It's 5:00 in the morning. I wish I could say I just woke up, but after laying in bed for an hour and a half I finally decided to give up and come downstairs. Apparently the Ambien really was the reason that I was able to sleep the last two nights. I'm always so afraid to get my body dependent on anything, so I didn't take any last night. I thought I might be back on track after two days and nights of American time. But I guess not. Maybe I'll do a half of an Ambien tonight. Hopefully after being up all day I'll crash from exhaustion at least.

I had a nightmare last night. I had gone to bed about 9:30 because the fatigue was just so great, and Jeff had gone with me. As I was sleeping, I felt something start crushing my head. It was almost like my cat had come walking up my body on the outside of the covers and was kicking my head over and over. I knew Jeff was beside me, so I kept trying to call out to him and couldn't make him hear me. I suddenly realized that he was holding me and trying to calm me down and I finally woke up. He said I had almost been to the point of screaming.

I haven't had a nightmare in a really long time. One night in India when we were driving around, Pastor David asked us why we don't believe in demons in America. We assured him that we did. But then he went on to tell us stories of actual demon-possessed people that he has dealt with. Solomon and Emmanuel told us their version of the same events. It was some really bizarre and scary stuff. So my thought last night after this happened was that I brought a demon back home from India with me. I'm not really sure what to do with that. But it's not a good feeling.

I still want to finish telling about our last three days in India, and I will get back to it. But I think I'm going to go do my Bible study right now instead. I'm a little behind, any my girls will be here tomorrow night ready to go. I can't wait to see them.

There is one thing I want to mention, though. Remember the blind boy from the second day we went out visiting churches? His name is Ramu. Outreach David (who from here on out I'll refer to as J.D., because that's what I call him now) has told me that he is eligible for a corneal transplant. So I was talking to my friend Dana, and she asked why we don't just raise some money and send it over there for him. My friend Dana is a smart girl.

So I'll probably do this more formally some time soon, but if you feel so compelled to contribute to the cause of Ramu, just shoot an e-mail to leighann@swordsmail.com. Once I collect the money, I can send it to the church through an account set up at my church and just earmark it for him.

If you don't feel led to give, that's completely acceptable. Just promise me that you'll lift him up. I'm including his picture here, even though adding pictures after I've already been typing always screws up the line spacing on blogger for some reason. But here he is in the middle wearing the white shirt with blue embroidery. His mother is to the left of him. She is a widow, suffering from tuberculosis. When J.D. brought this boy up and told us about him, the look of fear and desperation on both of their faces was forever burned into my brain. I've rarely been confronted with such suffering. It's so much easier to pretend stuff like this isn't out there. But it is.

So pray for Ramu today. Pray for Baptist Church Hyderbad. They are truly the bearers of light in a dark land.