On this blog, I want to give an update of my life and my recent trip to India.
I finished Squad Leading in October and spent 1 month in the States debriefing and helping out at Training Camp training a squad going out in January. I got home in November and spent 3 weeks catching up with friends and family. I got to meet my nephew who was born while I was gone! And then I left for India.
I went to meet up with my squad for a debrief. Here I got to check in on people, see where they were at and encourage and speak life into them. We were in the city of Hyderabad which has over 10 million people. For 3 of the days I went out with 5 of the members and 2 leaders to a village for ministry about 3 hours outside of Hyderabad.
We stayed at a pastors house and slept on mattresses on the floor. We had squatty pottys and cold bucket showers. We ate really good Indian food and most of it was spicy (which I love!)
For ministry the first night we went to a village where they had gathered people for a Christmas service. One of the members shared the gospel and another spoke about how we are to share the gospel with all our friends and family. I spoke a bit on joy. I encouraged the people there that although their circumstances may not seem the greatest, they all still have big smiles on their faces and it comes from Jesus. I told them how many people in North America have so much stuff, but they aren’t happy. But Christ brings us so much joy and we can find joy in all our trials. We then watched Kids do some choreographed dances and ended the night eating a meal in the local pastors house.
The next day was Sunday, so we went to church at the pastors house we were staying at. One of our members preached and another lead a few worship songs. The pastor and his family did the rest of the service which was over 2.5 hours. It wasn’t as long as services I’ve been to in Africa, but long enough. That afternoon we went to local shopping center to get some snacks and supplies. Then we went back and I wanted to have a time where we encouraged one another. We started with some discussions on other things which were really awesome and uplifting to talk about, then got a chance to encourage each other. We had to end the meeting early because we got called for supper, but we had been going for over 4 hours! It was a great time for the group and we all felt blessed by the end of it.
The 3rd day we went out to another village in the evening. This one was about 1.5 hours away from where we were staying and we drove there in the back of a truck. Here we sang a few worship songs and one of the guys shared his testimony and preached. After the message we got to pray over people. We lined up and everyone, kids included, came to us and we prayed for them. The next day we picked up another team in the village and met up with the rest of the squad.
I was there for a total of 7 days and it was such an amazing time. The last trip I was on was mostly in richer countries and you don’t see poverty very much. But in India I was reminded again of the amount of poverty that still exists in this world. God has called me to the rich and the poor and has gifted me with an ability to relate to people on all levels. I loved being in India and would love to continue going back there.
I am back home now in the frozen north with my family and friends for the Christmas season. It’s always good to come home and rest. It’s is a peaceful place for me, although I really hate cold.
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