Okay I promise I’m alive and well.
I’ve been in India since I think January 5th? But honestly I’m not totally sure. There was a week of my life that I literally didn’t know where I was or what time it was or anything about myself. I left Ecuador the 30th of December and flew to Florida to Toronto, Canada where we spent New Years in the freezing cold. Being in America for a few hours was honestly miserable and made me only long for home more. Canada felt too familiar to home, but having some nice walmart runs and tim hortons made my heart happy. From Toronto we flew to Amsterdam to New Delhi to Calcutta to somewhere that I have no idea. Eventually, I ended up in the village of Satri (Satrai, Satarai, nobody knows) in the state of Tripura. To say I was and still am in the middle of nowhere would probably be an understatement. But man, I love it.
We stayed in this compound with our host, LT and his family and a few others. Most of the people in the village had never seen a white person before. They were actually in disbelief that an American would be in Tripura. I remember someone saying this part of India sees less than 1,000 tourist a year. Ministry in India is much different than Ecuador. We did a VBS every morning with the village kids and shared the gospel with them. Days were extremely long and slow. We didn’t have a lot of scheduled ministry the month of January. A few different times we traveled to villages and prayed over them or spoke in the churches. Each time was different and special in it’s own way. I actually preformed a song from a musical for a church and they referred to it as ‘white people singing’ so that pretty much sums it all up. It was a good amount of going with the flow and saying yes to whatever was placed before you.
I found a lot of myself in the village of Satri. I also lost a lot of myself in the village of Satri. I let go of my past and the things I let eat away at my heart. I let go of shame and guilt over who I used to be. I let myself be hurt by the things I never actually worked through. I finally let Jesus break me down to build me back up. I let myself be empty so I will eventually be filled. I am still walking through all of this. I am still learning to love myself and to let myself be loved by others. I think I will always be learning this. Learning to love and be loved. But love is the point. It’s the entire point of the gospel.
At debrief we had team changes and it was a very bitter sweet time. I will always love my first team and the girls that carried me through some of the hardest times of my life. But I am also extremely excited for a new team. I am excited to see people in a different way and know the deepest part of their hearts. I am excited to grow and to be challenged.
ALSO I AM FULLY FUNDED!!!! PRAISE JESUS AND THANK YOU ALL SO SO SO MUCH!!!
I will be posting more blogs very soon with more details about my life and what Jesus has been teaching me!!
all my love,
Linds
