All the caretakers put us in these:)
This month I am in Ongole, India. The southern part of India, about an hour away from the Bay of Bengal. My team and I have been working with a Children’s Disabilities Home and also helping paint at 4 other ICM (India Christian Missions) children’s homes.
It is about 110 degrees or more here and the heat drains you! But God has been all over our team, answering prayers, providing for needs, and showing his faithfulness.
This month God has been teaching me more of what it means to love. Love is an amazing, scary, vulnerable, yet beautiful part of life. The Bible is centered around God’s love.
When I think of love verses in the Bible I think, 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter:) Which talks about a love that is patient, kind, not envious, doesn’t boast, isn’t proud, rude or self seeking, and it keeps no record of wrong. A love that always protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres.
It seems so simple yet why is it so hard?? More than not I feel that I am impatient, and selfish. Yet God calls me to step out of my selfish desires and love. To love even when I’m tired or when I don’t understand their language or Indian head bobs:)
A few days ago I was watching the movie, Furious Love, if you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it to anyone. In this movie it shares testimonies of God’s love and how love is changing lives for eternity through ordinary people like you and me. My favorite quote in the movie was, “Love is the greatest weapon to fight our enemy (Satan).” That quote has been repeating in my mind these last few days, as I’m working at the children’s home… hot, tired, and soaked in sweat, saliva, and who knows what else!
One of the hardest things sometimes is to push myself to pay attention and give love to the children’s caretakers. They are mostly all elderly women. They came to ICM needing help because their husbands have died or left them and their children don’t want them. They have all had rough lives, you can see it through the lines in their faces and scares on their hands.
These women live at the home and take care of the children 24/7, but India is nothing like America. Sometimes I don’t understand the methods of things, or why they don’t help when we are trying to get all the kids hydrated. My focus can get so much on the kids that I can forget to slow down and love the women. God keeps telling me to slow down, hug them, and pay attention to them as individuals.
As i was at the home, Jesus said to me, “Bethany, these women are my children too, desperate for my love.”
I heard Him and knew what I needed to do but didn’t have the energy that day, so I just keep praying and asking God to give me more love, and he did. Every caretaker that I encountered I hugged and smiled at. As I hugged them I wonder when the last time they were hugged was…who knows, a week, a month, maybe even years.
I left that night praying for those women. Praying for God to give me a chance to love them more. The next day I came to the house, did my duties with the kids, then simply sat in the room with a handful of the caretakers and began to talk to them. The translator helped me ask questions and oh course I had to get them all laughing!
There was one that was facing the wall and super distant, so I asked her a question then simply grabbed her hand to hold. Instantly her demeanor changed and she kissed my hand and held it tight. I started rubbing her back and asking her about her life. She had lost her husband when she was 30 yrs old, left alone with 4 children. She was Hindu before coming to work for ICM and is learning how to become a Christian. As I sat there with her, I began to share of Christ’s amazing love, how He is living and speaks to me, and how He loves her. I was praying over her, asking God to awaken her Spirit to His.
I asked for a God encounter and He gave me one!
Before I left that day, I literally had 6 women surrounding me, sitting so close I couldn’t move. So I sat, laughed, and loved on them just like Jesus would have. Its ok if they don’t always clean right or do what I want them to do for the kids. Jesus loves them anyway, so in turn I will too.
So in turn I ask you…Who is it that you can love today?
I challenge you to love, for it is our greatest weapon!
LOVE NEVER FAILS…
(I Corinthians 13:8)
