Father God, You have shed Your tears for Mother India
They have fallen to water ancient seeds
That will grow into hands to touch the untouchable
How blessed are the poor, the sick, the weak
Father, forgive me, for I have not believed
Like Mother India, I have groaned and grieved
Father, forgive me, I forgot Your grace
Your Spirit falls on India and captures me in Your embrace
-Caedmon's Call
Morning worship at the orphanage with the women that care for the kids.
India. Month 11.
Pinch me.
How is it possible that there is less than a month left of this insane year of my life? When I look at pictures from El Salvador, month 1, I feel like I am looking at pictures from someone else’s life.
Finishing the Race in India is a colorful, confusing, outlandish mess of hard yet hilarious moments. I feel like I am watching someone else live my life lately; I know I am eating one $0.35 curry dish after the next, avoiding walking into cows, making sure my ankles are covered at all times, and trying not to get attacked by monkeys, but it all feels so surreal. I simply can not wrap my mind around this being the last time I meet a contact, figure out the wifi/food/bathing/laundry/toilet situation in a new place, organize team time and growth, and dive into just 4 weeks with a ministry.
Cows EVERYWHERE, and a beautiful woman peers through the SCH gate.
I was afraid that month 11 would be time to hardcore check-out on the World Race with home so close, but God has graciously answered my prayers to keep me present and faithful to where He has me…almost to the point that home is beginning to feel kind of scary compared to what I am seeing and doing here.
America seems distant, fluffy, sparkly…frighteningly similar to the way the “Districts” view the “Capitol” in the Hunger Games.
Working with Sarah’s Covenant Homes has nearly wrecked me already, and God has me falling in love with my month 11 ministry more than any other on the Race. I know better than to question God’s timing, but being this dialed-in to month 11 is just…unexpected.
Sarah’s Covenant Homes, or SCH, is a ministry through Indian Christian Ministries that takes in and cares for disabled and abandoned orphans, many of which have been rescued from state-run institutions. They nearly all suffer from severe cognitive impairment, many suffer from physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy, and all of them are behind on meeting developmental milestones due to sheer lack of stimulation.
Beautiful baby girl!
People with special needs belong to the lowest possible caste system in India, which makes them undesirable and untouchable. Although the caste system is not a huge factor in daily life in some of the bigger cities, most rural places and smaller cities still operate under a huge influence for whatever caste a person falls into.
In many cultures, disabled children are considered the lowest of the low; they are viewed as disposable, often left to spend their entire lives lying on a concrete floor in a roach and rat infested institution, deprived of basic nutrition and necessary medication. The value of their lives is nearly non-existent in most environments, and they helplessly wait to die in most places that are unfortunately ill-equipped to care for these children.
SCH retrieves these children, who are sometimes on the edge of death, and brings them into an environment that focuses on pouring out the love of Jesus. The women and missions teams that serve at SCH are intentional about showering the children with affection and attention, hygiene and nutrition, education and play time, laughter and love. Most of the children, upon initial arrival at SCH, are malnourished, underdeveloped, scared, distant, and unsociable, but usually blossom into warm, friendly, healthy, joyful children not too long after arrival.
Babies laying in their beds at Victory Home, and the girls and I making jewelry.
We take it as our “right” in America to have basic necessities, like protein in our diet, but here SCH is considered very generous by including eggs in the children’s diets. Although it is pricey and overwhelming, several physical therapists work to help the children with mobility, and the children are educated to the greatest extent possible at SCH.
Spending 6 hours a day having special needs children run at me or begging with their eyes to be held, with lice and tuberculosis and skin infections and dirty diapers running rampant, produces the most satisfying type of exhaustion I have ever felt. I sense that God is answering my prayer to see these children through His eyes, and I often try to walk around the orphanage and think “Ok, how would Jesus approach this very child in this very moment?” and then let the Spirit lead.
I am struggling to reconcile these children’s reality with my own fluffy, spoiled, self-focused American reality. What is God’s will for these children, and why did He have us cross paths? How is it possible that I live on the same planet as children that are starving to death on cold cement floors in frightening institutions, while I am going home to a fluffy, warm bed and more abundant meal choices than I will know what to do with? And I praise God for each child at SCH because they at least are receiving love and attention as they should.
As for now, I am trying to be faithful each day to loving and serving these children the way Jesus would. I attached two video clips below that will show you some of the beautiful faces that I am working with this month. Please watch them, and maybe pray about partnering up with your family, coworkers, or Bible study group to sponsor one of these children to have a better life.
