My month in India.
Appologies for the long blog – I promise future blogs will be much shorter, but due to the fact that I only blogged once during the entire month I spent in India, I felt pulled towards posting my summary of the month.
Departing from Dulles Airport in D.C. it took approximately 55 hours to get here. What felt like the middle of nowhere. Ongole, Andhra Pradesh. A small town, but populated with approximately 30,2000 people. Culture shock? Not as much as I would have thought, due to the fact that it was similar to other cultures I have encountered in the past. Although, some things took a little time getting used to. Cows, Ongole bull and water buffalo are everywhere! I mean that literally as I say everywhere. They are considered sacred here so they are not used for slaughtering. You will see them standing, sleeping or walking in the streets, in peoples yards, under the bypass, grazing in garbage piles, bathing in large puddles or swamps; pretty much anywhere. They are sometimes used for labour (mostly the Ongole bull, which have a hump on their back which is basically used to latch a wagon onto) and the buffalo are especially used for milking. So much of Indian cuisine involves buffalo milk, almost everything. There are no traffic laws here and no street signs in Ongole. We have seen one red light in the entire city. Most people travel by motorcycle or auto (tuk tuk), although some people drive cars with the odd bicyclist. The goal seems to weave through traffic as fast as possible, beeping your horn and avoiding accidents. It is the closest thing to bumper cars that I have ever experienced. The smells hit you like a brick wall at times, it seems every 2 steps you take you experience a different smell. Some good, many not so good. It can be smelly at times due to the lack of proper garbage disposal, animal dung in the middle of the street being run over by vehicle after vehicle, or the random men and children I have seen using the washroom wherever they may please. Although much of my description of Ongole may seem to have come from a negative perspective, that has been my initial reaction to this place. I do not want to candy coat anything, I want to be raw and real.
As we entered our month of ministry at Sara’s Covenant Homes (part of India Christian Ministries) we entered a world in which we were not sure we were ready for. Orphaned children in the Indian cast system basically rank at the bottom of the list. Special needs orphaned children on the other hand seem to be treated even lower than that. A woman named Sara had a vision. She believed that such children were to receive love, hope and a future. From there she started Sara’s Covenant Homes which house dozens of children with varying needs such as cerebral palsy, down syndrome, autism etc. Our initial thoughts and emotions when we first encountered the children in the home and the Ayahs (caregivers) whom provide service to them were very negative, angry and frustrating. As we spent more time at Victory Home we became more understanding and were educated more on how far the care for these children has come and that it is only improving. It is hard to go from a western society straight to what we were called to minister to without having shocking feelings and emotions of our flesh. It is not what we are accustomed to but it is a harsh reality that most people in the world do not live the way that we do.
This month a huge part of our ministry was letting go of ourselves and letting God take over. It can be very hard to love on those kids sometimes in the flesh when you know that some of them have something potentially contagious, lice, used the bathroom on themselves, are dirty, will be rough with you etc. But if you allow the love of God to take over, His love is considered perfect. The Lord looks beyond these things and loves fully no matter what, no matter how bad circumstances may be. In God’s eyes there is absolutely nothing wrong with these children, except for the fact that they are not loved on as much as they deserve. This month He provided those children with perfect love. Unconditional love. Through us we were able to push past our flesh and allow God to take over. We became blind at times as to what was “wrong” with these children. On the sign for Sara’s Covenant Homes it says something along the lines of “caring for abandoned children.” These children are not abandoned. They may have been abandoned by their parents, but they are most definitely not abandoned by their loving Father.
I was told not to have expectations. I was planning on having no expectations. I didn’t think I did have any until my month was over. I thought I was going to hate India. It was the country I was dreading going to. I thought I would hate the heat and the food the most. Little did I know, I grew to not only like India, but to love India. I believe this is mostly because of the children at Victory Home. It was them who made my month what it was. They forever have left their footprints on my heart. I look forward to continuing a relationship with India Christian Ministries.
