Well it has started! World Race month one!! I can’t believe i am here! Thank you so much to every one who has stood beside me and helped get me here. Before I set in on me, let me tell you a little bit about where i am and some of the awesome things that are happening here.
This month I am in Manipur, India more specifically Sielmat village. Most of the area i am in are Christians. Christianity came to the Hmar people by a single missionary named Watkins Rogers. Rogers was advised not to come to the area because at the time the Hmar people were known as head hunters. But he chose to listen to the calling God put on his life rather then the people. The Hmar people fell in love with Jesus and started to serve Him. However they did not have a written language so they had no bibles. Years later a young man chose to do something about it. He learned the English language then went to school in America. His one purpose of doing all of this was to create a written language for his people so that he could write the bible in his language. The man that did all of this goes by the name Roh and is still here today. 86 years old, Roh doesn’t let anything slow him down. He is in a wheel chair now but didn’t let that stop him from turing the village with us. We walked to the seminary and he was there in the car watching from afar. We walked to the hospital and he was there. We walked to the Partnership Ministry Society headquarters and he was there. This man still has such a heart for God and the ministry that is going on. If you would like to hear his full story you can look up the movie ‘Beyond the Next Mountain’. (Might only be able to find it on youtube.)
The main ministry going on here in Sielmat is a Seminary were they are raising up leaders to help pastor the growing church. In 1988 there are over 200 churches but only 68 pastors. Most of the students that attend the seminary are sponsored by people in the states. On top of the seminary they have a Christian school ages 3-16. There are over 2,600 students that will be attending this February when school starts back up. Sadly they have to turn down about 300 applicants a year because there is not enough space.
Our first day of ministry, a group of us went up to Prayer Mountain. We spent the day using bamboo machetes to clear brush and trees. Prayer Mountain is used for a place of prayer and worship. People donate to have little cabins built, each cabin cost about $1,500 (94,350 rupees) to build. There are currently 3 cabins and one prayer hall on this particular Mountain. The Mountain is open to whoever wants to use it. We were told a few different stories of uses but one really touched my hear. January 1st one of the pastors went up to the mountain and entered a cabin, he found a young man who had been there since December 25th. He had no food, just one bottle of water. The young man said that he had a drug addiction and nothing could help. He said he knew the only one that could help was God and that was why he was there. The pastor was able to pray with him then let him be. He went back on the 5th of January but the young man was gone. We don’t know what happened or how he is doing but what we do know is that he needed hope and when he had know where else to turn he turned to that mountain to seek after the only hope we all have. After hearing this story, knowing that there are probably more just like it, I felt so blessed to be apart of the building of it.
This was one of two Prayer Mountains, a newer Prayer Mountain that they hope to build just like the other one. The other has about 50 cabins, we are told people love Jesus so much here that they spend more money on building a prayer cabin than they do on there own homes. We went in one and they had a huge book sitting on the table, most of the pages were empty. We looked to the first pages to see what it was all about, they were writing the bible by hand! Anyone that came in was able to continue where the last person left off. There were a few different languages (in Maniphur there are 27 languages) but we were the first english entry. We each wrote about 5 verses. It has been such a blessing to see how much people are willing to give to worship God.
Now a little about day by day life for me. I currently have a nice room to put my sleeping pad in, a bathroom and electricity. Next week we will be moving to huts that were built for us. As nice as it is to have a room I’m excited to sleep in a grass hut! We have bucket showers, i have the choice of taking a cold one every day or a hot one every four days. There is a gentleman that heats up water over a fire and brings it to us. Today i did laundry for the first time, out of a bucket… don’t know if ill get use to that. I have had the opportunity to help with the construction of the hospital and serve at a kids retreat. So much in just one week! I cant wait to see what the next few weeks have in store for me.
I just want to say a thank you again to all the people that believed in me and sacrificed to help me get here! If it wasn’t for you i would not be here, there is no way i could have done it on my own. Please continue to follow this crazy adventure the Lord has put me on.
Love
Krystle Garwood
