India was an incredible month of growth. We were in the middle of a village hours away from everyone else. Due to the persecution of Christians in the country we had to be discrete with our presence so that we wouldnt harm the ministry that was already in place.
Our team was placed in the sanctuary upstairs and told to stay inside. We set up our tents and took coverage until we were told to go somewhere. Thankfully within the first couple of hours I discovered that downstairs there were 11 boys that lived there, in what they call a boys hostel. Essentially our hosts house these boys who don’t have stable homes, need assistance with school, or live to far away from any school and need a place to live close to a school with an adult home to take care of them, help them with school and make sure they have strong role models, and some of them are orphans. These boys are in an amazing home, where they are also learning about our favorite guy Jesus.
I knew the moment I found out about these boys the month was going to be a good one! Throughout the month we only left the sanctuary to go downstairs to eat, do our laundry, the bathroom or ready to leave for ministry. It became my goal to spend as much time down stairs with those kids. They were going to be my main focus of ministry, even though we were there to preach and pray in the community. Sometimes due to being hidden away, I felt as though we were like fragile China dolls hidden away and only taken off the shelf to be shown off. Since we couldn’t really go anywhere except for when we went into the villages for ministry, we felt as though it was going to be a hard month of connecting with the community and building relationships, but we got so much more than expected. Instead of us going out, the people came to us! it was a little overwhelming at times but so incredible.
To be honest, I feel for all the crazy animals in the zoo and got a little taste of how it feels to just be watched. We would be reading, journaling or napping in our tents and look up to children or locals gazing down at us as if we were going to do something incredible. They looked at us as if we were an exotic creature. We laughed, cried and cringed at different moments throughout the month when this would happen.. its funny to look back on these moments and laugh.
This month was by far the hardest. We were locked away, but people knew we were there. If you needed us, everyone knew where to find us. We were scared of not being able to reach as many people this month, but was humbled by realizing the loud speakers during church, the local ladies coming to ask for prayer or just to sit with us, the children in and out of our doors, the boys down stairs, the hosts who became family… We reached so much more than even imaginable. We preached every night, prayed over hundreds of people, we were welcomed into homes, fed incredibly spicy and delicious meals and we allowed the holy spirit move through us like never before.
At times yes, I felt like I was a China doll only taken down when needed or to be shown off, or for yet another “selfie” but in all honesty, we were hidden in plain sight the entire time… We did more than we ever thought we could and man does that make all the hard times so incredibly worth it!
