Click here to see photos from this month!
It’s finally here. This month actually looks like the World Race I signed up for.
Life in the Indian village is something special!
It’s all about community. The family of 4 (Pastor, wife, and 2 boys) run a loving orphanage of 10 girls ages 6-15. They do everything together…everything!
That means there is no line between “my space” and “your space”. For example, sometimes you find yourself in the “privacy” of your tent dressed according to the heat (i.e. not fully), when you discover a small Indian child looking at you from under the lifted rain-fly.
Well hello, child! Hmm, we play later?
The definition of modesty here is also different. Women must not show their legs at all – even the ankles must be covered in loose fitting pants or a long skirt. The shoulders, upper arms, and armpits are also a concern. And while praying or preaching, it is good to cover the head with a scarf. The stomach, however, is fair game!
Combine the weather, full coverage attire, and little privacy, and we are perpetually hot this month.
But it is so worth it.
We are living out the Bible!
The culture here is very accepting of spiritual things, so people love having us pray for them. In fact, we rarely leave our home without people stopping us to pray for them. One woman chased our taxi (tuc tuc) down the street until we pulled over because she had just been bit by a poisonous scorpion and wanted us to pray for healing.
Our ministry is spreading the gospel to all the people here. We are bringing the Good News to as many villages as we can over the few weeks we have here. The goal is to reach 26 villages.
On a typical night we travel to the village (in a small vehicle or by foot, depending how far), perform a skit and some songs, preach the gospel, pray with all the people who want to accept Jesus, then pray for healing for almost everyone else.
Many people have accepted Jesus. For them, the hardest thing to understand is that Jesus is the only one worth worshiping. They mostly grow up being taught to worship as many gods as they want. But of course, Jesus is unique in that His glory is unequaled and deserves our undivided praise and worship.
Praying for the people is great. It is a growing experience to pray in faith for serious healings, especially over people who don’t believe in Jesus. Just 2 hours a day is exhausting!
We pray for many things, such as
- fevers
- back pain
- leg pain
- body pain
- the blind
- the deaf
- the mute
- the lame
- the handicapped
- and the demonized.
Also sometimes for
- exams
- financial problems
- or family problems.
One day 4 little kids stopped Jenny and I on the street to pray over their upcoming exams.
And let me tell you about these kids. I have never seen such faith! These kids pray, and they pray earnestly! The 10 orphan girls come with us on prayer walks and lay hands on people with faith that their God heals – and He does! Praise God, Jesus heals!
During church one girl about 10 years old prayed on her knees with a passion that brought her to tears!
These kids haven’t put God in a man-made box. They are teaching me every day about what God means by coming to Him like a child.
People come to our house from all over the village, asking for our God to heal them. We pray that He does. Usually we don’t see healing in the moment we pray for it. Sometimes we hear about the healing a little later, sometimes we never hear.
Faith, though, doesn’t require seeing the healing. Faith is believing without seeing, again and again and again.
That’s what I’m learning this month. I want to have the faith of a child. The faith of asking God to heal each time like it’s the first time I’ve asked. Knowing that He desires us to have restored, perfect bodies, and will one day heal many things we prayed over.
I may never see that day on earth, but luckily faith doesn’t need to see it.
