Stepping off the plane into India just sent my heart racing for joy! I had so many things going through my head but none of the words going through my head were good enough to describe what I was actually seeing and feeling. India has been on my heart and was the country I was looking forward to the most! I am still searching of what that reason is, and still feel He wants me to wait just a tad bit longer.
Imagine this, the smell of the air so distinct that it’s a mix of strong food smells and air pollution…. The air is sticky and humid that you can feel it on your skin. The roads are so packed that cars are pretty much colliding when they pass each other. Serving from left to right to get around anyone you do never want to have to just follow someone. Horns honking, at all times, from every direction. A place were the speed limit and line dividers do not exist.Driving in the center of the line is the norm. Motorcycles everywhere with families piled on the back. Dogs, chickens, cows, goats and cats all roaming the streets looking for food to eat.Colour flashing in every direction off of the homes and clothes. Yes, this is India.
Kolhapur, India is where my team and I are staying this month. We are 12 hours away from the rest of our squad as they are in Bangalore. My team and I are serving with Kolhapur Church as they run a hospital here. We are here for the rest of the week till Saturday. Then heading to a Children’s Aids Orphanage for the rest of the month.
What have we experienced so far has been so amazing and won’t sound as good in a blog as much as it is seeing it. But we have a tight schedule for the majority of the time from when we wake up at 7:00am to when we go to sleep at 11:00 pm.
Every morning we have chapel services at 8:30am to 9am. This is for the hospital staff to come and enjoy before they start their shift at work. We worship and then speak a word; I will be speaking Gods word on Friday.
One afternoon Brian and I got to teach the Sunday school teachers about tips on our experience with teachingclasses in the US and Canada, as they wanted to learn. There were about 7 teachers that came but some couldn’t make it. So, that night the teachers told the pastor they really enjoyed the teaching and want us to teach again because they learned so much. Tonight at 6:30pm our team will be going to a bigger church to teach Sunday school teachers (to those who were unable to make it) along with anyone who wants to come from other church’s! This is so exciting and our team is pumped to see what the Lord has in store tonight! Pray for the filling of this church, as Gods word will also be spoken. We spoke with a translator for the first timethat evening it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be but definitely something I am going to have to get used to! The best part of the translating was that it was the translators first time translating as well so this made it easier for the both of us haha.
We got to teach Sunday school children songs that involved having actions to make it fun of course J we got to spend time by loving on these children and playing games with them such as hide and go seek (there favorite haha) and freeze tag! They were full of joy, energy and love all they wanted was to just have play with us. The older children spoke English so it was easy to communicate. The younger ones don’t know it yet though. But even though they don’t know the language it’s funny how we can still have just as much fun with them! 🙂
Last night we went to a youth meeting Brian spoke the Word and Steph was able to lead worship as our team sang along with her. After the youth meeting people wanted prayer, old to young were there!! They wanted healing, prayer for friends and family etc. This was very neat going from person to person the Holy Spirit flowed through the building so much my hands were shaking from His presence! (Never felt the presence of God so distinct before last night). After this we got invited for dinner of which we had rice and chicken a very common dish in India. Even though it’s so common we haven’t ever had the same tasting dish yet haha. Following this we were walking back to our vehicle when some families wanted us to go into there house and pray over there homes..so we did! This was so very awesome! As we were praying our team members were starting to hear the same things from God, this house was being controlled by evil and we all knew it. So we prayed for the devil to flee out of that home. Chills were arising in my body when we starting praying this! The Holy Spirit gave us all an adrenaline rush and we grew so close together last night that we now really do feel like family. We got in many laughs!
Side note: I got to wear a saree yesterday at church. It’s a traditional piece of clothing that the ladies wear. Very beautiful and full of colour 🙂
This is India! I can’t wait to share more of Gods love and grace to the people we continue to meet. Please continue to pray for the hospital here as they have just got someone new taking the leads. Pray for the hospital to run smoothly and for the equipment to get lots of good use.
Thanks once again for your compassion on loving and caring for my team and myself as we do this journey! It’s an incredible and indescribable adventure but I can see Gods work being done here!
Yours in Christ,
Heidi 🙂
