Our journey's almost over...

We're sitting here in London's Heathrow airport awaiting our flight back home to San Diego... Thankfully, there have been no glitches thus far (except the 20 minute delay in Hyderabad, but we made it safely to London with some time to spare).  Please pray for Julio, he's been feeling under the weather (tummy problems & vomitting).
I wish we were able to have blogged over the past weekend, but unfortunately, our stay in New Delhi didn't allow us any internet access :(. Our time in Agra was fun... so glad we we're given this opportunity to see this beautiful sight. Thankfully, our hotel stay was just that... an overnight thing! The rooms were moldy & smokey smelling. I remember smelling my clothes after we came back to Hyderabad and they were pretty gross.
When we returned, we said our goodbyes to the students and received a thank you/goodbye party from the faculty.  This trip was a blessing to us as a team & to the students. We're going to miss them, but they're in our hearts and our prayers!
Risa and I were able to talk to Becky (on the second team) for a brief few moments.  It was nice to see a familiar face in this foreign land. It's so weird seeing someone you know, but didn't come over with, especially in India!  We tried to get them in contact with Sheldon (a student from Colorado who's doing a health internship at the campus). Since they are both doing health related trips I thought it would be great tor them to meet.
Well, our flight leaves in less than an hour and we hope it goes quickly... We can't wait to be back with our family ans friends once again.

God bless,
-Tiffany

UPDATE!! Good Shepherd School visit (with video)

Today we visited a Good Shepherd School grades: LKG (lower kindergarten) through 10th which they consider High School. After their 10th year they go to college (11th-12th) and them onto a university. Their "college" courses are to prepare them for whatever they plan on studying at the university. So there are different types of colleges (math & science, teaching, etc.). We visited the LKG through 4th and a 10th grade classroom.  Below is a video of one of the lower classes where the students sang for us. 
Please pray for all the students as they have exams beginning tomorrow, as we had interrupted their review time today.  :( In one of the classrooms we sang "Heads, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes" and they joined along with us... such a precious moment.  One class they sang to us a Telugu song (praising God) and in another they sang us a similar song in Hindi.  It was wonderful to hear them in their own languages and to hear them learn and sing in English also.  In one of the older student classrooms we asked them what profession they wanted to have after finishing school... we heard a few teachers and just a couple doctors.  I'm glad they have the freedom to dream and achieve their dreams just because they have an education! 
Please pray with me for all the Good Shepherd Schools across India (there are a total of 107 throughout all of India). Praise God that these students are also getting a Bible education as well (even if they are not Christian)!
-God bless,
Tiffany

American party photos

Pancakes & syrup

Jelly Bellies

Boy's line for food

Hang loose boys

Giving our students a taste of America

So today we are preparing to throw the American party of our students' dreams...
Tonight is American Party Night on campus! We have prepped by pre-making some pancakes & Jello (lime and orange of course).  We have syrup for the pancakes as well (can't have pancakes without syrup). We have glow sticks & glow bracelets for each student.  Chris will be leading all of us in some worship music (while playing the guitar plus he'll have a fellow student on the tabla -- which I guess is a music instrument).  We'll be teaching (and learning) the Cha Cha Slide with our students.  And if that isn't enough, the students will be able to try authentic Jelly Bellies for the first time (thanks to Nadia Van Otterloo)! 
We'll do our best to post some after pics so you can see the enjoyment on their smiling faces!

Talk to you soon,
-Tiffany

The longer I'm here, the more I'm reminded how blessed I am in America

Hello family & friends,
I hope your all well and in good health when you're reading this & I also just want you to know you're all in my daily prayers.  I get the honor of preaching this Sunday in a local Telugu Christian Church, I will be preaching on the topic of "There's only one God & God's love" (also my brother Chris is leading worship). We've visited more slum schools & tailoring shops (in the slum areas), it's such a blessing every time we visit them.  The kids are full of joy for the Lord & for learning English.  I would ask of you if you would please pray with us for them-- so that as they grow up, they continue studying & be able to graduate, instead of dropping out because they have to work to help their family. I've also learned about the Good Shepard ministry which has over 3,000 churches & are in need of our prayers so the ministry can continue to get funded.  The Good Shepard ministry is what most of the schools we have visited are from, so please pray with us for their ministry. The more I'm around the students the more I've learned of how big their hearts are & their faith for God.  I love it when we have prayer because they're so powerful & it's such a reminder of how much they trust in God.  They don't have the same lifestyle as us & their daily struggles are sure a lot more difficult than ours. It's also a good reminder of how good we live in the States & yet we complain about the smallest things.  It's definitely a humbling experience.  I want to thank you guys for your prayers, they're so hopeful.  Thanks for reading & God bless you all.

-Julio

I'm 'Kind Of A Big Deal' in India

This past Sunday we visited a landmark called Golkonda Fort which is about 11 km away from Hyderabad. It was built in the 13th century by the Kakatiyas. In the 16th century Golkonda was the capital city of the Qutb Shahi kingdom. The city was home to one of the most powerful Muslim sultanates of the region and was the flourishing center of the diamond trade. This is where man has unearthed some of the most coveted diamonds and gems in history, including : the Hope Diamond, Idol's Eye, the Koh-i-Noor and Darya-i-Noor. There's your history lesson for the day everyone. Thanks Wikipedia, haha!

So, as I was saying, we visited the fort because it is a big tourist attraction and it is very impressive. However, things didn't go quite how I had planned. After entering the fort I started noticing that I was getting a lot of stares and strange looks. A couple brave young men came up to me and asked if I would take a picture with them. I figured that was fair enough. The further along we got on our tour the more young men came up and asked for pictures with me. I was basically mobbed over and over by groups of men who were so interested in me only because of my skin color. At first I thought it was kind of cool but it quickly lost its appeal. I started getting a little agitated to be perfectly honest. Now I know how celebrities feel when they are constantly approached by fans and paparazzi, haha! Back in America I'm just a normal white dude, whereas here, I'm a mysterious and fascinating white man, even though I'm just that, a man. I'm no different than anyone else except for my skin color! It was a very strange feeling. The one thing I took away from that experience was that I don't want to be famous, haha!

Thanks for reading and we'll be writing more soon!
-Chris

Eurakalabasti tailoring project

Yesterday we went to the neighborhood of Eurakalabasti where we met with a woman named Shelby.  She trains other women in her community on how to sew.  (If you ask my mom, she'd tell you I could use some training too.). She welcomed us into her new shop which had four rooms and a main entryway where the ladies practice their newly learned sewing techniques.  She shared with us that they have had this shop for about three months now.  They are waiting to get some orders from the schools to begin making uniforms for the students.  They are currently learning a new style of uniform which they call "t-shirt" but it actually looks more like a polo instead of a t-shirt. 
Shelby took us through the neighborhood and we met a young woman named Sunitha who opened the local Good Shepherd Church for us to see.  Shelby said she used to teach sewing inside the church building because it was divided by a wall but it crumbled and now it's all the church (10'x40').  We learned that Sunitha's husband is out of work, not a Christian, and is spending their money on alcohol instead.  We met another woman who was using a walker.  She was paralyzed after she miscarried. Her husband decided to marry another woman and had three kids with her, but amazingly he still cares for his first wife.  They are all one big happy family. :/
Just before we left for the campus, we prayed for the tailoring ministry, Sunitha's family, & the community it general.  We learned thAT there are 500 families and only 100 are Christian.
Below is a picture Julio took of the area.

Please pray for our brothers & sisters in India...
-Tiffany