A question that I really wanted answered before I left for the world race was, “What does a day on the world race look like?” I realize now why that question is almost impossible to answer.
Each day is a new adventure. I wake up in the morning never knowing what the day will bring. After being in India for a month, I can tell you what a typical day might look like. Disclaimer: every race will be different.
After going to sleep around 11 or 12 the night before, I’m woken up at 6:00 either by the heat or the rooster crowing or the family outside doing their chores. 6:00 has been a constant for me, but some days I choose to sleep again after waking up. I’ve found that that choice usually negatively impacts my spiritual life because it only takes away from my time with God.
The team usually sleeps until around 7:30, when the family brings us coffee or tea. When everyone is up, we take turns using the squatty potty and bucket shower. After that, we have more quiet time until breakfast is announced around 9:00 or 9:30. I taught Ahka how to make French toast a couple weeks back, and she has started making us that almost every morning. It is such a blessing. Each meal comes with rice, so we help ourselves to some of that as well.
After breakfast, Pastor tells me when we will be leaving for the village. We then have team time for about two hours. We have feedback and then buddy time where we build intentional community in investing in each other’s lives.
After team time, we usually have about two hours before lunch, so we have used that time to take tuk tuks into the market. There, we can get internet to upload blogs or check facebook. Or, we have gone to the market to buy fruit. Sometimes, we stay back and rest instead. Around 1:30, we have lunch. We have grown accustomed to eating chipotes for lunch. They are like naan or tortillas. It is wheat-based and mixed with water, then fried with oil on the stove. We also have curry and rice with lunch. Recently, we have found a deep love for eggs, so Ahka has been preparing eggs in many different ways for us.
After lunch, we have anywhere from one to three hours until we leave for ministry. If Pastor says that we are going to leave at 4:00 for ministry, we can almost always count on leaving around 5:00. But, Akha doesn’t like us to leave unless we’ve had our afternoon tea.
We board two tuk tuks and head off to villages that range anywhere from 5 to 60 kilometers away. We have ridden in tuk tuks for two hours before to get to a village. Once in a village, a crowd gathers and we sing action songs with the kids. A favorite is waves of mercy. I’ve also taught them One way, Jesus. They are a big fan of Garrett’s song Thumbs Up. Once we make enough noise, crowds gather, usually to form a complete circle around us. We then preach, sing more songs, and pray.
We have been leaving villages around 9:30 or 10:00 at night and getting back to the church late. Ahka wakes up and makes us dinner as soon as we return. Depending on our level of exhaustion, we have been watching movies and talking after dinner or just going straight to sleep.
This is what we have gotten used to and have almost started to expect a day to look like. Ministry here in India is a lot about door to door evangelism and street preaching. It is nothing like I thought it would look like. God has really grown our team in giving up expectations and being flexible and open to change.
We will be leaving in 5 days for Nepal, and we need to start all over. I know my day is going to change dramatically, and everything that I have been growing accustomed to will be thrown out the window. I write this with an attitude of excitement and joy knowing that God is moving.
