Our first week and a half was in the villages of southern India and let me say this was a blast! I started to come alive interacting with these people. However, our whole squad felt challenged by the spiritual warfare present and the circumstances around us.
Being an Alabama girl, each summer growing up in theory has prepared me for the hot humid heat of India. However, what I wasn’t prepared for was being in a situation where choosing to honor the culture and my hosts meant enduring extremely miserable heat rash and fatigue. You see we had to wear a specific type of clothing and I was afforded an opportunity to go shop for my ministry outfit. After literally trying every possible kurta in the store, there was only one that would work even though it was white and tight. Others on the squad were able to receive their kurtas for free, purchase a second one to go with their first free one, or swap with others who wore the same size to expand wardrobe options. My only having one kurta available, no chance to wash it, and literally drenching in sweat every day made the heat rash unbearable at times. I didn’t realize how much it would affect me to go a week with only one outfit to wear and realizing I had to shell out 2-3x more to purchase it. Also the effect entailed gender privilege rearing its head again when the guys were able to simply wear what they already owned.
My outfit being sweat soaked and the water for bucket showers being unpredictable in availability also led to simply a dirty-ness like no other. Upon brushing my arm, white fingernails turned black! I know a lot of us simply wanted to feel clean especially when we sweated day and night. The place where we stayed exemplified simplicity and though part of me enjoyed it thoroughly, the extreme heat conditions and cleanliness factor left something to be desired. When we finished our time in the villages and moved to our next location, it was apparent we were also dehydrated despite trying to stay up on our water intake.
I say all of this to get to the point of TO WHAT EXTENT are we willing to go for the GOSPEL?
What are we willing to endure for His namesake to be known?
You see I am pretty laid back and go with the flow with very few things actually bothering me regarding living conditions. When everyone speaks up over their preferences, I’m good with whatever is decided and yet here was one of the first moments on the race where living conditions tried to get the best of me. Now I think in the day to day moments, I did handle the conditions really well especially compared to others but it is the effect of those conditions which surprised me.
I learned a great lesson in humility in how to deal with things outside of your control in order to see a bigger picture play out.
The smiles on kids faces, praying over families in the villages, leading church services, sharing testimonies, and seeing acts of healing trumped any amount of sweat, fatigue, schedule changes, etc.
