Right now, I’m in Africa where Wi-Fi is a little hard to find and I am thinking back to how amazing India was! For those who don’t know I was on the other gap year (Gap I) route before I was switched to the route I’m on now, the “Gap J” route. The purpose of that in all honesty was to avoid India. Being an American that didn’t know anything about the world and thought that if I went to India, everyone would be out to get me, because of it being mostly Hindi, and Muslim. I was a little scared and didn’t want to have anything to do with India, but God had other plans for me! I was switched over to this route and headed to India after Ecuador! Which was good, I love India!
There have been times where people would get a little too close for comfort and ask a few too many questions. Questions like, were do you live? How long are you here for? There were also funny questions that people asked, for instance, what do you think of Donald Trump? Where do you come from? And one of my favorites, do you die your hair that color? The place we were at people don’t ever normally see blondes, so it was fun trying to tell them that this is how it comes out of my head. People also like to take photos with us. Eventually it was normal when a random person would want to take a photo. I personally don’t see anything special about me for photos, but if they want to brag about seeing an American today on the street, go for it.
The area we were in was the north east part of India, it’s not your typical India. The people we met were awesome though! We did most of our work and ministries with the people of the Hmar tribe. They’re more Mongolian dissent then Indian dissent because this part of the country is on the outside part of India’s shape that we think of in America. They are a part of India I didn’t even know about but their story is still incredible. Basically a missionary went there in the 1900s and he was only allowed to be there for 5 days. Within those 5 days he brought Jesus to the tribe, 4 members became saved and they then brought the whole tribe to Christ. It’s a cool story about how Jesus moves through people and how he’s always pulling people to him. I think that it’s awesome how much of an impact one person with Jesus in him and a Bible can effect an entire tribe.
For My ministry we helped out mainly in the schools, teaching bible classes, English, science, and even if we just wanted to have fun with them and show them the love of God. I never saw myself to be teaching a class, but it was a good learning experience for me as well. I have always been afraid to talk in front of a big group of people. Being forced to talk in front of a big class of 10th graders about the bible was nerve racking for me. After the first minute of standing up there saying hi and introducing myself all my fears left me. It’s like Jesus took hold of my fear and forced it to leave, so that I could preach about a passage in the bible to a class of 10th graders. Jesus will take away any fears you may have about anything you are trying to do or accomplish. We also did a lot of sports ministry as well! In India the biggest sport they play is Soccer. It was fun to learn about soccer more and gain at least a little skill. Over all it was fun to play with the kids and have the opportunity to bond with them in that way. Even though we got beat almost every time. Other than school and sports, we would do construction ministries. This consisted of someone giving us shovels or a bucket to move dirt. We would be there for hours leveling and moving dirt. There was one time this were we had to get dirt from the middle of a river and hull it back across to be used for cement. I personally enjoy manual labor so this was all a relaxing for me in a way and we were able to help out in building of churches in the process.
Throughout all of India the biggest thing that God has tough me is that, It doesn’t matter what other people think. The only reason for this is that most times before I would do something like just goofing off and being crazy skits and stuff for the kids. I would have fear of what people would think when I would do it. Sort of like the mood of “cool kids don’t do anything”, attitude and learning about in India that people’s opinions don’t matter. Doesn’t matter what people think it only maters what God thinks. This could apply to people reading this too. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t “look cool”, or “what a cool kid would do”. If it Glorifies God and brings people and children to know Christ, then it is cool. So that’s what I learned. Until next time!
