“… I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles, my joy knows no bounds.”
– 2 Corinthians 7:4
Hey guys!! This week has literally been so awesome in India!
Sooooo I went to a Rehab center!
Honestly at first, I was like “Hmmm I don’t know about this”, but now I am so so happy that I had the opportunity to go here. I went with a group from my squad who also didn’t have parents come to India to visit them, which let me say was super cool in an odd way. So, we all got together and got into this crazy hospital van that looks like a really run down church van (and I mean like realllll run down haha). We took a bunch of turns and windy roads to get to the “Agape Rehab Center”. Once we arrived, I got greeted very loudly by some of the men there and they were really funny and super loving. We have already been here at this cite before, so by this time they already knew my name and some of my squadmates names which was really cool. My group and I sat around in this gazebo type of sitting area and waited to go share the word of God to these men here. This rehab center holds men that are struggling with addiction to alcohol and drugs and are placed in this center to help them overcome this addiction while hearing the word of God. My group and I planned a few worship songs for them, fun songs for them, games, and random little things to do with them. We all worshiped really loudly together and they sing SO LOUD!!!! No lie, they were out singing us most of the time. We even sang a fun little song with them called “Making Melodies” and wowwwww did they go absolutely insane. You would think they just came back from some kind of wild party or concert with their energy, but literally their joy was straight from the Lord. This is when I knew this was going to be my favorite ministry I have done on my Race.
I became friends with many of these guys and they were the most raw and authentic men I have met in a while. They shared their hard stories of their addictions and the problems they have back at home and all their cool traveling stories as well. I grew really close to one of the guys named James. Let me tell you, he is the coolest Indian/Myanmar man you will ever meet. He greets all of us like one of his own friends and treats us all with such kindness and joy that it literally radiates out of him. I soon really got to know his story and the fact that he is a real man of the Lord and we should all learn little from him. I think the biggest thing I learned from James is to continually love one another equally and even when things are hard, we can still focus on our heavenly father.
How easy it is for us to turn away from the Lord when something really bad happens in our lives or when we don’t think we have control of a situation. It is really easy for us to blame God for letting a bad thing happen, instead of thanking Him for the really good things that He has done for all of us and this is something that James taught me over and over. Even though he has a really hard addiction to get over, he continually looks for the Lord and says “I know I struggle everyday, but the Lord is my savior and father and He will forever save me from my hurt or just be right there to guide me.” Now THAT is how I want to live.
I have realized that I have done past addictions and past things that not only hurt me, but also my family. And if you’re one of my family members reading this, please forgive me, because I know that the Lord was there with me the whole time, but I just disobeyed Him so many times. I want to seek the Lord constantly in all that I do, but I can’t do that without forgiveness or without laying myself down and saying “I really messed up, but will you still love me and walk right beside me when I fail?”.
I am so overjoyed in the amount of Love the savior has for me and all the things that he continues to walk me through and addiction to my past desires have been defeated. I want the Lord’s freedom and I choose to walk so near to Him, so that whatever I do wrong, he will tug me so quickly right back to Him.
Thank you so much for reading!! I come home in literally exactly 60 days, which is INSANE! Please be praying for the end of my journey and all the things to come when I get home.
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