Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

| by archiveworldraceblogs

 


It’s been a quiet month so far in India. But not quiet as in little to do, because it’s quite the opposite, but quiet because this month my team and team Ignition are living and working at Maharastra Fellowship for the Deaf. It’s a boarding school that houses roughly 130 boys and girls ages 4 – 24, all that are hearing impaired. It has been a wonderful month so far and I absolutely love it here!



Our general day starts right after breakfast with morning devotions. We had no idea how to handle morning devotions with deaf children at first, but we’ve found it to be a lot of fun. This first week we are telling them about all the “superhero’s” of the Bible, and we found it best to tell the story and then have the kids help us act it out. Sometimes it turns out incredibly comical and they love it.

 



*Acting out Zacchaeus. Good thing Payton’s mom sent those sticky mustaches!*

 

After devotion, we head to classes or projects, whichever we’ve been assigned. I usually work with the youngest group, ages 4-8 at various beginner levels. Our first lesson is English where they practice writing and spelling. All kids in India are taught English at a very young age, so even though these children can’t hear or speak, they can spell pretty well in English and can teach us signs, making this the easiest month yet for communicating.

 

 

 

After the first lesson, it’s 10:30, tea time. Tea time is not to be messed with in India. It is a very important part of the day! Cha-cha, our wonderful 78 year old chef, makes me coffee since I don’t like Chai tea. He prefers coffee too and can make instant coffee actually taste amazing! Then after tea time, it’s craft time for my little guys! It can be challenging in the process, but they are always so proud of their work! It’s been so much fun to help them learn, let them have fun, to love on them, to reassure them, to praise and encourage them and to be an example for them. I truly love my class.

 


Then it’s time for lunch. To make sure we get to experience the culture, Cha-cha makes us traditional Indian food for lunch. He’s lessened the spiciness of it though for us weak Americans. We then have the afternoons off to prepare for night worship or the next days’ lessons or to rest. Cha-cha sometimes lets me help prepare dinner, if I ask in a way that he can’t say no. I really enjoy it and love getting to know him. He’s cooked for missionary families since he was 14 years old, so he knows how to make some killer western-style food! You would have thought we hadn’t eaten in months when he made us roast the first day, we licked the bowl clean!



After the kids are done with school, they do their chores and then come out to play and hang out. The older girls like to get me to practice sign and ask me questions and the younger girls like to use me as a jungle gym. They are so much fun, I really enjoy hanging out in the evenings. The girls sign to me every day that they will cry when I leave. I have a feeling I will be too.

 


Evening devotions are the last thing for the day. It is more focused on prayer and worship. Last week, the two smallest girls came into our room while Ashley was playing the guitar and stuck their ears to it and started giggling. It wrenched our hearts. Turns out, many of the kids can hear and feel loud music so our guys have started playing worship songs on their instruments for devotions. They stay amongst the kids and play really loud. We also have the squad’s worship flags this month so we’ve started letting some of the kids wave and dance with them. And we tell them to sing and pray along. And they do. It brings tears to my eyes every time. Listening to deaf children worship Jesus has become my favorite sound in the world. Most of these kids come from Hindu families but learn about Jesus through the school. They pray with their hands and they make any noise they can when they sing. I think back to at home where I used to be embarrassed to raise my hands in church and look at these kids in amazement. There is no embarrassment, no holding back. They are worshipping God and nothing else matters. They know they are perfectly, wonderfully made and are singing to Jesus and it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks. And it’s so amazingly pure and beautiful.


 

At the end of service, they always ask one of the kids to pray. It’s complete silence in the room throughout the prayer as the child signs the prayer and every child ‘listens’. I know even though its silent, God hears every child in their individual voice. It’s so beautiful.

I love these children, I love this school. And I love what God is teaching me through them about his love and patience and perfect plans.

***THANK YOU TO DIANE LACOUR, BRYAN MATTHEWS, ASHLEY MUELLER, AND PAYTON RUNNELLS FOR THE AMAZING PICS!*****