Coming to India I was expecting to be speaking Hindi phrases, being surrounded by people worshiping Allah, Buddha, or 10,000 other gods, and walking into a sea of brightly colored patterns in the markets. That has not been my experience at all!
We are in the North East section of India in a state called Manipur. We are staying in a village of the Hmar people group who are predominantly Christian. Most people speak at least some English and we are learning some phrases in Hmar (Chibye- means Hi). We are spoiled by having Chai tea every morning and are buying clothes that look very similar to the patterns we have in the US. I am having none of the “typical” India experience. I was pretty disappointed when I realized that Silemat (the city I am in) is nothing of what I expected India to be!
Although these past two weeks have been nothing of what I have expected I have found some beautiful gems hidden within Silemat. I found a Hmar community that is so loving and welcoming to us that I feel like I am at home even though I am literally across the globe. I have found devoted Christians who love Jesus so much that they traveled 96 kilometers through the mountainous jungles at the age of 9 to learn English so they could translate the Bible for their people. I have found a team of beautiful women who are more focused on loving and seeing me for who I am that looking for what I can do for them! But most of all I have found a God who is not satisfied with how I see myself; a God who is completely wrecking my heart, pouring out all of the crap that I have believed about myself for so long, and showing me the beautiful vase that He has hand crafted and named Katelyn Marie Earhart!
It has been incredible to see what I have found when I stopped searching for what I expected to see.
That’s also how this blog has come out, unexpectedly. Over the past 2 weeks I have been trying to figure out what to share with you. I kept looking for a story to tell, a message to write, or a person to talk about. I kept looking for that blog-worthy moment to happen. A few days ago I was so frustrated that I was halfway through the month and still had nothing to write about that I finally decided that I wasn’t going to write one. I gave up on the idea and decided to just do social media instead. Then we went to Kwaktan.
Kwaktan is a predominantly Muslim village the Bibles for the World has been trying to come into for over a year now. They have continually been denied by the village leaders. Somehow a door was open and we were going to be the first people from the organization to be able to go there and host a medical camp at the local school. This moment was a huge victory for Bibles for the World, and a huge responsibility on us to help open the door for future opportunities. We were not allowed to pray for anyone or talk about Jesus, so we decided we were just going to love on people and let that speak for itself.
We brought some doctors and nurses from the Silemat hospital, so they handled the entirety of the medical portion. We got to go room to room in this school to love on and play with these children. For many of them it was the first time they had ever seen a white person. It was hilarious. They kept pinching our cheeks and telling us how beautiful we were.
Back to my story, I was able to capture this gem that I have absolutely fallen in love with. Her smile, her eye contact, and overall beauty and joy just leaps out of the picture. I would like to say, that as I was searching for pictures to capture in the classroom this moment jumped out at me, but of course as the rest of the blog suggests, it wasn’t. This gem was actually hidden in another picture that I was about to delete because it didn’t capture what I saw. Here is the original picture.
It speaks for itself huh.
So what in your life are you looking for with eyes only seeing what is expected? It’s like when you are looking for your car keys when they are right in front of your face. I challenge you to open your eyes a little wider, expanded your search a little deeper, and let your heart wander a little further! I promise there is more to see than what you are looking at. God says He has hidden things for you… not from you so start looking!
Sent from my iPhone
