Life's an Adventure

"Life's an adventure, for we don't know how God will direct us from where we stand now. We need only to trust him to show us the way and He will reveal it in love day by day." -Roy Lessin

I leave for Kolkata in four short days. 

There are lists to be made, errands yet to be run, and farewell parties to be had.  But, my God is good and is in all the details. Otherwise, I'd be in a whole lot of trouble. 

Thanks Abba. 

All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.
-Martin Buber

Beautiful are the feet

Today I had the pleasure of attending my church's Indian Fellowship, a gathering of folks from India or who are interested in India.  We ate some delicious Indian food made by the ladies in the group, sang worship songs in Telugu (a language of south India), and then I was pleasantly surprised at the topic of today's gathering...my departure for India next month.  Pastor Brian asked me to tell everyone a little about this trip and what it is all about.  Everyone then prayed for me, blessing me with beautiful words and a strong sense of the Holy Spirit flowing through their hands.

One of my prayers is that God would heal my feet, knees, and back so they will not distract me from my ministry to elderly women while I am there.  I have been having aching knees lately because of my fallen arches.  My feet rotate in more than they should and it is causing my left knee some issues, which I know will lead to back issues.  I'm 26 years old and definitely not ready for knee and back problems yet... I also asked that God would give me wisdom to know what shoes to spend money on.  I will be walking a lot in India and am finding out I need orthopedic shoes with arch support.  Well, these shoes are not cheap.  They are at least $100, which may not be much to some people, but that is more than I've ever paid for any article of clothing.

After prayer, some of the women gave me their contact information and even some contacts in India if I need some help while I am out there. Everyone was so sweet and wonderful.

Then, I was pulled to the side and informed that my shoes would be taken care of financially. I just have to go get them and I will be reimbursed! Praise the Lord!

So, of course, I head straight to the store where I had found the best pair.  I had been doing some research and shopping around trying to find these orthopedic shoes that I could wear in monsoon season in Kolkata, so I already knew the one that was going to work the best. I went in, tried on the shoes again just to be sure, and put them on the counter to buy.


I then noticed a sign on the wall that said "40% off with purchase of regular priced shoes."  Well, I figured if there was another pair of orthopedic shoes I could get for India, I should get them.  I tried on the one waterproof sandal there, but decided I didn't want to pay the extra money for it.

"Are you going to get that one?" The sales clerk asked.

"No. I don't think I will today." I replied.

"But it's free!" he said.

"It's 40% off..." I replied, confused.

"Are you a teacher?" he asked.

Now I was even more confused. Did he just randomly pick a profession, or do I just have that "teacher" look?

"Yes, I am." I replied.

"Didn't you see the sign out front?  Since it's teacher appreciation week, every teacher gets a free $40 gift with every purchase.  Those shoes right there you were trying on are $45.  Those will be totally free for you."



So, that is how God blessed me with two pairs of orthopedic shoes. He is so good to me.

"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!" Isaiah 52:7

Donations

I have been asked by a few people where donations for this trip to India can be sent, so I figured I'd put it up here.  Thank you all for your donations, thoughts, and especially your prayers.  All donations can be made before I leave or during my trip (June 7-November 20).  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

To donate, you may send a check made payable to Tarrin McDonald at 4401 W. Wahalla Ln. Glendale, AZ 85308.

You may also use the following secure online Paypal account. Please be aware that Paypal does take 3% of whatever you donate as their fee.

A Taste of India

From May 10th to May 23rd I lived in Kolkata, India, eating rice and curry with my right hand, bonding with students over Mehndi (a traditional temporary tattoo), getting my feet dirty in the streets, dodging taxis, and learning, above all, how to be selfless.

God has put me on a new journey, the beginning of which was my short visit to Kolkata last month. I was going to meet up with a group from a church in Arizona, but there was not enough interest in the mission to Kolkata so they canceled the trip. I knew God wanted me to be in India, so I asked the church for the contact information for the Director of the school they would have been staying at, Hope Academy, a school dedicated to giving kids from the slums a high quality education. I asked the Director, Bonnie, if she would be willing to let me stay with her at the school for two weeks. She agreed. A few weeks later I arrived in India.

Although I had a feeling I was not there to teach, I taught four days of English classes to a great group of 6th-9th graders. You can check out their website to learn more and even sponsor a child so he/she can continue receiving this high education: http://www.needincorporated.org/

Every day I had this gnawing feeling that there was something else I was in India to do, to learn. Wednesday of the week I was scheduled to head back to America, I volunteered at an organization called Freeset that exists solely to take women out of the sex slave trade, teach them skills, and give them a job making amazing t-shirts and bags. I painted stools and hauled boxes from one room to another, but the whole time I felt I was getting closer to what God wanted me to do in India. But I wasn’t there yet. You can check out Freeset’s website to learn more about what they do or to buy some really great items made by amazing women: http://www.freesetglobal.com/

Thursday night, the day before my flight home to Arizona, I stayed at a Baptist guest house down the street from the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa’s Home, loving called “Mother’s.” A girl I met at the guest house invited me to mass at Mother’s at 6am Friday morning and then to volunteer at one of Mother’s houses. I was scheduled to leave at 8pm Friday evening, so I figured I would get all I could out of India before leaving.

6am Friday morning, Elizabeth and I headed to mass. I cannot explain to you the beauty and peace that emanated from these women as they sang hymns to Jesus. At one point it was so quiet I swear every visitor’s heart had stopped. We were all drenched in the peace that flowed from these white Saree clad nuns.

At 7am we had a small breakfast of a banana, piece of bread, and cup of tea while we waited for one of the Sisters to start handing out the assignments for which house we would be volunteering at. Mother Teresa has several homes for the poor and dying in Kolkata: Kalighat Home for the Dying, a free hospice for the poor; Shanti Nagar, for those suffering from Hansen’s disease (Leprosy); Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, for homeless and orphaned youths; and several others.

The Sister placed a card in my hand that said I would be working at Prem Dan, a home for elderly and disabled women who are no longer able to take care of themselves.

We walked as a group for about 30 minutes, passing slums and garbage heaps. A little street girl ran up to me and grabbed my water bottle, wanting a taste of filtered water. I stopped and let her drink. We arrived at Prem Dan, put on aprons, and went to work hand washing bed sheets and clothing. As I pressed the suds out of the clothes, I felt a peace that this is where God wanted me to be.

I then walked into a situation I had never been in before. Women in wheelchairs and plastic chairs lined the room, all needing something different, but all needing something similar. I asked a volunteer who had been there a few weeks what I should be doing. “Just start touching their shoulders,” she said. These women needed touch, a hand to hold, a shoulder to cry on. I walked up to a dark skinned woman slumped over in a chair and rested my hand on her shoulder. She gently rested her hand on mine and slowly pulled me down to eye level in front of her. Reaching out both her wrinkled hands, she rubbed the sides of my face, then slowly pulled me in close and kissed both my cheeks. For the next ten minutes we sat and held one another’s hands.

I could tell you about the rest of my time there, cleaning out bedpans, taking women to the bathroom, feeding them, changing their clothes. But everything pales in comparison to that woman’s kiss.

I know I am supposed to go back to India and work with these women again. I have been praying and seeking the Lord’s guidance and have decided I will be leaving in June for a six month visit to Kolkata to work with the Missionaries of Charity.

I am grateful for all the prayers I know I was receiving from several of you on my last journey. Because of those prayers, the Lord has made my next steps clear and now all I have to do is jump out in faith. There are several “obstacles” but with God all things are possible. When God brought the Israelites up out of Egypt and showed them the land they were supposed to inherit, the spies who went to check out the land came back and told everyone there were giants living on the land and there was no way to take over. Others knew their God was bigger and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” The people did not take the land because they did not realize God really is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do. I’m not about to give up what He has called me to simply because it looks difficult, even in some ways impossible. He is the great I AM and He goes with me, telling me to step outside my comfort zone.

For this next journey, I again ask for your prayers. Please pray for God’s will to be done, for God to carve out the selfishness within me and replace it with sacrificial love and humility, for God to create divine appointments and to soften the hearts of those I meet, and for God to draw near to the broken hearted, breaking my heart for them as well.
Thank you for your love and support.

Please call, email, text, Facebook message me if you would like to hear more about this journey and what God has been doing in it.

Only by God’s Grace,

Tarrin

In an Airport in Dubai

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." - Philippians 4:6

Thank you Lord for your comforting words.

After waiting n the Check-In line at Phx Airport for an hour and a half, I missed my flight to LAX. I was put on another flight leaving three hours later, meaning I would have to haul booty to make my connecting flight to Dubai at LAX. And that's exactly what I did.

Getting off the plane at LAX, I overheard a woman with three kids ask a security guard where the international flights were. She seemed in a hurry, so I asked her if she was also on the Dubai flight. She was.

So, we ran. I grabbed her little daughter's hand as we raced up the escalator, praying the flight would be delayed.

We all arrive at the check-in counter breathless, throwing our passports on the counter, pleading for travel mercies from the unhappy looking woman behind the computer. We have 15 minutes to catch a 16 hour flight.

While we wait, my running buddy changes her baby's diaper. "No one's looking," she says.

The manager makes an exasperated noise and switches computers. The printer is not printing our boarding passes.

My new friend and I exchange glances, bite our lips, and say a silent prayer. She has to get to Pakistan. I have to get to India.

Our boarding passes and passports are handed back to us and we run. We run like our lives depended on it. Gate 101: the very last gate at the end of the terminal.

As I race to the gate, I hear my name mispronounced over the loudspeaker, telling me I had better get on the flight..or be left behind to find another flight to Dubai.

I make it to the gate, panting, beads of sweat appearing on my forehead.

I make it to my seats with few minutes to spare.

A few hours into the flight...

While waiting fo an open restroom, several other passengers and myself congregate in the flight attendant hang out area, making small talk while the attendants stand around eating their dinner.

I let a man know I am going to India, Kolkata to be specific. He points to his wife, with whom I had been talking earlier, telling me she was born and raised in Kolkata. I also tell him I didn't need any more immunizations since I visited my parents in Kenya last summer.

"Do you speak Swahili?" he asks.

"Kidogo Kiswahili,' I reply. Little Swahili.

He laughs and tells me he is from Tanzania, but has lost a lot of Swahili because he moved when he was young.

"How did you meet your wife?" I ask, curious to know how an Indian and a Tanzanian got together.

"I traveled to India and we met and were married," he says, as if that explained everything.

"An arranged marriage," his wife adds, clarifying.

Perhaps knowing the western view of arranged marriages, he looks at his wife, smiling. "But, here we are, thirty years later.

An attendant comes over and unlocks the bathroom. There had been no one inside.

Twenty minutes well spent.

Now, in the Dubai airport, using free internet, I listen to the Muslim prayers being spoken, sung, over the loudspeaker. I'm off to read the Bhagavad Gita.

Thank you for your prayers.

To India

Wild heart, child heart, all of the world your home.
Glad heart, mad heart, what can you do but roam?

-"The Wanderlust" by Robert William Service

Again God has flamed the fires of wanderlust within my soul, driving me forward into unknown territory, another dark continent in desperate need of the light of the Holy Spirit.

India.

A few months ago, I found out a church in my area was going on a mission trip to India, but they were going a week before I could go, so I told them I would meet up with them halfway through their trip. Well, a few weeks later I got an email saying they were no longer going because they couldn't muster up enough people to join. I asked for the contact in India and I contacted her myself.

In a series of beautiful, miraculous events, I obtained an Indian Visa, a place to stay in Kolkata, India, someone to pick me up from the airport, a job to do while I'm there, and a plane ticket. God is still showing me favor and providing above what I will need for this trip.

I will be leaving March 10th, arriving in Kolkata on March 12, then leaving March 23rd.

I had a friend ask me, "What are you going to do in India?"
My only reply was, "Get off the plane and find out why God wants me in India."

Really, that's all I've got. I have always been fascinated with India, the culture, the people, the religions, and have always wanted to visit just for the sake of visiting. But God has taken that fascination and turned it into a passion through which He will work and bring His saving grace to people in India. Thank you Lord for the opportunity to serve.

I am in desperate need of prayer (as we all are, if we are totally honest with ourselves). Please join me in prayer for the following items:

-Pre-trip preparations, that everything would continue as smoothly as God has allowed it to be thus far
-Health: nearly everyone I've talked to that has come back from India has come back with some sort of illness. Please pray a protective covering over my health so I can do the work of the Lord most efficiently
-The people: pray the people God has me come in contact with will have hearts open to recieve the Gospel of Hope
-For God's will to be seen clearly, and that His direction for my path in India will also be clear

But the most important thing you can pray for me about is Battle: I know I will be in heavy spiritual battle once in India. I am going on my own, not in a group, not meeting anyone I know...it's just me and God on this trip. I know the fear will set in once I am on the ground in India and the attack will begin. Please pray that the fruit of the Spirit would prevail and that the armor of God would be intact.

Thank you for your prayers.

In His Love,
Tarrin

Inception

The movie Inception is about dreams. People connect themselves or others to this machine and are able to consciously enter their own dreams or the dreams of others, even sharing dreams. In their dreams they can build their own worlds, creating skyscrapers, houses, even people that fit their own idea of a perfect reality.

In one part of the movie, the group goes into a basement to find it full of men on cots, sleeping, all connected to the same dream.

"How often do they come here?" One man asks.

"Four hours a day," replies the owner. "The dream has become their reality. Essentially, they come here to wake up from life."

Welcome to my transition to America.

Waking up today at 2 in the afternoon after going to bed at 6 am, I feel like America is my dream, a communal dream shared by many others in my life. We have created our own concept of reality, building our lives up together, sharing this dream with one another.

I feel like I'm waking up from life by coming here.

Like that poor kid on Youtube whose dad filmed him while he was still under drugs from the dentist... "Is this real life?"

I feel ya kid.

Switching Continents

This will be my last blog post from the African continent. My parents and I have spent the last few days visiting different places in Kenya like Fourteen Falls and this awesome wood carving place.
We went to a place where they do wood carvings that are sold at Masai Market and other markets around Kenya. These guys are crazy good at what they do. They even use their feet to help them carve!

This cutie was born Sunday. She is the baby of Nice View's cow, Milky Way.
Sheila (the black one) and Brutus (the brown one eating tin foil) roam the compound at night, barking if they hear something suspicious. They're watchdogs, but they are seriously the most friendly, loveable dogs I've ever met. They love to play and rub up against me when I'm out with them, probably because no one around here considers dogs pets.

And this is Kilonzo and Kioko, our night watchmen who also roam the compound at night. It took a few tries to get Kioko (on the right) to smile, but once I put on his hat we got a smile out of him.
I know the transition back to the US is going to be difficult, leaving my parents, people I have come to love, and the struggles I know many people are going through here in Kenya.

I pray for grace to come back to the US, grace to deal with the guilt and hurt I am going to feel.

See ya'll on the other side of the world...

Blessings!

Dennis, the boy you read about two blogs ago, has been sponsored! Thank you to his sponsor!

God is always looking after his kids :)

Remember, if you'd like to sponsor a child, there are several otehrs just like Dennis who need people to pray for them, love them, and help them with life's essentials.

Visit Saved By God's Grace website to see what you can do!

http://www.savedbygodsgrace.org/external/sponsorship-gallery.html