I’m going to start this blog by confessing that I was always that kid that got in trouble for talking too much in church. Once I was old enough to sit with the youth group instead of my parents, my mom still visited me occasionally to give me a friendly reminder to stay quiet during the
service. Apparently, some things never change. We just finished our 3rd day of ministry here in India and our 5th church service. I don’t mean this is a bad way, but other than the preacher changing, the services are pretty similar. Let me paint you the typical picture. The church is divided with men on one side and women on the other side, an aisle separating the two.
No pews or chairs, everyone is kneeling or sitting cross legged on the floor. They put us special guests in chairs up at the front, facing the congregation. The front row on the girl’s side usually consists of two teenage girls and one child who is probably about 5 years old. On the front row on the guy’s side sits Asher, our Pastor’s son, and his cousin Martin.
I have a tendency to scan the crowd while I sit up there and if I make eye contact with someone I smile, wink or a combination of the two. If it isn’t one of my teenage friends that I smile or wink at, they are looking over their shoulder to try to figure out who I’m looking at…definitely drawing more attention to it all. As far as the winking goes, apparently I am trying to spread that around the world. I didn’t know I did it as much as I
did until I’ve been around people who can’t do it back. I get lots of smiles and ‘blinks’ that are usually followed by a giggle because they know they are doing it wrong. The first 45 minutes is them worshiping in their language and then we get our turn to sing a couple songs and then give a word from the Lord. During their worship time, I remember that Sister Rachel, Pastor’s wife, had asked me if we could do an ‘action song.’
On the other nights, Matthew had been the one to lead us with his guitar…but of course he was sitting at the complete opposite side of the stage from me. I leaned over and whispered to Joni and began the game of telephone. My two teenage friends began to whisper to each other so they could mimic me. I had suggested that we sing ‘Every Move I Make,’ but Joni didn’t know the motions so I showed her the ‘waves of mercy’ motion. If you are
more familiar with the movie Clueless it’s the same motion as ‘Rolling with the homies.� Once again, my teenage friend started making the ‘waves of mercy’ sign to me the whole rest of the service. Keep in mind that we are sitting at the front of the church with the whole church watching us and I have started a game of telephone, am causing spastic blinking and laughter across the women’s side and am doing motions to a song that we
aren’t singing. Next picture I’m going to paint for you is when the camera man arrives. Mind you that Pam and I are the one’s scheduled to talk tonight and are the two people on our team that are mostly terrified to preach, and for whatever reason, this is the service that Pastor wanted to have videotaped. Afterwards he tell us that it was because we are the first American group to be here…a head’s up would have been nice, just saying.
We must continue on with business as usual so the whole team gets up and sings a couple songs, and then it’s my turn to speak. The video camera has a 1,000 watt bulb on it that is blinding me while I am speaking. I could either awkwardly just stare at Pastor who was translating or awkwardly blink my eyes a thousand times a minute to try to make the spots go away. I’m sure I looked real comfortable up there. Add to it that it’s hot and humid in
India, I have on leggings that go to my ankles and a long sleeved Indian top so that I am culturally appropriate, and I tend to get super nervous when I have to preach. Talk about heat and pressure. Without going into details, let’s just say there was some sweating going on. Luckily God is good and both Pam and I made it through our sermons with good messages. After I preached, while Pam was speaking, the ‘waves of mercy’
motion continued, but this time the five year old joined in. She also decided to go back and forth from the front row, to her Grandfather in the back row and would stand and wave at me or blow kisses during her transition. Yes it should all be caught on tape…but Pastor is translating the whole time so luckily he doesn’t know that I am causing such a commotion. We have another translator coming on Tuesday so I can foresee
me being moved to the back of the church in the near future. Thankfully through all the silly motions, smiles and winks I have formed a sweet friendship with these girls. They are sisters and their names are Daminamol and Danifamol…and have named me Bonniemol so that I can be their sister as well. Sister Rachel told us when we got here that she had seen us in a dream about 3 years ago. A group from America was coming
to work with the church and we had very large backpacks! Ha! In her dream, God told her we would be mightily used. She reminded me that it could be our singing that brings someone into the church and that we just have to be open and willing to be used. In my case, it may be a smile, a wink or a silly motion to a song that brings someone joy! I’m open and willing.
p.s. These pictures have absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the blog because I haven’t taken any at our ministry site yet. These are just some fun pictures from our debrief in Hyderabad.
