More Stops!

Its been quite a while since I last updated =) I Promise I'll try to be more frequent when I finally have things to write about.

In addition to the stops in the last post, a few more events have been added to the itinerary, notably a few more meetings in Bihar. Interestingly, I will get the chance to "sail" (yea... rite) across the Ganges river!! That should be an interesting experience, if for nothing else, just the fact that its the ever famous Ganges!

Before I get into that, I just want to mention something else. The last few days and weeks my Uncle (Pastor M. K. Babu, whom I will be traveling with) and his team have been ministering and doing flood relief work in Bihar. You can see the flier that they have put together. Please do support them in any way that you can.


The updated program list is as follows, with the additions in bold:

• October 1-3: Convention at AG church Agra, UP
• October 4-5: Special Meeting at Samalkha, Haryana- Church Anniversary
• October 8: Meeting in Samalkha, Haryana
• October 10-12: Convention at Purnia, Bihar
• October 14: Sahibganj, Jharkhand (trip across the Ganges!)
• October 27 to November 1: Crusade at Katihar, Bihar. (clarification: this is somewhat like an open air concert, not like the English Crusades :-P)
• November 3 to 6: Medical Camp at Faridabad, Haryana
• November 7 to 9: Convention at AG church Hatras, UP
• November 23 to 27: Youth Camp, Sahibganj, Jharkhand
• November 28 to December 2: Youth Camp, Katihar, Bihar
• December 4 to 25: Christmas meetings in Haryana and Delhi
• December 17 to 21: Youth Camp at Delhi
• December 26 to 31: Youth Camp at Haryana
• January 2 to 15: Prayer drive from Delhi to Kerala

I have also updated the Google Map I created for my trip. Since there are multiple programs in places like Bihar, only one marker can be seen as they are pretty much all on top of each other! So if you click the link for the Google Maps, on the left side panel you can scroll through all the programs and click on individual programs to get a zoomed in view on the map.

View Map through Google Maps



You may notice the different color markers, basically this is the scheme:

Yellow: Convention
Green: Crusade
Purple: Youth Camps
Light Blue/Teal: Misc. Meetings
Blue: Stops along Prayer Drive to Kerela
Red Circle (with heartbeat line): Medical Camp


Also, at the time of publishing, there is exactly 8 days till departure =]

Keep me in your prayers! and God Bless You!

Remember! You can easily follow this blog by either subscribing to the RSS feed or (if that doesn't make any sense to you...) you can just subscribe to get my posts via email. You can do either by looking over at the left hand column of this page. :-)

The Plan + About Me

Hey everyone,

I guess I'll start this off with a personal introduction. My name is Jones and I'm 18 years old. Instead of starting college, like most kids my age, I decided to take a year off to visit different parts of India. It all started as just a joke, but one thing led to another and now here I am just weeks away from starting my journey.

Even though I knew I wanted to go to India for a few months before college and work and stuff started, I didn't know exactly how things would work out. Since I have an uncle in Delhi who has been doing mission work all over northern parts of India, I figured that was the way to go. As it turned out, he had been planning a slew of mission trips, youth camps, crusades, conventions, and medical camps during the September to January time frame, so this was the perfect opportunity.

I deferred college for a whole year so it doesn't make sense for me to just go for three months and come back and sit here for the remaining seven months. The first part of the trip, the North India part, should be over by January 15.

The following is a list of programs as of now. This list will probably change as we get closer to the dates due to various reasons.

1. October 1-3: Convention at AG church Agra, UP
2. October 27 to November 1: Crusade (clarification: this is somewhat like an open air concert, not like the English Crusades :-P) Katihar, Bihar.
3. November 3 to 6: Medical Camp at Faridabad, Haryana
4. November 7 to 9: Convention at AG church Hatras, UP
5. November 23 to 27: Youth Camp, Sahibganj, Jharkhand
6. November 28 to December 2: Youth Camp, Katihar, Bihar
7. December 4 to 25: Christmas meetings in Haryana and Delhi
   
8. December 17 to 21: Youth Camp at Delhi
9. December 26 to 31: Youth Camp at Haryana
10. January 2 to 15: Prayer drive from Delhi to Kerala

This is the planned route for the prayer drive from Delhi to Kerala:

• Delhi
• Jaipur (Rajasthan)
• Ajmer (Rajasthan)
• Ahmedabad (Gujrat)
• Baroda (Gujrat)
• Bombay (Maharastra)
• Panaji (Goa)
• Bangalore (Karnataka)
• Pondichery
• Coimbatore (Tamilnadu)
• Cochin (Kerala)
  

I made this map on Google maps... and this is the link if you would like to see the actual GoogleMap. I had some trouble linking it directly onto this page, so just click the link to see the whole page.

You may have noticed that there aren't many programs in October. Don't worry, there is going to be a workers meeting very soon and there they will come up with more programs for October.

After the prayer drive to Kerala, I will be staying back while my uncle and the rest of them return to Delhi. This will be the second part of the trip. From mid-January to March 24th, I will be staying primarily with family. Depending on how things work out, I will be in Trivandrum for a few days or weeks with some family-friends at some point before I return to the US as well.

When my uncle was speaking at my church a few weeks ago he said like this, "Jones is going to be travelling to over 15 different states which have 15 different kinds of foods- everything from steamed and boiled foods to..." various animals. I wont directly quote his last few words :-). Anyways, this trip is going to be pretty intensive in many different ways. The last thing I would want is to get sick or get food poisoning or worse. If you have heard about the on-goings in places like Orissa and Bihar, you will know that the times are getting tough in India.

Even through all this, I ask you to keep me in your prayers that God will keep his protection on me at all times and that I may go and enjoy my time there and come back safe.

I'm going to be trying my best to keep this blog updated with news and the things I get involved with while I'm in India. You can easily follow this blog by either subscribing to the RSS feed or (if that doesn't make any sense to you...) you can just subscribe to get my posts via email. You can do either by looking over at the left hand column of this page. :-)


God Bless You!