Hello Blog Land!
My apologies for being silent all month. I haven’t had wifi, so there’s that. Such is life on the World Race.
My squad and I have been serving this month in the great country of India. I won’t lie to you, I did not have high hopes for this place. Before leaving home, I heard horror stories about how it just wasn’t a great place. But I’m here to tell you, I was proven wrong. Yes, India is SOOOOOO different from America. That is true. However, I have LOVED my month in India.
My team and I spent our month in a small village outside of Hyderabad. We slept in our tents, in the church. We hung out with our host family most days and then headed for ministry in the evenings. We drove to a different village each night, sang some songs, preached the gospel and then prayed over people. A few of those nights, the women in the village would dress us up in traditional clothing and then play music and lead us in a dance. It was such a strange, twilight zone experience but also SO MUCH FUN. One night, they asked us to perform a traditional American dance. Obviously, we don’t have that….so we freestyled. Talia led us in a few renditions of the wobble, the bernie, and many other dances. It was glorious. The people in the village loved it. I’m sure we’re on YouTube somewhere. We represented you well, America. You’re welcome!
Anyways, overall this month was amazing. We had an amazing host family who loved us and treated us like a part of their family. We drank SO MUCH Thums Up (India’s version of Coco-Cola….I think it actually tastes like RC Cola…remember that??!!). We ate tons of chipati, dodged a ton of mosquitos, took some bucket showers, bought some sarees, wore some kurtas, couldn’t show our ankles and our skin hasn’t seen the sun in over 2 months…..we really dove in to the culture here. It was honestly amazing. So, I love India. I love how kind people are here. I love how vibrant everything is (Indians are NOT afraid to use color). I love the food.
The Race always reminds me of how the Lord can and wants to use all of us. Whether we are from America or we are from India. I hate how somehow Americans have gotten this reputation of being almost like ‘western saviors’ or like we have it all together. Almost every single night when we would preach, we would remind the people in the villages that we had no more power than they did. The same Holy Spirit that is in us, is in every believer, no matter where they live or come from. The Lord doesn’t really care where we are from or what culture we live in, He just wants us to allow Him to work in and through us. I see that here in India. The church here is alive and growing.
The Lord continues to teach me not to have low expectations on the Race. There have been quite a few times when I have went into the month not being super excited about it and the Lord always blows away all my expectations and makes it way better than I could have imagined. That’s exactly what He did this month. Not only did we get to experience real Indian culture and traditions, we got to share the gospel and pray over people every single night. I can’t get over how cool that is.
I can’t believe I am about to enter my 9th month of the World Race. It was about this time exactly one year ago that I made the decision to come on the Race. I had no idea what I was getting myself into and no idea what life was going to look like. It blows my mind that in less than 3 months it will be over. I won’t pretend like being away from home and all my comfort is the easiest thing in the world. A lot of times it’s actually pretty hard. Some days I grow weary and some days I have so much fun. As my good friend Tracey tells me, “God has granted you the desire to minister overseas because you longed to go, now spend this last leg of your journey giving thanks for eyes that see”. When did she get so wise?? KIDDING, she’s always been wise. And she’s incredibly right. I WILL finish well. I will finish this Race giving thanks for eyes that see.
Okay, so…sorry this blog has been complete sporadic and all over the place. My squad and I will head to Malaysia soon to start month 9. If you have seen the movie Zoolander, please tell me the word Malaysia reminds you of that! Only me? Okay cool. 🙂
Well….Please continue to pray for us. Maybe I need to go get one more cold glass of Thums Up and bid India a proper farewell.
I hope you enjoyed my crazy thoughts, I’ll see ya in Malaysia!
