I feel like I am in a zoo every time my team goes out in public, especially when we go to the villages and do ministry. Last night, we went to a village and instead of doing our normal routine of going house-to-house and praying for people, we sat in the middle of the village and everyone came to us. They gave us chairs to sit on while they all sat on mats and stood around us, staring at us and taking our pictures. We did our ministry of leading worship songs, action songs, playing games, did an impromptu skit on David and Goliath, preached on the gospel and shared a testimony. We were definitely not prepared for this but it taught us a lot of things that night. We learned that the Holy Spirit can use us in any way as long as we say, “Yes!” and that it is always a good idea to have a few backup plans in case the Pastor decides to do something and that we are not just staring at one another trying to come up with a plan. There are a lot of things we have learned this past week and it will be exciting to see how we will be challenged throughout the weeks.
I don’t want to be in a zoo. I don’t want to have people taking my picture and sitting on the ground looking at me, running away from me when I come to shake their hand or smile at them. I want to sit on the ground with them, to be able to speak Telegu and understand what they are asking me and have a decent conversation with them. I don’t want to be fed food every time we go into the village. These people cannot afford to feed us all, much less themselves. It is so hard having to take it and then eat it all and be thankful when they have little. They have such a great culture where they are so giving and want to honor others before themselves. It is a huge lesson to learn and I hope I can have it be a part of my daily life.
A cool story from last night was when we were in a village doing ministry and while we were all praying for people, towards the end I was surrounded by kids saying “Hi! My name is (pointing to you)?” They love it when you tell them your name and then ask them their names, try to pronounce them, and then say, “Nice to meet you!” They love to imitate all that you do, it could get old, but for right now, it is cute. They also love to say “Hi! Bye!” and “Hi! How are you?” If you reply in anything other than “I am fine,” they don’t know what you are saying. Oh English in other countries, you are quite funny. I taught them how to blow kisses. BUT! Back to the story! So we were in the village and you could totally feel the evil in there. There was a young boy that had an angry spirit in him and he was just so angry and violent. So while we were all praying for him and other people that needed healing, I was off praying for children. I ended up playing games with them and later found out how much of a help that was to the rest of the team because they were all praying for someone else that needed healing. I did not realize how much that was a blessing to them; I thought everyone else was done praying because children surrounded me. We were playing games and just trying to communicate with one another, it ended up in a lot of laughter. My dear teammate took a picture and when she looked at it, she showed it to the rest of us immediately. God is alive and moving in that village that is so desperate for hope. We looked at it and compared it to other photos she took. You will have to see it to believe it. It looks like there are dots all over the photo in the sky or lightning bugs all over. Nope. There was another photo taken there later and there was nothing. The Holy Spirit is moving in that village. And it gives me the chills with how exciting it is!
A few days after I wrote this post, a few teammates and I got fed animal crackers and our pictures taken in the back of a Tuk Tuk. I really do feel like I am in a zoo.
