So after a few more flights and couple more hours on a bus, we made it to India. Soon after we arrived I tried my best to find a quiet place with a good view to hang up my hammock so I could wind down from the travel days and spend some time with the Lord. The place we are staying is super remote, beautiful, and cold so it wasn’t hard to find a spot to myself with a cool Mountain View. The majority of Thailand and Malaysia were spent in big cities so I was thanking the Lord that we finally stayed in a place where I could sit in nature and not be flooded with city noises.
As I was sitting there in the freezing cold, I noticed that down the hill from where I was sitting was a small group of houses with tin roofs, dirt floors, and all sorts of animals running in and out of them. I then small a young boy run out and make direct eye contact with me which kinda caught me off guard. He looked a little puzzled and uncertain of why I was in his village. I had no doubt that he has seen seldom to no white people in his life, and especially one with bright blond hair. I gave him a gentle wave and a smile to which he giggled and ran back inside. I would soon learn that his name was Daniel, he was 7 years old, lives with his grandma, and loves to play soccer.
After a while I heard the noise of leaves cracking through my head phones. I sat up and looked to my right to see the boy I had seen earlier with about 10 other local children looking directly at me with hopeful eyes. I didn’t really know what to do so I casually asked if they wanted to sit in my hammock with me. That was exactly what they were waiting for. Before I new it I was crushed by Indian children with giant smiles on their faces. I would then have them go one at a time and spin them and we played other games in that little quiet spot I found by the mountain. The sounds of laughter filled those woods and more kids began to come and see what was going on. I did my best to learn all of their names but they know mine very well. To this day I will be walking down the road and hear them scream “JESSE!!” and ask me to play with them.
Lunch time was approaching quickly so I told them I had friends down the road with even more hammocks. They took the bait and ransacked all of my squamates hammocks who had hung theirs up on the property where we were staying. The Lord blessed us with this time and place that we had so many kids who just loved us to pieces. Pray that we can have great impacts on their lives and that they would come to know the perfect love of Jesus through us.
