India is BLOWING MY MIND. I’m not gonna lie, out of all the places my World Race route consisted of, this particular country wasn’t high on my excitement list. I had a lot of preconceived thoughts about it, its people, and its culture but the Lord has totally transformed my mind ever since arriving here. Because of safety reasons, I can’t say where in India I am or the names of any ministry partners. As you probably know, the majority of the population in India is Hindu, with only 3% identifying as Christian. It is actually illegal to be a missionary here and persecution is not rare for native evangelists. So to protect my ministry host, I unfortunately can’t share that much about what we are participating in.
However, what I CAN share is that Jesus is spreading like wildfire in this nation. Every evening, my team piles into a little van and drives for an hour or two out into various villages. We have never been to the same spot twice. At these places, we’re welcomed at a church – typically a single room, sometimes a microphone and amp is there, with tarps covering the dirt floor. It’s simple and at first glance you’d never think anything of it. Yet it’s in these places that the Spirit of the living God dwells. We experience him when we’re clapping along to the Indian women singing praises. We experience him when a teammate is preaching a message about Jesus’ love and sacrifice. We experience him when we’re laying hands on the people, asking the Lord for healing and freedom. Ministry here has been amazing, being able to share testimonies and messages that God lays on our hearts each night at the churches we visit.
Something I really love about being here in India is the unexpected, exciting, and unpredictable moments. One night at a village church, the pastor reached into a basket and handed my teammate Shelby a chicken. He just told her to hold it, like it was the most casual request to make, and then proceeded to start the church service. For the next 15 minutes, as we listened to the people sing worship songs in their native language, Shelby worshipped right along clutching that chicken the whole time. Another night we were randomly taken to a garden on the way to a church, and were surprised to be greeted with week-old, fluffy puppies and delicious chai.
On yet another evening, upon arrival at the church, the girls on my team and I were dressed up in matching sarees. A bunch of Indian women went to work on us, draping the fabric around our bodies, clipping flowers into our hair, and speaking to us in their language. Our male translator was waiting outside the house so we had to rely on smiles and head bobbing to communicate with the women. After being dressed up and starting church, they asked on the spot for one of us to play the keyboard while we sang. My team expectantly looked at me, knowing that I play piano, so I nervously shrugged and stepped up behind the keys. I improvised playing along with Claire’s ukulele strumming to the song King of my Heart.
It’s the spontaneous, sometimes funny, and just random moments like these that are making my time in India an unforgettable experience. Everywhere we go, locals are always openly staring at us white foreigners and asking to take selfies with us. I give them a good laugh when they catch me coughing and sweating over the spiciness of the curry they feed us. I fear for my life every time I ride in a tuk tuk, as motos weave in and out of traffic, horns are constantly blaring, we bounce along hitting every pothole on the bumpy streets, and swerve around pedestrians and goats.
India is thrilling, crazy, surprising, vibrant, colorful, culturally rich, and fascinating. The Lord is moving within the small villages of this huge nation and people’s lives are being pierced by the gospel! Please pray for God to continue using and raising up pastors in the state of India that I’m in, as well as the numerous other states that need to be reached. Pray for a spiritual revival, for minds to be transformed and hearts renewed by Jesus.
