What an unbelievable first month and 1 half I have had coming back to India from my Holiday Break in the US!!! It has been good, bad, ugly, and to be honest lately, joyful as well.
Lets start with my health.. First of all it has been 28 days (February 1st) since I was attacked by my Bison friend Fluffy.
I spent 10 days in the hospital with severe wounds in and on my butt. The doctors are very pleased with my progress and say the wounds are very healthy. They are predicting I will be fully recovered by late March to mid April. I still go to the hospital 2 times a day for wound treatments. Morning and night is my routine for the treatments which leaves me a good amount of time in the day but I will get to that. Praise God the doctor and nurses that have been treating me are pleased and say that wound is infection free and healing nicely. I got really good news a few days ago. They said the internal wounds have almost healed and the visible wounds are starting to slowly close. I still have a long way to go but I am convinced I will fully heal with no life changing ailments.
I am now staying at the Koadikanal International School with Mary Cornelius and her family. She is a Dorm parent for 9th to 12th grade girls at the school. I also used to live next door to them in Chennai as her husband is the principle for HBI.
I was so surprised to see her and her family here when I came, and now that I am injured I praise God she and here family is here. Kodaikanal International school or KIS is the reason I am here to begin with.
I for a brief few seconds questioned God as to why I was attacked and why he called he me here early. Back in November when I was in the US I found out that there was a ministry at KIS at the first part of February. This meant that i had to cut my trip to the US short by almost 3 weeks in order to make it to Kodaikanal.
If i had come when I was scheduled to come on February 2nd I would have arrived at the school 3 days after the attacked happened. So I asked God why did you call me here early to get Attacked by a Bison Bull before the main part of my ministry here even started. This thought was going on in my head about 1 hour after the attack in the hospital. I was screaming in pain and covered in blood and in that brief moment I heard God say to me "Do not worry, I will take care of you and I will use this for my Glory"!! I in that moment, laying in bed, my friend holding my hand, crying my head out because of pain, being scared and wondering why me... I stopped crying and started to laugh so hard that the people around me thought I was crazy. It only lasted a few moments, but in those moments I was sure that even though I was going threw something so dramatic and hard it was going to be for the good.
I can say so far honestly, This has been one of the most joyful and fulfilling times of my life. I have had such a great time here in Kodaikanal, and yes, it has been obvious that He is using this pain for His glory here at KIS. Everywhere I go people know me and want to know all about what happened, and every time I speak I get to tell them how My God saved me. Even in the Town here of a few thousand I get stopped and people want to know my story. Kodaikanal is a Mountain town in the southern part of India about 7000ft in elevation.
In my time here I have spent a lot of here here talking one on one with the children and
hearing all about there lives here and them hearing my story. I have also got the chance to spend a significant amount of time in the Piano learning department here at the school sitting with the children listing to them and playing. I am so excited to the prospect that I can speak into some of these young lives as they are amazing musicians and a few are prodigies when it comes to playing piano. I pray that there talents will be used for God's glory and hope I can be a small part of that in my small bit of time here.
Last week I was sitting with a young girl, maybe 12 years of age, listening to her. She was so happy to have me there with her. All of a sudden she stopped her classical piece that she was practicing and asked me if she could play a song for me . She started to Play "Here I am to Worship", and as she sung it and played it, I started to sing with her. I would have to say that that was on of the most special moments of worship I have ever experienced!!! We were both in awe after the song. It was so special to have her play that for me, and she said she was thankful for the music our band did for the school.
Our band came here as part of a team from an organization called Scripture Union. SU was asked to come to the school for a week long "Religious Awareness Week" program that the school was having. My band was invited to come to help out with teaching and to put on a few music programs for the school. The day I was injured was Sunday Night. That morning we were asked to play for the school chapel service which was very special for me. Many after the service came up and were so thankful for the music and ministry. One couple that works here that is from Ohio said it was like being a service at home, and was happy. Speaking of people from Ohio, I have seen 2 students here with Ohio state t-shirts on and I met one more the just transferred here from Westerville North high school a few months ago. Way too small of a world!!
That Sunday, my friends and I really had a good day. We went out into the town and looked around. We went to the nearby lake, went bike riding, some went boating and then I showed Colin and a few others what Frisbee Golf was all about. I had fun with that. We went to the school soccer field and I was throwing the Frisbee Discs from one goal to the other. Good times! Then that evening we were to go to a high school boys dorm for a devotional and that is when I was attacked. If you want to read about the attack read my last blog entry at
http://swaggsupdates.blogspot.com/2009/02/spiritual-warfare.html . For the team, the week went on as scheduled, and I laid in the hospital for most of it.
The Wednesday after the attack, we had a school wide assembly which all of the middle and High schoolers were there (about 500 kids). I made it a goal to be a part of that, and Praise God I made it! I believe this was one of the most impactfull events that I could have made here at the school. By this time everyone in the school knew all about the Bison and who I was. Many saw me on Saturday and Sunday and I was able to make a connection with a few of the kids on those few days playing basketball with them or eating lunch or dinner with them. It was the only time in my life I have ever felt like a rock star!! This was an hour long assembly and the hospital made sure I was only there for as long as I needed to be. So half way through the assembly I get out of a taxi, wearing my Pj's and in some serious pain I get out of this taxi and the whole crowd cheered. I felt so good to be there in that moment!! Colin came over and hugged me and helped me to the stage. In those few moments I had there I was given the mic and was able to tell the whole school about how God saved me and how he was so good to me. Then our band played Aaron Shust'd "My Savior My God" and Casting Crown's "Life Song". God is so Good to me and I praise his name that I was able to be a part of that assembly.
Friday night was the concert and had most of the school there. That was such a great night for me as well as even though I was in pain that night and struggling to stand for the 2 hour show, God was so good and He was defiantly there. When it was time for us to play Life Song, the kids must have remembered it from the Wednesday Assembly because when we announced the name of the song everyone cheered.
After my team left to return for Chennai, it was not safe for me to travel because of my wounds so it was decided that it would be best for me to stay back and heal. Poor me as this this is an absolutely beautiful place. Also the climate is perfect (70s by day and 40s by night). So here we are...... I have been here a month doing nothing but spending time with the kids and helping where I can. Last week I was able to visit one of the middle school boy's dorms and the dorm parent invited me to stay there, so this past weekend I was able to spend the weekend with the boys there. My time there was mostly hanging out with the kids, watching movies, watching them play soccer and cricket, and playing some video games with them. It was a very special weekend and I was pleased that the kids have all excepted me as a friend and not as some adult. I had one boy there that has come to me a few times when he was sad and homesick. He cried on my shoulder a bit, and I was happy he was comfortable to come to me for comfort. This coming weekend I have been asked to stay at the Elementary school boys. I will be there some this week at the Elementary school as well helping there in the music department and anything else I can do to be a blessing.
The few weeks that I was here prior to Coming to Kodaikanal was really all about getting over Jet lag and getting my life ready to live here for some time. The plan at this point is to be here 14 more months and see how the Lord leads me from there. I am no longer living at HBI but will be living off campus nearby in an apartment. I am still will be doing ministry at HBI as needed. I put down a deposit on on the apartment and I was told that it is ready for me to move in now.
The owner of the flat did a significant amount of work on it to make it comfortable for me and clean. I can't wait to move in there when I return to Chennai on March 7th. My time in Chennai was hard as I had to deal with a lot of issues pertaining to my scooter and other things that needed to be cleaned up from last years ministry. Also I experienced a significant amount of spiritual warfare there. Since people have started to pray for me the attacks have been removed from my life Praise God.
Prayer has been so huge for me in my time here so far. One of the coolest things that happened prayer wise that I have ever experienced was when they doctor was installing my 35+ stitches in my butt. As that was going on and I was in so much pain, and so scared, about half way into the procedure most of the pain went away and I became quite comfortable. This was not a medicine thing, because I had been given medicine more then one and a half hours before this. I found out that my pastor in Chennai called New Life Church in the US and informed them of what was going on. The timing that my late night procedure was going on was the same time that the Morning Services at New Life were going on in the US, and I was told that the church prayed for me in the exact moment that the procedure was going on. Praise God I felt those Prayers and God's presents was with us in the room with us.
PRAYER REQUESTSThank you all for your prayers in that moment and over these last few weeks. God is so good and He is healing me and using me in a big way here. I think my prayer needs are obvious, but I do have some needs that I would ask you to please lift up for me. One, please continue to pray for my protection from the enemy. It is quite obvious that he is not happy that I am here. Two, pray against infection and anything that will slow the healing process of my injuries. The projection is that I will fully heal by late March to mid April, so pray that even as I return to Chennai, I heal without no complications. Praise God so far from what I am hearing that the school here is covering ALL my medical costs!! Please pray I do not get some surprise bill as I can not afford that right now. Four, please pray I get my bike back when I return to Chennai. I do not have it because of some legal reasons that is going on at HBI. Long Story that i am not going to get into, but I will need the bike to continue my hospital treatments when I return to Chennai, so pray that all the documents and needed signatures are completed and ready for me when I return to Chennai in 2 weeks. Five, (Big One) HBI is no longer wanting to take care of my donations, so I am in need of a Charitable organization here to receive my gifts that you are sending me and getting it into my hands. Right now I have about 4 months of money left to survive on, so this is a big issue. Please DO NOT send any money to HBI from now on so I can be obedient to there request.
I have 2 needs that I am asking you to help me with. Many have said that you are praying for me and I thank you for that. If you are one that is praying for me Monthly, weekly, or daily, please let me know that so I can add you to my "Swaggs prayer team". My other need is money. If you can send me a gift of some kind that would help me a great deal. The kicker is that you will not get a tax benefit until I get my Charitable Organization issue worked out. If you can please send a check to my P.O Box in Gahanna, please do. That address is P.O Box 30323, Gahanna OH 43230. You may also give to me online at PayPal and that link is
Here . There is so much to come this year and I have found out more news as to my future here in India and in Asia, and I will lay out my Ministry plan and what seems to be my future here in my next update. God is Good All the time and Praise God He is Using me to make an impact in His Kingdom.
Thank you so much again for your Love and support!!!
PS. Here are some random pics from Kodaikanal that I have taken. Enjoy.
These Mountain Pictures were taken about 20 minutes from Kodaikanal
Welcome to Kodaikanal and Kodaikanal International School
This was art from a 7th grader that was inspired by my Bison friend
Saying Goodbye (Joshua) and hello to some old friends
This is me on the back of Colin's bike holding his 1 year old daughter going down the road at 40mph
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