Rebecca

My trip to get here took three flights and the better part of two days. I left San Diego on Wednesday June 20th at 10:30a.m. and arrived to Ahmedabad at 6:35a.m. on June 22nd.

 I met a woman named Rebecca from California, while I was waiting in the airport in Mumbai for my last flight. As one of the only other foreigners in sight we naturally gravitated towards each other. 

She turned out to be a missionary from the Baptist Church. She had started out working at an architecture firm in New York, when one day she decided she wasn't feeling fulfilled in her job any more, and she said God told her to come to India. 

After her first trip in 2009, where she worked with a missionary, Rebecca looked to God to find her true mission in India. After that first trip, Rebecca started working to get kids off the street and into school programs in Kolkata. Now with the support of her church and various prayer groups she has spent the majority of the last three years in India working to get kids into schools. When she is home she presents to her church and all the other organizations supporting her on the work she is doing here. 

Rebecca's commitment to her faith and her work was admirable. Despite an extreme fear of flying, and some uncomfortableness with the culture in Kolkata, Rebecca continues to come back year after year feeling as though this is what she is meant to do. 

Her dedication to the work she is doing, made me reexamine why I was making the trip to India myself. And though our motivations and methods for helping may have been different, our goals are the same, to help. 

I wish her luck in her endeavors, and thank her for the company as I waited for the last leg of my long trip.