Whenever I talked to someone that had been to India I heard that it can be the darkest or most reviving place you visit. That it is so busy, hot and muggy and the country as a whole just smells. That it is a dirty place and just a very challenging place to live. If I’m honest, after hearing these reviews, I was very nervous to go to India. With it being our first month on the race I felt like it was going to be terrible. I had no excitement for this country and was honestly just praying that I would learn quickly what I needed to do to get through the month.
Well, God has proven me wrong once again! He is just so good. We have been in Sielmat, India which is in the Manipur region and you find Sielmat village in the city of Churachandpur. We arrived Monday evening, the 12th, after almost 3 full days of travel. Traveling as a squad was such an interesting experience. Mind you there are 53 of us with giant packs and a medium back pack on the front and back of us traveling as one big bunch. We took over every airport we went to, we are definitely already over all the stares we get here in India, there were enough of them back in the states. When we arrived to Churachandpur our contact John met us at the airport, helped us get through customs and then we all hopped on two separate busses. Which then took us to Sielmat.
It has been very cold in the evenings and mornings and then it warms up in the day when the sun is out. Churachandpur is in almost a bowl of mountains, so the entire city is surrounded by mountains. I feel at home, the weather is the same as colorado it changes drastically, and I am in a forest of a variety of trees right now. Not at all what I thought India would be like.
We are working with Partnership Mission Society. They actually have a base in Colorado Springs, Bibles for the World and some of the locals working here now have attended a school in Littleton, Colorado. The ministry and foundation God has developed here is absolutely incredible. 90% of the population here in Churachandpur is Christian.
So why would we be sent here for a mission trip?
Although ministry this month is not focused on telling people about Christ who dont know Him. There is still that 10% that don’t and just because they are Christian doesn’t mean they don’t need encouragement and revival to their walk with Christ, as all of us know. We are blessed with the opportunity to partner with Partnership Mission Society and help with construction in the hospital, attending womens retreats, helping with a city wide VBS for over 2,000 children, and investing, pouring into, and learning from the amazing people doing this work.
In each village here in Churachandpur there is a prayer mountain. Literally a mountain the locals have dedicated to prayer. You can go up it at anytime and spend time with the Lord, they also have built a few little cabins for those that need to spend weeks or months working through something with God. It is such a safe and unique place.
Our ministry so far has been grooming the prayer mountain with machettes, attending a womens retreat and playing soccer, tug of war, volleyball and just spending time with many local women. We also got to go to a childrens retreat. A group from Pennsylvania has organized it every year for the past ten years. When we went there were about 2,200 kids there! It was so encouraging and amazing thing to witness. So many children singing to our Lord and learning about giving their lives to Christ.
We haven’t had wifi while we’ve been here. We’re hoping our team will get it for an hour every saturday. So I apologize how uninformative this post is, or how quickly it ends. The wifi may go out soon so I am going to post this and start working on another. But know that God is doing wonderful things here in Sielmat and getting to partner with him and this organization this month has been such a blessing. Missing home is definitely a struggle, so know that I miss you all but that God is teaching me so much already. It is still so crazy that I am actually on The World Race!
