So here’s the deal: I’m sitting in Thailand- beautiful, wonderful, amazing Thailand! And while I already have so much that I need to say about this wonderful country, I’m still processing about the last month that I spent in India. Oh, India. The transition from India into Thailand was rough for me, but mainly because I fell in love in ways that I had never expected myself to. So before I go on for days about how awesome Thailand is (the people, the students, the ceaseless smiles, the nature, the food… OH the FOOD!!!), I need to take some time to rewind and write about what leaving India looked like for me. Because to be quite frank, India still has a part of my heart.
And this part of my heart is still aching.
Leaving India was hard for me. I mean- HARD. And it didn’t hit me just how hard it was going to be until I had to say goodbye to 5 specific girls that I got close to at Sarah’s Covenant Homes.
“I have to leave.”
“Leave where? How about Sunday? Party?”
“I’m leaving India.”
“When are you going to come back?”
“I’m leaving India this Sunday.”
“India? But this is India.”
“Yes, I am leaving India.”
They finally stopped running around.
And that was the moment.
In that very moment, I know that they realized that there was not going to be a party on the rooftop this Sunday, and that I wouldn’t be coming by anymore like I usually did everyday. Tears were already built up in my eyes and I tried to hold them back for as long as I could, but they quickly broke loose the moment that some of the girls started crying. I quickly kissed them goodbye as they clung to my arm, and I reluctantly pulled away as I told them that everything was going to be okay. And bam! This moment was huge for me. It was a life changing moment that made me realize just how much I had fallen in love with India, with His Kingdom in India, and with His beautiful children.
If you were to take the Richelle that first came to India and compare her with the Richelle that was leaving India, you would find a different person, I guarantee you. You would find a different heart.
As I took my last look at the children (till God knows when), I no longer saw abandoned, I no longer saw orphans, I no longer saw pain, and I no longer saw disability. Instead, I saw the the beauty of the Kingdom in their eyes, I heard the joy of salvation in their laughter, I held onto the glory of triumph in their hands, and I saw Jesus in them- purely and ever so tangibly, in a way that I had never seen Him before.
Jesus.
In Matthew 19:14, Jesus said- “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
In India, things changed radically in my heart from start to finish. In India, I was exposed to a part of His Kingdom that declared the glory of salvation ever so loudly and ever so vibrantly in colors that I had never seen before. In India, I fell even more in love with His Kingdom because of the way that I fell in love with His children.
As I boarded the airplane for Thailand, I thought about these children.
I thought about their hearts, I thought about their smiling faces.
And you know what? I saw these children as His.
I saw these children, I loved these children, and I found not only the Kingdom,
but I found life.
And now I’m ready to discover the beauties of His Kingdom in Thailand.
I’m ready to keep finding life, and to keep loving the journey of it.
With all my love and joy,
Richelle
