Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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Thursday, May 12, 2011

*Note: On Wednesday we were told we had to move out of the house we were staying in that day. So we spent Wednesday searching for a new place to live, packing, and moving… oh the life of a racer.

So here’s what one day of village life looked like for me…Enjoy!

6:30am-Accept defeat against the sun, the music being played to worship idols that has been blasted throughout the village over a loudspeaker all night long, and the mosquitoes who seem to particularly enjoy my blood. Peel myself off my sweat-drenched sleeping pad on the roof and pack up my sleeping things.

6:45am– Spend time with Jesus, eat breakfast, start (and finish) Through the Looking Glass.

10:00am– Leave for door-to-door ministry in the village. At our first house we sit down and talk with the family, tell them about Jesus, and pray with them. They serve us drinks, we sing for them, the kids sing for us, and we invite them to watch The Jesus Film with us tonight. At our second house we meet an older man who has been coughing up blood and wants prayer. We pray for him, tell him who we are praying to and about the life of Jesus, and he tells us he wants to get baptized! There is no water, so he asks us to come back at 4:00pm when there will be water to baptize him with. 

As we are leaving his neighbor calls out to us, asking for prayer. He has a broken hip and cannot walk, which he demonstrates as he stands up with a large walking stick and hobbles a few feet, not putting any weight on his right leg, clearly in a good deal of pain. We tell him about our God, Jesus, and explain that we believe Jesus can heal him. I lay my hand on his hip and we all begin to pray. As we’re praying I can feel movement where I’ve placed my hand. After we pray we tell him to get up and walk. Without the walking stick he stands up, puts weight on BOTH feet, and tentatively takes his first steps. He shares that he is PAIN FREE and begins walking with greater confidence, back and forth, back and forth, amazed himself at the healing that has taken place. All of his neighbors are now gathered around watching, looking more than a little surprised to see him up and mobile. One teenage girl has her hand over her mouth in awe. And an even greater miracle than his physical healing-he wants to be baptized as well! How awesome is our God?

12:00pm-We head back from door-to-door to our house and I begin preparing lunch for our group. Since our new home has no kitchen, the restaurant in the front of our building lets us cook this meal in their kitchen. So I chop up some veggies, grab the ramen, and head to the kitchen (let’s just say this kitchen wouldn’t quite pass a health inspection in the U.S.) to cook a five-star meal alongside Emily.

1:00pm-Eat lunch and clean up.

1:30pm– Rest time! Start (and finish) Wild at Heart (amazing what you can get done without internet, TV, and other distractions).

3:45pm-Michael and Jordan arrive “home” with bags of Indian snacks. After a quick snack break, we’re off to the baptism!
 

4:00pm– We go back to the man’s house who we prayed for earlier who was coughing up blood. He shares that he feels better and hasn’t coughed up any blood since he received prayer!

There is now water, so pray together and Theresa and Lacey baptize him. We can see the joy and hope Christ has put in him-a complete countenance change since the morning.

4:45pm-We head off to see the land that has been donated for us to build the church on! On the land we thank God, worship, and pray for/bless the land.

5:30pm– On our way back we stop to thank and pray for the family who donated the land to us. On one of our first days in the village we prayed for a woman and her son who had kidney stones, Jesus healed them both, and they felt compelled to donate land for the church!

6:00pm-Arrive home only to head out again with Leyna and Agape (the thirteen year old son of our translators who have been such a blessing to us) to purchase fruit and bread to go with dinner. Find a man selling chapatti (kind of like pita bread) and curry on the side of the road for 6 rupees/piece (about 15 cents!) and wait as he prepares 12 of them for us.

6:45pm-Walk home and eat dinner.
 
7:15pm-Head out to show The Jesus Film. Set up the projector and screen and search house to house for a DVD player. Move the large projector screen out of the way as hundreds of goats and buffalo come down the street. We move it back, ready to start the film, but have to pause it while the buffalos are milked, as the light spooks them and inhibits the flow of milk (yep, this is our lives).

8:00pm– Start the film.

Throughout the film, people on bicycles and motos duck as they drive underneath the screen (quite the site to see).

The wind blows the screen over and I roll out of the way to avoid being taken out by the oversized metal frame. We weigh it down with large rocks.

10:00pm-Movie ends. We take down the equipment and take it home.

10:15pm-The 13 person line begins for the bathroom/bucket showers.

10:45pm-Head up to the roof, blow up my sleeping pad, cover myself in Deet, and shove my earplugs in as far as they will go, once again trying to drown out the loudspeaker. Fall asleep J

1 day, 1 baptism, 2 healings, 1 bathroom, 2 books, 1 film, a few hundred goats and buffalo, 1 plot of donated land, and 13 brothers and sisters in Christ living for 1 awesome God