I’m drained. I’m tired of crying and feeling these feelings. Saying goodbye sucks. There is no sugar coating it. They say that it gets easier with each passing month, but i’m not in month 5 yet i’m still here in month one and saying goodbye sucks. We have been pampered this month like crazy. Who would have thought that India would show us this much love….well I guess God thought that. From day one we have been feed amazing food, prayed over, and blessed with love and safety. Our hosts are amazing and our liaisons and wonderful and look after us like we are their own children! This ministry month has exceeded every single expectation.
My team has had the opportunity to minister here at TCS Theological College and Seminary. We have taught classes, given devotions, led worship, and spent time with the students hearing about their lives and stories of how God has changed them forever. We have also been able to be a part of other ministries this month like medical camps, VBS, construction, kitchen duty, and cleaning at the hospital but this ministry has by far been my favorite. Not only because some of the ministry is in my wheelhouse but because some of it was NOT in my wheelhouse and God stretched me beyond anything I could ever imagine.
In the afternoons at TCS each member of Restore Amore would get a group of 3-5 students to have meaningful interactions with. This was an hour and a half to sit and speak english and have the students tell stories and they get to ask us all the questions they want about american culture and how God is working in our lives or how we are adjusting to their culture. I am pretty sure that before my first group I was ready to run down the road and hide out, but as the weeks progressed I found myself excited for 1:40 when we would get our list of names. I would pray over them and ask God to bring up the questions and I was pleasantly surprised at how well the groups went. Sometimes there were awkward moments of silence but that silence always brought a thought provoking question from a student that would leave me wanting more questions!
Oh the stories! Guys God is doing such a great work here in the students. They are on fire and eager for more Jesus and it has been such an honor to be with them. To lead worship along side them was also one of the greatest highlights. I will miss hearing their beautiful voices lifting up Jesus each morning, I will miss their handshakes and loving kindness, and I will miss our wonderful liaison Jonathan. He is a mighty man of God who I admire and I will hold in my prayers as I leave. Month one has been so hard for me. I had to learn how to rest and learn how to balance and learn how to acknowledge my weakness. Through it all God has been so sweet with me.
I will include some pictures from this months journey and a video is to come soon also.
Prayer requests:
Please keep the faculty and staff at TCS in your prayers as they continue to run this seminary and the students as they continue their studies to further the gospel of Christ.
Pray for the village of Sielmat and the families in the village and surrounding areas, this is an agricultural area and jobs are sometimes scarce. Please keep the farmers in the are in your prayers as well as the local churches and their communities as they continue to share the gospel.
Please keep Q Squad and Restore Amore in your prayers as we prepare to leave our little home in India to travel to Kathmandu, Nepal on Monday the 2nd (which will probably be Sunday the 1st for most of you)
