*I'd love to put up pictures, but internet is being difficult with that. Hopefully some are coming in the next blog!*
This one time in India, I was climbing the stairs to our sleeping area and an angry monkey on the railing chased me back down the stairs.
This one time in India, Team Monarch visited hundreds of homes, prayed for thousands of people, and as a team were probably challenged more this month than any other month.
This one time in India, I woke up at 3:00 in the morning after a week of being sick with severe stomach pains and eventually leading me to go to the Casualty Ward (ER) for my first hospital visit ever for myself.
This month in India, I was given more food than I could ever imagine when we visited churches in the evening. I’ve never ate more food in my life because the words of “no more” or “no thanks” have absolutely no effect whatsoever when it comes to food being served. It reached a point where so much food was being given that some people began hiding food in their purses. I sadly didn’t have a purse to hide food in.
This one time in India, I became an expert and speaking for ½ hour with next to no notes or having to change my topic at the last second. For example, I was told I would be speaking at a church dedication. When we arrived, the church was expecting a sermon themed around the Indian Independence Day, something I know absolutely nothing about. God made it work.
About every day in India, I put my life into the hands of rickshaw drivers as they navigated traffic in which laws, lights, and lanes do not exist. I survived the craziest traffic I’ve ever seen and we only hit a goat once. The goat was fine.
This one time in India, we worked with a man named Pastor K and his wife Diamond for the duration of the month, traveling all over the place with them for ministry. We really came to love the both of them and their 2 sons.
Many times in India, we met women who were mothers that were married as child brides. So many girls here are married and having children by the time most of us would only be in junior high. Meeting 24 year olds with 13 year old children is always shocking.
Many times in India, we could just feel the spiritual darkness, heaviness, and warfare going on here. There are millions upon millions of idols/gods that you see everywhere and in the homes we went to. It was overwhelming so many times. This was really my first month witnessing things like demonic possession firsthand as well. So much work is being done here, but there is so much more to do.
About every night in India I would be carried off by mosquitoes. They particularly liked my feet.
This one time in India, our team went to a birthday party. Pastor K told me that I was to help the birthday boy (17 years old) cut his cake. I of course thought he was joking until he grabbed my hand and put it on top of the boy’s hand holding the knife. Then together we cut a piece of the cake which the boy then fed to me with his own hand much to my surprise. I then had to do the same putting cake in his mouth. Wasn’t expecting something like that until getting married.
There were several times in India that I thought a local man was coming in to kiss me or something because personal space doesn’t really exist here and they don’t hesitate to throw their arms around another guy’s shoulders or waist and speak very close to your mouth.
This one time in India, I learned that you can’t do ministry without at least 2-4 bottles of coke/sprite every morning and evening for ministry.
This one day in India, I worked with Sarah’s Covenant Home, an orphanage for children that often have severe mental and physical disabilities. They just started a 105 Sponsors in 105 Days campaign to sponsor all of the children in the home. Check out the website at http://www.schindia.com/ and some videos here http://vimeo.com/47299750 done by my squadmates Johnfrank and Ben John for the campaign and please consider helping. This organization runs entirely on donations.
This one time in India, we had loaded up our bus to travel from Ongole to Hyderabad to catch a flight leaving the next day. As we were finishing loading, an altercation broke out between a man and a very angry woman. Angry enough that she picked up a metal pole that was about 7 feet tall and was prepared to use it. Apparently, she was accusing the man, someone working on our bus, of stealing our phone and was ready to beat the snot out of him to get it back. This delayed our departure 40 minutes and I still have no idea if that ever got resolved or if he jumped on the bus and we gunned it out of there.
This one time in India, Jesse and I went to the theater to see Expendables 2. The theater held about 400 people and was packed. I’ve never been in a place that has cheered so much for the good guys. They like their action heroes here in India. Especially Chuck Norris and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Later in the day our whole team went and got 15 minute fish pedicures. Probably one of the funnest/funniest moments from this month.
This one time in India, after a night of ministry, Pastor K turns to us and says, “So tomorrow for breakfast, you will take evening lunch.” Our silence must have been pretty telling because our bus driver, whom we had no idea that he spoke English, turned to us and said, “He means lunch.” This is a driver we’ve had most of the month and he’s never said a word to us.
This entire time in India, it was a struggle sometimes to accept receiving so much attention, especially during ministry. It often felt that it was due more to the color of our skin or where we were from instead of who we are here to serve. So the moments when we met people whose faith was truly genuine was always refreshing. Seeing God bring physical and spiritual healing to lives was incredible.
This entire time in India, I was stretched, I was challenged, I was beaten down and lifted up, and I saw victory over the enemy in the lives of people. I probably learned more this month than any other month so far.
This one time in India, we had our month 8 debrief where I was asked to step down from leadership along with several others who had been in their positions for awhile. Team Monarch, after 8 long, challenging, hard, pushing, stretching, and ultimately great memorable months, was finally laid to rest as we were split amongst the other 5 teams. More on this and our upcoming month in Nepal in the next blog!
