We wearily hopped off the plane at 7 a.m. and it was already stifling hot. We had been traveling for days, and we were so excited to be in India! We loaded all our stuff and ourselves into a van and the driver took off. As we drove down the street, horns blared, traffic jammed, vendors yelled, cows hung out in the shade on city streets, bikes zoomed past us and we narrowly missed hitting one or two of them with our van. Even in the outskirts of the city, everything was fast and loud. I quickly came to the realization that I am about as far from Middletown, Ohio as I can possibly get.
As we drive down the road (one so skinny I’m surprised the van can even fit down it), we pull up to our home this month. Asha Missions is a home for kids in the South Western corner of New Delhi. Only one of the kids is a true orphan, all of the others have parents that are still alive – some of them even stop by once in a while. Their ages range from three to seventeen. All of them come from sad stories and rough backgrounds. There are kids who come from leper colonies, the slums and even from brothels. Their stories are sad, but these kids are anything but. I have never felt so much joy just walking into a room, never seen so much happiness on so many faces.
The home is small and exploding with children. There are 13 beds for all the kids, and 5 rooms in the entire place. Most of life happens in the small courtyard in the middle of the building. The food is cooked in hallways and eaten wherever you can find a place to sit down. One shower, one toilet and one sink for all the kids and the four adults who live and work there as well. The only place the kids have to run around is on the roof of the building, where the laundry is hung to dry. Sounds cramped, but it gets comfy quickly.
Everyday the kids get up at 5 a.m. to get ready for school, eat breakfast and have morning devotion. When they get home, they have devotion, homework and play time, another devotion and then dinner. The schedule is full, but things here run like clockwork and everyone chips in. The biggest girls help cook the food. During the days, we do things like laundry and cleaning. Yesterday, we got to go shopping for our own Indian “summer suits”, which is just like a long shirt with matching pants and scarf. We girls quickly realized that half our wardrobe wasn’t going to cut it here – nothing close to tight, short or low-cut. We would be pushing it wearing capris!
India is nothing like I imagined but everything I imagined at the same time. Yes, it’s a little stinky and you definitely don’t want to step in puddles. But the people here are so friendly, polite and warm that you forget so quickly. I’ve never felt so welcome than when we stepped into Asha our first day, or even when we walk down the street. India was the country I was looking forward to the most (the food is sooooo good!) and I’m so glad to finally be here. I want to ask and encourage you to pray for our time here, that God would use us in ways to be a huge impact on these children. They deserve so much love, more than my team can ever give them, but hopefully God can give them that love through us this month.
