These quotes, and this video.

"I have so much joy in my heart as I see you standing in my home.  I know that you travelled around the whole world to come and share time with me in my home, and that helps me know the Father's love." 

"This is the most joy I have experienced in my entire life.  Other teams have come before, but you have satisfied us."

"In our culture and in our attempts to reach our children with the gospel, we hand it down to them like we hold all the knowledge and they should listen.  You have shown us how to touch their hearts, to love them, and to show them a better way."

Matthew 18:3 says, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

Matthew 19:14 says, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

In the village we saw this happen.  In a culture that knows little more than despair and exhaustion, we were able to see JOY.  In a people that knows of hard labor with no gain, we saw dancing!

More to come, I promise, but here is our video from the week in the mean time.

Just a teaser...

I promised Liz that I would let her be the first one to post a trip update, but I don't know how soon that will happen, so I wanted you to know that until she gets one together, this is all you get.

The greater the effort required to achieve a goal, the more meaningful the outcome. This trip took a lot of money and over 100 hours of travel time... it made the joy so much more intense.

Dalit families have lived hard lives with little joy.  Only through the Lord, and his perfect LOVE can any hope be found.

One of the village elders said, "In all of my 86 years in this village, I have never seen the people dance.  I have never seen so much joy."

I cannot wait to share more with you after the dust settles.  Until then, feel free to read about our trip through the India Team Blog at: http://gccindiateams.blogspot.com 

Update from India

I cannot believe that the trip is nearly over, but there are so many things I want to share with everyone.  First, God has done GREAT things through this team, and it has been an absolute delight every moment.  Second, the Lord is doing amazing things in India, and it has been a privilege to be a part of that for 10 days!

I will share three things you should know, and then a video.

1) Five of us from the team were bumped from our flight before leaving India, and they are making us wait 13 hours before routing us through a complicated system of layovers and delays with an expected arrival 20+ hours later than planned. (No worries, they are taking good care of us - see photo below.)

2) During our time in the village, every child was engaged by the gospel and transformed by God's love. Every parent was encouraged in their journey and empowered to play with their kids (some for the first time).  Even the village elders danced to the tune of "Little Sally Walker" while the rest of the village cheered.  So much emotion was seen during our final award ceremony as each person was told that they embodied specific character traits as image bearers of God.

3) A group of 10 church planters traveled 14 hours on Thursday to see the program because they had heard on the first day that it could revolutionize the way they do ministry in India.  We were able to talk with them over lunch and dinner the final day as they asked for us to bring a similar program to their villages and train them in what we did.

**And finally, as promised, a video!**