I love photography and I posted some of the shots I have taken on my personal blog. If you would like to see them go to http://kaylakoontz.theworldrace.org/?filename=india 

I have a history of extremely vivid dreams whenever I serve overseas. Maybe it’s the change of environment, the change of community, or the change of air, but I have dreamt some really strange dreams in my past. I was the winner of a sumo wrestling match where we wore full body suits of peanut butter sandwiches. I was in rickshaw races and (obviously) won those as well. I have flown, jumped, swam, and floated my way around the world in my dreams. And most recently, I was chased by the lunch lady at college. Forgive me for not cleaning up my table; just please don’t hurt me. There have...

My team was invited to a Christian/ pastor conference thing this past Saturday.  There was a lot of worship, preaching and praying that was so spirit enriched and filling that I barely could contain myself. Christians in India are almost an unheard of thing, they are few, but when you see a believer they stand out, they glow with Christ. These people gave me hope for this dark and dead nation.  We left pretty late that night, and in India things really start to get crazy at night. We were at a busier part of town and were overwhelmed at some of the things we saw-...

My team was invited to a Christian/ pastor conference thing this past Saturday.  There was a lot of worship, preaching and praying that was so spirit enriched and filling that I barely could contain myself. Christians in India are almost an unheard of thing, they are few, but when you see a believer they stand out, they glow with Christ. These people gave me hope for this dark and dead nation.  We left pretty late that night, and in India things really start to get crazy at night. We were at a busier part of town and were overwhelmed at some of the things we saw- transvestites, idol worship...

I have been on the mission field for over a year now but for some reason it was really hard for me to say goodbye to my family when I left for India 2 weeks ago. All throughout training camp, I was struggling with it. I felt like everything I had been through within the last year finally had caught up with me and I was tired of adventure. Sadly, if I had the choice to stay or go… I probably would have stayed home. As I said goodbye to them it was like I could literally feel my heart being ripped in half. I painfully realized that I have never actually surrendered them to God and it was...

When describing India, most people say it’s dirty and full of people, beautiful and crazy, dark and lost. But I’ve found hope here. At the boys’ home, there’s a boy named Hopen. He’s that kid who is indescribable. He’s about four years old, tiny, missing some teeth, but is full of personality. I knew as soon as I met him that he’d be the one I’d tell stories about.   Like that time when he climbed a wall in order to show me how strong he is. Or that time when we pretended we were airplanes from the 1930s taking down our enemies. Or...