“Try to keep your soul always in peace and quiet, always ready for whatever our Lord may wish to work in you. It is certainly a higher virtue of the soul, and a greater grace, to be able to enjoy the Lord in different times and different places than in only one.” – Saint Ignatius
Chibai (Hello in Hmar) from India!
It is crazy to be writing this blog from a mountain in Northeast India! It took us 3 days, 4 flights, and 1 bus ride to get to our ministry location. We are spending the month with the Hmar tribe at Bibles for the World Ministry. I will write a separate blog about what we have been doing with the AMAZING ministry here and the life and vision of the Founder, Rev. Dr. Rochunga Podaite.
It’s funny how things become oddly familiar oddly fast…
(Here is the hostel that our squad is living in for the month!)
(Here is the view from the rooftop of our hostel. The jungle and mountains are beautiful!)
Each day of ministry looks different. We are learning to be flexible, to seek out our own ministry opportunities, and to rely on the Lord to work through us despite language barriers. We have worked on construction projects, worked at the hospital, traveled to medical camps in villages outside of Sielmat, worked at the primary school in Sielmat, and other various projects. More in the next blog!
Every morning, I go to the meal tent at 6:30am and have quiet time with the Lord. Our hosts provide chai tea every morning (the best thing in the world!) and it has become my favorite part of the day.
(The meal tent where our squad eats and spends time together. This is what quiet (chai) time looks like with 60 people!)
The people here are SO hospitable and gracious and loving. Each team has a liaison that accompanies them to ministry and translates for us. Our team liaison was Jessai, and he was so sweet and helpful and protective and made sure we had everything we needed!
(On our last night, the ministry presented us with traditional Hmar scarves. This is my team with our liaison, Jessai!)
A few other random facts about the last month:
– Driving is terrifying. There are no lines on the road and people pass on both sides. There area also cows and people everywhere.
(The busy streets of Sielmat, India)
– They have a place here called Prayer Mountain. This is a dedicated place for people to spend time with the Lord. One morning, I got up at 4am to climb Prayer Mountain and see the sunrise. Totally worth it!
(The sunrise crew on Prayer Mountain)
(Sunrise view on Prayer Mountain)
– Here’s a tip: Never wash almost all of your clothes when it rains for 7 days straight. You WILL be without clothes.
(A few squad friends doing laundry. We have a new definition of “clean” on the Race.)
– The food here is SO good. They have a bread called puri that we eat for breakfast, and lots of noodles and curry for dinner. I also ate dog meat!
(Typical Indian breakfast!)
(Dara and the Kitchen Crew. These friends served us SO well and worked all day to provide us with food. They also graciously let us cook with them and taught me how to cook the Grass Carp that I caught!)
– Bucket showers and “Indian bathrooms” (a hole in the ground) really do become normal once you figure out a strategy to use them.
– Just because it is not rainy season, doesn’t mean that we won’t get monsoon rains that will flood into our room and collapse our meal tent.
(An impromptu meal in the dorm because our dinner tent collapsed.)
– Riding in the back of a cattle truck during a rainstorm is one of my favorite ways to travel.
– There are giant spiders and giant slugs here.
– If we get invited to an event, we now assume we are leading the event. Always, always, always have “special numbers” such as stories, skits, games, testimonies, and songs ready!
– The Seminary students and teachers call me Sister Dani here and I think it is the cutest nickname ever.
(“Fun Night” with the Seminary students. This is the first time I’ve actually thought about Heaven and how awesome it will be to have every tribe and every tongue and every nation praising the Lord there. The TCS (Trinity College and Seminary) students always say how grateful they are to have us in their community, but I don’t think they understand how much of a blessing they are to us and how well they care for us. This room of believers displayed so many characteristics of Christ.)
– I went fishing! There is a pond on the property with grass carp and we used worms and ground up rice shells as bait. I caught 2 and my liaison, Francis, caught 4, and we had fun cleaning, frying, and eating them!
– Favorite memory: My squad mate Jess and I went on an adventure with one of our favorite people, Hazel! She has such an amazing heart for us and for her community.
(On our adventure, we stopped at a neighbor’s house and walked right in! She had a little shop set up inside.)
(Hazel took us to visit her brother, Emmanuel. He has an amazing story and they welcomed us as if we were family.)
– We went to a Youth Conference and the World Race team sang in front of a few hundred people. There is a first for everything!
– Best thing in my backpack this month: Rain Jacket!
– The word of the month: JOY. The Lord is teaching me what choosing joy looks like this month. I am memorizing John 15 and there is an awesome verse in the chapter that says, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” On the Race, there will be good days and bad days and long days and rainy days and amak talou (wonderful) days, but my joy can be constant through all of them if it is found in the Lord. Circumstances cannot steal the joy that will overflow in me when I fix my eyes on all that the Lord has done for me.
I can’t believe Month 1 is over! Next stop, Kathmandu, Nepal!
