Out of my element. Barrenness wasteland. Void of life. Confined to the expanse of seemingly endless nothingness. Where did civilization go?
These thoughts scan across my mind as we bus it out to the state of Andrah Pradesh heading to Ongole, India. As far as the eye can see there is nothing. Dry rocky dirt un-tilled with the occasional wild palm tree & shrub. As far as I am concerned we are on a road to nowhere. I am just riddled by the expanse of land with few people even seen. This type of desolation is devastating to the soul! After the 7-8 hour bus ride I peel myself off the seat due to the immense heat and humidity, and gaze upon the huge white cross of a building that will be home for the next month. It is an “open” building, meaning the entrances have no doors whatsoever, it’s just wide open. But I would soon come to realize the necessity of it’s design. AIR FLOW! Wind tunnels are your best friend in India. During Monsoon season the winds pick up and if you are able to harness it, you may have a moment where you are not sweating… … …maybe. G squad no longer huddles into corners for meetings, we sprawl out in the hallways and consume building entrances in desperation of capturing a magnificent breeze. Every evening you rest you sweat out what seems like a whole liter of water! Needless to resonate… India is HOT!
The desolation of the surrounding land creates emptiness emotionally. The scorching character of the weather hampers on you physically, yet here in India there is, in fact, Living Water flowing! Each day (from 2pm-10pm) we hop in a a micro “7inall” van traveling anywhere from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours out to a secluded farming colony. When we arrive we are greeted as celebrities as most settlers come out to see, the white people. For the first few hours we go door to door with the local pastor and pray blessings of love, healing, and provision over any who desire it. Most of the times even believers of the Hindu religion ask to be prayed over by us Christians. This really startled me the first couple of times. I was really quite puzzled by their request, but as I began to comprehend their beliefs, they have over 33 million gods. Why would they deny any blessings to be spoken over them even if it is from a God they do not fully except. With each request my in struggle grew, mainly due to the fact that our translators asked us to pray for salvation. However, you cannot pray someone else into salvation as there is free-will. So I would I ask God to soften their hearts and reveal Himself to them in an intimate way that only He could do.
After our prayer tour and building relationships with the locals we sat down to encourage the local pastor as dinner was being prepared over an open fire. Following a nose draining spicy meal of Chicken (EVERY part of it) and Chapata (tortillas), the call the to church began. The pastor jerry-rigged up a pre-WWII looking speaker and cried out praises until people meandered in. On this particular evening it was my time to share a message following two testimonies from my teammates. My plan had been to speak on Elijah vs. the prophets of baal and parallel that text with the parable of the weed. But, as I spotted a watering well directly in front of the one roomed church the Spirit convicted me to teach something entire different.
So I dove in! God laid on my heart, Living water! I read the Story of the Women at the Well and reaffirmed how Jesus stated He is Living Water. You see, Christ is our only true fulfillment, no other gods or material things can quench our thirst. Only Jesus. And to top it all off, on the cross Jesus emptied himself. He made Himself nothing (The Greek – Ekenosen), so that we may be filled up. The cross redeemed us from our brokenness and now a perpetual stream of living water flows into us, so that we may spread this salvation to others! Christ’s power dwells within us!
I gave them this message to empower them and encourage them to be a church of Living Water. That every single time they pump water from that well, they would be reminded that they are a stream of Living Water, Christ dwells in them! And they are to go out and pour that Living Water into others in their village.
This was an encourage start to ministry and I hope and pray God continues to lead and guide us as we do exactly this for the next month! It will definitely be a hard month mentally, being where we are, yet I am confident God will continue the work He has already started. Thank you for your continued Prayers!
Love Ya’ll,
Nate
P.S. Internet is to slow here at the compound so there might not be pictures up until Thailand 🙁
WR FUN FACTS: “Everybody’s got a water Buffalo” (But seriously, they do)!
You can indeed pop a wheelie with enough people on the back of a 3 wheeled Rickshaw!
If you ever want the feeling of being a celebrity, being stared at, constantly being filmed and photographed while performing the simple tasks in life, then come to India #WHITEPEOPLE
No utensils here. Everything is a finger food. Enjoy!
