I know my last blog post didn’t explain much about where we are or what we’ve been doing since we arrived so I wanted to take a little time to do that now. My squad is in a village called Sielmat, which is in the state of Manipur. We are working with an organization called Bibles for the World, staying in an unfinished dorm that they worked hard to make habitable for us during our stay. Unlike the rest of India, this area is predominately Christian, largely due to the work of Dr. Rochunga Pudaite. He and his wife devoted their lives to bringing the gospel here. He founded Bibles for the World, focusing on distributing Bibles. He translated the Bible into the local language of Hmar, and later they used the phone book as a mailing list to send out the Bibles. We arrived here on Friday night, and on the following Monday, they celebrated the one year anniversary of his passing. A year ago, another World Race squad was actually here when the news reached Sielmat that Dr. Pudaite had died. The people here hold him in very high esteem for the work he did in bringing the gospel to India. If you would like to know more about Dr. Pudaite, there was actually a movie made about his early life and work called Beyond the Next Mountain.
Late last week we actually got to hear from his son, John, who is now leading the work here. He explained more about some of the connected ministries, such as the hospital, the school, and the seminary located here in Sielmat. We have visited each of these sites. The hospital serves the people here, and we even had the opportunity to go to a nearby village for a medical clinic. The people there were Hindu, and we were the first group they have ever allowed to pray with them at one of the clinics. The school was pretty amazing, too. A total of 2,700 students from 3 years up to 17 years old attend. Many of them are able to go to the school and receive a Christian education because of sponsors who support them for about $30 a month, which covers tuition, books, and uniforms. Some Hindu parents even choose to send their children to the school, allowing them to learn Bible verses and sing songs about Jesus. When we visited, we got to attend their chapel service and see some of the things they are learning. It moved my heart to hear children singing, “Shine, Jesus shine. Flood the nations with grace and mercy.”
One of my favorite moments so far was my first experience of “church,” getting to attend a youth service at a church in Rengkai on Friday night. We tried to sing a song in Hmar, and they sang songs in English. The only thing we understood out of the whole message was when the speaker for the evening read the passage he had chosen to speak on in English. (It was Genesis 12:1-3, by the way. That’s where God called Abraham to leave his home and his family to go to a land God would show him so yeah, I still got something out of it.) We didn’t understand much of what was said, and we didn’t have much to offer them other than our gratitude for the way they received us. But I can’t explain with words how beautiful it was to worship with my brothers and sisters in Christ who live half a world away from the place I call home. We had never met before, and I probably will never see any of them again in this life. But in that moment I experienced what I previously only understood conceptually. The Body of Christ is much bigger than I realized, and it’s a powerful thing to see how God is working in the lives of people all over this planet. We may look differently, speak different languages, and have different ways that we worship, but we are united by something that transcends all of that. Revelation 7:9-10 (ESV) says,
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”
I got a little taste of Heaven on Friday night, and if that’s what I found in my first week, I can’t wait to see what more the next ten and a half months bring!
P.S. I tried to upload some photos, but our wi-fi is limited so I will try to post as many as I can at the first opportunity.
