Tuesday we found out that our ministry would look a little different than what I was expecting. I often times think that ministry should look a certain way, that we should be praying for people, playing with orphaned children or rescuing someone from trafficking, however ministry on this particular day was so much different than I expected. My team was instructed that we were going to visit a temple where Hindu people visit to praise their god, but also go to die and partake in a cremation ceremony. A big part of our ministry was to pray for this place and to shine a light into such a dark area.
Naturally this took most of us by surprise, immediately we were faced with the decision that we could either walk around outside the temple or pay $10 to go walk around beyond the gates into where the cremations were taking place. This would allow us to see the hospice care, dead bodies being burned and the idols that the Hindu people worship/pray to. This is completely outside of my comfort zone, seeing a dead body being cremated right in front of me, learning about a belief that does not look the same as mine is definitely out of the norm for me, but something inside me compelled me to want to go in.
Seven of us payed the money to go inside and see everything and to say there was a sense of heaviness is an understatement, the whole atmosphere seemed somber and off. A guide quickly took Juliana and myself around and began to explain what everything was. He told us about the temple where people came to worship Shiva and the other gods in the Hindu religion, I would compare this temple to a western church where praise, worship and fellowship takes place. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to go inside of the temple since we aren’t Hindu, but it was interesting to see this huge building where these people worshiped.
Right outside this temple was the Bagmati River, we were told that this river flows from the top of the mountain where Shiva lives. Shiva is their main creator god. They believe that Shiva created them so a traditional Hindu funeral consist of cremating the body next to the river and then putting the ashes in the river where they came from. People from all over who are Hindu come to die here, it is a very sad place. Ambulances show up either having a dead body or someone that is on the verge of dying inside them. They also have a hospice care facility where people are in what looks like a giant house waiting to die and after they can begin the purification process and then they are cremated next to the river and put into the river.
While the cremations were taking place on the other side of the river there were children playing in the river to get clean and ceremonies were taking place to celebrate marriages. This baffled me because one side of the river was used to burry a loved one and mourn the loss of someone and the other side was a time for celebration, rejoicing and praise. The Hindu religion is still very confusing to me and this place only confused me more.
Sometimes ministry will look a lot different than I’m used to but thats the mystery of God, I now get to better pray for these people and some what understand a small piece of what they believe. Here are some pictures from the day. Some can be a little graphic. PEACE
XOXO
Heather
