Surrounded by jasmine, dirt, heat and smiling faces is how Lisa Chase will remember her recent trip to India.
    Chase, director of marketing and development at St. Anne’s Episcopal School in Middletown, traveled to the country on a missionary trip from Aug. 4 to Aug. 12 with Elizabeth Anne Winters, a rising senior at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.
    While there, Chase and Winters visited several villages and met with more than 1,200 children in and near Tamil Nadu, in southern India around the southeast coast.
    “We were there to provide some very important programs for the children that hopefully they’ll remember for a long time, and to provide encouragement for the pastors,” Chase said. “We shared God’s love through very practical means.”
    She said the trip came about at a training program in North Carolina for Junior Cotillion, an organization that teaches students the basics of etiquette, ethics and manners. Chase directs a Junior Cotillion chapter in Delaware.
    She spoke with the executive director of the program, who is Winters’ mother, about her interest in India and her wish to teach Junior Cotillion there.
    “I’ve always had a love of India,” Chase said. “She said, ‘My daughter is thinking about going this summer. Would you like to go with her?’ ”

The culture
    Chase and Winters scheduled the trip and traveled with Rajan and Beckye Chinnadurai, founders of Heart International Ministries and the Hope Home for Children in Chennai. Rajan is from India and Beckye is from the United States, but they live in India with their six children and one on the way.
    With financial help from her church and the support of her husband, Chase got her Indian visa and a multitude of preventative shots for typhoid, malaria and polio among others.
    She said while it was her first trip to the country, she felt safe and at home for the entire visit.
    “I felt very comfortable once I got there,” she said. “We had to be mindful of the customs. I just listened and watched and took direction from Rajan about how to interact with the people.”
    The motels she and Winters stayed in were inexpensive, but provided all the basic necessities, plus televisions and phones.
    “We were very comfortable wherever we stayed, but I never got a hot shower the entire time,” Chase said. “I just got used to it.”
    One thing she said they had to be careful of was the tap water, which they were advised not to drink because it wasn’t purified like it is in the U.S. Because of this, they couldn’t eat any fruits or vegetables at restaurants because they weren’t sure if they’d been washed in tap water.
    “I was craving fresh fruit by the time I got home,” Chase said. “It would have been nice to have a big bowl of cantaloupe.”
    She said she couldn’t get enough of the Indian food, especially curry, lentils and chickpeas.
    Chase said they traveled to villages away from the main Indian cities of Madurai and Chennai.
    “In some of the villages we went to, the people were poor, but they were so joyful,” she said. “We were probably some of the first Americans they had ever seen.
    “People lived in tiny huts with thatched roofs,” Chase said. “They were families living together and the children were well cared for.”
   
The mission
    Chase and Winters met with 100 to 300 Christian, Hindu and Muslim children at a time in the villages they visited. They spent about two hours with each group of children.
    “We were either in a church structure or a community hall,” Chase said. “They came for us and we were so humbled. I thought we’d have maybe 40 to 50 kids, but the least amount was maybe 100 on the first night.”
    She said they told the children a range of stories from the Bible that are taught in U.S. Sunday school settings about Noah’s Ark, the Fishers of Men and the Life of Joseph.
    Chase said they taught the Indian children a few tips from the Junior Cotillion, including U.S. introductions, how to use utensils and how to sit in a chair properly, and also went over the English alphabet. While English is one of the official languages of India, the children in the villages aren’t as fluent in it as children are in the larger cities. The children Chase and Winters met with speak Tamil.
    “The children were so happy about us being there,” she said. “They would come up to us after our program and want to shake our hands and introduce themselves to us,” she said. “The girls would kiss their fingers and pinch your cheek to say, ‘You’re beautiful.’ We were treated so special.”
    Chase said her favorite memory of the trip was when one group of children sang a song about God in Tamil complete with hand motions.
    The Indian pastors watched and learned the U.S. ways to teach the children.
    “They were very happy we were there and cared enough to share our expertise and curriculum,” Chase said. “We showed them how we deliver a program and the kinds of stories we tell. We taught them you can tell a story through puppets, dramatization and tell the gospel and stories from the Bible through songs. We reiterated the stories with arts and crafts projects.”
    She said just having arts and crafts was exciting for the children.
    “When I pulled out the glitter glue, the kids were coming up to us in droves saying, “We want glitter!’ ” Chase said. “The things we take for granted here like glitter glue, Crayola crayons, construction paper and bubble gum are hard to come by for them. We brought a bunch of joy to them.”
   
The experience
    Chase said she had trouble sleeping the first few nights she was in India because she couldn’t stop thinking about the children she met.
    “Every second of every day was a joyful experience,” she said. “I was so excited about being there.”
    Chase said the Chinnadurais were great hosts who are full of compassion for India and its people.
    “They are an amazing team,” she said. “It was a blessing to watch how they work with their pastors and the Indian children.
    “Rajan has such a love for his country and the people and a tremendous sense of humor. He is an incredible preacher,” Chase said. “Beckye is the epitome of grace and graciousness, joy and patience.”
    She said she hopes to return to India for a few weeks every year if possible for missionary work. She also would like to eventually help start a school like St. Annes in India.
    “I fell in love with the children,” Chase said. “I would have brought all 1,200 home with me if I could have.”
    For more about the Heart International Ministries, go to www.hopeforindia.com.