Ministry
Ministry in India consisted of office work. We helped out an organization called Indian Christian Ministries (ICM) doing office type work and helping their organization become more well known through advertisement on their web page.
ICM is an organization that outreaches many villages in India. When ICM is able to find those who are interested in teaching others about God they have a program for people to go through to become pastors. Pastors then go back to villages to share what they have learned with anyone and everyone around them. ICM is a great organization that helps out the communities in numerous ways.
When working in an office day after day doing the same task it started to feel like a job, but looking back on it I know ICM really needed help in those areas, and even the little bit we were able to do as a team helped. My job consisted mostly of office work such as making file systems of testimonies more organized, and I would help in any way possible for those working on social media/videos.
We would also have field days a few days a week. We would go out to a village to interview pastors asking them how they became a Christian and how ICM has changed their lives since working with the organization. Then we would go around the village to pray for people, after that we would have a service and share some testimonies and Bible stories. Field days were tiresome, but by far my favorite day of the week. I was able to see how they live and the differences ICM has made in their lives.
Last month was a good but hard month because we started off our first month as a new team working on completely different tasks. The only time we were able to work as a team was on field days, but not all of us were able to go every time. With us being so separated in doing our own tasks it made it a lot harder for us to become united. However, we were able to make it through even though it was hard for each and every one of us.
Personal Hardships
The past month in India was quite a challenge for me in my personal aspects of life. Coming into India I was warned about spiritual warfare going on and I might have taken it a little lightly. I still do not know what all I think about spiritual warfare and what it entails, but one thing I do know is that I was not completely myself there. I do not know if it was because of the spiritual aspect, or because of the physical/reality hardships of it all.
India was by far the hottest month of all so far on the race, there would be days where I would literally be sitting in my own sweat, and there was nothing I could do about it because the power was not on. I was also unable to work out thus making me feel extremely gross and unhealthy. Then to add to the heat team changes and trying to become united in the midst of it all was difficult.
With all of these aspects of physical hardships I still do not know what to think about the spiritual warfare of it all. All I can go by is my personal experiences and what differences I can see in my teammates and myself after leaving. I by far feel a lot better, but it could be because of the fact that it's not as hot, I can work out, and my entire team is positive about the future for us as a whole becoming united.
All in all India was a hard month, and weather it was because of the heat or spiritual warfare we all got through it. I learned a lot and had some great, “God moments” that I have never felt before. I know I had these moments because of how physically and emotionally hard this month was. I had no where else to go, but to God. It taught me a lot to not rely so much on others or my own strength because we are all human and no one is perfect, and that when we lean on God all things are possible even when things seem impossible.
