We must be doing something right

The past 24 hours have been incredibly hard, and have included a host of unexpected issues and occurrences that I've had to deal with one after the other. Some may say it was just a string of unfortunate events, as life can be at times; but to me it feels like it was confirmation that we are doing some good stuff in God's Kingdom, and there was a major bit of spiritual attack happening to try and disarm it.

Yesterday started really well. I was spending the morning at Tudabejja, the half-way home for the street kids before going back home; its a lovely place - rural, peaceful, and the kids love it. When we arrived there was a welcoming session taking place for 8 new residents at Tudabejja ie 8 more children who are on their way to being reunited with family or being placed into foster care and no longer living on the streets.
At the same time, there were some other lads leaving Tuda to go home - another reason to celebrate. And our team, both at Tuda and Clubhouse, have been giving these boys and girls who have nothing except the rags they stand up in, a week to remember - fun lessons, access to new ways of learning and new resources, times of laughter and happiness, and opportunities to forget about life beyond the compound, and instead to feel loved, respected and cared for.

That's all definitely been Kingdom type work, and this next week will be similar but with a community who have been battered by nature's harsher side, and are feeling vulnerable and exposed. Not surprising the enemy isn't happy with us I guess!

So I had to contend with:

• hundreds of Muslims on the road to the airport making a quick 30 min journey take a lot longer  (1.5hours) and so the stress levels were up on arrival at the airport
• a tired suitcase deciding it had had enough and one of the wheels falling off - minor on its own, but added to everything else, it wasn't helpful - can't drag a broken suitcase as fast as a good one!
• getting to check-in, discovering my yellow fever certificate wasn't in my passport, or anywhere else, and being told I risked non-entry at India if I flew there without it: this was the biggie - the thought of not being able to get in to India and lead the team was awful, and yet I had to give it a go, so I flew anyway, with no assurance except that some friends who I found awake on Facebook were praying for me
• getting on the plane with the intention of putting on some calming music, to discover my headphones had broken!
• getting to Dubai with the promise of a treat of a chai latte at Starbucks (and some of you know how much that means to me!), only to discover that Starbucks in Dubai don't do chai latte!
• and on top of all that was saying goodbye to some very dear friends in Uganda, and a lovely team there.

Not the best of days!

But, thank the Lord for internet as it allowed me to connect with the outside world, and shoot off some prayer requests, and get some lovely replies back, not least from Rozzie who did a great job of flipping the 'mother comforts daughter' role on its head - thanks Roz, you were an angel last night.

And thank the Lord for silent immigration officers who just didn't want to ask any questions or see any certificates, but just wanted to get the queue of people through as soon as possible

And thank the Lord for friends and family who are just there for you when you need them most. May I be there for you as you were there for me.

So, I am now safely inside India, waiting for the rest of the team who have just landed to come and join me, and then we will journey forth to Andhra Pradesh and do our best to be a blessing to everyone we meet with.

Putting on that spiritual armour now!