Hello again from India! I apologize for the lack of updates, but we don’t have a reliable source of internet and we’ve been busy with ministry. My team and I have been in India for almost three weeks now and I love it. We’ve been partnered with an organization called Rise India, and we’ve done a lot of things in a short time. We thought we would be doing one thing all month (working with women rescued from temple prostitution), but instead we’ve been given a sampling of all the ministries Rise India works with. We’ve been to a boarding school for the blind, an orphanage, a home for the homeless, a training center for women rescued from prostitution, a nursing home, a home for HIV/AIDs patients, and we’ve been to several churches and gone on house visits to Christians in the area. It’s been amazing to see the way the Holy Spirit is working and how faithful the Christians are here. We’ve seen poverty in a way you only see on TV and it’s heartbreaking. It’s hard to imagine that we’re making a difference, but we trust that God is working through us and our contacts. We’re here for the short-term, but our contacts work with the people daily and we are able to fill in where they need us.
Each of these ministries has touched me in a way that’s hard to describe. I’ve laughed and cried with so many different people, and I’ve held babies and the hands of the elderly in the same day. I learned how to write my name in Braille and how to make a cup from rolled magazine paper, both of which help provide a livelihood for the people I learned from. I’ve drunk chai tea in an upper class house one day and stood in a small 10 by 10 hut in the slums the next. I’ve had opportunities to meet people, see things, and go places that I would never have had if I was here as a tourist. I’m learning how to work without a schedule, as each day is different and we don’t always know what we’re doing until we get in the van to leave in the morning.
Pictures are worth more than words, so let me show you some and tell you a little bit about what we’ve been doing.
Teams Aurora Borealis and Beloved Warriors working together for the month. It kind of feels like we’re the same team now!
There are 11 of us with the two teams combined, and so every day 7 people will go to ministry and 4 will stay home to help prepare meals and clean the house. While I enjoy going to ministry, I also enjoy the days I get to stay home because I can spend more time with the lady who cooks for us, Mamatha. She’s so sweet and we all love her. Her English is really good and she loves talking about American culture!
This is Sampson, our translator. He’s amazing and we wouldn’t be able to do what we’re doing without him! He’s also an amazing tabla (a kind of Indian drums) player! (credit goes to Ali for this picture)
Rupta and her mother, Diamond, were very welcoming when we visited them in their house to pray for them. Rupta is hoping to continue on to college, and her dad a contract painter and is currently looking for work. Every family we’ve visited has been very generous and usually offers us tea and cookies, no matter what their living situation. It’s hard to imagine anyone doing that in the USA, southern hospitality or no.
On a side note, a scarf/shawl and long skirt are necessary items for a woman missionary in India. The scarf is for covering your head when praying or speaking, and the skirt is just propriety!
This week we’ve been doing manual labor at a home for HIV/AIDs patients. We’ve weeded the gardens, dug in the vineyard (that’s what I’m doing here), prepared food in the kitchen, and chopped wood. It’s been a rough week because of the heat and we all sleep well at night.
These women were rescued from temple prostitution and now live in a home where they are learning skills that will help them find work. The woman to my right, Haseen, is going to school to get a degree in education. There’s a temple about an hour away where it’s considered tradition to offer girls and women as offerings to the temple.
We spent the afternoon with these adorable kids at the Shine Children Home. There are 22 kids ranging in age from 4 to 15. We played games, sang songs and dances, and told Bible stories. As you can tell, we had lots of fun! The man to the far right is the pastor who runs the home. He brings the kids in off the streets and provides for them until they’re old enough to take care of themselves.
We’ve visited several churches and have been able to share our testimonies, sing, and pray for the church and it’s members.
It’s hard to imagine that we’ve been here for three weeks, but we leave for Nepal in only 5 days!
