Another Adventure

Hello everyone,

First off I would like to say thank you for all of your support in prayer during my time in New Zealand with YWAM.  It was such a blessing to me.  Right now I am about to start another adventure.  I am applying to go on staff with YWAM in Newcaslte, Australia.  If I am able to get on staff I would be leaving for Australia in only a few short weeks.  I would need to be there around the beginning of July and it is already the middle of June.  Seeing as it is only a few weeks away I don’t have a ton of time to get all the money that I need to go.  I know that God will provide all the money that I need so I am not worried about that at all.  What I am asking is that you continue to support me in prayer and if you feel led by God to monetarily support me then I ask you to follow God’s leading and support me however you can.  While I am in Newcaslte, Australia I will be staffing a DTS, so I would be helping to lead the same thing that I did last year.  The school I would be staffing wouldn’t start until October but I would need to be there in July to attend an STS which stands for Staff Training Seminar, to pray over the prospective students, to work out logistics, and to help with finding speakers for the school.  There is a lot to be done and I don’t have a lot of time to do it so I ask that you would continue to pray for me that this is what God is leading me to and that I would be able to go to Australia.  Your support in prayer means the world to me and I am so thankful that I have people who are praying for me.  If you would like to support me you can email me at maacalad@aol.com and I can give you more information.  I would also just love to hear that you have been praying for me, it encourages me so much to know that I have people praying on my behalf.  Thank you again so much for your support.

In Christ,

Malcolm 

Outreach: Part II

Continuing where I left off... (which means if you don’t know where I left off go down and read part I)

After another ten hour train ride we made it back to Calcutta and we settled back into Lee Memorial Girls School.  On Sunday after we had recovered from the train ride, which usually took about a day, we went out into the center of Calcutta in an area known as New Market and we did some street evangelism and how we did that was this:  We bought around ten five-liter water bottles and a few hundred cups and we offered a free cup of water to people walking the streets and when they asked why we were giving it away we were able to tell them about Jesus.  On Monday we worked with Mother Teresa and the ministry that she started there in India.  It is really awesome what the Sisters of Charity and the volunteers are doing for the city.  Hundreds of people come from around the world to volunteer their time to partner with the Sisters of Charity and the houses that they oversee.  While I was there I worked at the house known as Daya Dan which is a house for children who are physically and mentally handicapped.  It was so amazing to help out the children and to see how much people who aren’t even Christians are willing to give up their time to help others.  The three days that we worked with Mother Teresa were some of my favorite on the whole trip.

We worked with the Sisters of Charity and Mother Teresa Monday through Wednesday and on Thursday.  On Friday we got on yet another train ride headed for Jharsuguda.  Jharsuguda is ten hours southwest of Calcutta.  We decided that one of the places that we were going to go for our outreach was Jharsuguda because of a man named John Bridge.  John Bridge came to speak to us at the beginning of our school, I think it was on the third day of the school.  He told us the story of how he came to India over thirty years ago.  He also told us about the compound and how he has built up an orphanage and a school with over twelve hundred current students. The story was incredible.  Because of what John had said to us on that day our leaders, when thinking about outreach locations and after having chosen India, decided to go to where John had his ministry.  John had asked us before we arrived to have a program for the entire compound the second day we were there, so we spend the first day and a half working on an hour program for everyone which turned out really well.  During the three and a half weeks that we were at John’s compound we had a lot of time to play with the kids in the afternoon when they weren’t working on their schoolwork or their chores.  The kids there are amazing, most of them speak english fluently as well as two other languages and they were only ten years old.  Our schedule while at the compound was usually pretty full.  John planned out a schedule for our entire time there so that made things a little easier for our team leaders.

Since the whole idea of our missionary work is to come along side missionaries who are already established in other countries we were willing to do whatever John needed us to do.  Most of what John had in mind for our team was church meetings.  You are probably wondering what that entails considering it is in India and so the churches are not like our normal churches at home.  Well, I will enlighten you.  John, during his thirty-year ministry in India, has pioneered many, many churches.  Before John had come to India the area of Jharsuguda and the surrounding area and just about all of the state of Orissa had basically no Christians whatsoever so almost all of the churches in that area were started by John.  Because John pioneered many of the churches he has the responsibility to oversee them and to make sure that the Indians running the churches correctly.  What John had asked us to do for all of the churches was to encourage and build up the believers in those churches.  The way that we did that was with testimonies, skits, songs and stories.  Almost every single day we were there we went with John to different churches and day cares.  John had us go to different churches and hold programs for the children there.  John’s main focus is children which is why he has a school and why he had us go to these day cares.  The children there were always so good at paying attention to whoever was speaking and we always felt so loved by all of them, it was so amazing.  Day care visits usually consisted of the same schedule as church meetings except that we usually didn’t spend any time actually praying with the children because after our hour they usually started to lose focus and become rowdy.  After every church meeting and every day care visit, without fail, we were given a meal to eat.  The meal almost always consisted of bananas, chai tea, rice, and sometimes a trail mix-type plate of food.  Everywhere we visited the people were so kind and hospitable to us.  We were never in want of anything.

Our time in India flew by so fast, it felt as if we had been there only a few days instead of almost a few months.  During our last week in Jharsuguda we got on yet another twelve hour train ride.  This time our destination was Jaypore.  Jeypore is almost directly south of Jharsuguda.  While in Jeypore we had a full on schedule and I mean full on!!  Every day that we were there we had between two and three church visits.  And, if you remember what I said about church visits and how long they usually last, we were completely exhausted every night.  Most of our visits were not in the actual city of Jeypore but in cities surrounding it so we almost always had a couple of hours in the bus everyday.  We never really got bored though, my group was so close with each other that we were basically family.  We were able spending so much time with each other without wanting to strangle each other and that was a huge blessing to all of us, especially the leaders who had to deal with us.

We stayed in Jeypore for a total of four days and we went to at least ten different churches on visits.  We were all extremely exhausted by the end of it and we, as much as we could, enjoyed the rest on the train ride back to Jharsuguda.  We only had a day or two back in Jharsuguda before we had to head back to Calcutta so that we could head home.  Outreach was almost over.  But just because it was getting close didn’t mean that we were done.  Our last day or so we spent a lot of time finishing up some painting that we had started in the orphanage building at John’s compound.  In each of the rooms we painted different Bible stories.  In one room we painted David and Goliath, in another we painted Jonah and the whale, in another Moses in the reeds, and in the last we painted Esther and the king.  It turned out really well and all of the children really liked it.  We took our sixth and final twelve hour train ride east back to Calcutta from Jharsuguda and we spent our last day in India starting our debrief time.  It was a good time to recount what had happened throughout the entire outreach.

Our first impression of India was at the Calcutta airport at three in the morning.  The first thought that we had when we got there was “Wow! This place is a dump.  It’s so dirty!”  On leaving India we went through the same airport and when we got into the airport our first thought was “Wow! This place is so clean.”  Our view on life and the way that Indians live was completely changed in the time that we were there.  We flew from Calcutta to Bangkok, Thailand.  The other students on my school, who had gone to Chennai, India on the other outreach team, were already there.  We met up with them and we were able to enjoy some good catching up time as well as seeing some of the city before we got on our final plane flight back to New Zealand.

The final two weeks of the DTS consisted of a debrief week which we learned all about re-entering into the “real” world after this amazing experience that we had.  We were also told about how we were to deal with the change that happened to us and how to put that to use when we got home.  We spent the final week of DTS in Auckland at the Pacific Regional Conference.  It was a great time where we got to hear all about what God is doing in the Pacific.  We had people come and speak from all over the Pacific and give presentations on their country.  It was amazing to see that God is working everywhere, and how God is using people from everywhere to enhance his kingdom.

So that is my outreach to India.  I hope you enjoyed hearing about what God has done in my life during my time in India as well as all that He has been doing in India just in the short time that I was there.  I had an amazing, amazing, time and I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything in the world.  I would like to thank all of you who have been so very faithful in supporting me with your prayers.  It has been greatly appreciated.  Prayer is so powerful and I would like to ask all of you to continue praying for me as I figure out what I am going to be doing come Autumn.  I have been thinking and praying about returning to Newcaslte, Australia where I spent some time after my DTS ended.  There is a YWAM base in Newcaslte and while I was there I felt right at home.  I have been praying about returning there in October to staff a DTS, the same school that I just finished, and I ask that you would pray for discernment for me in making this decision, it would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you again for all of your support.  I am so grateful for all of you who have been praying for me, it has meant so much to me over this time in my life.  I have posted some pictures below to show you a little more about my trip.

This is everywhere I went by train while I was in India.

This is the where we stayed while we were in Calcutta. 

We stayed in the guest rooms on the top floor.

Some of the smiling kids at the compound in Jharsuguda.

Another one of the constantly smiling faces that we were able to see every day that we were in Jharsuguda.

I probably shouldn't have favorites but if I could this kid would be it.

My team mate Myles and I finishing up painting in the childrens rooms.

This was the room that I stayed in with one other guy.

My bed is on the right with all the stuff on it.

A group of the boys saying goodbye to me before we had to leave.

Outreach: Part I

Hey everyone!  I’m sorry that it has been a while.  Everything has just been so hectic recently.  I’m back from India.  India.  Where to begin?  I don’t really know where to start and there is so many things that happened that I don’t want to bore you with small things so I hope that you get an idea of what my outreach was like with this.  There is so much that happened on outreach that I know for me to tell it all is going to take a number of blog posts so please, be patient and stick with me on this and you will see the amazing things that God has done in my life.

I left New Zealand on the 26th of November on route to India.  My flight had a three hour layover in Thailand and after that we finally made it to India.  Our flight arrived in Calcutta at three in the morning so everything was dark and scary.  Being in a foreign country at night for the first time was pretty creepy.  We were taken from the airport to where we were staying which was a guest floor at a girls school called Lee Memorial Girls School.  We arrived there in the middle of the night and there were crows cawing and goats wandering the streets and lots of homeless people who looked very creepy walking about.  The first thought that I had about India was ‘what did I just get myself into?’  

The first five days that we were there we basically got used to India and how different it is from any country that I have been to before.  We went shopping in the area known as ‘New Market’ and we spent a lot of time praying about our time in India, that it would be fantastic and that we would be effective in whatever we do and that we would be able to help as many people as we could.  After we had kinda gotten used to India and Calcutta and the people here we left on a train with Darjeeling as our destination.  The train only took between ten and twelve hours to arrive.  The trains in India are not like the trains back home.  They are overcrowded, they smell terrible, they are way too hot, and they aren’t safe because there is no privacy.  The train left at ten at night so it was an all night train ride, which is usually a good thing but I’m not sure if it is a good thing in India because anyone can walk onto the train and into your car and take your stuff when you aren’t looking.  Luckily nothing got stolen throughout our entire train experience, experience is the best way to say it because that is just what it is, an experience.  Myles and I decided to try to stay up all night to make sure everyone and everything was safe after we had a lovely encounter with some transvestites.  It was not as exciting as it sounds.  We didn’t make it the whole night but once we saw a man walking around with a shotgun we felt safe enough to go to sleep.  

That next morning we arrived in New Jalpaiguri which is the closest train station to Darjeeling, from there we had to take a three hour car ride up the mountain to Darjeeling.  The road to Darjeeling was crazy.  We hired two Sumo’s which are basically jeeps that can hold twelve people, not comfortably I might add but it can hold twelve people.  The entire car ride was extremely bumpy and cramped.  After three hours of sitting in the crowded car we finally made it to Darjeeling.  When we heard that we were going to Darjeeling we were told that it was going to be cold but we all of us thought that it couldn’t be that bad, it was India, but when we actually got there we basically froze.  Darjeeling, for those of you who don’t know, is situated in the Himalayas near Mount Everest and right next to Kangchenjunga which is the third tallest mountain in the world for those of you who didn’t know.  Even thought Darjeeling is so close to Everest I actually never got to see it because the weather was so bad that the clouds blocked everything.  We arrived in Darjeeling on a Thursday and took all of Friday to do a scavenger hunt so that we could get to know the city.  Later that night  we went to a village outside of Darjeeling.  To get to the village we had to walk for a long time, and when I say that we walked for a long time I mean it.  It must’ve been for at least three hours that we walked just to get to the village and, if you figure that you walk between three and four miles an hour, we walked at least ten miles.  

We went to the village to help out and encourage a woman who was trying to start a school there for all of the children.  While there we were not only able to spend time with the kids and see how amazing they are, but we were also able to go out into surrounding villages which had never heard the gospel message before and share it with them.  We stayed in the village for two nights and on the last day before we left all of the guys were asked to stay behind to help with some work that was needed to be done while all of the girls were able to go to church with the children.  While the girls were at church we guys helped dig and fill a place for a chicken coop which took most of the morning.  After we had finished with that we were asked to go to someone’s house to have a small church meeting with them.  We were able to share a testimony and a story from the Bible and explain it.  We also sang a song for them which was interesting because the guitar that they had was so out of tune that it couldn’t be fixed without taking some time to do so, so we four guys sang a cappella to them.  After we had finished sharing with them they asked us to come into their back room and pray for a woman who was bedridden because of a problem with her spine.  We were able to pray for here and after we had done so she had told us that some of the pain had gone down.  When we had finished with the people in the house we were asked again to come to another spot  to pray for some land and, as we followed the man who had asked us to come. an uneasy feeling came over all of us. The land that we were asked to pray over had been the home of an alcoholic and drug addict and everyone who had stepped onto the land could feel the presence of something evil.  We had been asked to pray over the land because some of the men in the village were wanting to build a church on that property.  We prayed over the land and when we had finished doing that we left the village and made our way back into Darjeeling.

Over the next week we partnered with YWAM Darjeeling to help them with the Christmas festival that was going on during the week.  In the mornings we would have devotions and then we would practice for our program in the Christmas festival. One of the main things that we practiced was the Lifehouse Everything skit.  It was the main focus of our program on the festival and I got to act out Jesus in the skit.  It was a lot of fun.  There was a lot of spiritual warfare going on the whole time we were in Darjeeling.  Over the week we helped the YWAM Darj team with setup and preparations for the festival and with advertising for it.  By advertising I mean that we handed out free chai tea and biscuits and invited people to come to the Christmas festival.  On Monday, for the beginning of the festival, the two other guys on my team and I dressed up as the three wise men for a living nativity scene.  On Thursday we performed our program for the festival and it went really well.  Thankfully the lights and sound didn’t go out on us because it had been happening the whole week and it was making everything really frustrating.  Our program turned out really well, we performed the Lifehouse Everything skit and afterwards we were told that some people we brought to tears.  We also had a few of my teammates give their testimony and the Gospel message and there were at least five hundred people that got to hear it.  The day after that, Friday, we headed back down the mountain to catch the train back to Calcutta and that was the end of our adventures in Darj.