Psalm 73:26
My flesh and my heart my fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
“V A N D A N A L U”
My home for the month of July is Hyderabad, South India.
I will do my best to give you a picture of my environment thus far. I sleep outside on a balcony porch of a large house called Covenant Worship. CW’s vision is to be worshipers who represent India before the throne of God. They equip people to be disciples and to make disciples who demonstrate the love of God to everyone and they train and release worship leaders all over the country. There are quite a few men living in one room together downstairs, whom we call Brothers. There are far too many different names to learn for all of us, so for the most part we just refer to each other has Brother or Sister. This is truly such a beautiful family. They worship Jesus all day every day so the house is always humming with the sound of Heaven.
These are the 4 people that normally take us out for ministry in the city. You can read their testimonies in the link by their names.
Abhi http://covenantworshipschool.com/?page_id=358
Satya http://covenantworshipschool.com/?page_id=374
Edward http://covenantworshipschool.com/?page_id=233
Madhu http://covenantworshipschool.com/?page_id=381
Just a few minutes away is the marketplace and the slums. We usually walk places but sometimes we cram into little Autos together. It reaches nearly 100 degrees with 50% humidity each day. I surprisingly love it. I don’t at all mind the constant sweating. The language barrier is there, but we work our way around it. Some of our Brothers usually come with us when we do ministry in the city. They are kind of like our protectors. When we take autos, they ride a motorcycle nearby so we don’t get lost. Even when we are walking at night, they always ride around the streets to find us. The streets are complete chaos. At first glance, I thought they were just bad drivers..but realized later that they probably drive with more skill than most Americans I know. Honking is a constant everywhere I go – it’s not a “Get out of my way!” honk but more to make people aware of their presence. It’s funny the little things that are so different amongst different countries.
Life here is different each day. On Sundays we have church in the basement of our house. There is an incredible amount of energy in the Indian people, especially during worship. They dance, jump, and sing praises at the top of their lungs as they bow before our King. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. These are people of passion. This past week they had a day with 12 straight hours of worship. I love their hearts. Along with church on Sundays, they have been having people from our team give testimonies which they translate to Telugu or Hindi for everyone to understand. During the actual church service, after the worship, my team goes outside with around 25 children from a special needs orphanage and has Sunday School with them.
Since arriving here in India my team has visited slums, shared testimonies, preached, visited families in their homes, prayed over people, done prayer walks in the city, worshipped, and have been gently pushed out of our comfort zones and into foreign territory. It’s difficult but wonderful and extremely necessary for growth. Being in the slums is one of the most humbling and beautiful things I’ve experience thus far. We were welcomed in with smiles and chai and blessed by the kindness of strangers. I prayed over a sweet old woman who was hunched over and nearly blind, for a young boy with severe scoliosis, for multiple men with alcohol addictions, for those in need of financial providence, for a sick baby boy, for the love of the Father to be felt for His children, for the healing of tumors, for peace, for healing over a young woman’s womb and a healthy pregnancy to follow, for joy, for light to shine in places where there only seemed to be darkness. Never have I prayed so much. Never have I desired so much for the Lord to show me His power or to break my heart, mold me, and use me. Never have I experienced such abandonment and sincerity in worship like I have in the slums of India.
Please continue to be in prayer. More than anything, I ask that you would pray for God’s will to be done – in whatever form that comes. The way that God works doesn’t always make sense to me, but I trust Him always.
What a privilege it has been to begin this year living in a house of worship.
Always love to you, family.
