The weekend is coming!

Right now it's a typical morning for a friday. Lots of hustle and bustle going on outside the house. Have a mentioned yet that we live next door to a Mosque and that every morning at 5:30am they do a call to worship over huge loudspeakers? Good morning indeed. Two days ago was a celebration for Republic day. About 60 years ago that day India gained its independence from Britain. We celebrated with all the orphan children. There was lots of dancing, laughing, and general merryment. It was a wonderful day of celebration!

Yesterday we had a chance to relax and I got laundry done. We are so thankful to have a washing machine here. It still a bit involved. It doesn't automatically put water into the basin and when it's time for the spin cycle you have to drain the main basing then transfer the clothes to another basin for the spin cycle. Amazingly though, it gets clothes very clean AND hang drying clothes hear doesn't take long. All of our clothes were dry within 3 hrs!! I was shocked! Anyhow, it was great because all the girls have been down with a cold so the rest was great! Liz and I had a great day of just hanging out, doing worship together, and getting some reading in. God has been very gracious to us and He has been taking such good care of Liz. Praise God that she is getting so much better.

Last night Liz, myself, Bethany, and Taylor got to take a trip into downtown Tenali to by some things for dinner and such. None of us had ever been in that area before...it was INCREDIBLE! The sights, the sounds, the culture! It was just an amazing experience to see the actual area where we will be doing most of our shopping for the next couple months. The produce area was tucked back passing through an alley to get to it. It opens up to an amazing world of colors and fresh vegetables. We ate pretty good last night.

Today we are going to the place where the church building is gonna be built. We are doing devotion and worship this morning there and just covering that whole vision with prayer.

Pray for us as we minister to others. Pray that everyone is completely healed of there colds. God is so good and we love you all! Thank you for your prayers and encouragement!

Chris, Lizzi, and the Baby!

Oh it is love...!!!

We realized how much we love AMERICAN food today! Not only did we have vegetable omelettes for breakfast, we had french fries during our lunch, AND Mac n Cheese for dinner!! That made our days for sure...we still love Indian food...just nice to get away from curry for once (Kinda funny since its only been a week and a half). Anyhow enough of food...

Yesterday we had a chance to meet with Indian Team Residency team members from the Indian side. It was a great time of prayer and getting to know each other in a more intimate way. We're getting very excited for what God wants to do with all of us together. After the conclusion of our meeting (and lunch), we split up into two groups and took a walk in the town around us praying as we went. My group had an awesome opportunity to be invited into the house of a Hindu lady, learn about her family, and pray for her. It was really great to begin building relationships with the people around our house. As we left the house we said hi to a man who ended up being the head master of a hindu primary school. As God would have it, he invited us to his school and we had an opportunity to meet the children at the school. We had a fun time getting to know the kids and them getting to know us! A fun time all around and a great time of covering the area around us with prayer as most of our neighbors are Hindu's (besides the mosque that is directly behind our house).  :-)

As for today, it has been a day of rest and preparation for church tomorrow. Normally we would split off into two groups and preach at two different churches on sunday but tomorrow we will be staying as one group. Pray for Taylor as he will be bringing the message tomorrow. As far as rest is concerned, we all ended up cleaning our bathrooms because all of them were pretty much filthy. By the look of the dirt in our bathroom, it looks as if the last time it was cleaned was two years ago...but it looks better and smells great now!

Lizzi has been doing much better! Thank you for your prayers! The nausea is not an all day thing anymore however she still has the morning sickness. It is only when she doesn't have food in her stomach so we're doing our best to have food for her as often as we can. God has been so good to all of us and He has provided in amazing ways! The best part is it's only the beginning and we have much more time to see God move here.
-Pray that as we seek God that we will be moved to follow Him in deeper more radical ways.
-Pray even for us as a couple that we would continually surrender our agenda for God's agenda and that we would be attentive to hear His calling and direction for our lives.
-Most important of all, pray that we would continue to be obedient to His calling for our lives.

We love you all! Have a wonderful weekend! Thank you for your prayers!

Chris, Lizzi, and Baby McCall

ps- If i remember correctly, there is a link to a video tour of our house on the RH Residency Team blog.

www.rhindiaresidencyteam.blogspot.com



Today 

1st Birthday and Public Schools

Today we went to a one year old's birthday party...India style! Lots of singing to the Lord, cake, and great breakfast! From there it was off to the Harvest India Public School. It was neat to see because the first time I saw the place where the school was gonna be, it was only dirt. There was no building there yet. That was about three years ago. It has been awesome to see the changes here in Tenali and the advancements that have been happening in Harvest India as well. Dreams that have become realities. We had a chance to visit all the classrooms and pray for people. Later on in the evening we went to Suresh's house to meet Harvest India staff persons and for them to meet us. Afterwards we distributed new cell phones to everyone and received our cell phones that we will use while we are here. God has been so good and we've been winding down towards the weekend of our first week here. We have seen so many of the different ministries of Harvest India and are getting excited to begin our schedule here. Thank you so much for your prayers! Lizzi has been feeling great besides getting hungry all the time and craving things like lasagna.  :-) (hard to find here) Good night everyone!

Diplomat comes for Dinner!

In an interesting turn of events this morning we were informed that a diplomat of Andhra Pradesh wanted to have dinner with us and Suresh (He was the equivalent of like a Governor). The coolest part was our house got searched by the bomb squad and was surrounded by police for the entire time he was here! All the Chiefs of police from the surrounding areas were here as well. I even got to sit next to him at the dinner table and we talked about the poorest of the poor, building the infrastructure, and sustainability of there new water project. It was all very awkward and cool at the same time. Anyhow that was only our evening...there was a whole day before that!
The day started off by going to a home where street kids are ministered to. It was neat and overwhelming all at the same time. I'm still processing that time but I think I will write some more about that later.

We had an incredibly American lunch today then headed off to Vijayawada to pick up miscelaneous things we needed for food, cleaning, and essentials for our meetings. Of course we ended up in that town for a lot longer than we were suppose to and rushing back for dinner. All in all a productive day and we have the favor of the Governor who is Hindu. Ok it's really late right now and my brain is starting to shut off. More to come tomorrow. Enjoy the pics from the Ashraya house and the water well dedication. Good night everyone.

Busy Day

Today was long day...today was a great day as well! We had a killer morning of Worship to God and prayer as a team before we headed out to visit the Ahsraia house. This 4 storing building (or so) was built to be a safe house for woman who were forced into slavery through prostitution and have been rescued from that life. These woman have been given back there dignity and given Hope again in Jesus. They have a home, trained in a vocation to sew and paid a very generous wage. At the house they are also provided food. These woman spend time in the morning, afternoon, and evening in prayer to God thankful for what He has provided for them. They have so much joy and they shared individual stories of how God brought them from darkness to light. Afterwards we had an opportunity to pray for them and encourage them. There were tears and lots of smiles! God is so good! The house is on the same land as the RockHarbor orphanage and supplies both building with food everyday. About 1200 woman and children are fed everyday through that home.
Later in the afternoon we had the opportunity to dedicate a new water well that had been built for a village in need of water. It was a beautiful time of hugging, laughing, praying, full of love and joy! God is Love and His Love was displayed to each and everyone there. These people were so appreciative of there new water well. Instead of walking miles with buckets to get water they have clean water in there own village now. All Glory to Jesus! Pictures will be coming tomorrow! Now, it is time for bed as we are all feeling pretty exhausted.

-One huge praise report today! Lizzi was feeling absolutely 100% today. No nausea, no gagging, no nothing! Your prayers are felt here and we appreciate it very much! Continue to pray for us as we get reacquainted with all the ministries and seek God for HIS direction in our partnership here. Much love to all of you!

Chris

Some Pics and Videos

Here are some of the pics and videos that I promised you! God has been so faithful to us! He has been Lizzi's strength and has provided for us abundantly! We are so thankful for your prayers! Please keep praying for us. Enjoy some of the pictures/videos from Dubai and India when we first arrived.

A Sunday morning miracle

As Chris posted in our last prayer quests blog, I have been having a really had time with morning sickness here in India. Yesterday morning I feel like God gave me a miracle. As we road the rickshaw to Church ( a rickshaw is sort of like a 3 wheeled moter bike, I will try to post a picture for those who have never seen one) all the smells of India were hitting me fast. I was starting to get quite nauseous and was doubting my ability to handle the 2-3 hour church service I knew that was ahead of us. As I continued to pray the simple prayer I have been praying since we left home (Lord, I know I do not have the strength to face this on my own, please give me your strength!) I knew that I could trust God's perfect timing. By the time we entered the small cement building I was captivated by the beautiful faces  of the woman and children in the small blue room decorated with colorful streamers. Only 5 from our team were there, the others had gone to preach at a different church. They put chairs up at the very front for us to sit in. Everyone else in the church sat on the ground. The service started out  with worship. The songs were sung by a few different people and accompanied by a drum. It was projected VERY loudly through a speaker to make sure everyone in the surrounding area knew that it was time for church! By the time we were through the 3rd song our so (about a 30 mins later) I was starting not to feel well again. Just then, out of no where, two girls walked up with 4 bottles of Thumbs Up (kind of like coke) and 1 bottle of Sprite. It was God answering my prayer. They had brought us the drinks to honor us as their guests and the Sprite was just what my tummy needed to be settled. Praise be to God!

The service continued with a few testimonies from different people in the church. All of theem shared about how God had healed them in various way. One woman said she was coughing blood the night before and she spent the entire night crying out to God to heal hear. By morning she was completely better! To be honest, their stories made me feel a little bit like a wimp! We have such a good God and he cares for every single one of us in our times of need.

After the testimonies Chris preached! He gave a powerful word from the Lord that was applicable to everyone in that room! I was so proud of him! As I sit here writing this blog, he is next to me playing his guitar and worshiping. Just a second ago, the little boy that lives above us just knocked on the door and asked if he could come in and listen. Of course we welcomed him and asked if he has any requests. He said do you know "Yes Lord"? Chris and I had a big laugh because the first person to ever play "Yes Lord" in Tenali was Chris! He taught all the orphan kids the first time he came. I guess it has become a favorite of all the children here! I can hardly begin to describe what an incredible encouragement Chris has been to me. I am so blessed by the wonderful husband God has given me! 

We really do feel your prayers, so please keep them up!

Sending lots of love from India!

Lizzi  & Baby McCall

Tenali! We Finally Made It!!

It is now Sunday the 16th of January...we started our journey to Tenali on Wednesday the 12th! We are so thankful to God to have finally made it here. It has been a long journey to get here. Some quick points for now:

-Please pray for Lizzi. It's been tougher than she thought it would be so far. For those of you that don't know yet...we found out that Lizzi is PREGNANT!!! We found out on the 23rd of December! We are, to say the least, ecstatic and feel extremely blessed. However, pregnancy has been taking a toll on her and she has had a lot of nausea from the smells. Please pray that the nausea will go away soon and that it will be easier to eat food here. Pray that God would comfort pain in her stomach and her overall well being.

-I'm preaching today at church. Pray that God uses me and that I would be attentive to His voice.

It's exciting to be here! I will give more update tonight. I just wanted to let everyone know that we made it here safe and sound. Pictures and videos will be coming soon when we figure out how to do that!

Go is so Good! We love you all!

Chris