I'm here again

I am back in k-town and so happy to be here. my time at home was amazing and restful and really full. full of so many good things. i feel like i am returning to kolkata full to the top and maybe even a little overflowing. thanks to all of you who made my time at home so special.

i thankful for color and the smells of life. i am thankful for noise (this might wear off in a day or two), i am thankful i get to see the sari bari ladies in a bit, i am thankful for the good life i get to live in this crazy amazing place.

The Family on Christmas Day

yes we are tired

Pretty sis with pretty neice

t

weird dreams

i have had very weird but similar dreams the last several nights. in every dream i step on what should be solid ground and i end up sinking to my waist or chest in mud. and once I stepped right through a natural bridge of some kind and almost fell all the way through but someone familiar was there to help me once i screamed for a awhile. they did not know i needed help at first and seemed to think i was over reacting. it is weird...not sure what i means...i always seem pull myself out of the mud but i end up feeling embarrassed and foolish...

must be having pre return to calcutta anxiety....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

Merry Christmas to all...

so today is the eve of Christmas...the day of anticipation before the Big day. the day when we await presents, family and hopefully the begining of hope for the world. church was really good and what it was really about was the fact that we all need to be transformed and we can celebrate christmas as the begining of transformation...when light enters a dark room the darkness is dispelled at least in some measure. darkness can not exist fully where there is light. we are all messy people with many and few messes that we have created through out our lives but we do not have to live with the mess or in dark...thanks to the coming of the light bringer. a light bringer born into a messy manger, under messy circumstances . so we can be comforted that the mess in our lives does not scare jesus...he just wants to transform it for our sake and make it new!!

so merry christmas my friends and may this year of our lives be less messy than the last because of transforming power of jesus in your life.

hoping for the world today in the only hope that makes any sense...the word made flesh as a messy baby, in messy circumstances for the salvation of the messy world.

my new motto

I think maybe i am reverting but a few weeks in the states has me back to feeling like myself...i am happy and funny and even silly. We went to walmart today and found this really cute veggie tales fleece...and i think i am going to adopt the veggie tales motto for the rest of my life...they seem to have it covered in a "everything i need to know i learned in kindergarten" kind of way...

So here it is the things i am going to live by...

Honesty
Helping
Sharing
Kindness
Forgiveness
Silliness

Hopefully my new motto will keep me sane, happy, kind and silly!!

My mom is a super hero

today sitting at my grandmothers talking with my mom...i saw in my mom a super hero. she is all the things of 1 cor 13...she is patient, she is kind, she is not easily provoked...she is love that endures all things. she is a super hero!! she has been taking care of my baba (not her mom but my dads) and it has been cool to see how well she loves my baba with her actions. she can't leap talk buildings in a single bound but she can love and serve people in a way that not many can...she has the power of patience, the power of kindness and the power of serrvanthood...what a mom...she is definitely my HERO!!

Fun Photos from Omaha

americans are tacky too

yep..after a couple of weeks back in the country i know that the holidays bring out the tacky in everyone! there are crazy lights, blow up snow men, santa and his reindeer alongside the baby j and his mom. i always thought maybe india had the market cornered on tacky for their holidays--they too have lots of lights and gaudy decorations, over the top fireworks. i think from now i will just think of puja like christmas except the US is much quiet at least at christmas--in india they bring out their private fireworks arsenals and the baddest most offbeat drumming bands they can find.

i think am comforted by the tacky...maybe it signifies what it means to celebrate in all cultures. the time of celebration is good. but as my sister keeps reminding my 2.5 year old neice, christmas is jesus birthday. and as my neice has reminded my sister that means CAKE and a celebration of the hope of transformation for us all.

parting thought, if you have google mail and my email address can you send me an invitation. i am in spam torment and need to make a change.

New Hair cut and color

Hey here is my new hair cut and color..the color is dark chocolate but there is also some light highlights that you can not see...a little bit of layering and about 3 inches off the bottom. fun to have sorta cool hair at least for the next couple of weeks before i go back to frizzy land!!

Excerpt from my Beggars Society talk last night

As I have begun to live life with the women of sari bari I have become aware of this very human conception that God will always take us straight out of slavery and into the promised land or what we can calcutta call freedom. But it seems more often than not God First takes through a process. A process of exodus and he has it planned from the beginning…

Exodus 7:16

16 Then say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened

he did not say so that they may worship me in the promised land or the land that I am going to them he said the desert.

Why would moses take them to the promised land before first introducing them to the promiser—the desire of the ages. If he first brough them to the promised land they would end up loving the promises more than the promiser. God’s main purpose in delivering israel was so that they could know and love him…bevere

We must recongize that from Adam to now that God has been interested in the transformation of his people. Jesus is not just interested in the destination because the destination in his own mind is secure. He is interested in the process of transformation…that is why after more than 400 years of slavery God does not take his people straight to the promised land he takes them into the desert.

He is not just interested in giving us what we want or what we think we deserve…he wants to be apart of the process that takes us there. So that we can receive freedom as gift instead of a right. A gift that only we can give..so we fall in love with him and not just the things he can and wants to do for us. He is interested in knowing and being known by us.

Exodus requires obedience, struggle and a willingness to be transformed. That is what Sari bari is about…the restoration of women from the sex trade. Sari bari is about transfomation, redemption and exodus.

The road to freedom is never easy. For the women coming out of the trade it means a completely different lifestyle. I means getting up early, making food and making food in india is no short or easy pop it in the microwave task. I means a 40 hour work week, it means structure and accountablity. I mean budgeting and planning ahead. I mean learning something new when all your life you have told that you are nothing, worthless, trash who can not to anything but lay down and take it.

But the flip side to this freedom we have on offer to the women, is a new life, new confidence, restoration of hope, self confidence and diginity. It means the hope of life in Jesus.

THINGS THAT FEED MY SOUL

Friendship feeds my soul. it has been an amazing refreshing week as i have spent time with my omaha family. really my friends here feed my soul. I have shared wonderful meals and real and deep conversations with the gray's, the smith's, the harrells and beautiful daphne. An arty lunch at the jocelyn with kathy--that made me feel known and loved. i had a really good time eating at the leavenworth cafe with brent and then this afternoon checking out the newest coolest mexican food with jara and brent. I had two amazing but too short days in fargo with jared and julie...they blessed me and encouraged me on every level. I love julie landreth so much. I am almost speechless with thankfulness for this week of soul food. the last year in many ways have been like a friendship desert...i have good amazing community in kolkata but there is something really beautiful and amazing about these long term jesus reflecting soul reviving relationships. and the beautiful thing is that i get another week in california with more amazing friends...it will be like dessert for my soul.

feel thankful and blessed! i am speaking at the beggar's society meeting tonight in omaha...should be good...i feel good any way.... you can decide for yourself if it is any good. i think you can download and listen from the website in the next week or so.

sweet note that brought tears to my eyes!!

A year ago I had decided to raise money for an organization like say Samaritans Purse. I was looking through a catalog and saw that you could give money to save a girl's life by giving her money so she didn't have to sell herself.

Awhile after that, my grandma told me about WMF Kolkata and I decided to put the money towards that. Most of the money I used was birthday and Christmas money. My sister and cousin also gave some

- Hannah Scott, 13