Joy is my middle name

Hello World,

And just like that, February is almost over. It's gone so fast, yet it feels as though I've been in India an age. I don't know what I was expecting in coming out here, in many respects I don’t think I had any expectations because I had no idea what to expect. In spite of this however, it is so different from whatever it is that I was expecting. Does that make sense?

I said in a blog before Christmas that I was struck by a quote Phil read me from a book called happiness by Randy Alcorn. The bit I quoted then was by C.S Lewis, saying there was a whole section on finding God and joy in the mundane that I wasn't going to quote yet. This is that. Randy Alcorn begins by listing seemingly small things that we find joy in, for example: "Ripe oranges straight off a tree. Chocolate chip cookies hot out of the oven and a tall glass of milk (…) A comfortable recliner, the smell of leather and a dog's wagging tail". Alcorn then goes on to say "If we disregard these and thousands of other gifts, we don’t just fail to notice them, we fail to notice God."

I love Joy. You could quite literally say that it's my middle name. The idea of noticing God in the small, mundane things has always been really important to me. I am the type of personality that is very easily amused, and so have always been able to find joy in small, seemingly unimportant things. However since being in India, I have been challenged even more to find these small joyful things, as although I am having an amazing time, there are a lot of moments where everything just feels a bit big and overwhelming. Finding God in the small things always manages to give me joy, and makes things  seem less daunting. In light of this, here is a list of small things that I have found great joy in this month.

1. Sunlight peeping through the curtains after a good nights' sleep
2. The bright colours of the flowers
3. Gecko's darting across the wall away from noise
4. The smell of clean laundry
5. Picking a lime of the tree for pancakes
6. PANCAKES.
7. Squirrels chasing each other around the garden
8. Writing letters
9. Yellow butterflies
10. Finishing a whole book in an afternoon
11. The soothing sound of a fan at night
12. Facetime
13. Glass bangles
14. A conversation about lichens
15. How swishy long skirts are
16. A fascination with freckles
17. Jacket potatos
18. Dobble
19. Action songs
20. Friendly dogs

Until the next update!

All my love,

Lizzie 

"Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the almighty" Psalm 91 vs 1

My first week in India

Hello World,

So... I've been in India now a whole week. It has both flown by and seemed to have taken an age. So much so that im not quite sure where to begin.

Lets start at the beginning and make our way from there. The airport. For those of you who followed the whole fiasco on my social media stories, you'll know that getting out here took quite awhile. We ended up leaving the house at 6am. (Shout out to Aderyn for taking me and generally dealing with me that day, you're a legend!) The drive to the airport was great, no traffic, was a beautiful frosty morning with a great sunrise, and had a lot of great conversations in the car. After some brief tears on arriving at the airport, mostly from overwhelmedness (Yes I know, not a word) everything went really smoothly. My baggage got checked, I said goodbye to Aderyn, and off I went. Absolutely no problems going through security, thank the Lord! Got safely through and met another volunteer, Jack once we had both gone through and then it was a waiting game. Our gate was announced, went on those fun transit things and got to our gate, boarded, and left. I didn't manage to sleep much on the plane, maybe about an hour, and the rest was making the most of the BA entertainment (PSA: watching Michael Buble in concert while the sun is setting may be one of the best things ever) We actually ended up landing nearly 20 minutes early which was great, because a 9 hour flight is a bit of a killer. I think time doesn't really exist in airports, it's a very strange experience at 4.45am. Got through immigration, and successfully found Simon and Sarah. It then took about 6 hours to get back to the village.

I'm not going to lie, this last week has been difficult for me. I've turned a corner the last day or two, but it's been really hard. I didn't sleep for nearly 24 hours while travelling, and that really messed my body up. It has been a great answer to prayer that my sleep at night hasn't been affected too badly, but adjusting has been harder than I thought. Don't get me wrong, this place is an actual paradise, we had a lovely welcome and all the kids I've met are fantastic. It's amazing here. But I've been incredibly home sick as relationships are still forming here, and if I'm being honest all I wanted to do for the first few days was come home. But the Lord the faithful and i'm really starting to enjoy it here.

I have to do a whole separate paragraph on the wildlife here. It's crazy, and already making me a running joke. Here's the thing. In general I like and am fine with most animals. Apart from moths. I really dont like moths. But most animals, i'm okay with, I might not love them, but i'm okay with them. Here's the 2nd thing. My bedroom is my sanctuary. My safe space, it's where I go to relax and to have no responsibilities for a while. So I will freak out if there is an animal in my room, particularly if I'm not sure where it is. First animal I found in my room? A geko! Which, to be fair, I have just about made my peace with. They're very small and eat mosquitos so they're actually my friends. But they're quite loud, and scuttle around every so often, which is quite un-nerving. I think the next animal experience was the most frightening for me (only briefly but I jumped a mile). I'd been in my room about half an hour, massively sleep deprived and had lain down for a nap because I felt really nauseous. I'd just about nodded off, and a SQUIRREL jumped into my room and darted through. So I couldn't find it for a while, and had to leave the door open for a while so it would run out. What a welcome that was! I think the same squirrel has tried to come in through my un-closable upper window 2 or 3 times since but hasn't quite managed to fit and I've had a chance to yell at it and it's run away. A peacock also started screaming outside my window not long after I got in, which startled me, but was a really cool experience. A snake also managed to get under my door the other night. Non-poisonous and pretty small, but definitely not an experience i'd like to go through again! (It was removed very quickly and I hadn't gone to bed yet so all was well)
There are also hornets here. I've now seen 2. They're massive and im not a fan.

But aside from all of these harrowing (😉) experiences, it's wonderful here, and i'm really starting to enjoy my time here. I think that's everything to tell you, boy it's been a jam packed week!

I will leave you with my verse of the day from yesterday:

"Jesus looked at them and said, with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" Matthew 19:26

All my love,

Lizzie