($11,919 of $16,250)
India.
I remember when learning about traveling to India, I heard a saying, “Take everything you’ve ever imagined about India: the sights, the smells, the people, the culture, the colors, and multiply that times ten…and that still won’t prepare you for India.” I’ve learned these past few weeks that that’s pretty accurate actually. Though all of this is true, the people here are beautiful and have such a rich culture…nobody prepared me for their faith. As we walked into the church on Easter Sunday, we saw little children crying as they sang, danced, and prayed to Jesus with full confidence that He is their healer and provider. I marveled at the faith they had that God would take care of them when I started comparing my life to theirs. In the US where we have so much to make our lives convenient and comfortable, and here they have so much nothing. Yet they see Gods provision and love for them so easily.
This past Sunday, we crossed the river from Hampi and traveled to Hospet to visit a local church there. When we arrived, the pastor and his family welcomed us and when we asked what we could do to help them prepare for the service, they asked us to pray. Our group got in a circle and began to pray for the hearts of the people and listened to Gods voice. As we were praying, I looked up and saw everyone in the room praying and sincerely dwelling on the Lord. Instead of marveling at their faith, I began doing what I’ve always done…comparing. “God, what do I have to offer India??? They have better faith than I do…” After the service, the pastor asked us to stay up front and pray for anyone that asked us. One by one, they came flooding to us, all asking for healing. I think I was most surprised when I saw some walking towards me specifically. “Lord, what do these people see in me? I wish I could read their thoughts…Are they seeing something that I don’t see?…Do You see something in me that I don’t see?”
The first woman walked up. She couldn’t speak very good English, but I could make out the word, “pain” as she pointed to her back. I laid my hand on her back and was surprised at the tears I felt welling up inside me then spilling over my cheeks as I began to listen to what God wanted me to say. I started realizing why Jesus is so precious to these people, why little children cry as they sing about Him. Because He’s their only option. Of course these people are going to go to the Lord first when they don’t have the money or means of going to the Hospital. I started wondering what life would be like in the US if we approached the source first…or if we would even refer to God as the source for our health? I think more often than not, we go to Him for last minute prayer when nothing else works.
One by one, they all came forward and asked for healing. I prayed in obedience, hoping that any unbelief I had didn’t show on my face, while at the same time praying for it to go away. Afterwards, the pastor sat down with us and told us amazing stories of healings and transformation that had happened in the church. He explained to us that the people here know we come from a different place. They see our different skin and different culture and believe we have hope and news to bring them.
Today, a couple of my team mates and I crossed the river again to walk around and spread the Gospel. We walked into one of the temples filled with people. I couldn’t understand how so many people prayed with such faith to these millions of gods that they believed to be alive, when all I felt was an overwhelming presence of death. I felt Gods anger towards the devils work that had stolen His attention. I saw how much God loves and wants the hearts of India. How could His perfect love be hidden by so many man made idols that don’t hear them when they cry out to be healed? I wondered if they’ve ever cried out to their gods to be loved? If they thought they even deserved to be loved? We felt a dark presence and the need to pray, so we walked to the darkest corner in the temple and prayed in a circle. Afterwards our team leader said she felt God telling her to go and pray for healing over this one man lying down in the temple and asked what I thought. We did more listening prayer as I heard God speak in His familiar, still, strong voice, “I am with you. Go and heal.” We walked over to the man lying in the temple. He was so skinny and frail. He looked up at us and I was surprised to see a smile spread across his wrinkled face. We sat down next to him, not even sure if he spoke English. We asked about his life, his story, why he was there. It was hard to understand the little English that he knew, but we could see so much in his eyes. We asked if he had any pain that he needed healing for. He said no, and then proceeded to tell us that he had pain in his eyes. We asked if we could pray over him and he said yes. We prayed as a crowd of people in the temple gathered around us.
I prayed with all the faith I had and then it hit me. In the Bible when God marveled at the people’s faith or when he said to Moses, “Great is your faith,” He wasn’t talking about an amount of faith. Because later He says faith as small as a mustard seed will move mountains. But He was saying, “great is your faith” as in “awesome is your faith!” This makes it impossible to compare the amount of one persons faith to another’s since faith is all about God showing up, not how well we can trust Him. Repeatedly throughout Scripture, God uses the quiet to represent His voice, the depressed to represent His joy, the weak to represent His strength. For as long as I’ve been saved, God’s been proving Himself to be trustworthy. Since the beginning of the Race, God’s been showing me how I can rejoice in my weaknesses because it means He is going to show up. He has to. It’s what He’s always done.
He has called me higher,
Jenn
