INDIA | Ongole
Ok, so we arrived in India about a week ago. We had debrief in Hyderabad and then we were to go to our respective ministries. India is not one of the countries I would say I was looking forward to…more like just the opposite. I heard that this country was overpopulated and hot, and when I found that to be a reality I liked India even less. The entire time we were at debrief I would consider myself a straight up brat. I complained everytime we stepped outside about the heat, anytime we had to barter for a rickshaw. At times I was just mean, because honestly I just didn’t want to be here. I prayed several times that God would arrange some way of us skipping this month and going somewhere else, but apparently he didn’t care that I thought the Indian people were rude, that even the breezes were hot, and the food was gross. I began to put up such a hatred for the country that I began to dread what our ministry would be.
So fast forward to arriving in Ongole and finding that our ministry would be working with disabled children all month at Sarah’s Covenant Homes through ICM. Now there was quite a wake-up call in the attitude department with seeing all these kids with smiles on their faces even though they had been through such a hard life and that was enough to change my attitude right there, but then God spoke more. He revealed to me that He had called me to this place for a purpose. That yay, its hot, and the cultural here isn’t quite as polite, but they are still God’s children and they need the light that God has placed inside of me. For when I complain and put up walls, I am putting my hand over that light so it can’t be seen. I was reading those first days in Colossians and in 4:5-6 it states that we need to be careful how we conduct ourselves to others and we need to season our words with salt. Everything that I do and everything that I say needs to be reflecting the glory of God.
It seems simple writing it out right now, something like a lesson you would learn in Sunday School, but how quick as adults we are to forget those simple lessons that are sooo important. And, I have to say God did hear my prayers about not wanting to be here, although He kept us in India he did place us in an A/C apartment, he also placed alot of American missionaries around us, and put a kitchen in the apartment so we can make our own food! God is good for his glory and our light shining where He wills and not were we will.
