A gift ...

These next 7 posts are a gift to Team India & their friends & families.

The team was made of up of our oldest son Ryan
(who has just returned to CU Boulder as an astrophysicist major)
and his friends Ben (whom he rooms with), Christy (also a student at CU), and Sara (from Auburn).

This team of 4 traveled together, along with another dozen saints, to Kenya last summer.
They are intense in their love of the Lord, love for one another,
and their love & encouragement to anyone else around them.

Their hearts of service are so inspirational ~ but truly what is amazingly wonderful
is their incredible tenderness, humility, and humor with each other.
They are a living example of how our Lord intends for us to live in love
and it is my great honor & privilege to share
some of their summer with you in the pictures below.

Better than the pictures however is their actual blog from this past summer
which you can find at www.teamindia08.wordpress.com

May this find you filled with His love, joy & peace ...

1 ~ It's a Beautiful Thing ...

WATCH THIS VIDEO :~)

In Mid-July, Team India posted a great video ...
Celebrate Ben, Christy, Sara & Ryan's work for our Lord in Calcutta ...



You'll love it as a way to start you off in great frame of mind
as you look at the still images posted below :)

Make sure to turn up your sound :)

2 - Initial Pix from Ryan's India Summer ...

Many of you have prayed, provided financial support, and followed Team India's blog ...
I know we've been blessed by joining their adventures --

And now's the time for some sweet enjoyment of pictures!

This first set of pictures is from their initial travels ...
Denver --> DC --> Paris --> Bombay --> Hydrabad --> Calcutta

Leaving from DIA ... prayers & hugs ...

The first day of training in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
where Christy & Sara and first wore traditional clothing ...
The roof ...These were all over their rooms all summer ...Hey pretty girl... (Beautiful on Birthday)
Trying to travel to Calcutta by train during monsoons - a 4 day adventure ...
This was taken in the sleeping car on the first train from Hyderabad to Calcutta, which was over 30 hours long... until the tracks got washed out in the worst monsoon in 10 years and
our team was stuck in a village for two days before finally making it to Calcutta...Traveling along the Indian Ocean on the east coast of India through the rural villages ...The monsoon flooded all the villages and swept out the rail road tracks ...
Calcutta ~ home for 6 weeks ...
purifying water ...View from the roof of their house onto the 17 million people city of Calcutta ...

3 - Ministry Pix from Calcutta ...

And now ... it's a blessing to be able to share some of the ministry pictures
from Ryan's time in India this summer!

While in Calcutta, the guys would stay back and pray while the gals ministered,
and then the gals would stay back and pray while the guys ministered.
It was such a darkly oppressed city, reliance on prayer proved key
to their safety, health, and effectiveness

The team did not take a lot of pictures during ministry because they were uncomfortable objectifying people ... but there were a few days the girls did snap a few ...

Theses pix are from the primary school Ryan, Ben, Christy & Sara taught at in the slums...
10 foot by 10 foot with up to 25 children,
and a ceiling they could not stand up in without hitting their heads ...The train station ...
a zoo of a transportation mode to get to and from the school each day ...It seems like the kids enjoyed the pictures and Sara & Christy very much!


Sara & Christy also took their cameras one day as they served in one of Mother Theresa's Homes ... these are from an orphanage and a home for developmentally disabled children ...

The team also taught two sets of english classes to adults as they shared
the gospel, the truth of God's word, and eternal salvation
through faith in Jesus Christ ...

While in Calcutta, their lives of loved also touched many whom they visited and prayed,
the nuns at the Seva Kendra house where they lived, and
other missionaries who had come to share the love of the Lord.

They reported that Calcutta was a very dark & oppressed city, filled with death, disease, idol worship, and prayer to the goddess of darkness & destruction. But they loved it there. A contrast that makes no sense from a material world perspective, but spiritually, it was a place where they could see lives changed instantly as faith in Jesus brought great healings, their own faith was strengthened, and they grew together as dear friends.

Peace to You ...