Beginning

Dear Friends, Many people have asked me why in the world I would want to leave my nice little cottage in my nice little village of Blowing Rock, NC to go live in Durgapur, India for a year. The answer for me is simple: I want to live in a poor area of the world and work with the people who live there in the hopes of making their lives better in some small way. Through a series of events, I have been invited to serve as a "missionary" to the Diocese of Durgapur in West Bengal, India. I don't mean to make it sound so simple. There was a process to go through. There was an application to Anglican Global Relations which is part of the National Episcopal Church in America and housed at 815 2nd Ave., Manhatten, New York. There was a Discernment Retreat in Delray Beach, FL with several other folks who were also interested in serving as missionaries. There was an invitation to come to NY for orientation and training which also included lots of reading about what it means to be a missionary in the 21st century. Most of the people in the group, youngsters and oldsters,like me, had lots of doubts and concerns about being missionaries. From our history books, we remembered all too well the negative aspects of missionary work, and we wanted no part of that. One of the books we had to read was Titus Presler's Horizons of Mission (part of the church's teaching series) which helped all of us to approach mission work in a whole new light, that of building relationships, working with the people where they were, not trying to "civilize" them or convert them, but to spread Jesus' love to all, no strings attached. I will be teaching English to Hindu children who live in the slums. Their school was built by the Diocese of Durgapur with donations from several sources, one being the Diocese of WNC of which I am a part. Our Dioceses share a companion relationship, and while there have been delegations from WNC that have visitied Durgapur, I am the first person to actually go and live there and work in the program. I spent over two years in Jordan serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in a remote Muslim village, teaching English to little girls at the Girls' Basic School. I also worked with the women in the village, trying to set up a sewing center for them, and with the Higer Council on Youth acquiring funds from USAID/PC to construct a playing field for all the children of the village. This kind of work is in my blood, so upon returning to the states last summer (06), I began investigating other possibilities. It was during a visit by Bishop Dutta and his wife and several others from the Diocese of Durgapur to WNC that I approached the Bishop and asked if he would like a volunteer to help in the school for the slum children. He said yes, and so the process began. I will be leaving the states on Sept 3 and will arrive in Kolkata on the 5th via Gatwick, London, Dubai, and then Kolkata. I will live in an apartment provided by the diocese. I will have language training in Bengali when I arrive. That's the scariest part for me. I am nervous, of course, but my excitement far outweighs my nervousness. I hope I can live up to whatever expectations the Bishop, his wife, Rita, and the teachers at the school have for me This is not a funded position, so I am also in the process of collecting donations so I can eat while I am there and have money to help fund projects for the school and the children who attend the school. If you'd like to be part of this mission with me, you can make donations to: St.Mary of the Hills Episcopal Church PO Box 14 Blowing Rock, NC 28505 On the memo line designate the money for Mission India. I will keep you updated on this blog. Blogging is very new to me, and I hope to get the hang of it soon. I will have access to a computer, but not on a daily basis, so don't expect minute by minute updates, not that you'd want that. Whether you send money or not, I hope you will keep me in your prayers and will support me through e-mails and comments on this blog. Peace, Lynn