat.  I think I have caught the inevitable cold that everyone in Mumbai seems to have at some point during monsoon season. Bummer. 

I stare at the ceiling. Ugh. I am not looking forward to this day already...and it has barely begun. I open my mouth to complain out loud to the dark, but my voice is gone. "Seriously?" I say to the darkness. BUT I have a choice. Continue to be agitated. Or be thankful. Can I be joyful when I'm sick at 5:30am with man's voice blaring in another language on a loud speaker outside my window? 

I choose to give thankfulness a try. "Thank You for waking me up to talk to You this morning. ...And thank You for cold medicine. Thank You for the friends that brought the cold medicine..." And I continue to give Him thanks until I fall asleep again.

Thankfully some friends from the States just brought me some good cold medicine. (I haven't found any here that works the same.)

So far I have found it impossible to be angry and thankful at the same time. Thankfulness leads to joy. And "joy transcends all other emotions" (to quote Ann Voskamp in One Thousand Gifts).

"It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night" Psalm 92:1-2

Day 9: Macaroni in Mugs

My roommates ate their macaroni in mugs this evening. We sat down together to eat, and it made me laugh. So I thought it was worth documenting. :) I'm thankful for these ladies. And I'm thankful for their quirkiness. And I'm thankful for macaroni and mugs, as well as macaroni in mugs.

Day 8: Tuesdays

I look forward to Tuesdays every week. Here's why: On Tuesdays Patricia and I go to a fishing village and study the Word with a small group of believers. We meet in the home of a young couple that have recently believed in Jesus. The two of them, two of us, our national partner, and two older ladies (who have been believers for awhile) all sit together, open our Bibles (in three different languages) and talk about it together. 

They are faithful. They are obedient to the Word. They are hungry for more. And they are discovering the joy that comes with life in Christ. They are listening to the Spirit. 

He is more kind and generous and loving than I ever could have imagined.

 

Sitting on the floor together, I look up and think, "How is this possible? How did this happen? We are worlds apart culturally. We have nothing in common, but I love these people about as much as you can love anybody." And the Spirit inside of me reminds me that we have the most important thing in common. Him. And that is only because of His love, His grace...Oh, where would we be without it?! He put His Spirit inside each one of us...crazy, right?! 

I cannot thank God enough for allowing me to be a part of something so wonderful--Him! ...especially on Tuesdays! :)

Day 7: Keytars

Keytar! At a Ravi Zacharias event in Mumbai. :)

This guy was playing 3 keyboards at the same time, then he went crazy on his keytar for awhile. It was impressive. It definitely made me smile. :)

On a slightly more serious note, we were in a room filled with believers tonight as Ravi Zacharias spoke and celebrated RZIM's 25th year. It was unbelievably encouraging to see so many people there and to see most of our Indian friends from many different backgrounds and churches in one place. It was a reminder of how many prayers God has answered and how many people He has sent to us. All gifts. His grace astounds me.

Day 6: Piercing Darkness with Praise

This morning at church right in the middle of praise and worship all the electricity went out. The room suddenly went pitch black, but the sound hardly changed at all. Everyone was singing so loud you couldn't really tell the mics weren't working. It was beautiful. God's people singing His praises, in Hindi and English, undeterred by darkness. We went right on worshiping like that for about an hour.