Going to the leper colony is hard. Its uncomfortable. Its awkward. There are no words to describe how odd it is. A group of Americans, walking through like a group of tourists to befriend the people who are living life in an Indian leper colony. Something about it feels so patronizing. And as you look into people’s eyes you have to wonder, what makes you different from me? Are we different? What makes us the same?
We visited the leper colony once again and the dread in me was there again. UGH. I am a missionary and this is no glory story. The material need, the physical need, the health needs, the spiritual needs are so in your face. Jesus’ response to all of this would be compassion, why is mine of self-protection and feelings of being overwhelmed. I can’t handle it. So, I don’t know what else to do but to pray. So in all of this need, this desperation, I pray the most honest prayer I have in all of our visits to the leper colony. We can’t do this without You, Jesus. You have to go into that alley, touch eyes, hearts, minds, bodies in ways that a human cannot. We step out of the car, out of safety, out of comfort and into the alley. The children from the slums run over to us like they have honing beacons and can sense and smell western blood. We walk through the alley, people raise their heads from their beds. The hopelessness is thick. We walk to the end of the alley, gather the kids. We talk to Jesus and ask Him to join us there in that little patch of concrete that is swarming with flies, with these little ones from the slums. They sit with a stillness and quietness that they have never had before. I ask, do you know who Jesus is? Has anyone here heard of Jesus? Our translator translates the question. No. They have never heard of this Jesus. It’s a profound moment. The team and I are struck by this realization that there is no knowledge of Jesus here, yet Jesus is here. So where do you begin? How do you begin to explain to these little ones that have no concept of Him? Jesus is God, Jesus loves you, Jesus loved you so much He died for you. Its overwhelming. We only have half an hour with them, we share what we can in the short amount of time that we can. I share about something thats been intimate to me in the past several years. I share about Jesus being God and God being in your boat when you are scared. When all you can feel is the wind and the the waves, and you want to run and hide. But then there He is. How we can talk to our God when we are scared, because even the wind and the wave obey Him. Because He is there, unafraid, even just hanging out and napping, while we run around screaming our little heads off.
After we shared, I saw a little old woman sitting on the ground. Watching and listening. I sat down next to her and started to chat with her through body language. Its amazing what you can communicate through pointing, grunts, etc. 🙂 I found out that her children are alcoholics, they beat her. She is going blind, her legs hurt. This sweet little woman, just sitting there, listening to our children’s teaching. She continues to come out every week, to sit in the back as we teach the children. The Spirit of God is moving in that place. His hand is moving. Human eyes cannot see it, but I am speaking it in faith. I’ve seen adults peeking their heads over the wall of the leper colony, listening. I’ve seen the lepers come out and sit as we teach the children, their curiosity tickled. And so, the Lord hears and He uses the fish and loaves that we bring to feed the hungry in ways that we cannot see with our eyes. But we believe in what we cannot see. So its all good.
