India… where do I even begin. We partnered with a ministry that focuses on church planting throughout India. Every day, we began ministry at sundown. Our usual day would be like this; make several house visits and wrap up the day with a short home church-like meeting.
During our house visits, we’d pray with families for any prayer requests, encouragement, healings, etc. Afterwards, most every home, as per India’s tradition and hospitality, we would be served tea/coffee/juice and a small snack! Our daily home church-like meetings would be held in various places; someone’s yard, living room or even an empty room within a partially built construction. We’d begin with songs – everyone sings together and everyone claps along. Sometimes there would be many rhythms of clapping going at the same time but there was such a joy in everyone as they sang with all they had! Then, my team would share a couple life testimonies and a sermon. Before ending the meeting, people asked for prayer for various prayer requests. After the meeting, we would all have dinner together which would be quite later in the day – no earlier than 9:30pm. Our meetings would sometimes range from about 15 – 50 people. The goal of the ministry for the visits and meetings is that once a good sized amount of believers are gathered and God points out an individual for a pastor, the ministry opens up a church in that village/area.
About 1-2 times a week, we would visit an orphange/childrens home. A lot of these children are outcast by society or given up by families because families can no longer take care of them due to finances. One home we visited was an all girls home. The girls crowded around us all dressed up in their best for evening service. They were all so so beautiful! What broke my heart was when one girl (maybe 12 or so) came up to me, grabbed my hand and said, “miss, thank you for being so nice to us!” ..all we did, was simply sit with them and chat. These children have been outcast to such an extent that someone sitting with them and having a simple conversation, meant so much to them. How much a soul craves for someone to just sit with them and to just talk, listen… God wants that from us just as much.
India has probably been my toughest country so far. One of the toughest for sure. Spiritual warfare is heavy and you have to be on your toes. Praying for many people in one day takes your energy. I preached at meetings and at church services – something that I have never done before in my life. I’ve always had a great respect for preachers but after preaching myself (and preparing for), my respect for preachers grew even more! We also could not leave the house during our time in India unless it was for ministry. The only time we could leave was if our ministry host was with us or when it was time for ministry. Even for ministry, we were driven, even if it was a short distance. Reasons were because first of all, my team is an all girls team and it is not safe for girls to be out alone.. and also because of the pressure put on Christians in India. My team and I had to begin to get creative with how to spend time inside our home!
Many sweet memories were made during our time in India! I’ll share some memories below with photos and a brief explanation.
When we visited this ladies home, she was very ill; in bed, high fever, vomiting, would go unconscious and even fell to the floor a couple times as she’d pass out. We prayed with her and her husband and prayed for her healing. After, we moved on to the next home. A couple days later, she called our host with a praise report! She invited us over to share with us that she received healing through the prayer! Praise God! She rushed around her home with tea and caramel bars and then, (as if in case there were any doubts in anyone’s mind that maybe an inkling of illness still remained) she lifts a big wooden beamed cot from her front yard, by herself! …and carried it inside her small home for us to sit on. She wouldn’t let us help! She had a big smile on her the whole time there! We got to see her a few more times at home meetings throughout our time in India.
Another healing testimony (no photo) was of a man that was paralyzed on the right side of his body. We were doing house visits and came upon a man sitting on the front porch. Our host approached him, had a brief conversation and then asked us to come over to pray for his healing. We learned this man just came by a couple days into the village to visit family. He was paralyzed on the right side of his body and was in pain. As we prayed for his healing, he said that the pain had subsided. We praised God and asked if we could pray once more! after we prayed once more, he said the pain was gone and he was able to move around his hand! I was in shock myself! thank you Jesus!
One day while we were going from home to home, this boy would not leave my side, asking many questions and sharing anything that came to his mind. Between homes, he tugged on my hand and asked me, “what is your life ambition miss?” I was so taken aback by such a question from a 12 year old that I couldn’t answer him right away and got distracted by another childs questions but, he wouldn’t let that slide! ..”miss! you didn’t answer my question! What is your life ambition?”
We got to learn how to make India’s chupatis!
This man came by to visit us one evening to share that his wives back was healed when we visited their home and prayed with them. Just about a week or so ago, we received news from him that his wife also got a job! Which was another prayer request of theirs. All praise and glory to God! He spent some time with us and shared some life stories of his. One of the stories was how he was on a mission trip in the northern tribes of India where all he had for food was rice and less than .50 USD cents for the month while living in an average of 120F degree weather. We were left quite encouraged by his testimony!
The church service here was my favorite during our time in India! The people were humble, interactive, care-free and eager! The pastor of that church was filled with such humility!
This elderly lady there said to us, “keep sharing! We will stay here even until 6 in the evening!” …at that time it was about noon time!.. she was on fire!
After service, the pastor took us to visit some homes and my heart broke to pieces for that village. One time my teammate Jess and I were walking behind the rest of our group. A couple ladies saw us outside of their yard and waved us over… in hopes they understood us and our hand motions, we told them we’d come back with an interpreter. When we came back later, we found the father of the house in his bed after a vehicle accident. He was so injured on his face that he wouldn’t even look up at us. All I could see were silent tears dripping onto his knees as he sat on the edge of his bed with his head hanging down. I felt such a deep move of compassion of God for this man. When we were there, the pastor told us they were not believers which moved my heart more thinking how the women were eagerly waving us into their yard and motioning with their hands to come pray. As we were praying, I saw a vision of him waking up in the morning feeling his face and finding that his stitches healed up! …I had not yet even seen his face yet because he would not look up at us so I didn’t even know if he had stitches or not. After we finished praying, he stood up and looked at us and that is when I saw the stitches on his face and the effects of the accident on his face. I fully believe God healed him and I wish I could have seen him again! But we weren’t able to come back to that village… Quite a few of us left that room with tears in our eyes, myself included.
We visited about 20 homes in that village that day. I don’t have photos of the above home visit or of many other homes visited. I was so taken in to what was happening around us that I didn’t even think of capturing moments.
Some of the children that swarmed us and followed us from home to home! …and some of the people we visited;
We spent 33 days in India and a lot happened there within all the home visits/services. The above are ones that stuck with me the most!
Aside from ministry, with all the time that we spent inside the home, my team and I began to get creative with our time inside. Thankfully we had an accessible rooftop atop our building and we began exercising daily! Something I finally have been able to do because thankfully I’ve stopped getting sick! Yay God! It has been over 2 months that I haven’t been sick with anything versus the every few weeks where I’d come down with something whether due to food, water, infection etc.
I also have been able to pick back up on my art! Been water-coloring a lot which is something I didn’t realize I missed so much!
I will be happy to share more information about our time in India! If anyone wants to hear more, please let me know! I’m trying to not share too much information on here for the safety of our hosts and people of the area we were in.
Much Love,
Viktoriya : )
