My time in India is coming to a close. It has been well worth it! Ministry has been fabulous, the people have been wonderful, and I have learned so much from the Lord. I also had a lot of neat experiences that I will not soon forget, like eating dog meat (there’s a long and potentially controversial story behind that one), learning and singing a Hmar hymn in front of the EFCI General Assembly, and playing musical chairs in front of an audience of 700+ people who had never seen white people before. Good times… good times.
One of the funniest things about being here is how many times folks want to take selfies with us. It has become kind of a joke amongst the squad. I’m sure that if you looked on the Facebooks of anyone living in northeast India you would find a picture of us somewhere. The truth is, people in India love the United States (unless they don’t).
I have had many conversations with locals about America, our culture, and our job availability. Our responses are always met with genuine interest, and at the end of the conversation there is a comment made like, “One day I wish to go.”
One of the most profound “America” conversations I had was with a Bengali man I met at our debrief location last month. He is a rising businessman, and a good one at that. He told me his entire life story during the course of our talk and in it he described to me how he admires our culture and our way of life. He told me that the fact that America exists in the first place has given him hope and has kept him going in his endeavors. I immediately saw a parallel. Before I describe it though, I had another eye-opening talk, this time with a poor, Muslim girl. She asked me all of the standard questions, but she received the responses with a smile and a glimmer of hope in her eyes. She asked me, “Are there poor people there?”
These two experiences parallel the Christian life. We have this truth that we know and hold on to, and that is the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This of course paid the death penalty of sin and reconciled us to God (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). Because of this we are children of God, saved by grace, who will one day live life eternal. In the meantime we are in a place of sin and suffering. Poverty is abundant, tragedies strike, and heartbreak and sadness are ever present in relationships. We as Christians have a hope though, in Christ. We know our time here is temporary and that one day the Lord will reign triumphant, and all those things listed above will be no more. This is what gives us hope. My time in India has showed me what that hope looks like. It also has broken my heart.
There are many experiences in India worth sharing, but like John says in his Gospel, “Were every one of them written, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that would be written,” (John 21:25).
Important updates: I’m going to be in Zambia in a week!! I’ll flying out of India on the 31st and arriving in Zambia on the 1st. For our first month my team will be in Livingstone (where Victoria Falls is), but interestingly we’ll be combined with all of the other men from the other teams in what is called Manistry month. It will be a time for guys to be guys, and for iron to sharpen iron. I witnessed six bros become brothers on the Forge, so I cannot wait for that to include the other guys and to of course gain six more brothers. Please pray for us as we travel and over the next month as we do this thing. Also pray that we may stay present for our final days of being here in India.
