Greetings! I am actually sitting in the Raleigh/Durham airport waiting for a delayed flight back to Cleveland and thought this would be a great time to post something on my India blog. We are only one week away from our trip and the excitement is really growing.
Let me back up. I understand that many of you who may be reading this may have never met me so let's start with some introductions. My name is Nate Taylor and I currently serve as the Director of Youth Ministries at Avon Lake United Church of Christ in Avon Lake, OH. Next Wednesday I will be setting out on a 15 day journey to the town of Mungeli, India. I will be traveling with my fiancee Lisa Przepyszny ($5 if you can properly pronounce it!), Rev. Kelly Brill - Sr. Pastor at Avon Lake U.C.C., Dave Witzigreuter - Avon Lake U.C.C. member and construction wiz, and finally Gregg Brekke - United Church of Christ News Director, Avon Lake U.C.C. chili cook-off finalist and avid cyclist. I am looking forward to traveling with this group of incredible people and personally the unique opportunity to experience this alongside my fiancee. I am so grateful that we both have this opportunity.
So the story behind this trip will help you understand why we are going to Mungeli, India of all places in the world. In Mungeli is the Christian Hospital Mungeli which is directed by Dr. Anil Henry. Dr. Henry's mother, Nancy Lott Henry was a longtime member at Avon Lake U.C.C. several years ago. On a mission trip to India, she fell in love with a young doctor and remained in India. They had a son, Anil who eventually was schooled in the U.S. and became a successful surgeon in Tennessee. Along the way Anil married his wife Teresa and they have had three children. At one point, Anil decided he needed to go back to India. He eventually moved his family back to India where they were assigned as Missionaries through the Global Ministries office of the U.C.C. and Disciples of Christ offices. He was assigned to the Christian Hospital in Mungeli. In less than 10 years, Dr. Henry and his staff have completely transformed this hospital and are continuing to provide more and more resources and opportunities to the people in this community. For years Avon Lake U.C.C. has been supporting either Nancy Lott Henry or Dr. Anil Henry in their work. Rev. Kelly has always been interested in making this trip to see the work that they have done and are continuing to do. Through her leadership and excitement for this trip, we are soon going to be making it a reality.
It was thanks to a friendship with Landa Harris Simmons, that Kelly found out of an organized pilgrimage that had been taking place for a few years to the hospital in Mungeli. Landa, if you don't know her, simply rocks! There are few in the world that rival the energy that I can bring to the table and one of them is Landa. I am looking forward to meeting her in India and learning from her about the work that is going on there.
So after many emails, conversations, prayers and calendar juggling, we were finally able to settle on a few weeks in early February of 2011 to make this trip. After months of planning and meeting and packing and mentally preparing ourselves, we are now only days away from this once in a lifetime experience.
We will be departing from Cleveland Hopkins Airport on Wednesday February 2nd and returning on Thursday February 17th. Our travels take us to Newark, NJ - 15 hours to New Dehli, overnight in Dehli, 2 1/2 hours to Raipur and finally another 2 hours via ambulance to the Christian Hospital in Mungeli. Yeah....it's gonna be wild. I can't sit through a 30 minute staff meeting, so 15 solid hours should be a real treat. I have picked out some reading selections and hope that Continental plays all my favorite movies. In the meantime i am loading up on all the American food and Pepsi that I possibly can.
Do you have traveling tips? Please comment below. Trips for visiting India? Please comment below. Want to just give me a hard time....go ahead and comment below!
My hopes and prayers are that this blog will be a place where I can share my thoughts, my experiences and stories with all of you. I have never traveled overseas and I have no pre-conceived notions to base anything of off. Other than some episodes of World's Deadliest Roads, a few conversations with others who have been to India before and the world wide web, I don't have much to base anything off of. I hope that you will find this entertaining, insightful and most importantly...authentic. Your thoughts and prayers will be greatly appreciated during our time in Mungeli. My plan is to update this as much as I can and keep you right on track with what we are seeing, smelling, eating and experiencing. In my next entry I will share with you are plans for our time in India and some really fun photos of our luggage. Stay tuned...
So until the next time.....many blessings.
-Nate
