This is my second week of being in Manali, and I’m still loving it and enjoying being in a place that I’m so unfamiliar with. This week we started our first real scheduled week. We now have our book study on Sunday nights, Bible study via skype on Monday nights, and then we have been interning at the school from 9-1. Laura and I are working on a mural in the library. (I’ll send a picture once it’s finished) Thursday we took a hike to Old Manali and prayer walked around a temple. This was probably on of my favorite days we’ve had. After prayer walking around Manu Temple we kept trekking until we reached this rock that looked over the villages. It’s just such an amazing reminder of how big God is and how small you are. Some of my favorite times are being in places when you feel so small compared to everything else around you. My prayer for the people that come to this temple is this: that they leave completely empty. Finding absolutely nothing they hoped for and that somewhere along their path, they find the real truth, the one true God, that is Christ! I hope that this can be your prayer too. Also pray that in my time here, I don’t become jaded to the things that go on around me. I want to always be disturbed when I see these idols and pujas that go on all around me. It’s definitely a big adjustment to walk around and always smell incense burning and have to jump over trash piles. Yes, I love it here but sometimes I wonder why. Then I realize only through God can someone love a place so wicked and dark. Keep praying! I’ll e-mail better updates once my internship starts in March. Right now I’m sick and stuck in bed so I would also appreciate prayers for health! India is not the most fun place to be sick. The power is out half the time so being stuck in a dark room is not a highlight to my week! I love you all and my prayer for you and me is that we will become SO close to God that not only can we hear his voice, but we can hear his faintest whisper.
Peace and Grace from Manli,
A. Therrel