Driving to our first day of ministry my team leader asked if we have ever seen God heal someone. We all shared testimonies of how The Lord healed us or our loved ones. This conversation got my excited to see what God had planned for the night. Not long after that discussion we found ourselves at a pastors house. He greeted us, introduced us to his family, and in no time he packed all of us into a van. 10 minutes passed and we were asked to step out of the van again. The English here is limited so we have gotten good at reading gestures. Time had finally come to start ministry. Lets rewind to the 3 days prior. We have been in a gated church campus waiting for ministry to start. Where we are staying has very little room, so the team has been very close to each other. We figured out how to give each other space and “me” time, even if we are only a few feet from someone.
Let’s get back to our first day of ministry. It felt so nice to finally be used and walk around. We started a prayer walk after the sun set. A big group of us walked around the streets with music so loud anyone in a few block radius knew we were coming. We went door to door handing out tracks and praying. Once we were finished we ended back at a house and had service, most of which we couldn’t understand. After worship the people there came up for prayer. I looked up and made eye contact with an older woman. Her eyes were so cloudy you couldn’t tell her eye color. She pointed to her eyes, so my team mate and I laid hands on her eyes and started praying. We took our hands off her eyes and she stared at us again, but this time her eyes were a beautiful light brown. No more cloudiness. Her clear eyes welled up with tears and she started praising God. In that moment I realized how big my God is. She couldn’t understand our prayer, we didn’t have a translator, but God knew and heard us. It was a beautiful moment that I will never forget.
The night went on, and we were served a delicious meal of chicken curry, and a traditional Indian flat bread. I was excited to dig in, but I looked down at my team mate Malorie. A look of panic came over her face when she was handed two pieces of the bread. For the past couple years she has suffered from celiac, and any contact with gluten made her sick, but not anymore. We prayed for her before we started eating and dug in. Our God is a big big God, and Malorie would agree. Go read her blog (http://maloriefinley.theworldrace.org/?filename=wandafreakinnalu) to see what God did in that moment.
Yes India is hot, a huge culture shock, and stretching, but I wouldn’t change a thing.
