Friends, I am in desperate need of financial support. I need $4200 total to finish the World Race, but more immediately, I need $1500 by April 1st. If this doesn’t come in, my World Race journey will end after month six. From now on, each blog I post will include how much support I still need, and if anything has come in recently. If you are mailing a check, please click on the button to the right where it is says ‘E-mail Me’ and let me know. Thank you, and keep praying for me please.
Landing On The Moon
Even driving into Stone Village, we could see and feel a difference. This place is geographically a part of Bangalore, but at the same time, so far removed from society that it might as well be a remote village somewhere in the bush. We are traveling to a slum called Stone Village, aptly named for its proximity to a large granite quarry. The stone dust is everywhere, a coating of gray on every surface. It hangs pervasively over and on everything, lending an otherworldly feel to this place. The quarry and its surrounding villages appear to have been bled dry of all color by the dust. We might as well be on the moon. The only indications that we are not: the dump trucks that go rolling by, laden with the granite excavated to eke out an existence in extreme poverty.
We arrive in Stone Village, and suddenly, it is a world with some light. The people here are wearing brilliant splashes of color that even the omnipresent light-killing powder is unable to dull. Our roles today are to divide and conquer. Jeff and Sharon are going to work on Medical Ministry; Mark, Laura, and Vicki are going to work (play) with the local children; Jacob and I are slated to head off for home visits. We quickly learn that the person who usually guides the home visits is not there, so with two of our contacts, Jacob and I start prayer walking. The village is small, so it doesn’t take long for us to cover it and walk around it, erecting spiritual walls to protect the people within.
After prayer walking for nearly an hour, we head back toward the van, and the location of the Medical Ministry. Jeff and Sharon were seeing patients, Jeff doing his Physical Therapist thing, and Sharon praying the whole time. Everyone, regardless of age, has lung and breathing problems, and that is where most symptoms begin. I am having a hard time grasping the whys here, so John (our contact), stands beside me for a while and educates me more clearly about the caste system here, and how it really works (blog coming soon). The short version is that the people living in this village are stuck. There is no way for them to work any harder and pull themselves out of the poverty here. The only thing that is going to change their lives is Jesus, and that is abundantly clear.
We then walk over to the church to see how the children’s program is doing. Vicki is giving a lesson on David and Goliath. She is a wonderful teacher, and is, as usual, doing an excellent job. After the lesson, the kids head home, first receiving a large roll, for most, the best food they get all week. I watch as one little boy carefully tears his roll in half and tucks one half into his pocket to save for later. The children here are such brilliant beacons of light; I can’t help but have hope for them, despite the pervading sense of despair in this place.
