For our last week in India, the team and I got the opportunity to work at Daughters of Hope/Glory Haus. This organization is a thriving business that employs women to sew and embroider items such as pillow, wall tapestries, bracelets, ect. They are shipped to the US and Canada to be sold in stores such as Cracker Barrel (run, don’t walk, to your nearest CB, southern friends). The Daughters of Hope is a training program for young women to learn computers, cosmetology, and sewing.
As we were working with all the women at Glory Haus, we got the chance to speak with a woman that moved her family to India from America two years ago to serve God. She told us about her experiences on the mission field in India, her struggles, and her realizations. She told us something that has been stuck in my mind ever since. “Their poverty is not their tragedy.” The biggest tragedy in India is NOT the poverty. That absolutely blew me away because all you see as you walk the streets of India are the extreme cases of poverty. The poorest in America do not compare to the poorest here. It is poverty unlike I have ever seen.
Yet, poverty is not the tragedy of the people in India. The real tragedy is that the majority of people here don’t know the name of Jesus. They don’t have the hope of the gospel to compel them to live each new day with purpose and hope. Far greater than any material need is the need for the saving hope of Jesus. Every night of ministry, we have had the opportunity to go into the slums of India, into the homes of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and pray over them. The order in which they gave their requests speaks to the nature of their belief and hope in Jesus. They would ask for their families to know Jesus like they do, they would ask for their local church to flourish, they would desire so badly for pastors and strong believers to rise up and plant more churches. The last prayers requested, if it was even requested at all, was for their financial situation to be made less burdensome. But even in their asking, they had the faith that God would provide. They are so much more concerned about the eternal than the temporary. My Indian brothers and sister have seen so much temporary be lost to the wind, that they can recognize what is truly worth holding on to.
I desire so much to have this mindset consistently. It is much easier to dwell in the realm of the eternal on the World Race. We have few possessions with us and we aren’t being distracted with things from home. But I want this mindset always. I want this mindset for all of my brothers and sisters in the States. We live in such a materialistic society and that solely drives the culture. It’s a culture of comparison and competition. We have lost sight of the eternal so that we can gaze at the temporary. The biggest tragedy that we can face is not the loss of possessions, but its losing sight of the most perfect gift that we have ever been given.
As we wrap up month one in India, and fly to Kathmandu, Nepal, this is a reminder that I will keep with me during whatever ministry we do. My sole focus and entire purpose of this trip will be to share the hope of Jesus as often and as passionately as I can. Its easy to be distracted by the poverty and sickness, but the real need is Jesus and only Jesus. He satisfies beyond anything else.
Dwell in the eternal, everything else will fade away in time.
“The grass withers, the flower falls. But the word of our God stands forever.”
-Please continue praying for my team and I.
-Pray for safety.
-Pray for the gospel to be spread further than we could have imagined.
-Pray for joy and strength even in times of being weary.
The Lord has already moved so greatly in the month that we have been here and I am so excited to see what happens next!!
Blessings.
