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Please enjoy our blog - we had an incredible trip and want to thank all of those who supported our trip with finances, prayers and encouragement.

I want to give a special thanks to David - and encourage you to take every opportunity to spend time with him.  He's a wonderful example for men at Westover --- and also for someone who lives at 5506 Francisco drive.  I praise God for the examples we (men) have in our midst that live every day as encouraging examples of what it means to walk with Christ.  David & Gabrielle are a wonderful example in the lives they lead every day & both demonstrate what it 'looks like' to be disciples.  You both encourage me in different ways - thank you both so much.

I want to give a special thanks to Lauraleigh.  At 13 years of age she's seen quite a lot on this trip.  There are many things that we can't post.  She was a great team member, praise leader, food selector, preaching advisor, and also a great daughter.  I'll treasure this time spent with her.  You rock girl - great job.

Thanks to Rahul & Lorette.  Their hospitality, love, and protection while we are there is something our many teams from Westover have come to know.  Thank you so much.

And lastly - thanks to Kristin.  So many long hours while we were away - thanks for all you do Sweetheart.

So very much that we can't even begin to describe - great and small.  If you've not been on a short term trip recently we'd suggest that you pray about that.

We love you guys - enjoy the blog.

Video Post - Religion

AUDIO ONLY.  Prayers 5x / day - this one at 5:00 am over loudspeaker

Paddling on the Ganges - early am

Ringing bells to wake the gods.  Making hand crafts for a god wedding celebration.

Traffic ... enough said

Man washing an idol

Worship on the Ganges .... happens every night

Picture Post - From the Streets

David Walking Among ... Water Buffalos

Every Day in the Streets

Priest Marking Foreheads w/ Blessing After Coming Back from Ganga

Picture Post - Relationships

Everything Starts with Leaders

Faithful to Sew

Ouch!

He who dwells in the shelter ... will rest in the shadow

Rail Station Ministry Continues ....

Adrenaline Rush

Care Center Games

Priceless Experiences Together

From Point A to B to A to C .... Driving!

Why We Are Involved

Gifts Received from Westover Encourage!

Rahul, I told you David is the Bad Cop

Taking Them to His Throne

What Success Looks Like

Teach, Teach, Teach (and don't forget to pray)

7th Wonder of the World

Main Gate at Taj Mahal

Look Closely - At Sunrise The Entire Taj Glows from Millions of Semi-Precious Stones

This is our last day in India. We have a very early flight back home today. The BAM team has a final meeting with our host before we go our separate ways. What’s really strange is we leave for home today on October 28^th and we return to Greensboro on October 28. But before we go . . . we made a stop at the Taj Majal, one of the seven wonders of the world and a nearby fort called Agra Fort. I can only describe the Taj as both amazing and fascinating it took 22 years to build the Taj Mahal, (which translates into beautiful crown palace).

We left Agra for Delhi in the afternoon where we were going to have a rest stop with one of Zack’s former clients. We met up with and spent some time with Linda and her three teenage kids. They were a real blessing to us as they hosted a wonderful meal for us, and it was only a matter of minutes before Lauraleigh connected with Linda’s two daughters.

Wow!

It’s now 2:00 a.m. as I write this final re-cap. We are pretty wiped out, but at least two of us are ready to grab our carry-on bags and head to our departure gate, but first Zack will have to wake up Lauraleigh who is resting kind of sort of comfortably. It’s time to go home, so long for now.

No Paintings in the Taj.  All In-Laid Semi Precious Stones

Lauraleigh Mobbed by Foreign Paparazzi - for Her Picture!

Agra Fort

Real Crocodiles Were Used Here

Palace, Fountains, Gardens ... Don't Forget Elephant Entry After Victorious Battles at Agra Fort

Intricate Stonework - House Arrest Cell

Saying Good Bye

Travel in India - Everything But Predictable

Our plan for today was an early departure by car (5:00 a.m.) for what we thought would be an eight-hour drive to Agra. Instead, poor road conditions, erratic drivers and a fatal car/bike rider accident added four more hours to our drive.

What we planned for the afternoon in Agra had to be scratched. We just had a sense of appreciation for our in-country host and our driver. The accident occurred approximately 200 meters ahead of our vehicle. It really put a damper on the day. Because we knew the guys would be returning on that same eight hours drive back home, we just need to remember them and pray for them and their car driver. He can often be found watching and listening attentively to our host as he teaches the kids at the Care Center. If we were to speculate by his engagement with the lesson, then it won’t be long before we can count him as a brother in Christ.

"No" Spreadsheet Day

Lauraleigh Loving on the Kids

Friday was our last day at the Care Center and the Laundromat. As a team, we met in the hotel lobby before breakfast. It was also at this time that Zack declared the day as—no Spreadsheet day! We were going to the Care Center early in the morning to play games with the kids (swinging, cricket, colored, board games, playing tag and played games with rocks. Yes, Lauraleigh says you only need rocks to play! We drank tea with the Care Center leaders and prayed with and for the kids and their leaders. We left with high-fives, fist-bumps, hand shakes and hugs.

Priceless ...

There was some final time at the laundry mat just getting to know the staff a little better. Zack and Rahul agreed on some BAM next steps to keep the momentum of this visit going! Then, it was on to Rahul’s and Lorette’s house for one final dinner with the entire family. We planned on it being an early evening, but it was hard to leave the presence of such faithful dedicated servants. It was an awesome time of food, fellowship and community that culminated in prayer. I think us adults were just so proud to hear the prayers being spoken by Rahul and Lorette’s 7- and 9-year-old daughters followed by 13-year-old Lauraleigh. I am excited for all three of these girls and what He has in store for their futures. What a great way to end our evening and out time in this city.

Spreadsheets

Accurate & Timely Information Helps Decision Making

We had the sense that our time at the laundry mat was coming to an end so David and Zack were doubling up on entering data into Spreadsheets and analyzing and building business scenarios respectively.  Macros, pivot tables, splicers – and graphs!  These are helping Rahul understand the mix of clothes he receives and how to properly price contracts he has with local schools & hotels.

Getting School Mix (type of clothes) and Capacity

Ganges & Care Center

Idol Worship - Every Day, Every Where. 1,000's of 'gods'

 We began our day at 5:30 a.m. by taking local transportation to the shore of the Ganga river at a place called “Old City”, which is one of the oldest living cities in the world. Here, we boarded a large row boat that took us parallel to the shore so we could see the people worshiping idols and laying the dead to rest according to their beliefs. Amazingly, this goes on 7 days per week; 365 days per year; for thousands of years.

Bells.  Ring the bells to wake the gods

Afterwards, we made our way back to the laundry mat where Lauraleigh pressed on with her home school studies (no rest for the weary). Zack and Rahul used this face-to-face time to carefully examine the “numbers” of the laundry mat business—past, present and future. It was insightful, challenging and beneficial all at the same time. It was two countries coming together to GROW HIS business through a common language known as Spreadsheets.  Zack can be remembered for saying “past success does not always result in future success.”

Care center children have very difficult home environments

By this time, Lauraleigh was connecting with the kids. More tag, tree climbing and just hanging out together. It was neat for me to see what a bright, warm and insightful 13-year-old Lauraleigh is as she coached me on my Sunday message or advised her dad at the end during our debrief time. So this was two against one…Rahul was the one. He had to carve out time during his busy, busy day managing his laundry mat team, overseeing the Care Center and hosting us short-term visitors. Well, Lorette helped him manage us as well. She truly is a great life partner for Rahul. God knew what he was doing when he brought the two of them together.

Models?  I don't think so!  Care Center Products.

Get to Work

Hard Working (and proud) Businessman

Our days at the start of the week included Care Center in the morning and Laundromat in the afternoons.  But what lies in between is actually traveling there!  It’s really impossible (but the videos are an attempt) to describe traffic here – water buffalo, cars, motorcycles, Rickshaw (manual & auto), cows, buses, that all vie for the same road.  It’s a little like upward soccer – ‘BE FIRST’ (to the ball) is something parents yell from the sideline.  Here it’s BE FIRST to any open space of road.  (a guy on roller skates holding onto the back of a truck?  Yep, saw that too).

Not Happy.  Banana cart had to backup for our car

BAM – business as missions and working with the Laundromat is why we came, but business is only a means to our primary purpose – the care center.  At the Care Center we had the opportunity to sing, play cricket with the boys, watch Lauraleigh climb trees and swing on the swing set with the girls, watch Rahul teach, sew (OK, only Zack sewed). We simply had fun with the Care Center leaders/teachers and the beautiful children. Before we left the Care Center we were able to add one more smile to the faces of the children by passing out bright-colored suckers to the children and the leaders.

Beautiful, Beautiful Children

The BAM team started working with Rahul in March of 2011, and for the first time we were able to walk into a fully functional Laundromat.  Machines were running, clothes were being ironed, customers were using the wireless service while they waited … and we could appreciate all of Rahul & Lorette’s hard work.  Wow – how encouraging to see the progress made and to know their business is established & generating a profit each month.  Two of Westover’s small BAM team had Rahul each step from thousands of miles away.

Hard at Work

Worship in Asia

Martha & Lauraleigh led worship on keyboard playing music and followed by David teaching through Mark 1:21-28.  Keys from our service?  Worship music in a local church is always, always sweet.  And His word allowed us to focus on two key words: Authority & power.  Jesus always did, does, and always will possess all authority and all power and a believer’s ability to focus on these truths reduces the magnitude of trials & tests.  Our numbers were not like Westover’s that day, but when worshipping among believers it sure did feel a lot like being home.  PTL.

Sunday afternoon we grabbed some hamburgers at the local McDonalds and then went to a pool at a local hotel.  There may be an inaccuracy in that previous sentence.  Oh, right.  At McDonalds in India there is no beef on the menu.  Fish, yes.  Chicken, you bet.  Iced coffee – oh yeah.  Hamburgers, nada.  The point is our team got some good downtime, had a lot of fun at the pool with fellowship and prepared ourselves for the busy week ahead.

REST !

Many Breakfasts were at 'Bread of Life'

Saturday morning we allowed our bodies to catch up to the current time zone and spent a good deal of the day enjoying our hosting family Rahul & Lorette.  Rest & relationship – what a great combination.

Our Christmas present arrived on Saturday afternoon in the form of a fully functional laptop computer!  Hooray.

Girl Friends

Spice Jet

Filling out paperwork to retrieve a laptop PC

The last leg on ‘SpiceJet’ airlines is where some heat was turned up on our team.  First, we went to the wrong terminal.  Next, we had to ‘negotiate’ with the driver who pleaded his case for more fare with the local (armed) soldier.  At this point our early departure from the hotel was beginning to fall apart.  We couldn’t check in our bags due to an overweight condition, which was compounded by not having enough local currency (rupees) to pay for the overages.  By now the clock began to play a role on time departure.

Security was chaotic in Delhi and I’ll spare you from the value add analysis.  After security we jogged through the airport to our departure gate …. And then boarded a bus (obviously) that took us out to our plane.  We had a good flight & when we got to the local airport David noticed that his backpack was ‘lighter’.

In the hurried up offense – which was run a little bit more like defense, David had left his laptop computer in Delhi in the security bin.  Through prayer, faith, phone calls, and a lot of local help from Rahul’s native tongue, David met with the airport authorities and we left the airport without the computer.

Outside of our hotel room -'home' to this man

Time Zones

The next several days were a blur – because we were flying soooo fast.  OK, maybe not.  It was a blur because of crossing through numerous time zones and at least a couple of sun rises.  We flew to Detroit – to Amsterdam – and then onto Delhi India.  We arrived at 1:30 am local and had a short stay in the local hotel.  Arrived from the airport to the hotel at 2:30 am – departed at 6:30 am local.  Nothing like getting a full 10 to 12 hours of sleep!

Pushing off the pier

Our trip started with Pastor Lynn praying with us in GSO’s lobby.  Outside of the small physical team was many church & family members that committed to praying for our trip.  Prayer is always a good place to start – especially when there are so many unknowns with short term trips.  

Our team!