The last 10 days of our Indian ministry was spent somewhere
in Andhra Pradesh…I am still unclear on our exact location. After staying for 2
weeks at Theresa’s apartment in Ongole, ICM (India Christian Ministries)
decided that we would be sent out to their churches in the remote villages
around Warangal. ICM is one of the largest Christian organizations in Andhra
Pradesh, and their goal for the past decade has been to saturate the area with
as many churches and ministries as possible. They have many churches,
orphanages, and have recently opened up a School of Worship in Hyderabad and a
School of Apostolic Ministry in Ongole. We worked with them for our entire time
in India and were so thankful for their help and hospitality.
Our team was slightly apprehensive about going to the
villages at first because we were living so “luxuriously” the first two weeks
(running water, electricity, faulty but still functioning Internet). Though it
was roughing it, we all enjoyed it and grew so much closer because of it. I
mean…it’s hard not to get close when you’re basically all sleeping in one room
together and the only a 5 foot wall separates the toilet from the rest of the
house. It was a very interesting lifestyle we lead in that week…A sample of our
daily schedule:
6:00am- Samuel (our translator and trusty friend) would plug
in the keyboard and start singing worship songs in Telegu. Put a pillow over
your head and go back to sleep
7:00am-Village children come by and torment you endlessly.
They try to open all the windows and doors, and if you leave one open they will
just stare at you. These kids have no sense of privacy or personal space.
Prianka is their ringleader and she’s the biggest troublemaker of them all! This
usually goes on until they leave for school around 9:45.
7:30-8:00am-Justin leaves to make coffee at Badru Paul’s house,
the rest of us rouse ourselves up, get dressed, eat a banana or munch on some
cereal we got from Ongole, then do a combination of reading, working out,
preparing for the day, cleaning up, or having some quiet roof time. Justin goes
to play cricket with the kids & Samuel. Take a bucket shower if we have
water at the time.
9:00-Go for a prayer walk around the surrounding villages.
We would pray over the temples, over the houses, etc.
10:30-Our usual team time. Pick a few worship songs and read
from the Gibson’s Book of Common Prayer. Go over what the schedule “might” look
like.
12:30-Either go to the Pastor’s house for chapatti and daal
or fend for ourselves for lunch. Sometimes it would just consist of groundnuts
(peanuts) or the roti that the old lady down the road made us.
2:00- Samuel would tease us and tell us to be ready to go.
In all reality, we won’t leave for another 2 hours.
4:00-We leave for the villages. Once we arrive, we go visit
some houses and offer prayer to those that want it & give the invitation to
the gospel meeting at 7pm. Most people want prayer, even if they aren’t
Christians, and it is almost always for physical ailments.
6:30-They start playing Telegu worship songs on the
keyboard. We regroup and pray over whoever is sharing the Gospel that night.
7:00- “gospel meeting” starts. We do Telegu worship songs
(which we actually caught on to by the 2nd or 3rd day),
then introduce our team and do our “Hello” song. We do a few more kids songs
and Elaina does a her magic trick and kids’ message. Gospel message is given by
whoever is up that night, and Samuel will add his own little rants in between.
The town drunks also come out and ridicule us but most of the time we can carry
on.
8: 30- We end the meeting, ask if there are any questions,
and offer more prayer. We have prayed for everything from a dehydrated dog to
infertility, crops, or for debilitating diseases.
9:00-Dinner prepared by whatever Christians live in that
village. This could be a combination of rice, daal, really bony, greasy
chicken, chapatti, roti, potato curry, or our favorite, hardboiled eggs! It’s
easy to get sick of rice, but you learn to just fill your belly.
9:30-Pray over the family that prepared the meal for us.
Also stand around posing for pictures for about 10 minutes.
9:45- Head home
10:00- A little feedback time, some shenanigans (play Bang!,
farkle, or the Nelson game), etc.
11:00-Bed!
I don’t know if this is what I expected from village life,
but it was definitely an experience that taught me about patience and that
people don’t have to or need to do things the “American way” (efficiently,
correctly, on time, etc.). Though we didn’t always feel like we had a purpose
or were “getting things done”, we tried our best to further the Kingdom and
build up the existing Christians. I really loved living this simple life and
not having any distractions but each other and the funny village kids. I grew a
lot in that week but we were all thankful
to arrive in Hyderabad on that next Monday, filling ourselves with
Internet and pizza, having our laundry done and having ICE! It was a wonderful
end to our Indian experience and a great way to kick off our 3 day trek to
Nepal.
photo courtesy of KK:
