Here I am on the last night of ministry here in southern India. Month 1 of my race is over. I can barely see my computer screen through the tears that keep welling up in my eyes. Let me tell you something, reader; God is good. I mean that with every fiber of my being, God is so so good. Even in the midst of my doubt and my small-world view of the Lord, God chooses to use me to be a vessel for His glory.
There has been a festival for the Hindu god Ganesh here that has lasted the better part of two weeks. Hindu people (who make up a HUGE majority here in India) set up little lean-to huts out of sticks and tarps in every village and town with a large idol of a god with four arms and a head like an elephant. They hang brightly colored lights all around the huts and blare dubstep/EDM music. They paint their bodies all sorts of colors and dance like maniacs in the streets to the beating of drums.
Even though there are lights, colors, and upbeat music on the corner of every dusty road here, the darkness is almost tangible. You can sense the stronghold that the enemy has here in the country of India. He holds a lot of power over these people, but I’ve got news for him. I serve a Savior who vanquished Death and defeated the grave. Just the mention of His name sends the enemy fleeing. I serve a Jesus who willingly died on a cross knowing there would be millions of people who would still reject Him. I serve a Holy Spirit who speaks to me on a personal level and who draws sinners to Jesus. I serve a God who hears my prayers and pursues my heart even in my disbelief.
The God who rescued me from my sin and my bondage all the way in the backwoods of Mississippi in 2012 is the same God who is calling Indian men, women, and children to salvation tonight. What a mighty God we serve.
Tonight my team and I had the opportunity to share the gospel and worship with a group of Believers within walking distance of the place we have been staying. As we began singing, a parade of Hindu people began traveling down the dirt path near our makeshift church. They stopped right in front of us with their false idol standing tall in their midst and no intention of moving on. The sound of their drums and music carry for miles here, and we found that we could barely hear our own voices above the uproar. We sang and clapped as loudly as we could despite the distraction just a few meters away. I prayed silently for the Lord to physically move them from their place and almost instantly the parade floated down the street until they were barely audible (a very rare moment of silence here in this village). My teammates Katie and Emmy shared the gospel and afterward we were asked to pray over the people in attendance.
The people in the crowd started coming to me one by one and I noticed they were the orphan boys that we have been sharing a home with this month. Almost every person who asks for prayer here wants good health, good studies, and a good marriage. These boys, however, came to me broken for their families and their community. They asked me to pray for their living relatives to know Jesus. All in one moment, I realized how ridiculously dumb I had been for doubting God’s ability to move here in this broken land. I somehow had in my head that God needed me to be obedient for His will to be carried out. No, no, no, I am the one who needs Him. Through the eyes of 11 young orphaned boys I saw the hope of the gospel and the restoration Jesus offers by the power of His Name.
I gathered myself off the floor in my brokenhearted state, prayed a couple more times for different people and returned home with my team. Our team leader, Carmen, felt led to have a private service with the family that has hosted us this month. She read John 13:12-20 (the passage where Jesus washes the feet of His disciples) and we proceeded to wash the feet of the pastor, his wife, his two children, and the orphan boys who live here to thank them for serving us so well over the last month. I knelt in front of a little boy named Avinash and looked up into his big brown eyes. I saw hurt, disappointment, and abandonment. I saw a little boy who had seen people come and go out of his life for all of his short years on this Earth, and here I am preparing to leave him tomorrow just like so many others before me. But there was a glimmer of something else. Something that transcends all languages and all cultures: hope.
Avinash looked at me with so much love despite the deep pain he had carried I couldn’t help but think of the love of my Savior. As I rinsed his little brown feet, I prayed over him the most powerful prayer I could muster. I realized that I was holding the “beautiful feet” that would carry the Good News across India. How foolish was I to think that I would be bringing some revolutionary message to the world? The future of the gospel and the Church in this nation is in the hands of children like Avinash. I have seen him and his brothers sing praises to the King and pray intense little prayers over each other and over their land. Their faith far surpasses that of my own.
He noticed a tear roll down my cheek and he stood up to wrap his arms around me. Cue the water works: now we were both crying and I heard him struggle to say these English words, “I will never forget you, bro.”
This is my little friend Avinash!
Please pray for his family and for the Lord to grow his faith in such an oppressed area.
The beautiful feet I thought would be carrying the Good News a few weeks ago in my first blog? They were his. The arms I talked about as I learned to love these boys more deeply in my second blog? Tonight it was him tightly holding on to me. The hands I looked at as I prayed about using them for the Kingdom last week? They were washing the dirty feet of a little boy in India who will one day grow up to lead countless people to Christ.
One word: wrecked. The Lord has wrecked me by His love this month. He has shown me what it means to love a stranger as deeply as I would my closest friend. He has fixed my eyes on little glimpses of how He sees people. He has given me sensitive ears to discern His voice amongst the chaos of other voices. He has given me feet to carry the gospel, arms to love others, hands to serve others, and a heart to pursue Him.
That’s a wrap for month 1. If month 2 is anywhere nearly as incredible as this one, the U.S. is going to be set on fire when W Squad gets home in 10 months!
Nepal, here we come!
