In about 6 weeks I will be headed off to India for a trip with Compassion International.  I will be traveling with some amazing bloggers:  Pete, Anne, Angela, Robin and Melissa.  These writers will be sharing their experiences with the hope of getting kids sponsored.  They will see poverty in its ugliest form and witness first hand, the amazing ministry of Compassion International in releasing children from poverty.  I will be helping lead this trip with Spence, Sean and his wife Becky and photographer, Keely. 

 I was in India this last July and my heart was wrenched (as it always is when I see poverty).  India is an amazing country full of culture; the food is awesome (spicy) the colors are vibrant; the architecture has a mix of Asian, Middle Eastern and English Colonial.  The streets and sidewalks are jammed packed with people, children, beggars, vendors.  People everywhere!!!  I remember the air smelling like spice mixed with car exhaust, and garbage. 

There is great darkness in India.  The cast system is alive and well and has a strong influence on this culture.  I witnessed a street vendor kicking a small child who was begging, shoeing this child away as if he were an animal.  I saw small children holding infants, begging for money, dirty, sad, and skinny as people walked by ignoring their cries as if they were invisible.  I visited orphanages full of abandoned children by parents who were no longer able to care for their children.  I came across an impoverished mother who offered us her infant.  I toured the brothel district where children as young as 6 years old are forced to provide services for the men who will purchase these young girls for their pleasure. As a mother, I wanted to bring all these children home.  It was heart wrenching.  It’s a culture where slavery exists and where young children in poverty are the most vulnerable to the darkness of sin.

 This team will need your prayers. It is difficult to prepare the heart for such an intense trip.  Many of the bloggers have not traveled to such places.  They will see things that will be difficult and they will then blog about their experiences with the hope of saving a few more kids from the grasps of poverty.  I hope you will join these bloggers on their trip and encourage them.  Check out their blogs.