Update

The past several days have been the first of those I have disliked thus far. On Monday evening, I did not feel like going to the children’s devo time like usual, so I stayed behind in the house to rest. I emerged from my room to the dining room (about twenty steps) four days later. I must say, having a fever in this heat and humidity with no A/C is terribly uncomfortable. Although, I only thought that every time I would rouse from my sleep. I slept from Monday around 8pm to Friday around 8:30am. Yesterday, I did manage to actually leave the house! Hooray!

And today was Saturday! After their half day of school for Exams, we were all outside! Such a happy ending!    

                                              

I don't care how nice it is, five days is too long in any room!

The Playground

North View

Get your game face on!

Sowmya and Priyanka

Roshini, Payal, and Deepa w/ her flower

Buds, Blooms, and Blossoms

Sowmya - the youngest

Can't imagine the world without them!

Girls being girls. 

Heart

Diya

Glory

Aishwarya - another precious little bud

Good Night!

                                         

India Address

Here is the mailing address for the Impact facility!

Stephanie Burke
c/o Murli Menon
Impact International
1 Naickenpalayam,
Avai Nagar Via,
Perianaickenpalayam Post,
Coimbatore 641020
Tamil Nadu, S. INDIA

First Impressions

It was 3 a.m. when we landed in Kochi, India and cleared Customs. My first hour of being in the country was spent talking to the flight staff concerning my lost carry-on I had been forced to check on the flight out of Denver. After filing a report for them, I walked outside the airport to go find Rachel, who had gone out to find our ride to the Impact Campus. It took me about 15 minutes to find her because it was like a real life “Where’s Waldo” page. When I found her and our driver, it was a 5 hr ride to Coimbatore, but it was longer due to a couple stops for Danny for tea along the way.

The first time I walked into the home of the Chosen Treasures, I was never so pleased to see 22 little girls all look at me with curiosity and smiles! They were playing games and invited me to sit beside them and spell, and play while they introduced themselves to me. I soon became known as “Aunty Steffi” and when I see them and the “Cornerstones” (the older girls) and the 7 boys, it makes my heart happy more than anything else I could ever imagine seeing for these 6 months. I am in love with 52 little hearts.

Thank you all for praying! Planning so much and tutoring can be exhausting! Especially since their exams begin Sept 22! =) All in all, the start has been a success in terms of joy expressed, love given, and strength renewed.

Depth Perception

Progress. Such a simple word. An implication of motion. Forward and upward bound. Positive. Necessary.

Digress. Also simple and motivated. Still forward, but with misaligned orientation.

As the weeks have passed, I have found myself looking back over my shoulder, wondering at the progress that has been made up to this point in time. For the past year, I have focused on a goal so big and massive that the only way to turn dreaming to doing was through the avenue of a personal "fade out".

The Lord has been gracious enough to cause this past year to bring me to my knees in every area of my life. I have seen so much of myself that I wish to do without...yet even still, I find myself living out of sad independence and pride. Progress? Ha. Hardly what I would call it. But I think that is because when I think "progress", I think "distance", length gone and length to go. And with those thoughts, how could thoughts of self not be present?

The longer I look over my shoulder, I also begin to see something else: thousands and thousands of rabbit trails, times of distraction from disappointment and disillusion. There are so many! How ridiculous! How embarrassing! How hopeless it all looks...

With such a path behind me, how could I ever hope to experience the "fade out" and possess "more of Him, Less of me?" Such destruction and devastation makes for an easy digression from the progress. Sadly, I begin to fear that the term "fade out" more accurately describes my depreciating energy level than anything else.

And then, I see it. It is beyond the complications of progress and the mere distance traveled. It is more than all the culmination of misguided mishaps of decision and error lining the main-way. It is IN the depth of the journey. Shocker. Who would have thought that progress would come to mean so much more than just getting ahead on a 2 dimensional plane of existence and self-improving? And who would have thought the digression would actually accentuate the depth of love, mercy, and life that God has to offer?

I now have a different perspective as to what real progress is and what digression looks like. With all that said, abiding seems to look a lot more inviting. In the world's eyes, I am regressing. No job. No car. No plans. No vision. No progress. But what I have is an invitation to BE with the One who knows me and who uses the digression of my soul to glorify His heart so that when I repent and remember who He is, I fall in love all over again. That is why I'm going to India. It is why I do anything. Because He loves me.