I’m a celebrity….or at least that is how I feel at times here in India being from America…
Take our latest incident for example: We are riding along in a van when a motorcycle with 4 young men pulls up next to us and asks if they can take a picture with us. What do we do? We pull over on the side of the road and take multiple photos with them. They say THANKS and we get back in the van to continue our journey home. HA!
Or how about the random “drop bys” from the neighbors here in the village to the home….See, it happened one morning when I was outside of the home reading an English-Telugu Bible (because I left my English one at the last house we visited) and two Hindu women approached me. Not speaking any English, they stopped and stared at me as I greeted them with “HELLO” and “praise the Lord” in Telugu. They heard that there were Americans at the home and wanted to come by and see us. Who did they see first? Me! Lucky them! As I attempted to converse with them, our translator, VJ K, also walked over to help. At this point, the CCH boys also joined in the fun…. After about 5-8 minutes of me asking them questions, their names, how they were doing, how many children they had, etc. I inquired as to how I could pray for them. Vijay looked at me and said, “They are Hindu.” That, too, was their response. But to our surprise, they reconsidered and shared with me how I could pray. So I prayed for these two women and invited them to our Friday evening outreach service – to which they came!
The women in the back were my Hindu friends!
It is no coincidence that these women were drawn to come to the home….the Spirit of God is at work in their hearts drawing them closer to Himself. The Living God is the only one able to truly hear and help them. This is one of the ways I have seen the CCH ministry impact on not just the kids within the home, but the community surrounding it too.
Being a celebrity has been great to draw people to Christ and the church….praise God. But we are only at these villages/homes for a week – who then follows up with them?????
Read my next blog to learn about the follow up with these people!!
Lauren
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P.S. I love popsicles or in India this is called ‘ice cream’ – HA!
