I have less than a week before I leave for India. I feel stunned, anxious, and extremely grateful. This past week or so has been full of Rising Star preparations and experiences.
On Friday, I was able to go to Kimmy's house and meet with several people who have volunteered with Rising Star in the past. It was truly wonderful and left me so excited about my summer. Among those gathered there was Kenady, who I linked in my last post. She taught a couple of the classes that I will be teaching this summer, so she helped catch me up on what they had been learning and offered suggestions about what I should plan for my curriculum. It was incredibly helpful, and I'm so grateful that she took the time to meet with me.
On Monday, I went to a training at the Rising Star office in Provo. The training was mostly for the coordinators this summer, but they asked me to attend as well. It was conducted by the unbelievably incredible Amy Antonelli, whose blog I have been obsessively reading this morning. She is truly one of the most inspirational people I have had the opportunity to meet. She is one of the people who helped Becky Douglas create this amazing organization. She spent years living in India, working to help Rising Star become what it is today. If you are interested in reading about her many miraculous experiences, you can visit her blog here. Anyways, the training was great. I was able to meet some of the people that will be in India with me this summer. We discussed so many things about Rising Star and the real reason we are doing this work.
Amy eloquently described one thing that made a strong impression on me. She was discussing some of the many tasks that are undertaken continuously at Rising Star. She said that it can be easy, sometimes, to become frustrated and caught up in the day to day of the task. It can be easy to think that your purpose at Rising Star is to move a pile of bricks, or to teach a child to say or read a certain word. However, she implored us to always have the bigger picture in mind. Each and every task you are assigned to do at Rising Star is designed to help further the miracle that is unfolding in India. The pile of bricks you just moved will be used to build a functioning bathroom for a colony that has never had one. It will help bring these people a sense of respect, dignity, and self-worth when they have been stripped of all these things because of their disease. The word you teach a child to say or read is essential to the efforts we are making to provide that child with a promising future. The ability to speak English increases their earning potential by 500% in India. It literally ensures that they will not have to live the life of begging on the streets that they were destined to live when they were born. Rising Star is incredible and I feel so blessed to be able to contribute my small part to this work.
Thank you all for reading this and for your endless love and support. My life is truly blessed.
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