We’ve been working at an AIDS Hospice in Southern India this month. Each day, we get there around 10 and work into the afternoon. We mop, sweep, and pull weeds most days. The funny thing is, I am actually pretty bad at cleaning. I’m not great at cleaning by U.S. standards. Which means, I am AWFUL by Indian standards. And everything is so different here. They use this tiny broom that makes you look like Cinderella. But, I have scrubbed the life out of multiple kitchens this month! And, there’s a lot of good conversations to be had with the Lord while you scrub dried curry off some walls.
One day, one of my teammate and I were sent back to the elderly home on the property. We went in, swept and mopped their rooms, and sat down to chat. One of the residents, Betty, reminded me a lot of my great grandmother. She immediately started speaking English to us and told us her story. She was raised playing piano and hymns in North India. She went to church all her life, got married, and had two children. She talked for hours about all her favorite hymns and church music- Anglican hymns, Methodist Hymns, everything. She sang me some songs, I sang her some songs, it was great. I sang her “What a Beautiful Name” and she said, “I like that. I’ve never heard that one before.” I so wish they had a piano at this place! She loves the hymn “Blessed Assurance.” But, when I asked her about her favorite one, she said, “I don’t have a favorite because they are all praises to God.”
Then she was telling me about how, after growing up in the church, she didn’t start following the Lord until she was 42. She said, “No one ever told me I had to be born again!” She told me of how her daughter got sick and died, leaving a husband and children. Her husband died a few years later. He loved their daughter and her death broke him. Then, a few years later, her son began having chest pains and died as well. Her grandson found the hospice center online and moved her to Southern India to be closer to him and his wife.
The culture in Northern India is drastically different than Southern India. They have different food, a different language, and it is heavily Hindu and Muslim. Betty and the other women in the home do not speak the same language and do not have the same traditions. But, she knows the Lord. She knows the Lord’s goodness and His provision. She has seen trials and hardships and still calls God good and sovereign. She is currently addressing 300 gospel messages in her Christmas cards! Please pray for her! Pray that the Lord would bring her community and continue to fill her days with His sweet love.
