India: the first 2 weeks

Hi friends!

I have to admit, keeping up with this blog has proven more daunting than I anticipated. For one thing, getting internet access has been tricky – at first I didn’t have any, then I had it only at the office (but we are not supposed to use the office wi-fi for personal use), and now I have a little USB stick that allows me to get on the internet by connecting to the cell phone network (but sometimes there are unexpected outages or interruptions). Internet access in India is meted out in gigabytes, so I have to be judicious of how I spend my time online (fewer YouTube videos, for starters!), because I’m literally paying for every gigabyte of bandwidth that I use. This is a first for me.

But the other reason blogging is daunting is because I couldn't possibly convey all that I’ve seen, heard, tasted, smelled, felt, and learned in India. Even in just two weeks, these experiences have piled up so quickly that if I wrote them all in my blog, no one would have time (or desire) to read everything!

So I’ve decided that I’m just going to post snapshots and snippets of the things I’m seeing, and you’ll have to ask about the rest later. Or better yet, come to India yourself someday. ;)

Coming to India

For everyone who asked, here is the picture from the airplane showing the path we took to fly from Newark to New Delhi. I was pretty curious myself.

After about 20 hours of traveling, we arrived in the New Delhi airport, bought Indian cell phones, pulled ~$100 worth of rupees (Rs. 5000) out of an ATM, and headed to our new homes to crash into bed. [I hope to post a more detailed description of my living conditions later (with pictures!); for now I’ll say that they are modest but sufficient. The two things I miss most are air conditioning and a washing machine (with hot water and a microwave perhaps being tied for third place), but it’s surprising how quickly you learn to make do without things you used to take for granted.]

The next day, we dove into orientation at our new office (located in a converted basement) learning all about Indian food, language, religion, body language, hospitality, and much more. Here’s the schedule we followed for the week:

Our First Adventure

You might notice the large open blocks in the schedule labeled “Rishikesh & Haridwar Adventure.” That was a pretty neat part of orientation: basically the eMi staff bought us all one-way overnight train tickets to a town called Haridwar, gave us a 2-page scavenger hunt with directions of different places to visit and things to do (including traveling to the neighboring towns of Har-ki-Pauri and Rishikesh), and told us they would see us in a few days. :) Talk about cultural immersion…

The way the adventure was designed, we were forced to talk with locals wherever we went to ask for directions and to answer questions, like “What does the word Haridwar mean?” or “Who is Laxman and what is a Jhula?” (We weren't allowed to use the internet.) We also had to use all forms of transportation to get around, including walking, riding in 3-wheeled auto rickshaws, riding the overnight train, riding a local bus, riding a long-distance bus, and taking a taxi. The trip was exhilarating because it was so open-ended (but sometimes stressful for the same reason)!

I’ve put up a photo album that shows pictures (and descriptions) from that trip. I really think that pictures are the best way to try to convey what it was like. We saw all kinds of people: beggars, Hindu devotees (we were visiting prominent Hindu religious sites), Indian nationals that lived nearby, Indian nationals who were visiting from out of town, tourists from other countries, and all sorts of merchants, gurus, children, etc. all mingling together in the sea of humanity that we became a part of. It was a very memorable introduction to India.

What's Next?
Now that we have officially finished orientation, our work begins in earnest. One of the interns (Alyssa) already left yesterday on a project trip to northern India (the same project I'll be working on later; I will travel there in October). I (along with the rest of the project team) will head to southern India on September 15 for a different project trip, which should be really exciting. The trip will involve a 24-hour train ride from New Delhi to Hyderabad, and then shorter legs of local transportation from Hyderabad to the project site in the town of Ongole. We will spend one week there (doing as much data collection and design work as possible) and then begin the journey back to New Delhi. I can't wait! In the meantime, I am helping with projects left over from previous semesters (and/or additional work that clients have requested), so on Friday I helped shade in buildings on a massive AutoCAD map. :)

For the rest of the semester, there are many different things happening in the office (see picture below of the "Whiteboard of Destiny" :) ), so there will be waves of franticness followed by periods of normalcy. I'll try to update the blog as I can.

Thank you all for your prayers and support, and thanks for reading this post! Please check out the sidebar section on the right that lists current prayer requests - I will do my best to keep it updated.

Hugs from New Delhi,
David

P.S. - props to my fellow interns and their awesome blogs - as architecture students and/or graphic designers, they are much more skilled at making things visually appealing than I am, haha. And as girls, they are much more in tune with the emotional touchy-feely side of things. :) Feel free to peruse their writings to fill in the gaps about things I didn't cover here:

• Alyssa Webster (from Auburn University, architecture intern)
• Christina Gerhart (long-term volunteer from Nebraska, graphic designer)
• Meredith Quigley (from University of Texas - Austin, architecture intern)

Hello from India! :)

Hi friends! :)

I apologize for the delayed post – I arrived safely in India on August 28, but I’ve been running around like crazy since then with orientation-related activities (including a 2.5-day “adventure” to northern India that I’ll tell you more about in a later post). Now that the jet lag has worn off and I have a day to rest and reflect, I wanted to share a quick update.

The stateside orientation (in Colorado) was AWESOME! There was clearly a lot of thoughtful planning that went into it, and I think everyone really bonded as we learned and lived together for a week. I can’t possibly tell you *everything* we learned, but there was one really neat tidbit I wanted to share:

Apparently sociologists have identified three different kinds of cultures:

1.) Honor – Shame

2.) Justice – Guilt

3.) Power – Fear

These three frames of reference describe what is fundamentally important in a culture. In Asian cultures (and many others), maintaining honor is extremely important; being shamed is an unthinkable horror that must be avoided. In the US (among others), maintaining justice is most important – those who are guilty must be punished and the law must be upheld, regardless of who gets offended in the process. In many military-controlled societies (as well as those with witch doctors), people are governed by power; a sense of fear dictates how they live their lives.

Now - here’s the really neat part - consider how the gospel applies to each of these cultures (the same gospel, mind you – just explained in different ways). In the US, we tend to focus on the Justice-Guilt aspect of the gospel: we were guilty before God, but Christ came and paid our penalty so that we would no longer stand condemned but would be in right standing before our Holy Judge. That’s amazing and true, but it doesn’t resonate the same way with other cultures as it does with ours.

But think about someone from an Honor-Shame culture hearing that God came to cover over our shame, and that he raised us up to be co-heirs with Christ. Or imagine someone in a Power-Fear culture hearing, “Yes, there are many kings and lords. But let me tell you about the King of kings and Lord of lords. If he is for you, who can be against you? You don’t have to be afraid anymore!”

Wow.

The concept of “the other 2/3 of the gospel” (as the speaker called it) definitely rocked my world. Praise the Lord that the truth and beauty of the gospel is bigger than our own culture. :) What an awesome God we serve!

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In other news, a fundraising update: last week we received a summary of (1) the total donations in our account, and (2) the total cost of our internship. The good news is that your donations added up to $5,955 (!!!!), well within the range I thought I needed based on prior EMI estimates ($5,500 - $6,000). The not-so-good news is that the cost of the internship ended up being higher than the estimate: $6,800 (not including my plane ticket to Colorado, visa fee, support-raising costs, etc.). Part of the discrepancy is because I’ve been assigned to work on two projects instead of one (and thus I’ll go on two project trips), and part is simply due to unforeseen changes in ticket prices and the cost of living.

The bottom line is that I still need around $800-$1,000 to fully fund my internship. I can/will empty my savings account to cover the difference, but I thought I’d tell you about it first and see if anyone is able and willing to contribute more. I would greatly appreciate anything you could send my way!

Above all, please keep praying that the Lord’s kingdom would be advanced in India and in my own heart. The physical poverty that is so prevalent here is a vivid reminder that (as Tim Keller puts it), “The gospel is only for the spiritually poor, and especially for the materially poor.” (see Luke 6:20, Matthew 5:3, and this podcast.) I still have a lot to learn about what that means.

Hugs from India,

David

[P.S. – for search engines: eMi = Engineering Ministries International]

So it begins!

Great news - despite missing a connecting flight in Denver (COMPLETELY my fault; I have no excuse except sleep deprivation), I still arrived in Colorado Springs at 5:30pm today for orientation (just in time for dinner! :) ).

This week will be super busy (and super awesome), so I probably won't be able to blog/email/text/call very much (if at all). Please know that I still love you (yes, you! I know who you are... ;) ) and look forward to sharing updates as I can. As a consolation, you can look at the schedule below if you're curious what I'll be doing at any given time.

Note that all of the times are in Mountain Time. If you want to convert to your time zone, World Time Buddy is an excellent website (http://www.worldtimebuddy.com/?lid=5419384,1261481,4574324,4597200&h=5419384, or simply http://www.worldtimebuddy.com for general reference).

All of us EMI fall interns are staying in a place called The Hideaway (http://www.hideawayreservations.com/map.html) - it's neat, and I've enjoyed getting to meet some of the EMI staff and other interns. Today I met Stafford (we met in the Charlotte airport!), Andy, Carl, Matt & Cheri, Julieta, Benjamin, "Dangerous" Dave, Grace, Meredith, and a handful of other people whose names I can't remember. A very neat group of people so far!

Summary for the day: Hooray EMI! Hooray Jesus! Hooray bed!!! :) :) :)

Hugs from Colorado Springs,

David

P.S. - I graduated the other day (Aug 10). I now have a masters degree. Inconceivable! :)

From EMI blog photos

In the eye of the storm

Hello again! Things have been *really* busy for me lately as I try to finish up my thesis so I can GRADUATE (!!!), but I have a day or so to catch my breath before diving back in for the home stretch. I just sent off the 150-page manuscript to my thesis committee last night, and I defend it next Wednesday, July 25, at 11:30am. Woohoo! While I have a few spare minutes (it feels like I'm in the eye of a hurricane, haha), I wanted to share some neat updates:

1.) As you can see from the thermometer on the side bar, God has been EXTREMELY gracious and faithful to provide financially so far ($4,960 raised)! You people have blown me away with your generosity! Just to give some perspective, EMI sends out regular update emails to their interns, and some of the recent ones have been along the lines of, “If you don’t have many donations yet, don’t feel discouraged – call us so we can talk and pray about it; God will provide what you need.” I almost had to laugh at those emails (while simultaneously feeling bad for the people who they legitimately applied to). So far, I have not had to make a SINGLE follow-up call or pester ANYONE about giving money. I’ve just sent out letters (75 and counting), prayed that the Lord would send money if I was really supposed to go to India, and then to my surprise a steady stream of donations has been flowing in since May. Wow! Thank you. :)

2.) I now have my official project assignmentS! That’s right, I get to work on TWO different projects! (Most interns only do one, but to quote the India office manager, I’m their “token civil engineering intern” for the fall, so I’ll get to work on both.) I’m excited!! :) :) :) One project will be in northern India, the other will be way down in southern India. Both are for the design of children’s homes (orphanages). It looks like I’ll even get to work on some water/wastewater/rainwater designs, which is a pleasant surprise! You can read all about the projects here, including a map of where they are and who else will be on the teams with me:

http://emi2.org/project_trips/projectprofile_8210.shtm

http://emi2.org/project_trips/projectprofile_8211.shtm

In other news, I now have my Indian visa (I asked for a 6 month visa and they gave me 11 months; I’m not complaining! [sheepish editor's note: I got a 6 month visa after all... I misread the date. Haha.]), malaria medicine (140 pills!), some beginner Hindi skills (thank you Pimsleur!), and a plane ticket to Colorado (for orientation and training) which leaves August 19 – exactly one month from today. Woohoo! :) India here I come!

Hugs from Clemson,

David

Our God is no stranger to storms:

Isaiah 43:1-3 / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23jeSAlB_GE

Matthew 8:26-27

Hi friends! :)

Thanks for visiting my blog. I plan on using it to share updates, stories, prayer requests, and pictures from my EMI internship in India this fall.

I won't be in India until August, but in the meantime, here is a letter I wrote explaining some of the details of what I'll be doing during my time there. Enjoy! :)

Hugs,
David
_________________________________________________________________________________

Hello from Clemson! J It’s hard to believe that in a few months I will have a Masters degree in civil engineering. What a blessing my six years at Clemson have been! I’ve learned volumes about the created world, our wonderful Creator, other people, and myself. I’m not sure where I’ll be in six years, but I can tell you (with much excitement!) that the Lord has opened the door for me to serve in India this fall with a group called Engineering Ministries International (EMI)! J

Through service projects, international friends, and Biblical teaching, the Lord has sparked a passion in my heart to serve the people of developing countries. I’ve already had opportunities to go to El Salvador and Haiti to help provide people with clean water (the picture above is from a spring break trip to Haiti), and now I’d love to continue that trend in India^[1]. Perhaps the only thing more exciting than sharing clean water with people is sharing Living Water^[2] with them, and EMI allows me to do both!

EMI is a nonprofit Christian organization that produces engineering and architectural designs for other Christian ministries around the world. I mentioned water because that’s something I’m passionate about, but I could be assigned to a wide range of project types once I arrive in August (it will all depend on the needs at that time). Past EMI projects include schools, hospitals, churches, orphanages, community centers, and (of course!) water/wastewater treatment systems. After training in Colorado (Aug 19-25), I’ll live in New Delhi (India’s capital city) until Dec 14, working under the supervision of a US engineer.

I’ll admit, the prospect of moving around the world for four months is a bit daunting, not to mention the fact that I have to raise $6,000 before August 6 in order to participate. However, God owns all the money in the world (literally!^[3]), so I figure that if He wants me to go to India (as I believe He does), He’ll provide everything I need to be obedient. Therefore, please pray with me and for me! As Martin Luther said, “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness,” and indeed, “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16b). Please pray for spiritual preparation (for the EMI team as well as the Indian nationals we’ll meet), logistical success (that all the pieces will come together smoothly), and financial provision (that people will be led to contribute cheerfully).

If you can give financially, please visit https://emisecure.org/donate.html. J (For the record, all donations are tax-deductible. If you'd prefer to donate using pen-and-paper, let me know and I'll gladly send you a response card! I also have prayer reminder cards for those who want them.)

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to email me, call me, or come talk with me in person; I’d love to tell you more! Thanks for taking the time to read this entire letter.

Enthusiastically,

David

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[1] Did you know that over 140 million people in India don’t have access to clean water?! The internet says so: http://www.unicef.org/india/media_6116.htm.

[2] Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:37b-38, NIV).

[3] “The world is mine, and all that is in it” (Psalm 50:12b, NIV).