Balwinder and Kiran in Bhaarat

Because of poorly timed flights and layovers, we only got a couple hours of sleep here and on our way to Coimbatore. When we walked outside to meet Job and his former Bible teacher Chris, we looked around to find a tall figure among the crowd...I scanned left to right, then way back in the parking lot this arm shot up above everything else in sight. lol.  We got to chat a bit while we waited for Chris to come with a car since Job rode his dad's two-wheeler, as they put it. Up drove Gabriel, a good friend of Chris's, Sumaya, Chris's niece (who has an amazing story about coming in the truth), and THE Christopher himself. After spending the day with him, both Brandon and I think we looks, talks, laughs, and behaves like Mike Martinez!! (Mike, you'll have to meet your Tamilian doppelgänger someday!) We came back to the Chris's house (where we are staying) and met his wife Angeline, Job's fiancé Sandra, Chris's super cute mom (with whom we could speak Urdu), and ...

The meeting for field service was at Uncle Seetal's house today (at 8:45am, mind you!) but we hid in our room to finish packing and getting ready; besides Caesar's law says we cannot preach there. Interesting side note that usually the groups just meet in the field and they do not have a formal meeting for field service. But they have been trying to have formal meetings more now and the friends are appreciating it.  Today's public talk was a surprise: Brother Sanderson's Zone Visit talk at the India Branch. Soniya, Harpreet, and I sat in the back seat of the car with the flat screen tv behind us so we could use it to watch the recording via DVD (and I believe the chairman was Brother Syms). The attendance was 176, but the end of the month public meeting is usually larger since the Nava Shaher group meets with Phagwara then. I must admit I was happy to expect to hear some English, but I only understood a little of the talk since it was simultaneously translated into Punj...

I love how spiritually minded this family is. They always discuss the daily text together before breakfast over chai and biscuits. And you will find them reading publications or the Bible in their free time.  After breakfast and borrowing a suit of Soniya's, Uncle Seetal dropped me, Brandon, and Auntie Resham at a bazaar to shop for gifts. We spent some time buying items that a few friends specifically asked for (I hope you like what I bought for you!!) and a couple things for myself (that Auntie insisted on, ie: a salwar kameez and set of matching bangles). Auntie really fought for me when it came to a set of metal cups - after buying them Franklin said that we paid too much. So auntie took me back and gave the shopkeeper a piece of her mind and after getting a refund we took our business elsewhere and saved some money. :)  Go auntie! She saved us from other shopkeepers too in going to the good stores and keeping the begging children away. :( Much to our surprise, we...

We were woken up around 8am by the natural light escaping through the window curtains, horns, dogs, and the next door neighbor preparing breakfast in the kitchen. We didn't get to eating breakfast until 10am, but it was delicious: chai, biscuits, aloo paronthe with butter and curd. Auntie ji works hard feeding us at times other than the rest of the family eats. We took a walk around the block and met with stray dogs growling at one another over territory, small stands selling food (I saw a packaged bag called "Uncle Chipps"!), and stares from locals.  Uncle Seetal, Auntie Resham, and Kamlesh bhain took us to Science City in Jalandhar. We rode a flight simulator, watched a 3-D film, a laser light show, and watched a show in the planetarium. This park had many different areas including dinosaur models. Some were in bad shape with only one arm or no head at all. :(  We had thought about going to the remote translation office (where they do Punjabi language translation) but t...

Sorry, all. Only now do I have wifi...anyway... Crying babies galore on our London to Delhi flight! It was funny how the feel of our travels changed as soon as we arrived at our gate to board an India bound plane. The gate was too small to accommodate all the passengers, and when we were getting settled into our seats there were disputes left and right about who's seat was who's.  Brandon and I ordered chicken and so did our row neighbors (who were Indian), however we received chicken in a mushroom sauce with green beans and sweet potatoes, but they got chicken curry with roti! I was happy to eat my kheer, though. :) It was a pretty uneventful trip, except for me dreaming that I had started a Bible study, and a need for a doctor on board for a passenger. Lastly, we didn't expect to get sprayed with a disinfectant upon arrival inside the plane. I guess UK germs aren't friendly to India...?  We took two taxis to get to Phagwara, but talk about a crazy taxi ride! We had co...

Made it to London after an uneventful 9+ hour flight. Just ordered bangers and mash in Punjabi from our waiter, Sandeep. :) Had beef and mashed potatoes on our flight - even a surprise vanilla ice cream sandwich. Too bad it was stale and hard as a rock...ew.  We're trying to stick to India time, however it's 6:45am at home, 2:45pm local time, and 8:15 India time...I guess I just ate dinner.  Next is our flight to Delhi in about 5 hours...ZzZZzzzz...

it's so crazy that today is departure day...finally made it to 96% packed (we cannot e-check in nor print boarding tickets because they want physical proof of our identity) with a 30 lb backpack (imma die!) not to mention a carry-on day pack and my purse...how do i keep doing that? bags galore, i thought i had pared it down pretty good, but it weighs so much!! uh, girls are dumb... P.S. in case you don't know, Balwinder is Brandon's Punjabi name (Brandon is so hard to pronounce, he adapted our last name), Kiran is my Punjabi name (i usually say "Karyn" at the door, but it's interpreted as "Kiran" [and i like the meaning, "ray of sun"], and Bhaarat is "India") :D