We have made it to India and I love it here. The people are beautiful. The miracles that have taken place have yet to process in my mind, the way the Lord has challenged me hurts, and the amount of control I am losing is freeing. Let me begin with how we got here.
Traveling to India was ummm interesting for me.
We arrive in Moscow, Russia where we have a 5 hour layover and as soon as we land my sandal breaks. All of my shoes being in my checked luggage I am now shoeless. We arrive at the New Delhi airport and the first thing a local says to me is “happy blasting.” Prior to arrival I receive an email from the Embassy about bombings that were scheduled to take place in New Delhi the morning we arrive. We pick up all of our luggage and as we are climbing up stairs I get shoved into the back of someone and the corner of their bag drills me in the eye. Loaded down with our luggage, we step outside the New Delhi airport. Overwhelmed by the heat, I feel dehydrated, dizzy, and lost. I see people everywhere, cars everywhere, I hear honking everywhere. I cross the street and am literally inches away from being ran over by a taxi! We make it on the train where we are to travel for 30 hours with no meals and no air conditioning. I wake up in the middle of the night to find an Indian man sitting at the foot of my bed smiling. Like I said interesting to say the least!
After the train ride we traveled 3 hours on a bus to our ministry location. We are here with two other teams. Our team was picked to leave the mission house and travel about an hour and a half away with a change of clothes and our bible's to a church. This church is our home for the month. There are no rooms, no ac, no internet only windows and a concrete floor. There are twenty villages in this area and our mission is to spend everyday from 12 to 10 in one village preaching the gospel, and praying for people.
India hasn't been easy.
Everyday for me has been a fight. Everyday has been a new struggle. A different sickness almost everyday. Missing my family. Not being able to sleep at night because of ants crawling all over me. Being haunted by dreams of my past. Waking up in the morning to my feet being covered with mosquito bites.
Many times at the church I have sat and thought what have I gotten myself into? What was I thinking signing up for this? My life in America was so good. I seriously had it made. Or did I? Is a life made that is easy and comfortable? I have to say absolutely not. We need to be taken out of our comfort zone (whatever that may look like) to really be taken to a place of dependency with God.
On this race there is no control. You can't choose anymore who you want to hangout with. This team I'm with is now my family whether I like it or not. You can't choose what you want to eat. You can't call a friend or family member whenever you want. You can't control your transportation… The driving in India is scary. I cringe every time I sit in the rickshaw ( India's taxi). At first it was funny but then it really started freaking me out. Fear and control. The roads are tiny, there aren’t really lanes, and every time a car passes you it looks like its going to hit you head on. My fear when I get into the cab is control. I have had to ask myself the question “Am I ready to die?” What I mean is, can I really give up the control to really trust God to really give my life to Him and know that my life is not my life. My life is His.
I realize how many choices we have and how much we control things in our lives. We choose what we want to eat, we choose who we want to hangout with. We choose pretty much everything! Anyways, it's all control and it's time for us to let go of it. Do something different for once. Talk to someone you wouldn’t normally talk to, instead of driving to work take public transportation, maybe even ask God to challenge and push you.
That has been my prayer. I told my dad before I left for the village to pray that for me and he had no doubt that I would be pushed. I don’t want this to be easy. Yet, when I'm going through the rough I hate it. My rough looks completely different than God's rough. Makes me laugh – I try to even control what God challenging me looks like.
I just realized that today has been the first day I looked in a mirror in 8 days. Since being in India I haven’t worn any makeup and finally I am at a place where I am ready to give up some of the many clothes I brought. This is my freedom. These things had a hold on me that made me sick. They had control. It looks different for each person.
When I sat down to write this blog I wanted it to be about all of the miracles I’ve seen the past 8 days. It looks like God wanted it to take another direction! But, I will share a little bit in this blog. My teammates and I have led over 100 people to Christ. For some it's the first time they have ever even heard about Jesus! We have laid hands on the sick and they have been healed. God even used us to release demonic spirits out of two women.
One night in one of the villages so many people were being healed that we had to eat dinner in hiding. It was time for ministry to be over yet there were crowds of people waiting to be prayed for and healed. So instead of stopping when it was on our time we continued to let God move. Healing after healing! It was amazing. My teammates and I would just look at each other in amazement, laugh, and praise God for what He was doing.
The best part was instead of my team just laying hands on the people to heal them the crowd of village people started joining in and laying there hands on them with us. Even the village children placed their hands on the sick and prayed with us.
The power that was in the village that night was incredible. At the end of the night the taxi takes us home. We get out to pay and the driver refused to take our money for the ride. Instead, he asked us to pray for him. We laid our hands on him and began to pray.
Here are some pictures from this past week 🙂
That one little boy praying makes me smile.
Woman healed!
Man praising God for healing!
After church service one night. These kids are full of joy and love to sing!
The very first village we went to in India 🙂 I'll never forget.
Taking a break for some dinner! They feed us very well here and I have missed spicy food soooo much!
We started dancing! It was intense…
I won't ever see this little girl again but I will always remember the joy her and her brother brought to my heart. Indescribable. They have the chubbiest cheeks and I couldn't stop loving on them!
