This month here in India has just been so amazing! God has shown up and shown out all throughout this month. I have been leading our trips to different orphanages close by. We have mostly been going to one called Jireh and I love it there. It is a group of 10 wonderful kids. I love the vision that the owners have there. They trust in God to be their provider which is what the name stands for. The father is from Manipur and he felt pity for the kids and brought 5 of them with him to Bangalore and now it has grown to 10. They also have 3 kids of their own. So on Wednesday Mary, Mikala and I had the opportunity to visit one of the other orphanages called Bethany. We all thought we were going to hang out with the kids but God had another plan for us. So we started out with teaching them some songs and games. Then Mikala had to leave for another ministry. We had a snack with them and then all the kids went outside to play. So this just left me, Mary and the owner Padma in the room. Mary asked her how the orphanage started and she proceeds to tell us her whole testimony. This is where the Holy Spirit just sat down in the room with us. Padma has such an amazing story. She tells us about how she was raised in a very poor village and her whole family is Hindu. Her mom still hates her till this day because of her belief in Christ. Sometimes if she decided to go to church her mom would not feed her for the day. She was ridiculed most of her life because she could not have children. But once she came into the city for college God came through for her and gave her what she needed to start the orphanage two years ago. Padma just cried as she told us her story. She said that no one had ever just sat down and listened to what she had to say. We could just tell how much it blessed her that we just sat and listened to what she had to say. Then we prayed over her. It really made me think how many of us would be willing to sacrifice everything for Christ. Would we be willing to leave it all behind and just trust that the Lord will take care of us? Sacrifice has been a big part of this trip for me. It was not easy leaving my family behind and answering God’s calling for me these last 8 months but it has been well worth it. I have grown so much closer to the Lord and been able to experience so many amazing things. It reminds me of that verse 2 in 1 Corinthians 2 where Paul resolves to know nothing but Christ and him crucified. Also, the verse in Romans 12 that talks about offering our bodies as living sacrifices. As a believer in Christ we should be willing to sacrifice all that we have for the sake of his name. It won’t be easy but it will be worth it. God never promised us an easy life; he just promised he would be with us every step of the way. Jesus says in Matthew 28:20, “And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.” He will never leave us. May we all be willing to take up our crosses and follow him each day no matter what that may mean for us.
Here are some pictures from this month:
Me, Susan, and Courtney with the girls from Esther Project
The kids from the preschool here at the YWAM base
Teja from Jireh orphanage…love this kid soo much!
Playing Ninja with the Jireh orphanage kids
Me, the kids and Padma from Bethany orphanage
