>>oh dang, that beat is bumpin<< For example, one night after we had our cottage prayer (a time when the whole church meets at a members cottage and we hold church at their house, then eat dinner. It’s really sweet to see this community and how they really do live life together) I heard these drums start going off. I start bouncing along to it and decide to ask my contact what the beating was. “oh that’s the village summing the devil,� he said. ‘Uh.. what?� I replied. I was shocked at the coolness in which he informed me. “It’s a full moon, isn’t it? Well, every full moon the Hindus here beat the drum, summon the devil to possess a woman in the community so she can tell them her future.� >>babies in drag<< We were standing in the train station when I noticed this little family in front of me. The mom was holding a small baby and there was a little girl holding on to her mom’s sari, making sure to stay close in the busy station. The little girl turned around and I was jarred to see the little girl had dark circles around her eyes. It wasn’t from bruises, but was heavy black smeared make-up that looked like pure evil. I started noticing it on a lot of little children throughout the community we were in as well. When I asked what the make up was for, of course it was directly connected to Satan again. The parents put heavy make up on their children- mostly around their eyes, one black dot in between their eyes and one on their cheek- to keep the evil spirits away from possessing them. The prettier the child is, the more ugly the parents try and make them to keep the spirits away. The ministry that we worked with in India may have been out of my comfort zone as far as the work we did, but I also am not used to living in a community that summons the devil every full moon to possess a random woman living there. The people in this community is so fearful of the evil spirits that live among them that they choose to worship them instead of fight them. So maybe a deliverance ministry isn’t my calling, but now I can see that is real, especially in cultures where the spiritual realm is such a part of daily life. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim liberty to the capitives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those whoa re oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor� Luke 4:18-19
But God has been teaching me a lot. The ministry that we worked with in India was a deliverance ministry, which was way out of my comfort zone, but was a necessary ministry for the culture they live in.
It wasn’t until debrief, when I was away from all of it, that I saw how God was working through all of it. It’s so easy to get caught up in how things aren’t going my way. How ministry isn’t run the way I would run it, but then again, what good would it be to have a westernized ministry in a culture that worships the devil? That’s not how daily life looks like in America. I spent most of my time in India trying to stay cool and calm. It was one of those months that was killer being in, but looking back I can see how God was stretching me and my team to be more like Him.
I’m not saying that I hated India, but dang am I glad to be out of there! Our contacts were nothing but great to us, but the heat was killer. On top of being hot every moment of the day, the saris I was looking so forward to wearing turned out to be a prison- making the day even hotter with the 100 yards of fabric wrapped around us from shoulders to toes.
