At some point during the day, or maybe several to be honest, you can hear me singing my own version of “You Can Have Whatever You Like” to fit my team’s current situation. My favorite version that I have created, with the help of my team, goes like this:
“Rupees on deck.
Thums Up on ice.
We can have sodas all night
Akka you can have it as you like
Unless it’s toilet paper in the village
Yaaaah”
(obviously I am quite the poet)
If you ask a yes or no question to an Indian, I can almost guarantee you will receive this answer, “As you like, sister.” I can’t count the number of times I have heard that very phrase. India is an honor and shame culture. They do not want to do anything to shame you, so their first response to a question is going to be, “Yes,” or some form of that. I have learned there are better ways to ask questions. Overall this response has ministered to me, by encouraging an, “As you like it,” mindset.
The area we are living in this month is surrounded by homes. Every night lots of children come and play on our street. One night I went down to watch the children play while I waited for my dinner to arrive. A few minutes after I started playing with the kids, a young woman and her son came and sat down on the church steps across from where we live. She motioned for me to come and sit next to her. The conversation was rough for a while because of the language barrier. Soon a 12 year old boy named Raja came to our rescue! He translated for us, and I was able to learn all about her life as a wife and mother. After we had been talking for a while she invited my teammate Julia and I to see where she lived. Her house is maybe 10 steps from where I am staying. She lives in a one bedroom home that she rents, and her front door is a curtain. Inside of her home is a bed, tv, stove, a metal cabinet, shelves, and more pots and pans than I could count. She told us to sit down on the bed and began to pull out small bags of food and put water on the stove. She wanted to share what little food she had for her family with Julia and I. We explained that our dinner would be arriving soon, but she still wanted to give us something. She offered us a small snack of guava and nuts, and we wanted to honor her, so we accepted. Here was this woman wishing to serve us and give us whatever we liked, while having very few things of her own. I am motivated all the more, to give to others the way she gave to me.
(My neighbor friend is the woman on the right. She also helped put my saree on properly!)
My ministry this month is a village ministry. My team and I leave our rooms around 3 everyday to go out to a new village. This is India time we are working with, so we often leave closer to 4pm. When we arrive at the village, no matter how busy the pastor is or how far away the the nearest store is, we are always provided an ice cold soda. Usually the beverage of choice is Thums Up.
We have tried to implement the same “As you like” mindset when it comes to our ministry. Every night 1 to 2 members of my team gives a sermon and/or testimony. It would be much easier if we wrote one sermon with the intention of giving it again and again since we visit a different village every night. Kayla, my team leader, challenged us to give the villages our everything since they give us theirs. When I sit down to write my sermons I try not to have any expectations. I say to God “As you like,” reveal to me what the village needs to hear. The sermons I have written since Kayla’s challenge have been more meaningful than the first one I wrote with my own agenda.
In America we can be very “As I like,” minded. Most of the time, we think of how to best meet our needs while trying to serve others. In India, they genuinely want to serve others first. It is not about their own comfort, but how they can best serve their guest. It is my hope as I return home, that others will adopt the mindset of “As you like”. That my friends, family, and acquittances will see this change in me and feel empowered to do the same. …and just maybe you will too.
