"The Bollywood Sleepless in Seattle"

Let's just say, wow. I'm so glad to have made it to the end of November! What a transiton back to Southall. Full of many things to be thankful for. Including the fact that my dear friend Monica is coming in 2 days for a visit! I cannot wait!! One of the hardest parts of living overseas for me is living far from friends and family during the holidays. This year, I splurged and bought a Christmas tree! So we are going to set it up, and a few of my London friends are going to come over and help decorate it. I'm so excited to share Thanksgiving with Monica, and really begin the Christmas season with a mix of friends--old and new. I promise I'll post some pictures of my tree!

Here are a few favorite pictures from the first two months back in Southall. I have to be honest--my heart is still growing weirdly in love with this little section of West London.

My Asha 'Auntie' dressed me in a Sari at the end of my charity shop shift. 

This felt like a rite of passage. 

My dear dear friend Bhavna is having a baby! 

Ladies from church gathered to shower her in gifts, and encouragement

Greenwich, the home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is pretty cool. 

Even in the rain.

My friend Jas and I carved a pumpkin for Halloween. 

HER FIRST TIME EVER. This is our happy little chap.

Church Autumn Mela (Harvest Party). 

Lots of people from the community came, and dressed up!

For our Autumn craft, we did painting with golfballs,

 and it was a lot of mess, and a lot of fun! I love fun messes.

MY FRIEND GOT BAPTISED!!!

She's really pretty.

One of my favorite nights this month was just a casual dinner with a bunch of friends. We ended up watching 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge' with the Bollywood Mega-Star Shahrukh Khan. It was described to me as 'The Bollywood Sleepless in Seattle.'  It is apparently the most popular Bollywood movie of all time. I've seen a few Bollywood movies since I've been here, and honestly, it was the best. Check it out :-) 

August

My new goal is to post 5 pictures every month from my life/ministry here on the blog. So here we go August!

Debrief with my fellow Apprentices on the coast of England for a week

We stayed in an old Baronial hall, straight out of Lord of the Rings.

Last minute shopping with Lindsay on Southall, Broadway.

Blackberry picking with church friends, they grow wild all over the place!

Catching a show with my friend Ruth, 'Shakespeare in Love' was my favorite play I saw this year!

Who's Handwriting is This?!

I’ve had my feet pointed toward home, with just 20 days left in England. Over the past few months I’ve had a love-hate relationship with going home. So today I did what every millennial does when the world hands them a problem: I turned to Google. However “Returning home from abroad quotes” didn’t give me too much help. A few clicks later, I found an interesting quote from founding father John Adams, which on the surface doesn’t have much to do with returning home to America, but I liked it.

“The only thing most people do better than anyone else is read their own handwriting.”

My biggest fear about going home is that no one will understand me, or try to understand me. Attached to this is the fear is that I won’t understand anyone or be able to relate to them. This sounds dramatic, I know. But it’s all new territory to me. I haven’t left my hometown for this long before, and this is the longest I’ve gone without seeing my parents (they even came to visit in January).

Returning home feels big. It is big. I know for a fact that people and places have grown and changed and the natural flow of life without me has moved on. I have been used to life here in London, and been changed myself. I think I could be ok with all this change, if I didn’t worry about being understood. Being known.

Moving to London, I’ve taken some of my favorite moments were when new friends cared for me, by saying “oh, Mary’s always got to have her coffee!” or by asking “How are your parents?” –weaving together the silly or true parts of me with their own lives. Showing me that I wasn’t an outsider, but that I was known and cared for here.

So returning home, I am full of the adventures, heartaches, and loves of the new life I’ve lived this year. And I have to let it grow alongside the home life, which is both familiar and unpredictable. And I need grace. Yes, lots of God's grace.

Summer in Southall

It's been a whirlwind of a summer, and I've lovely time the past weeks wrapping up ministries and celebrating school being out.

 Here's a few snapshots.

Parent & Toddler: lots of mums and kids enjoying our sing-a-long time, and munching on some snacks. Gotta squeeze in a few more rounds of 'Wind the Bobbin Up' before Summer Holidays!!

Dostana: Our young adults gathered for a evening of food, fun and competitive curry eating! Here are the options, with some pizza thrown in there, because why not?

Kids Club: Our final week we 'made ice cream' by tossing a bag of ice, cream and sugar around. Sometimes, Pinterest doesn't pay off. But I bought Plan B ice cream so we enjoyed some anyway. And the kids had fun tossing bags of ice at each other, so I say it was a win.

LEAP: We visited the Hindu temple in Wembley, beautiful sandstone structure.

Lindsay, Elle and I at Les Mis, enjoying the perks of living in London before our intense week of Kids Camp/VBS! 

At church we celebrated the marriage of one of our church members, and welcomed his wife into our church family! We had a big meal and dancing. No party is complete without two kinds of curry and Bhangra music...

Our Intern Elle ready with the pakora, samosas and poppodoms. Yummmm.

Good friends, good fun, and dancing with some pot thing on your head!

I call that a good night.

Easter Term Break!

I don't really understand the school schedule in England, with a week off in February, two weeks in April, and one in May, then school until the end of June? But whatever, I'm rolling with it because two weeks off in April in a country that has an actual spring is pretty sweet.

England Spring

vs.

NEW England Spring

The past two weeks were Easter Half term, so the church ran a two day 'Kids Club' in the morning, where we told the story of the death and resurrection of Christ, did crafts and played some games. Most of the kids who came heard the stories for the first time!

As a part of craft time, we made cut outs of our hands and put them on the cross, to symbolize Jesus dying for our sins.

Then on Thursday, Lindsay Sareeta and I took the ten teens from our youth club on a photo scavenger hunt with a Central London twist! 

"Take a photo of the entire team in a London Phone booth" 

Praise God we were all safe and everyone had a great time.

Prayer Trip Lessonsx

In January I went on a prayer trip with my MAP group! We traveled to each church that supports apprentices, and prayed for each church. Going into the weekend I was uncertain what to expect. I had never gone on a trip focused on prayer before. At first, during prayer times, I had a lot of trouble paying attention. My mind wandered and I wasn't sure what to say. I didn't think my prayers sounded very good.

Waiting to get on a train, to do more praying!!

So I admitted that I was trying to 'pray right' and it was cool to see how the Lord me and began to let me see the bigger picture. Here we were, a bunch of sinners, who claim the cross as our hope in this life. Admitting we couldn't fix the problems in our lives, and talking to our Heavenly Father. Asking Him for what we need, and then expectantly for an answer. That's what prayer has got to be about--declaring dependance and asking our loving Father for help. Because He cares for us, and wants to be in relationship with us.

The MAP group

We had a lot of fun being together, eating together and worshipping together! 

I live with a Bollywood STAR!

My roommate, Lindsay recently lent her voice to a Bollywood song! Our friend Nikhil, who plays in our worship band, also happens to be a Bollywood producer. You can hear her on backup vocals and mouth trumpet. Yep--anytime you hear a 'trumpet' sound in this clip, it's actually Lindsay making a sound with her mouth! She's pretty talented...You can decide if it's strange or beautiful, I think it's both! Enjoy!