I’m gonna dig India

I’m gonna dig India

It’s funny because it’s true and because it means more than just digging India. At the end of the month in Vietnam, I felt God really calling me to dig into some things that I thought or wanted. Why do I think this or that and why do I want this or that? I’m not typically a digger. I’d rather wait for things to come up and then deal with it. When I was telling Darcie she made some sort of “dig into ya/ dig India” joke, and it stuck. Not only have I begun to dig into some things but I have also been digging India so much. Through my digging, God just revealed some mistrust I have in his goodness. He reminded me and set my heart straight that whatever he has in store for my life it will be beautiful and rewarding so long as I follow him.

This month I was back in the bush. My team and I lived with a pastor and his wife and their 2 teenage boys and their 10 orphan daughters. A family of 14. We lived about 3 hours outside of Hyderabad on a small dirt road.

For our ministry, we would go to a different village every night to preach the Gospel, sing, skit, dance, and pray pray pray. I often find myself getting caught up in seeing God work miracles- making the blind see or the lame walk. But, something The Lord showed me this month, was how big of a deal it is for people to become believers and followers of Him. In every village we went to, which was somewhere around 15, I think, we saw at least 2 people come to Jesus. In a culture that is almost entirely Hindu, people taught their whole lives to worship hundreds of Gods, where just 1 God couldn’t ever be enough, it’s HUGE that these people even consider the possibility of Jesus. To fully accept him, wow. Incredible. He is so much bigger than tradition. He is so much bigger that a hundred other gods put together. He is so much greater.

I also learned even more about praying. This race has been so incredible for my prayer life and my trust in God through prayers. This month, we wanted to visibly see God work. But, through praying we realized that God does things for his glory. So if answering these prayers would give more glory to us as the Americans (most of the people we came in contact with had never seen white people or Americans before) than to him as God Almighty, then we didn’t want it to happen. The beautiful thing about prayer in India is that they love it! What a spiritual country! The very first day we were walking down the road and we got stopped by an old woman who wanted is to pray for healing for her leg. My one question that seemed to constantly get lost in translation was “why, if they aren’t Christians, do they trust our prayers to our God?” I can’t give an answer, but I do know that whether they were aware or not they were giving God an in and stepping into an experience with him. So I’m thankful for at least that much.

We had so many beautiful, fun experiences with our family. One of the first nights we were with them we somehow got to each singing out national anthems- India, Canada, America. It was so funny. And, duh, as proud Americans we didn’t just stop at our anthem, we added a few more patriotic songs. God bless America. We learned their dances (they LOVE dances… Sister mahathipriya had dancing blood. She was awesome). And we taught them some of our own- cha cha slide and love shack. We prayed together. These 6 year old girls has such passion that their prayers brought them to tears. I can’t even explain how humbling that was. It was the best picture of childlike faith that had seen yet. They taught us how to put flowers together to decorate our hair. On valentines day (which they get out of school for! What!) we have the whole family chocolate. They were so excited and the little cards we made they stapled on a sheet of paper and hung that the front door to show all their names. And Pastor cried. Another super humbling experience. Because what actually happened was that Jo and I were only getting chocolate bars for our team but since we needed Praveen to go into town with us we had to tell him. Jo told him to keep it a secret and not tell anyone. But he went downstairs and told his whole family we were getting them chocolate. So we didn’t really have a choice. I am so thankful that we had to. I’m so thankful I wasn’t allowed to be selfish.

A few stories that really stick out about our month- but first I need to talk a little bit about what it was like to walk through villages and draw a crowd. We started with a group of 22 people, our team and pastors whole family. We sang our way through the villages. And then, because we were Americans, we drew crowds with cameras. We drew loud children. For me, it didn’t speak peace. We were here to bring peace to these people and instead we were noisy and rambunctious. All the girls were in the way when we were praying because they wanted to lay hands too. Whoa whoa whoa! Kelsea! In the way? Let the little children come to The Lord, for with them is the kingdom of God! That was a slap of truth for me from God. Then I wanted these noisy kids to go away! Let us pray in peace! Whoa whoa whoa! Kelsea! These children need to hear about me! This is a time of planting seeds in their hearts! God was constantly reminding me patience and of his love for his children.

Story time-
In one village we met a woman who was part of Banjara culture. There is so few people that are still part of this group. They dress differently so that’s how we knew which women were Banjara and which weren’t. I don’t know much else about them. But this woman listened so intently as Jo preached the Gospel. Afterwards she went to Jo and told her that she believed in Jesus. He had come to her while she was in the hospital on her death bed. He told her to believe in him and he would give her life. But, she couldn’t follow only him openly because her husband would beat her and her family would scold her. God is good always though, and I know he will continue to speak to her and show himself to her in new ways. I pray that she will grow in boldness and strength and courage and confidence. The other story that hit me hard was about Ashok. Ashok was 12 years old. He died 2 days before we left. About 4 days before we left his grandmother (who we prayed for the first night we went out, is a Christian, and was looking so incredible and rejuvenated this time around) brought him to us asking for prayer. He had a fever for 4 days and hadn’t eaten or drank anything. At around 4 pm that day he started seizing up and seeing things. They told us he was possessed by a demon. When I looked into his eyes I didn’t see evil. I saw so much fear and exhaustion. He kept falling in and out of sleep while we prayed over him. When we did wake up it was to foreign faces speaking in a foreign tongue. He had been told he had a demon in him and not he was experiencing something crazy! I prayed peace over him. His mom was rough with him. Something was off with her. I don’t know what it was but I prayed for her heart. They told us he had gotten sick because of black magic a woman had directed at him. I knew God was more powerful. They took him home and wouldn’t let us pray over his home. So we spent some time worshipping God, praising him, and directing our prayers over his home. I don’t know why God didn’t heal him. It was really heart breaking when we went to see him 2 days later laying dead on a bed of hay. Surrounded by his neighbors, family, and friends. Sophia out the perfect verse to their mourning. 1 thes 3:14. They mounted without hope. They hit themselves and choked themselves. They cried out so loud to their Hindu gods. His mom passed out and was taken to the hospital. Everyone was crying. My heart was so broken. When I stood their I didn’t see just one dead child. That sounds dramatic. I saw many children of God so lost. So without hope. I left and just lost it on our roof. My prayer if that Ashok had been one of those noisy kids following us around the village the first night. That he had heard our truth and that he believed in his heart about Jesus. I don’t know much else to say about his story. It still brings me to tears. But, through it, God reminded me of an urgency to tell the Gospel. To tell people about his love, his forgiveness, and his unchanging goodness.

Leaving our family was so hard. It never gets easy to say goodbye to people that helped you grow and showed you so much love. I’m thankful. I’m so so thankful for this beautiful month. It ended with Ana amazing week doing ministry with my dad in Hyderabad. That’s for another blog though.