We arrived in India about a week ago for our final month of the World Race!! Besides the intense heat and humidity, I love everything about it! The culture, the people, the food, the clothes-it’s beautiful here!! After taking a ferry, tuk-tuks, flights, buses, and an overnight train, we made it safe and sound to our ministry site in Ongole. We are working with two other teams this month, so there are about 20 of us. We found out from our contacts that we would have two options this month. We could either help in a children’s home for kids with special needs or we could raise funds and go out to a village to plant a church. My initial thought was that I wanted to stay back at the children’s home and step into something that was already established, but Allan pulled me aside and challenged me to take advantage of the opportunity to step up and grow in leadership through the church plant. I definitely wasn’t thrilled about it at first-especially when I felt like the Lord put teenage girls on my heart-but as I began to pray about it more I knew it was what I was supposed to do.
After praying and asking the Lord what He wanted for each of us, 5 of the girls decided to stay and work at the children’s home and the rest of us headed out to the village to plant a church! The leaders have decided to take a step back this month and they are encouraging each of us to step up and take charge of whatever we want to do for the church plant. I have been involved with many different things so far, but my main focus is the teenage girls. They are all BEAUTIFUL, and one of the girls in particular has stolen my heart! I am also in charge of baptisms and footwashing with Angela. I have been a part of morning prayer meetings with Traci and Julie, and spent a lot of time out in the community with Julie and Jessica encouraging women and praying for them.
I have absolutely LOVED our time in the village so far, and can’t wait to see what God is going to do the rest of this month!
Specific prayer requests:
- $2000 to build the church
- A plot of land to build on
- 12 people to be raised up in the community to start the church
- People to be baptized regardless of family beliefs
- To be able to show the Jesus Film in the village
- That people would turn from Hindu beliefs/idol worship and come to know the One True God
