January 4, 2010- City of G, A's flat , 11 p.m.

We are here, and I practically feel that I'm home. Is it strange that I never feel more perfectly alive than when I'm away from my home country? My new American guy friend, whom I'll call "Sparky," knows my dear friend who is sharing the truth in P. right now with the company! It is so beautiful to be able to develop new relationships with strangers and to share the commonality of our experiences in the world and in the body.

This place...is more beautiful than I could have imagined. Beautiful, in that it is surrounded by the glories of the Himalayan mountain region and hard (yet still lovely) in its dusty squalor. Yesterday I had multiple minor emergencies and one large one, including that one of my measurements for my native dress was ten inches off in each of the 3 suits they have had tailored for me (clothing here in stores like Big Bazaar does not fit Western women very well!) So, after a long and stress fraught process, here I am sleeping in a stranger's room (J., who is A's roomate and absent from the apartment as she is visiting with her home fellowship while they are here) on the most comfortable bed I have rested on yet, or will rest on during this short journey. I feel frustraded by my total inability to drink everything in that I will lose when I leave here- without a camera, the capacity of my memory is so limited. I'll just have to strive to preserve it all in word and mind as my predecessors did. Tomorrow...I pray that there will never be an idle moment. That all hours ar eprupose feilled. That I am a reflection of all that He is and all that I must be...

Monday, January 4, 2010. Aboard a train to J.
My eyes are filled to the brim with tears of pure, untainted joy at the view before my eyes. I long with a nearly physical ache to be with these people! I want to be over here more than anything and I want it now. I will leave everything- home, family, comfort, affirmation, health, community, and prosperity to wake up like this, filled with an overwhelming sense of the King's purpose each day. I haven't belonged to myself for awhile now. Before me are vast fields of gold, punctuated by the rich jewel greens of treees of every imaginable variety, the only one of which I recognize being a palm tree. Their jagged fronds reach for the sky like arms lifted to heaven in praise. Mountains now obscured by the distance, the valley surrounds us. From my comfortable seat in a first class car, I see village after village creeping by then disappearing into groves of trees. Children roam everywhere, barefoot and unescorted, playing. Men and women carry vast loads on backs, heads, and occaisionally a small cart or bicycle. I cannot imagine the great, untappe power of God in these people- the spiritual gits and talents that are stifled in the poverty stricken and uneducated, but most importantly the spiritual power that is stifled in the lost!
(Why do you allow this Lord? They must know! I will do my utmost to show them if you will help me. Give me a gentle heart and a bold one, the bravest you'll make me, I'll be. But in all such power, may I always ralize that all things come from you, while my earth suit will soon return to dust. I will not forget You amidst the beauty that surrounds me. I will seek your face, but you must help me remember to do so. I know You will not fail...)