Countless Miracles

Vanakkam!

Britt asked me what vanakkam means, and I realized I haven't explained that on here yet.  Vanakkam means hello/welcome in Tamil.  It's one of the few Tamil words I know so far, and we use it quite frequently. 

These past couple of days have been pretty normal around here.  We spent a lot of time preparing for the medical session of volunteers that arrived here yesterday evening.  They are nursing students from BYU and will be here for the next three weeks.  We met them all last night when we had dinner on the roof, and it was a lot of fun to have some new energy and enthusiasm come in.  

I also have undertaken the project of learning our testing system at the school.  When the kids come back, we have to test all 230 of them individually to see where they are in their English language development.  The testing system is fairly complicated and takes quite a bit of time to learn.  I have spent the last couple days scouring over four big boxes of instruction and information for the different grade levels of our students.  I finally am nearly finished learning the system.  Bring on the kids!

I am so excited for those beautiful faces to get here.  I spent a little time today going through this little book that has a short biography of each child.  I didn't get through all of them, but I was heartbroken and awestruck by the ones I did read.  Every kid is described as being so happy, loving, and enthusiastic.  Yet many of those children come from such tragic backgrounds.  I was so saddened by how many of them have lost a parent to disease or suicide. These kids have seen true devastation and are still so bright and wonderful. I can't wait to meet them.

Last night at dinner, we went around the table and shared our highs and lows.  This is a Rising Star tradition and is something we will be doing every night this summer.  It is so great to hear about everyone's experiences that day and about the things they are learning in India.  

Sally Reed (the current President of Rising Star while Becky Douglas is on a mission) shared with us a story from her day.  She arrived at Rising Star yesterday morning and went to talk with Dr. Susan about how things were going.  Dr. Susan told her that there was a meeting that day with the leader of the villages surrounding Rising Star.  This meeting was really important because the feelings and attitudes of the villages and their leaders are incredibly influential in the things Rising Star is allowed to do.  Dr. Susan had met with the leader previously and went on to describe how he had made a lot of demands and requested bribes from Rising Star.  This is an extremely common thing here in India, but Rising Star refuses to participate in that kind of corruption.  Dr. Susan expressed her anxiety over meeting with the leader again, but said she had been praying for God to soften his heart.  

Several hours later, Sally said, she saw Dr. Susan come walking onto campus with a huge smile spread across her face.  Dr. Susan described her experience at the meeting.  The meeting began with the leader continuing to hold fast to his demands.  Dr. Susan said she immediately decided to just turn it over completely into the hands of God.  She said she began to feel calm and to talk to the leader with respect and intelligence.  Immediately, the leader's countenance began to change and he was able to discuss the situation calmly with Dr. Susan.  He ended up revoking all of his demands and requests for bribes, except one--that the materials for the construction happening on campus be purchased from the village.  

As soon as Sally heard the story, Dr. Susan requested they all go into the office and offer up a prayer of thanks to God.  The incredible faith that this woman lives her life by is so incredible to me.  She is not a member of my same religion, but she has almost incomparable faith. 

I am deeply amazed at all the countless miracles that are continually unfolding in this tiny corner of the world.  One of the overwhelmingly incredible things about Rising Star is the undeniable ways in which you see the hand of God in this work.  The stories of miracles around here are virtually endless.  I have heard about so many miracles that took place in the formation and expansion of Rising Star, and they continue to happen all the time.  Every volunteer you meet here has a story of some kind of miracle in their lives back home that helped them to get here. I certainly have experienced incredible miracles in my journey to get here.  This place is so special and, as Sally always says, we are the lucky ones.  Those of us who are here right now, who have been here before, who will come in the future, or who hear about and participate in the stories at Rising Star through friends and blogs--we are absolutely the lucky ones.  

As always, thank you for your love, thank you for your prayers, thank you for reading this.  I love you all!