India.
Month 8 of my World Race.
To be honest, this was probably the last country that I was looking forward to visiting. I was worried about the food, the smells, and the mass amount of people. But after experiencing the culture and beauty of India, it was by far one of my favorite months of the race.
Our team was privileged to be sent out to a rural village and partner with a pastor and his family. We were literally out in the middle of nowhere and confined to the place where we lived. Our ministry consisted of going out every night to preach and share testimonies to various churches that have been planted in surrounding villages. It was an awesome opportunity to share the gospel to Christian Indians and to be able to share the same beliefs.
Along with our daily ministry, we also stayed with pastor and his family, along with 10 boys that the pastor took in from surrounding villages. These boys came from various situations and were sometimes placed in this home. The minute we arrived, they came running up to greet and hug us. Honestly, they were the sweetest, kind, and very well behaved children I’ve seen. And with the help of this pastor, they were given a home, food, and most importantly, a family.
Not only did this pastor and his wife have two kids of their own, but they took the responsibility to be parents to these 10 boys. They gave them shelter, cooked food for them, helped them with homework, and provided clothes. But the best thing they did was raise them in Christ.
One of my desires for a while now is to have a family and be a father one day. And after spending a couple of weeks around this family and the boys, that desire, to be father, grew exponentially.
These boys were being raised to have good manners, to have a work ethic, and to live in community together. But more importantly, they were being raised in Christ, to know who Jesus was, and to understand the meaning of being a Christian. And that was all because of the pastor, his wife, and their commitment to being these boys’ parents.
And that’s exactly what I desire to do. To raise children not only in a Christian home, but to raise them knowing what it truly means to be a Christian. To have a personal, deep, and intimate relationship with Christ.
I have no idea when this may happen in my life and I’m surrendering that to the Lord. But I do know that from the things that I have learned on this race, whenever that time comes where I am blessed with a family, the foundation will built on Christ.
