Everybody loves India. Even before going to India, I knew that it would be something special. I mean, just looking around the Indian embassy in Cambodia made that apparent. There was the yellow-robed monk making a pilgrimage to the origin of Buddhism, a 60-year-old hippie in a white tunic and hindu prayer beads (clearly a remnant from the George Harrison era), an old Jewish man reading hebraic texts, and groups of skimpily clad backpackers suggesting that India is the hot place to go (literally, and figuratively). And there we were: missionaries pretending not to be missionaries, meticulously prompted to answer each of the ambassador’s questions in a specific way so as not to arouse suspicion.
I loved India. We were based out of the city of Hyderabad, but spent each week in a new village: Sarvaram, Vallala, Sulgandar… Every week we went to live in a home through CCH (Children’s Covenant Homes). These homes took in children who were either orphaned or had single parents who recognized that their child would have greater care and opportunities with CCH. Each house was run by a pastor, and he and his wife took care of the kids (there were boy homes and girl homes), enrolled them in private Christian schools, and guided them spiritually. Almost all of the kids that we met had come to know Christ through those homes.
Don’t for one moment think that the homes were filled with sadness or poverty. I think that that is what Americans often imagine. Also, don’t think for one moment that everyone went out to herd goats and come home to a quiet house of tea and curry while sitting on the floor. While there were herds of goats and sheep that paraded the roads, we spent a fantastic amount of time dancing our hearts out to Gangnam Style and really awesome Indian Christian rock, while introducing wedding line dances to the repertoire of our Indian friends. We also did eat a lot of curry (with our hands) and drink masala tea. Mmmmmmmm…masala tea…
In each house we painted the children’s dorm room, did crafts with the children, danced, taught English and reading, led exercises, taught songs, and spent every single second with the kids.
One of the CCH houses we stayed at.
A dorm wall we painted.
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Church service worship.
Playing with the neighborhood children.
We did outreach in the villages through preaching and praying. In India I preached for the first time (with my head covered, of course). India had a different prayer culture than anything I’ve experienced. If someone needed prayer, they didn’t just say “keep me on your mind”. We went directly to their house, laid hands on them, and prayed. We would spend whole evening this way, going from house to house. We were asked to pray for everything from health to exams.
In India, we had to follow a lot of rules.
We were told that India would be the country most drastically different from everything we knew. Women can’t smile at the men because that’s flirting. Women had to remain quiet and not speak or laugh too loudly in public. Women couldn’t talk one-on-one with a man unless that man was her husband. Women needed to keep their heads covered when praying or preaching. Women needed to keep their legs covered and their tops needed to cover the butt. Essentially, a lot of rules that have to do with women. As one girl put it, “Welcome to India. You are a walking sin.” In fact, all of the women on our squad needed to go buy new clothes to wear for the entire month (the cool clothes we’re wearing in all of the pictures above).
In India, we were celebrities.
At least in the villages. Our team went to villages that had never seen white people before, and so as soon as we stepped off of the bus we would be surrounded by crowds of people taking pictures of us and trying to shake our hands. Many times our translator had to rush us out of places when the crowds of people became to aggressive – pulling us and pushing us towards one another like commodities or a prop: “Take a picture with them. Now it’s my turn!” One day, as we were in a van, a group of young men on a motorcycle pulled up to the window and asked the driver to pull over so that they could take pictures with us. He complied and we were told to get out so that we could pose with each young man in turn. It sounds awful in retrospect, but at the time it was just another strange experience and mostly an annoyance.
In India, I struggled with the church.
I mentioned India’s prayer culture above. In addition to being asked to pray for health and exams, sometimes we would be asked to pray over a small packet of oil to bless it as holy oil or for some other reason that I wasn’t aware of. This is a picture of something that I really struggled with in India. It’s religiousness. The Christianity practiced had an inescapable presence of superstition, and there were parts of the culture and it’s hinduistic influence that remained to affect the church. I talked with a number of other racers, some did not see this as a problem, some did not experience it at all, but some were very bothered and I talked with them about their experiences and thoughts. Over a month later, I finally voiced it all in my journal:
Now, don’t get me wrong. We got to work with some awesome pastors! What I mention below is a broad picture developed based on some of my experiences and also talking to other Racers about their experiences. It is not constant everywhere you go, but still prevalent.
India is a society based on hierarchy. Instead of Christians painstakingly destroying this notion, they have allowed Christianity to adapt to the social structures already in place. There is an automatic hierarchy in the church body that no on dismantles. That’s why villagers have missionaries and pastors pray over them, while they would never pray for the missionary or pastor, who are viewed as ‘higher up’ and so ‘closer to God’. There were instances where racers would invite members of the church to pray with them, but they were refused. It was not a thing that was done.
Evangelizing in India is based on the argument, ‘My God is bigger than your god’. That is the appeal of the Christian God, and how many of us were told to preach. But God was left at that. God is viewed as a king. He is seen as a high and awesome being, but is not comprehended as an intimate Father. There is little desire to get to know Him intimately.
There was almost no biblical knowledge. It was not really preached, encouraged, or made accessible. There is little ability for someone in the village to seek Biblical truths for themselves. One woman on my team was asked to preach our last night in a village. She prayed, and felt called to talk about knowing scripture. She asked if anyone had verses memorized, and only two hands raised. So she talked about having scripture on your heart, about reading it daily, knowing it, memorizing it, and having it ready to share God with the people that we meet. At the end of her sermon she asked if anyone had any questions. One young man raised his hand and asked, “What’s your favorite Indian food?”
So many people say, “It’s just different. It’s a different culture. We all experience God differently”. But we should still be completely intolerant of anything that goes against the truth of God’s word. The untruths of a culture shouldn’t be comprised with a part-truth, they should be eradicated to make room for the whole truth. You can create a healthy church on no less. If you’re offering the good news to see someone freed, to live in freedom, why would you intentionally allow them to remain in bondage to make the transition more comfortable? Allow them to remain in bondage?! That is not love.
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But nonetheless, India was beautiful. We were treated with SO much love, SO much good food, SO much fun and joy. I was worn out every day from playing and dancing. I plan on going back at some time. I really do. How can someone enter India and not feel pulled back? I struggled with the spirituality I saw, but India is a nation where, praise God, Christianity is growing and spreading and it is beautiful. Pray for India, particularly the Christians in the villages and every thing that they are up against as they are spreading churches and God’s presence.
