A friend long ago told me “India touches all the senses.” What she didn’t say was that it would touch my heart even more than the curry smell touches my nose and the hot, humid sun touches my skin.
I can’t describe (just yet) all the ways in which India has changed me in these short three weeks, but I can give you a glimpse into my heart. And trust me when I say, you’ll find India there.
This enchanting little path leads to our ministry host’s house. John and Long are the directors of Partnership Mission Society and run various Christian schools all over India. I can’t express how much I love wandering/walking/running through this city and discovering all of it’s Secret Garden appeal.
We spent our first week in India working in Marcoline with our whole squad. Two of those days, we carried bricks up a mountain to build this church. In a village that had never seen white people before. The villagers wept they were so grateful. We wept because the Holy Spirit was so thick that we couldn’t do anything but weep. And sing. We were soaked in sweat, in rain, and in the presence of our beautiful God those days.
While in that village, I made friends with these tater tots. I’m learning that I love the kids ages like 2-5. I played hide and go seek with these ones and made the one on the left cry because he was so excited/scared of the white lady. He couldn’t decide which one.
After a week in Marcoline, we took off with three other teams to travel across Northwest India and set up free medical clinics for the day in various schools Partnership runs. Wow did we have no idea what we were in for. My teammate took this picture of me at our first school. We were greeted by somewhere around 700 students and adults from the nearby village, all waiting to be seen by the doctors and nurses that accompanied us. It has been insanely beautiful and overwhelming to love on India like this. My team moved on to two more cities, setting up clinics and seeing a total of around 1500 people. Two other teams continued on to host 4 more clinics in other cities while we stayed in Damcherra, serving at the school here for a week.
We went out to the market in Damcherra and I ran into these girls, one of which who I saw at the clinic and assessed before sending to the doctor. Everywhere we go here, we are celebrities and people want pictures. Last night we walked into the headmaster’s house for dinner and the police were there. We thought we were in trouble but soon realized they came to take pictures with us.
We got to host medical clinics with two other teams. These are the sweet girls from Kindred laughing with us. What a gift we have in our little family of U Squad.
Every day here at the school, we get to teach the kids, sing and do devotions with them, and play sport with them. Our favorite is sand volleyball. Probably because it’s not soccer and we feel better about ourselves after playing volleyball than we do soccer. (PS every country but America breeds soccer players and everyone kills us at it.) In any case, we were amidst a competitive game of sand volleyball when these elephants strolled by. Their owners were confused and annoyed at our excitement and rode on. I chased them down the street to get this picture.
This is from the roof at the school. I stood up here for awhile, watching the kids play. They kept looking up at me and waving vigorously. They think it’s hilarious that I wave excitedly and make fun of me for it a lot.
I’m amazed at this place. Each night when I do devotions with the 70 boys who live here on campus, I am blown away and inspired by the way they love Jesus. I’m blown away by the way Jesus loves me. God lives here, friends.
Oh, India, my heart.
