On August 7thI set out for Mumbai (Bombay). I had to catch a train into Hyderabad to catch a plane to Mumbai. I was taken to the train station by Joseph, Gedion, and Raj. They waited with me until my train arrived and then boarded with me to sit until the train was ready to leave the station. As the train began to pull away I thanked them and said goodbye to each one, �Goodbye Raj, goodbye Joseph, goodbye Gedion.� As they were leaving I had one of those strange moments when your imagination seems to get the best of you and I laughed as I felt I had been transported into the Wizard of Oz�and I�ll miss you most of all, Scarecrow!

If only Bombay could have been paved with yellow bricks... Paved with anything would have been good; instead I sloshed through mud and muck all day. So to say the least it was a trying week. Everything that could go wrong did. But Jesus is so good. He continually sent little angels disguised as a Hindu shop owner, a hotel owner, ex-prostitutes, a helpful saree salesman (a true miracle), and a friendly dog (as my dog, Duke, died while I was in Bombay) to encourage me and my partner and help us along the way.

No, but seriously, I have never had a week like this in my life!!! It got to the point where you would just have to laugh and ask yourself, �How is it possible that one person could be this unlucky?� Just to give you an idea take a look at my trip home and keep in mind this is one day out of 10.
I had had plans to spend my last night in Bombay to be near the airport but being the thrifty person I am I stayed at my partner Ena�s house about 45 minutes outside of Bombay. Despite the fact that we were up at about 4:30am and left in plenty of time we hadn�t planned on the horrible road condition. The Swiss cheese roads, as I like to call them, were a result of the monsoon rains that were beating down on us all week and made for an awful case of car sickness. So our 45minute drive turned into two hours and even though I arrived at the airport 30 minutes before the flight was to take off, it left 40 minutes earlier than scheduled and left without me. The airlines would do nothing for me so I had to buy a ticket on another flight later that day. After checking my bags in at the ticket counter my shoes broke so I had to go barefoot in the airport. Later that evening in Hyderabad I had to wait on a street corner for 2 hours to get on a bus. I finally got on a bus at midnight and was home by 6:30am� just in time for a busy Harvest India day!:)

Though the trip at many times was difficult I am so thankful for the opportunity to have met Ena. She is truly an answer to prayer; now I have a real friend in India. She is a remarkable designer of women�s Indian dress but was called to move out of the city to work for Bombay Teen Challenge (BTC) where she is training girls, rescued from the red-light district, how to sew and design clothing. I would never have been able to complete my work without her! Check out the picture of us at a saree shop.

Also, the girls at BTC�s Ashagram (Hope House) were an amazing blessing to me. When you hear these girls stories and you see their beautiful faces you can hardly believe it: a teenage girl starting her life story, �Even when I was in my mother�s womb, she hated me,� and girls telling of when their parents and grandparents took them to the red-light area to �make money for the family.� But the most remarkable thing was the hope that now exists. These same girls that tried to kill themselves or drink excessively to numb the pain now have goals of owning their own tailoring businesses, going to college or seminary, and getting married. They now look at the future with hope and anticipation for what God is going to do in their lives. Praise the Lord for these beautiful restored lives!