“India, oh India. What are you all about?”
I seem to ask myself this question every month, but particularly this month it seemed to resonate more strongly. Ever since high school I can remember dying to travel to India. I can still remember sitting in World Cultures class with my teacher, Mr. Sally, watching the Bollywood movie, Lagaan, as we learned about the British taking control of India. I absolutely loved the movie! I bought the soundtrack and DVD online as quickly as I could. In college, I picked up the all-so-popular book “Eat, Pray, Love” and my favorite section was when the author went to India to learn how to pray. I hoped that one day I would find myself there.
Low and behold… Here I am!
Now I ask the question: “India, oh India. What are you all about?”
While here we are working with a ministry called India Christian Ministries and more specifically working with a host family who has an organization called The Sharon Ministries. Each day we go out to different outreaches; villages, slums, hospitals, schools, safe houses, churches, etc. and pray for people from all different walks of life. Each day we do between 1-3 different ministries and get very little rest. Along with the heat, the days begin to feel relentless and so does our praying. Very quickly our entire team became exhausted.
"India… is this what you’re all about? Exhaustion and overload?"
Then the night of April 19th happened; the night my team will never forget. It felt like any other night in India going door-to-door praying in a nearby slum. Each house we stopped at had specific prayer requests and our team would gather around them and pray. We came to this house at the end of the way and walked in thinking that it was going to be just another prayer for health or for their family. We were shocked at what we saw. A man, lying on a cot, with his knee surrounded by metal pins, bolts, and bars. I can’t even put into words what I was feeling or thinking. I just knew that something was about to change; something that I had no control over. I would like to say that God healed him and the contraption broke off his leg, bolts and pins flying through the air, and he could walk again, but I can’t. What happened was God changed my team.
As we walked away from the house feeling so defeated I was overcome with rage. NO… This will not defeat me or my team. Our God has called us specifically to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who are unclean, and drive out demons. (Matthew 10:8) He has equipped us with gifts that are empowered by the Holy Spirit inside us. (1 Corinthians 12:7-11)
As I stepped aside to pray to God about how angry I was, he led me to do something that is totally not me and completely out of my comfort zone. I went on a Holy Spirit filled tangent. I gathered my team up and said “We’re not praying for another person until we get our team right with the Lord. We may feel exhausted, defeated, and just down right tired of praying, but God has specifically called each and every one of us here as individuals to pave the way for the Kingdom of Heaven. We have abandoned everything we love to come here to this place. He wants to use us! Our spiritual gifts do not hinder or defeat us, they empower us and we should be rejoicing Him and thanking Him in every moment no matter what.” Somehow in that moment I dropped all concerns of what other people may think and just spoke from my gut, something I have never been able to do.
As much as this was a huge celebration for me in my struggles with caring about what other people think it was more about God’s celebration through the Holy Spirit using me to empower my team. Sometimes we get frustrated when we pray and pray and pray and don’t see immediate results, but our prayers do not fall on deaf ears. Not with our God. Sometimes we get tired of praying for people over and over and over again, but each prayer counts. Our God doesn’t relent, why should we? That same night my team leader was led to Luke 18:1, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” That night, Friday April 19th, my whole team wanted to give up. God taught us a huge lesson and he taught us what it means to be a team. A team that doesn’t relent.
So I got my answer. “India, oh India. What are you all about?”
“Jen, of Jen. I’m all about Relentlessness.”
