Forever Valentine and “Say Yes to the Saree”
Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you all are doing well! So far, everything has been great over here! I’ve finally adjusted to the time difference here in India, it took me a bit but it’s all good now. They have definitely kept us busy around here! I’m getting used to curry and rice for every meal, it’s all starting to taste similar because I’m pretty sure the spiciness of the food has destroyed my taste buds haha! The students arrived for the worship school and we’ve been getting to know them as they’ve shared their stories over the past week. Our days start around 10:00 AM or so and we work until around 6:00 PM. Every morning we start off with worship and then we have a big bible study we call DBS, Discovery Bible Study. It is honestly one of my favorite things and I look forward to it every morning. All of the ministry staff at the Covenant School, our team, and the students get together to fellowship and study the Word. Each morning we choose a different chapter from the Bible to read through and discuss, and I’ve really enjoyed hearing everyone’s different thoughts!
As you probably know, today is Valentine’s Day! From the moment I commit to the trip, I had already planned out which holiday’s I would be spending abroad. This ended up being St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, and of course Valentine’s day. Now if you know me, you most likely know that of all the holidays, I find Valentine’s Day to be the most irritating and annoying of all. This is not necessarily because I’m a bitter single person, but purely because I believe we shouldn’t designate one day out of the year to buying roses and chocolates for one another in order to show our love and appreciation for them. Love does not have a price tag. You may think differently and that is totally okay! This year, however, Valentine’s day took on a whole different meaning to me and I actually enjoyed it! My team started off the day with an early morning worship session, something I never thought to do. Our host home has a cute patio on the roof and we all gathered together and sang songs as our “love notes to Jesus” while over-looking the beautiful city of Hyderabad. While we were singing, a thought struck me. Jesus is my forever Valentine. While Jesus wants us to be more like Him, He doesn’t need us to do good works in order to show Him how much we love Him. If anything, He paid the ultimate price for us so that we would know that His love has no limits. My team spent the rest of the morning exchanging encouraging letters with one another and enjoying knowing that we all loved each other and we didn’t need gifts or candy to prove that. Later in the afternoon and evening, we were able to love on our hosts and the students at the worship school just as Jesus loves us. 
One really cool thing about our ministry here is that we are not only walking alongside these new believers, but our team actually gets to go through the classes with them! The idea behind it is to create a bridge where our two different cultures can meet, and I love the idea! I’m learning how to lead worship (which has been a bit outside of my comfort zone) as well as how to lead group discussions and we have been given different opportunities to use what we’ve learned so far. And guess what?! I’m learning how to play the guitar! How cool! The school asks each student choose to learn either the guitar or piano and then they partner us up so that the Americans get to practice with the Indians as well as build friendships with them. Not only have I learned a lot about the guitar and music theory, but I’ve also gotten to know the students on a deeper level and I’ve been able to relate with them because I’m a part of what they’re learning. So cool!
The ladies at our host home have been so kind and patient with us. They’ve been teaching us how to cook some different curry dishes as well as how to make chai. On Saturday, we had the day off from ministry and my team decided to take an Uber to a local attraction called Charminar. It’s basically this building in the center of a huge, and I’m talking massive, market. We all walked up and down the different vendors, took millions of pictures, and got to be a part of the hustle and bustle. The girls on my team and I found a hidden fabric store as we were walking and decided to try on some saree’s, which are basically long draping fabrics that wrap around like a dress. We pretty much created our own version of Say Yes to the Dress, more like Say Yes to the Saree. It was so much fun! Later in the evening, half of our group left to go back home, but a few of us stayed to see everything lit up at night, and I’m so glad that I stayed! We were walking around and got to talk with three girls we met on the street. We ended up talking with them for over an hour just laughing and sharing stories.
I appreciate your prayers and encouragement! The other half of my team has been doing a lot better with health this past week which is such an answered prayer. My team also bonded so well with the students and it has been such a blast hanging out with them! I’m looking forward to sharing even more stories with you!
~ Hannah