Expectations: A strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future.
India. The country God’s been waiting for. The place the Lord called me at the beginning of my walk in Christianity. The country that God has placed in countless conversations and dreams and so many pieces of my life over 3 years. When I signed up for the world race the Lord did not put expectations in my head, rather began to prepare my heart and spirit for the work I would be doing in India.
In my blog last week I talked about my personal expectations for India. This time I will be sharing the one expectation God gave me for India.
He gave me a dream. Two years ago I had a dream of being in India and this specific dream was one of the biggest reasons I decided to come to India. In the dream I was walking the streets of a town in India with my best friend Camille and her mom Priscilla. The streets were completely empty, which was super odd because there’s always people roaming and crazy traffic in these market areas. In the dream we all realized that the streets were empty because it was a Sunday and everyone was in church. Waking up from this dream I remember being so fired up about the idea of the Lord placing me in India. I remember thinking about the empty streets on a Sunday and how impossible that would be to find in a Hindu based country. I saw this dream and believed the Lord would use me to share the Gospel and get His people into the church, so that one day maybe the streets would be sorta empty.
As I started the race I forgot about this dream and even when I remembered it I didn’t think much about what happened in it. Like I talked about in my last blog, we arrived to India and I was not happy to be here because my personal expectations of the country were not met. I completely turned off my passion in the first couple weeks and had a terrible attitude. It was when I turned to the Lord in prayer, asking Him to give me a joy from Him and an accepting heart that things began to change. In those next couple days I felt a genuine shift in my spirit, I think I truly accepted my circumstances and the Lord was giving me unexplainable joy that only pointed to Him. One night I was laying in bed about to fall asleep when my dream popped up in my head. I saw the empty streets and then I realized: I am in an almost 100% evangelized part of India. I walk out in the streets to go to church on Sunday and they are EMPTY! The town is quiet, most shops are closed for the day because it’s a SUNDAY! The Lord knew EXACTLY where I would be India. He’s known all along where I would be and was preparing me for what to expect– I just never listened.
The Lord never let me down or went against His promises to me. He told me exactly what He expected and desired of India. It was my own mind that looked past this and expected more, even though the Lord had given me enough! He so graciously placed me in the most unique and special part of this country to do ministry. He wanted to show me how faithful He’s been in India and show me the abundance of sons and daughters He has in this country. I am so grateful to be living in these circumstances. I am so grateful to see the way Christianity is being practiced in these tribal areas of India. The Lord is starting a fire here and I know that it is spreading! Living at a Bible college I get to hear testimonies of students who come from other areas of India and ways that they are working to minister to their tribes which are a majority Hindu or Buddhist. It is so special to see how fired up they are to bring the Good News of Christ to their homes! I praise God for the work He is doing here– He is ALIVE here!!
