Before the race most people would ask me what country I was most excited to go to. My answer was always India. Followed by the why? But I really never knew why my heart was begging to go there. If you were to ask me if I found out about what that God inspired desire was, I would say, “I don’t know!” And I think that’s okay. I may not know this side of heaven why He gave me that desire and I will still tell you today that my heart still has a burning desire for India. Even though I can’t tell you why, I can tell you what God did during my month in India!!! So here we go!!!
This month we partnered with Covenant Worship (CW). CW is part of India Christian Ministries (ICM). ICM is a huge organization that reaches across India to show the hope of Jesus Christ. They have all sorts of parts that make up their whole organization. The parts of ICM are faith, love, and hope. Under each one you can find the many different ministries that they have. Some of them are Sarah’s Covenant School (SCH), CW, and many more ministries that bring hope to India that is found in Jesus. SCH helps provide assistants and schooling to children with special needs. CW is the worship part of ICM. They train younger age individuals how to lead worship as well as reaching out to their communists to start churches, and bring The Kingdom of God to the people that are in need of His love. If you would like some more information on ICM click here and CW click here.
Our month in India looked extremely different this month then the others. The men and women were separated in ministry for most of the month. For the most part, what we experienced so far on the race is, if you are on a co-ed team, the team works together no matter what you’re doing. Some back ground on the culture there. Men and women do not usually interact, especially if you don’t know the opposite sex person, for safety reasons. For intense, I am younger in age (still in my youth ageish) and if I interacted with someone that is Indian, and we were smiling, people would view that as we were dating, or something along those lines. Dating is sort of a taboo in India. Even me smiling for more than a couple seconds would be viewed this way. So for the most part while we were in India our team had two different ministries.
The women did women’s ministry of course!! We stayed by a teaching hospital so the women would befriend the nurses and doctors that were in school. For many years CW only reached out and was ran by men, and out of the need to minister to women, CW started their women’s ministry, which the women got to be a part of some of the beginning of this awesome opportunity and ministry.
Sometimes the women would do the same things as the guys would do but for the most part the men were all on their own. The men on our team did all sorts of stuff, of course with the direction from the guys at CW. Since it was Christmas season, which it didn’t feel like it because it was in the 80’s to 90’s outside while we were there. Some people might think that is normal for them, but for me it’s snowing and in the negatives and sometimes positive numbers outside. So it felt like summer to me.
Some of the things that we did at CW was slum ministry, church, and cell groups (this is like a community group, or small bible study group). Since it was Christmas season most of the ministries were focused towards that.
I could speak about India for a really long time, but I want to share about one of my favorite ministries, while we were there: slum ministry. We would go to some of the slums and do house visits. This was some of my favorite things to do there. The people I met were some of the most joyful, caring, and hospitable people I have ever met in my life. My point of view of slums in India were different then what they were in real life, because what I knew was from movies, and I was complete wrong. Don’t always believe movies is the moral of that. While we would do house visits we would share about Jesus and what He has done in our lives, pray and pray and pray. We prayed a lot for the people there. I don’t think I have prayed so much in my life, but it was good to learn this. The bible says pray without stopping. Well I got to use this gift a lot (I am thankful for it).
Some other things we did, while in the slums, was sing chorales. Now the chorales were all in Telugu and Hindi, which are the major languages that are spoken in the region we were in. This was some of the best times I have had on the race. Since we didn’t know the songs we jumped and danced with abandonment with the guys we were with. They truly love the people there and we got to come along side of them in their ministry there, and love on them, the way they did. I also had the spiciest meal ever there. I had curry sweats it was so hot, but it tasted amazing!!! Fun fact about myself, I used to not like curry.
Another thing we got to be a part of was all the normal Christmas things, sort of. Like a Christmas party. The Christmas party was a big event. We did a skit, the girls helped out with this, of course!! We are not actors by any means but we did the best job we could. People laughed and enjoyed our performance. It was the story of the birth of Jesus. I was chosen to be King Herold. I died in the skit. So just like every good actor would do is act out your death by falling out of the chair and throwing your crown and your scepter, it was pretty funny. I was a very fashionable king. Afterwards there was a dance, which was from a few younger guy, it was a very good dance. We had a local celebrity come to our party. He was able to hear the gospel. Which was pretty cool. Afterwards we cut cake and feed it to each other.
During birthdays in India they sing happy birthday and eat cake like we do. Since it was Jesus’s birthday we did the same thing (except we didn’t sing happy birthday this time) but the twist is the they feed it to each other, like a bride and groom do at a wedding, in the states (I don’t know if this happens anywhere else in the world at weddings, so please forgive me if it happens outside of the states as well). Most of the time it ends up in a cake fight and you get it all over, and in my case it was all over my beard.
India was an incredible month for me!! God is good and has always shown up to bring kingdom to light in front of me. I got to see God’s hand work in the many different things we were a part of. Something I learned about myself in India was that I can live free from what people think of me. Everyone around the world struggles with this same thing on some sort of level. My level was that I wouldn’t be crazy a free to be who I am around certain people. Whatever people think of me doesn’t matter. The only person that I should ever think about what they think about me is Christ and that thought shouldn’t be anything other than I am to be free in who Christ has made me.
The incredible thing that happens on the race is that people find out who they really are. They find their true-self. Some find it quicker than others and some it takes a while, whether the case may be, Christ uses every situation to change us into who we really are. Christ calls us to be free, live wild crazy lives following after His heart, while loving all the world. We just have to take that step through the door that He provides for us. The race is not the only place that shows us this door, but for me it is, and will continue to be the next step in the journey that God has called me on. It isn’t easy but with Christ it is an incredible ride.
I wanted to end the blog there but I need to tell you about one more thing. The food in India is amazing!!! This is the month that I really got to experience street food. It may not be safe. You may not always know what you’re getting, and how it will taste, but to experience true authentic Indian food is something I will never forget. I had an incredible love for Indian food that started right before the race, thanks to some very special friends of mine ;-), so thank you for experiencing that with me. And now that I have been to India and tasted and seen, I love it even more. Just like how I experienced Jesus in India, I have tasted and seen Jesus at work there, even in the food and I love Him more and His heart for me.
Love you guys!! Thanks for joining me in this crazy journey of life. Chasing after Jesus’s heart with others is awesome. Thanks for doing life with me here and state side!!!
