These last two months in Asia have just flown by! My love for this continent, which started 7 years ago in China, only increased in Nepal and now India as well. Nepal was full of adventure, hard work, adorable children and lots of laughs. We went to two different villages, one of which had no electricity or running water and took us 3 hours to hike to, including 14 river crossings. We helped build a school for children who currently have to walk hours to go to school, and can't go at all during the rainy season because the river is too high.
This month, in India, we loved on orphans, prayed over people, spoke in churches, visited a leper colony, and painted a lot. We are living at a girls orphanage, just one part of IGM's (India Greater Mission) ministry. It is awesome to start every day being greeted by 28 smiling faces and end it with a lot of "Goodnight Julia Sister"s. Our contact, Joe, could not be sweeter. He is an example of a man devoted to the Lord, his ministry, the orphans, and his family. We are here to serve and love, but the people here have also served and loved us so well.
God has shown up in so many ways this month. He led our team to break through some walls, reaching new levels of vulnerability with each other. We spent time in worship, soaking prayer, speaking truth over each other and just having fun together. I fasted from the Internet for the month (which of course we ended up having fast wifi in our home). Taking away the distraction of facebook and talking to people back home all the time, allowed space for God to talk to me and for me to actually hear.
One of the things God was saying to me came from the book of Exodus. In chapter 16 God tells the Israelites he is going to provide meat for them at night and bread in the morning. Sure enough a bunch of quail came for them to eat in the evening and in the morning there was manna on the ground. The people woke up and asked each other "What is it?". Part of me wants to say…duh, didn't God just tell you he was going to give you bread in the morning…so don't question it, gather it and eat it. But at the same time I have asking God what promises he is fulfilling or has already fulfilled in my life and instead of accepting/gathering them, I am standing there asking "What is it?". His answers don't always look the way I expect them to, and I don't want my expectations to cause me to miss any of his gifts.
