It began as a typical day of ministry in India, or so we thought traveling to a local village. Our first stop was at Auntie Banu’s house where the adventure for the evening started. We were served a heaping plate of watermelon and I immediately went in for a slice. Little did I know there would be six more plates to come for the WHOLE team. I obtained plenty of vitamin P (this is for you Roy Collins) for the day by eating most of the watermelon we were served. The team all loaded back into the 8-passenger taxi to travel to Auntie’s new house and upon departure I noticed we obtained 4 more passengers (Auntie, her daughter, and two grandchildren; with a total of 13 passengers). Her new home is absolutely beautiful and where I will stay when I am back in India. This was an opportunity to pray over the home and her family. We proceeded to pray over property behind the home where a church is going to be built for our Pastor.
Loading back up into the taxi we assumed that we were on the way to a village to hold the prayer meeting for the evening. I have discovered to never assume ANYTHING on the World Race because assumptions lead to misunderstandings. But when we asked we were told we were going to a house visit. We drove a few minutes and we had arrived, to find a huge banner of a wedding invitation accompanied by a throne of red velvet. This was the location of an Indian style baby shower, and we were the guests of honor sitting right up front for all the action. There was a good hour or so that we were sitting around and not really knowing what was about to happen. I returned to my seat to begin the evening to find all sorts of food in front of me on the floor: sweets, fruits, flowers, and cakes. Sitting on the throne was a young woman 5 months pregnant and we were having a party for her, if you will.
The evening started with Indian worship songs and then it was our time to do our thing. We started with a song “Your Love Never Fails”; we forget the words and the power goes out. Patrick got up to share his message he prepared less than 10 minutes ago due to the fact that we were at a pregnancy function and he was asked to prepare a sermon on motherhood and not what he had prepared beforehand. Our translator was called out to share what was being preached for the locals. About a minute into Patrick sharing we could tell this was going to be a bit difficult due to the fact that this fellow did not understand much of what was being said. No more than 4 minutes into what was being preached our pastor said, “STOP. Please sit down.” We are still in the dark at this point and the translator quickly exited where we were all gathered. Pastor got up to bring a message and the power came back on. Basically the whole team is cracking up and we were not able to get ahold of ourselves to stop laughing.
After the message was shared it was time for each person to take time to feed the soon to be mother a treat from the feast in front of her. I’m not sure why this happens but it is a tradition for everyone that is at the function to feed her. While feeding her I took time to get some good snaps (pics) with her. It was then time to have dinner served to us which was chicken and rice. We were about to leave when Pastor said we would get a snap and 20 snaps later we finally were on our way out. The team had begun loading the taxi to head home when everyone got back out to make one last house visit. After dropping off all the guests, we made it home by 9:30pm for an early night home from ministry.
The beautiful mother to be, the feast she was fed and me feeding her.
Everyday is full of surprises and adventures; some are more full than others. This day Friday January 16, 2013, was a day full of many surprises, adventure, and tons of laughs. These are the days that I think to myself is this real life and did that really happen? The answer is yes “It’s the World Race”! This is what really happens in ministry and we see lots of God’s humor all around us. He is such a funny God and shows up in hilarious ways sometimes!
Beautiful Indian woman, Family who hosted the baby shower, and TOMS shoes on the field. This is the second month I have seen TOMS shoes and all their glory to the children!
