So month one in India officially ended this past Wednesday and we have officially began debrief and month two in Nepal. I have been processing my experiences in India with my squad and embracing beautiful Nepal the past few days, but I am finally ready to write a final blog on India.
At the beginning in our orientation, we were warned multiple times that India is a very hard country to begin the race with and a hard country in general to deal with at any point. In some cases, I totally agree. But just because it is a hard country to acclimate culturally (and weather wise) doesn’t mean it’s a country that you will hate.
India is definitely not my favorite country, but India has taught me so many valuable lessons. Hard lessons, but so valuable. And I believe this country truly set the tone for the race in the best of ways.
I had so many experiences that were wonderful with the people there. So more than the climate, the way women have to dress, the oppression, or spiritual warfare…I’m going to talk to you about the beautiful people with amazing hearts in India that I encountered. They are the ones that made India shine in my eyes.
“T”he Squad
So, I’ve already met these people prior to India, but these people set the tone for India. I love my squad so much. Every person here has unique stories of their own of their experiences in India, and all of them, like me, left friends and family to come run with Jesus around the world. I know I’m not alone in times of homesickness, in the times of sweating buckets in India, in the times of sickness, in the hard times…because I’m surrounded by brothers and sisters in Christ. They are “the ones” that Jesus used to comfort me, even when we all weren’t all together. The best treat was waking up the morning we were leaving and coming out and seeing most of my squad there. It was like Christmas morning.
Team Anchored
So, these people have challenged me so much to grow this past month. They’ve challenged me to be more vulnerable, and they have challenged me to fight for friendships and unity. I’m not going to lie and say that this past month was rainbow and butterfly land because it was not. My team has faced a lot of crazy issues and it’s brought a lot of ugly to the surface. But it’s so God can take away the ugly and put something beautiful in it’s place. No matter what, I know this team was put together for a reason. And they are the ones that helped push me out of my comfort zone and challenged me to be anchored in Christ. They all have a special place in my heart!
Welcoming Committee
These kids were the first Indian children that my squad came into contact with at the hotel that we stayed at for the first couple of days. They obviously did not know us at all, but they were excited to come over and play with us and get to know us. They have such amazing joy and such spunky personalities. They loved playing various high five games with us and taking pictures. Little did we know, they were giving us a preview at the beautiful hearts we all would encounter all through out India. Their faces will always be engraved in my heart and mind.
Covenant Worship Boys
This group of men truly are after God’s own heart. In this picture, we all are sitting on the floor, eating lunch with our hands and just being in community laughing with one another. My team had to interview a few of them, and every interview reflected the purity of their soul and devotion towards God. Their testimonies are powerful and shows how mighty God is. Just about all of them, if not all, when asked what their dreams were would always answer they wanted God’s will for their lives…they wanted God’s dreams for them because it is way better than their own. You could tell by the way they answered it wasn’t a fake, religious statement that they were throwing out there, but they truly meant it. You could see in the way they live daily and how they worship. They truly inspired us all to seek God more. So to all of Covenant Worship-thank you for everything and thank you for challenging us to love Jesus more.
Park Ministry
This picture is of my team mate, Josh, witnessing to a Hindu man that came over asking Josh if he could use his bird to read Josh’s fortune. Josh took this opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus to him and explain how he already knows his future. This turned out to be a lengthy but effective conversation and afterwards this man asked Josh for a Bible. This is just one awesome story from park ministry. On this night, we got to play and love on the kids at the park. Kids picked the girls flowers and had fun making funny faces on our cameras. I will never forget the kids I met that night and the man that had his heart open to hearing the gospel.
The Widow
James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
This moment is one of the most precious memories I will carry from India with me. This moment helped me realize the power of this scripture as well. The lady sitting next to me just became a widow twenty-something days before meeting her. Two years prior, her son passed away. In her town, the culture tells her she must stay at home for 3 months when her father comes to get her and she cannot leave her home. So when her daughter, mother and grandchildren (as pictured) are not there with her, she is left alone in her grief. She is left alone to think of precious memories of her husband and son, and left to realize she is by her self. My team mates, Clare and Jen, and I stayed with her for about a half hour or so. She did not speak english and we did not speak Telugu. So until her grandchildren came, that spoke amazing english, we just sat there. We held her hand, we smiled at each other, and love entered the room. As I am writing this, my heart is hurting for her still. Please be praying for her, and all widows going through this pain.
University Girls
My teammate, Jen, and I met these wonderful girls at a town that we were ministering at one weekend. We went with our host for the weekend, Kumar, to share the gospel at the local university. Jen and I met these girls outside of their college dorm, and we were invited in to spend time with them that evening and the next morning.
We talked about Jesus, shared his love with them, sang a “Jesus” song for them and talked about the struggles they have as women in India. They have such beautiful souls and I have never felt more loved from perfect strangers. They encouraged Jen and myself maybe more than we encouraged them. One of the girls gave me her earrings and said, “These earrings do not bring you beauty. You make the earrings beautiful.”
They were so genuine and so sweet. We teared up when we left each other, and they asked we kept them in their prayers.
Please be praying that Jesus used our words to plant seeds in their hearts and that they come to truly know Him.
This wonderful lady sitting next to me is Pastor Kumar’s wife that hosted us for a weekend. The other young lady is a neighborhood girl that came over to visit us with other neighborhood kids. They both are special to me. The whole weekend we were there, Kumar’s wife struggled with horrible morning sickness due to obviously being pregnant. Even while feeling awful, she still made sure we felt welcome and still helped Kumar prepare meals for us while we were there. She has such a beautiful, bubbly personality and still stayed joyful even while feeling miserable. I will miss this couple so much. That was the same town I met the college girls, and the same town I fell in love with in India. I miss everyone that I encountered there so much.
There are so many more people that I could bring up that made my trip to India beautiful. While writing this blog, I realized what a beautiful experience India I truly had. There were a lot of adversity and some days felt downright miserable…but my goodness…so much good came from month one of the World Race.
So this blog is a tribute to all “the ones” that shaped my journey in India and set the tone for the rest of my race. Thank you.
Also-I actually still am needing money donated for the race. Some things have came up, and it’s hard for one of my monthly donors to keep donating. So, if you feel led to donate to my race that would be wonderful!!!
Love and miss you all!
Sincerely,
Meraia
