In this blog I want you to meet some people I have met in India and how they impressed themselves onto my heart. Note that I have changed their names.
One person that I keep thinking about is a young Christian man named Randy. As we entered his family’s house, it was just his younger sister. However, God would have it that he would come in when we were there. He told the story of how his family were “Sunday” Christians, but when he was continually failing in his studies, he went to God. And he started doing well. Eventually his family threw out all of their Hindu gods. They started living out their faith. And through his faith, as he surpassed his fellow students, others came to know God.
What has stayed with me, though, was this young man’s just general BEING. He loves God so fiercely. His faith was so incredibly strong. Nothing can dappen his faith or talking about his faith. As he played his drums for us, there was also great joy. As we left his house to visit other homes, he came with us to each home.
Another person that has made an impression on my heart is Brooks. We walked into his family’s home where we first saw a couple middle aged women. As we walked into the small home, 6 or 7 village kids filed in after us. Then one of the woman helped Brooks come in and sit–he was blind. My heart welled up with such love for this 18 year old boy. I don’t think it was pity. But I definitely have an idea of how Jesus felt in the Gospels when it says “He had compassion on them.”
Brooks got chicken pox at age 14–4 years ago. He lost his sight because of it. He had a surgery which was unsuccessful, but he got prayer and got 30% vision in one eye. His family is constantly praying for him to regain his vision; yet, they have such faith in God that He will do His Good will. Many people know and love Brooks and because of his testimony, some have come to know God.
Before we knew all this, though, one of the woman started a worship song in Indian and Brooks with his large hands, started playing the drums lovingly, with passion, and with tenderness.
One of the reasons he is so impressed on my heart, though, was the joy he had whenever he smiled or a friend came over and sat by him. It may be one of the most impressive smiles I have ever seen.
Another was amazing older Christian woman–I wish I could have sat at her feet for hours and learned from her. She had so much wisdom and had such a faith in God. I have much I could learn from her. I asked her for her testimony because I love hearing how other people came to know Christ.
I want to give you guys a short run-down. She and her husband were Hindu but her sister-in-law were Christians. Her husband was an alcoholic and one night when it got very bad, she told him she would leave.
She broke down because she didn’t know where she would go. So she went to the God that her sister-in-law told her about. She told God that He would have to do something in a month for her to believe in Him. And so, though she almost forgot about her ultimatum with God, He didn’t. 15 days later her husband got super sick. She took off work to take care of him and when her boss talked to her to check-in with her, he got them a really good doctor. Had it been much later in getting help, he would have died. And so, they both become Christians, they threw out all of their Hindu idols. They had both moms living with them and her mom also became a believer and now they are praying for her husband’s mom to come to know Jesus. It was neat. And that’s just a snip-it of her story
These are just a couple of people who were impressed upon my heart from India. Their stories amaze me and I can learn a lot from them. Wherever we go though, we can come to meet people and hear their stories. Let people WHEREVER you are impress themselves on your heart.
