a busy weekend

so much has gone on since i posted last - and i don't have a ton of time right now, but i'm afraid i'll end up with a mountain of things to blog about if i don't take a swing at it now...so i'll just give you a snapshot of the fun and excitement of my past few days.

Friday - for community night we did a photo scavenger hunt. i was bit worried about how it would work out. we tend to attract enough attention without asking for more by running around with cameras taking weird pics - but it was so much fun. we played boys against girls (cause not everyone could make it. it was me, karli and gita vs kyle, jesse and upendra). And...crazy as it may seem, we tied exactly!

Saturday - Gita was baptized. she went through a year long class at her church, and Saturday was the big day. it was truly amazing to worship with her as she publicly declared her desire to follow Jesus and His plan for her life. We also say Spiderman 3...we went to a cheap theater (it cost 35 Rs - about 80 cents...the nice theater is 160Rs - about $4.00, still a deal though...). the cheap theater can be a bit rowdy - lots of chearing and yelling at exciting parts....so it was fun. we had a huge group of us, westerners, and bengalis. what an adventure!

Sunday - i taught the older kids at Church. i did a lesson on how Jesus is the vine, and we're the branches. every week when i walk into church there are plants. i was planning to use one for my lesson, and then...they were all gone. luckily, at the last minute we found them! it was fun to teach. Carissa, the pastor's daughter (who's about my age and working in HR at a local hospital) asked if Kyle and I want to meet her and another girl from the Church on Friday for coffee. I'm pretty excited to hang out with them. Sunday afternoon, i got to chill...read, journal, and just be...it was GREAT. Sunday night we went to a wedding. i have pics, and many stories...but they'll have to wait for another post.

Monday - i spent the morning at Sari Bari - and then we had a party to celebrate Gita's baptism. She shared her testimony with all the women - how she came to follow Jesus, and how her life has been changed since. she said, "i know God has big plans for my life" - oh, and i just dance inside when i hear that! after Gita shared, one of the other ladies spontaneously shared about how Jesus has made her life better, and how she had so many problems before Sari Bari, but that her life is so much better now. she still wouldn't say that she only worships Jesus, but its amazing to see how she is in the process of committing her life to Him. AND...perhaps the best part of the day - but how do you pick a "high" compared with those 2 stories....one of the new ladies who is in training has been sick. about a month ago she was diagnosed with active TB (she had an x-ray to confirm it). when she was at the hospital they wanted to admit her immediately for treatment. she couldn't stay that day, the next day we tried to take her, kristen and her were both at the hospital for 3 hrs, but couldn't find each other. Then, we found out about a hospital that provides free treatment for TB, so we planned to take her that. i'm not sure why its taken so long to actually work out - prolly cause that's just the way things are here....but today, Kiran took her to the hospital to begin treatment, they discovered she doesn't have TB at all! She has a clot in her lungs, and some scars - but no TB. and there's nothing to say to that, except YEAH GOD!