From where I stand I hear the beauty of little girls' voices singing songs and reciting early morning prayers to a God they all adore. I can see the many bright and colorful houses and buildings that seem to have jumped straight from a make believe world. I feel the warmth in the small hands that hold mine just because I am there to play with them. This is the Indian Gospel Mission girls' home in Chennai, India.
I'm going to say without a doubt that I.G.M. is probably one of the most extraordinary missions I've heard of, not to mention that I get to work with. With children's homes, 33 branch churches, carpentry training school, tailoring school, outreaches and so many other ways that I.G.M. helps this nation it's definitely focused on reaching out a hand to a nation that needs it.
Okay, first off let me say that I am so glad to be here. We are actually staying at the girls' home with them and I can't even explain how amazing it is. We get to spend so much time with these little women of God who are so loving and so sweet. The calls of "sister, sister!" never cease once we leave our room. They just want to enjoy the time they have with us. It's the exact same when we visit the boys' home. These children just jump for joy at the chance to learn a new song or for us to sit next to them. Beautiful is the only way I can describe it.
Our ministry here is very diverse. We've done it all. From preaching in church, to helping the girls study, to sanding and painting walls, to tearing grass off of a field! We've had our work cut out for us but, seriously, it's been worth every blister and sore muscle. We left a mark, we lent a hand, and we loved like there was no tomorrow. We were actually the first World Race team to work at I.G.M. and I'm thinking we made a pretty good impression!
My bold and powerful team leader gave me a word the other day. She said she saw a truck driving by really fast, as it zoomed past the wind from the vehicle shook the leaves on a nearby tree. She told me sometimes we make an impact, we just aren't always there to see it. This has been super encouraging to me because sometimes I feel like what I'm doing here on the race isn't enough. It's not worth the money or the time or the missing my family, but when I leave a nation someone or something is different. Someone has been shaken by my love, and my team's love, for the nations we step foot into.
With that being said, take a step back and look at the people who have made an impact in your life. Even the simplest things can change how you live your life. For instance, a little over a year ago I was talking with my older brother and somewhere in the conversation he told me that our grandfather always told him, "a man is only as good as his word." Now we've all heard this before but I found myself repeating it over and over in my head while trying to lie my way out of evening plans with a guy I just wasn't interested in. So, instead of keeping up my lie and eventually creating an even bigger web of dishonesty, I came clean and told him the truth. Since then I just haven't been able to pull the "I have a family dinner that night, maybe next week" line and go straight for the truth. You see, simple spoken truths can affect people's lives.
But here's the challenge of it all: Tell the ones who have affected you about the impact they've made in your life. Sometimes, when the days are long and repetitive, and we feel like we are stuck in a never ending cycle of the same old thing day in and day out, its a relief to know that we have changed something, that somewhere someone has a shift in their life simply because we were present. You have the ball in your court to encourage the encourager in other people, to raise up some real game changers.
Until next time…
Update: I am still only about $3,750.00 from my final deadline to be fully funded. The deadline is March 1st. If you feel called to donate please don't hesitate! Anything is greatly appreciated! God bless!
