Monday, February 22, 2010

india simulation training weekend...

Okay...fears put aside, this past weekend was simulation training weekend for India. & I had a blast! The team that I will be traveling with couldn't be a greater team to experience this journey with. Not only do we seem to all click, we all get each other...even with our fears. :) & I am so encouraged to get to experience this with each and every one of them. They all have strong hearts for God and I'm so excited to be able to grow and learn with them while sharing God's word. 


To prepare ourselves for what we will experience when we get there, we had a training simulation to go through over the weekend. It started out on Friday night...where we had to sleep on the floor. :) This was decently simple to me, as I have had to sleep on the floor for camping trips, etc. However...it wasn't simple in the fact that my NICE, warm, COMFY bed was right next to me calling my name to climb in and cozy up.  :) However, I survived the night, but oh.so.sore and exhausted when I woke up the next morning. :)


On Saturday, we all met at the church at 8:00am and took 2 vans on a road trip to Chicago. We went to Little India and also were able to visit the South Asian Friendship Center where we got to talk with Cicero and Saneeta. They were able to share stories of SAFC and also share their testimonies to the team. It was a great experience to hear these stories and I could just tell that their hearts were strong for God. After that, we were able to walk through Little India and visit many, many shops. Shops that were something I have never experienced before...from sari shops, Indian jewelry shops, fresh produce shops, and even an Indian sweets shop.  :) It was definitely an amazing experience. Next, we went to lunch at an Indian buffet. What.an.experience. Basically, we filled our plates with rice, chicken curry, vegetables, and all kinds of mushy icky things.  :) & THEN...we had to mush it all together with our hands on our plate...and eat.with.our.hands. ICK! Well, to tell you the truth, it was kinda fun...but extremely hard to eat soupy type food...with your fingers.  :) The taste wasn't amazing...so, food is going to be a struggle for me.  :) After a long day in Chicago, we came home and once again...had to sleep on the floor. OUCH...who ever knew floors could be so unforgiving! :)


Sunday, we all met at church at 9:30am and went to church together as a team. The service was amazing. It was another excellent bonding experience for our team. After church, we left and headed to Feed The Children. This is where we packed all of our team bags full of childrens books and Crocs to hand out to all the children and adults over in India. That was such a great team building experience. Then we headed back to church for our luggage training.  :) This was tough. :)  We did many training exercises with not only our own luggage, but also the team bags that we will be having to carry once we get to India. This means, all my workout sessions, will help greatly.  :) Hehe. Here is a picture of about half of what our luggage looks like.  :) 



All in all, it was an amazing weekend. Yes, things became very real for me...and put things into perspective. But I know that God is with me all the time...and knows that I can do this. He wouldn't have put me in this place if He didn't think I could do it. I just continue to pray for peace and strength. :)

No comments:

Post a Comment