We kicked off our shoes next to the pile at the glass door and walked into the all white living room with mint leather couches and happy Indian worship music. We sat down and were introduced to Uncle Paul. He is a short Indian man, not much taller than my 5’3” self. His silver hair is the proof of his age and wisdom.
Uncle Paul, above
Currently Listening: Give Thanks (circa 1990)
Signature Dish: Spicy Fried Cauliflower
Spirit Animal: Scorpion (self-proclaimed)
Hobbies: Cooking, Swimming, Serving his church
He led us to his dining room table where there were seven sets of dishes stacked and a green, plastic bug net covering our lunch. His wife, Martha, greeted us from the kitchen, “Praise the Laud!” We ate a delicious lunch of spicy chicken wings, rice and curry with steamed vegetables. This was the best home cooked meal I have had in a while since we ate at restaurants almost every meal in Nepal. After we finished eating, we joined him in the living room sitting on the cracked pleather couches. We had some awkward small talk and he told us to come inside a bedroom next to the dining room where we had just eaten to “pray for a girl.”
We hesitantly entered to see a frail, pale girl sitting in an office chair in the middle of the room next to the bed. She had on a muumuu, bandages wrapped around her calves and she was hanging her head toward the ground, barely able to hold it up to greet us. She mumbled some words and hung her head again with her eyes closed. The seven of us gathered around her to pray for healing from her kidney failure and there to be no more pain. When we finished, she looked up at us and mustered all the joy she had, which was actually very convincing, and said, “Praise the Lord! Thank you!”
We left that house feeling very heavy and honored. Heavy that we just had a care-free lunch literally feet away from this precious girl who was dying and honored that we were asked to pray for her in her last week. Yes, she passed away the next week as we got to be beside her bed once again praying for her. Though the course of the week and visiting Uncle Paul’s house every day for lunch, we learned that she was his 30 year old daughter who has had kidney trouble for the past 10 years and trusted the Lord to heal her. He did. She is no longer in pain. She is no longer suffering, but now in her eternal home.
In India I watched a movie with an Indian funeral, but never thought I would have the privilege of attending one. The night his Gadamathri died, the entire family and church family came to the house, where they cleared out the living room mint couches, dressed her body in a sari, sang praises to God while she lay in a white and silver coffin on the ground. I have experienced sweet funerals before, but this was amazing. Believers coming together to worship their Father for taking care of his daughter and celebrating that she is no longer in pain. The moment that shook me was when Uncle Paul knelt by the coffin to pray as he grieved for his daughter.
The most amazing part of Uncle Paul’s story is that it was his daughter that first showed him who Jesus was. He used to be a Hindu priest and he would see her praying in her room. He knew her prayers were different than praying to idols, but he let her continue without confronting her about it. He visited a Christian church with his brother as a favor to him and was convicted when the pastor spoke about worshipping other idols as sin and declaring Jesus as the one true God. Uncle Paul thought that someone had told the pastor about him. He continued to go and Jesus showed Him that He was true and live and active, unlike the other gods he worshipped. He surrendered his life to God and brought his family to the Lord and they have been serving faithfully and unashamed for three years.
This man, of 60+ years, has so much joy. Every time we enter his house for lunch, he greets us with “Praise the Lord!” and tells us how cooking for us brings him joy. He truly does feel like an uncle to us and I am so proud to know him.
