India - Fabric

The Kalamkari fabrics of Machilipatnam, with their intricate designs, are used in clothing and wall hangings.
Kalamkari refers to dye-painted cloths and the technique used to create them.



Their name derives from kalam, for a pen-like tool used to draw outlines on the cloth, and kari (work).
Fabrics are outlined with a cotton-tipped bamboo stick and dyed in vegetable or mineral colours.
The process involves washing, rinsing, soaking and bleaching muslin, and applying mordants and dyes using natural substances like indigo for blue, madder for red, mango bark and dried myrobalan fruit for yellow, palm sugar and rusted iron for black.
The dyeing process is very elaborate and can take several days to complete.



While some pieces are hand-drawn, large canvas and sheets are block-printed.
The work done in Machilipatnam, often using block printing in conjunction with hand painting, features decorative floral and vegetable designs that appealed to local kingdoms and to export trade.
This culminated in European demand for Machilipatnam chintz, which derives its name from the Hindi word chint (spotted).



We spent one whole afternoon looking at fabric creation and production.
This process can only be done when they are not in rainy season - leaving them jobless for four months out of the year.
We talked with many workers about the wage they made and on average most worked twelve hour days making only one dollar per day.

India - New Beginnings

Isaiah 43:18-19
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.



Monday, October 18 we went from Atlanta to Chicago to Abu Daubi to Hyderabad to Vijayawada to Machillpatnam arriving at about 2:30 on Wednesday.

We had most definitely crossed over into a new land.
The pastors and children lined both sides of the road as we walked into the compound.
And the huge 15 x 15 sign, yikes, can you say akward?
I guess they had been waiting for us.
So much for being behind the scenes in my comfort zone.



The name of the town close to the Mighty Shepard Ministires is called Machilipatnam.
It is a town of about 500,000 people in a district called Krishna .
Outside the town, there are many villages and towns fairly close by. There are many farmers and field workers in the local area. The town, Machilipatnam, is in a state called Andrea Pradesh. There are 28 states in India . Andrea Pradesh (A.P.) has 26 districts and a population of about 100 million.
Machilipatnam is about 10 miles inland from the Bay of Bengal.

As in all of India , Hindu is the majority religion there with great amounts of idols and idol worship in that area.

What Taking Possession Really Looks Like

Deuteronomy 2: 24
“Set out now and cross the Arnon Gorge. See, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his country. Begin to take possession of it and engage him in battle.

The big day was finally here!
We had prayed, packed, planned, shopped and said our good-bye's.
And then, Thursday we got bumped four times with our buddy passes.
Missing all possible flights and connections.
Let's just say I was sobbing more than once in the airport.
We waited and waited for the Lord to pull some last minute magic.
After nine hours at Concourse E in the Atlanta Airport, we returned home with the information that Air France would do nothing for us and not even let us pay change fee's.
They told us we lost our money and that was just the way it was.
Sorry! $2800 worth of sorry left a deep sick feeling in my stomach.
We had hit a brick wall.

Even as we sat out side in the cool night breeze, I said, I still think something is going to happen.
My mom finally drove up and we left with out our suitcase holding our gifts for the children in India.
As we drove home I tried to process, how could we have missed God like that?
I was making a mental list of the things that had to happen for all of this to work.
What about all the extra side jobs Dan got at work, his parents coming to stay with the kids and all people who sent support.
What would I tell everyone. Thinking about that was worse than missing our planes.

After the emotional roller coaster ride, we finally arrived home with no fight left.
We fell into bed asking the Lord to work on our behalf.
Through the night it was like was being jolted wake up thinking of one more thing we should have tried, only to realize that we did try everything while dozing off again.

When morning came I was numb.
So many questions with no answers.
While checking my email and drinking my coffee I watched David Copeland's video email that just happened to be on extreme warfare, bizarre and unusual circumstances and a unique new anointing coming from the Lord.
Well, that fit, we had all of those things happen.
Honestly, His words felt like being thrown a new life line.
It was confirmation to what we had heard before we left - this was a new season.
So didn't we miss God?
So many things fallen into place for us to go there was still hope.
We just had to keep pushing.

Friday morning I said to myself, OK - IF this was going to work it's gonna be CRAZY....and crazy it was.

While I was drinking my coffee trying to figure out just exactly how God was going to show up there was a knock at the front door.
It was the meter man and he was at the house to install a new power source for the new digital meter.
My thought was - for all I care buddy you can take the bricks off the house if you really want to.
I really wasn't in the best mood.

We would leave and go to our favorite breakfast place and talk about what to do next.
While we talked we got a few phone calls and a few text messages.
Things began to shift!

Later in the day, as all of the God things started happening, I could hear the meter man's words, "you will drop power for a few seconds, but, it will come back more accurate with the new digital meter."

Indeed it did!
Who knew the Lord made house calls.

We ended up getting in $2200 on Friday in various ways from our supporters.
We went to the bank to file a "claim for no services rendered" with our credit card.
To our surprise, the bank put the $2800 back in our account for the first tickets that we couldn't use while we dispute this claim.
Plus, the new tickets we booked that evening actually ended up being $800 less than our first tickets.

So, with all of that we will try this again Monday!
Now we just need our bag back from the airline before we leave on Monday!
It seems it went to Paris with out us.

When the Lord said, begin to possess the Land, I had no idea it would begin in the Atlanta Airport with several "open book tests".