A little window into my life last week….
My team spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of last week at a school run by GEMS about 30 minutes away from our home base. It’s part of GEMS outreach to the well-known prostitute village of Amri Tola. We learned that Amri Tola traces its roots centuries back to ancient India when some women were kept in kings’ palaces for prostitution and entertainment purposes. The king allotted them a place in the palace and a village for them to live. Even today, the main occupation of the people in these villages is prostitution. The women dance with indecent steps to vulgar music for wedding parties throughout the night. Men stand around and throw money at them as they dance and then pull them away to sleep with them. The state of Bihar is intoxicated with these dancers and prostitution. A wedding party is not considered grand without them, and they are well paid. Affluent people from all walks of life come here during festival times to take women home.
The way of life is so broken that brothers and fathers work as pimps for their sisters and daughters, and brothers sometimes violate their own sisters. The men, women, and children are addicted to drugs and alcohol of all kinds. Most of the women are not married and therefore there are many children in the village who do not know fathers. The girls are taught to dance from the age of 6 so they can earn money and take care of their aging mother and brothers. They are dragged to dance forcefully and the boys have to sell illegal liquor. AIDS is a growing problem as well so men prefer younger girls because they believe they will not have AIDS yet.
In 2005, a brother who worked at the nearby GEMS ITI school was burdened for the village, and began the long road of gaining the villagers trust. Eventually God gave the opportunity for the missionary to start children’s school. The school is now partly funded by Compassion. It provides a safe place for children of the village to come and learn about God, in addition to regular studies. Many of them have accepted Christ and have now become witnesses to their parents. The children are still immersed in the village, though. They tell the pastor that lives at the school, that they wish they could stay overnight at the school and not go home. The pastor told us that he wishes they could do just that, but the ministry does not have the funds at this time. He has faith that God will provide.
We got to sit in on a couple of the childrens’ morning worship services, and they were so beautiful. When the kids pray, they pray with all their might; you can see it in their faces. They cry out to God from the bottom of their hearts. When they sing, they sing to God. It’s the most beautiful sound. It still gives me goosebumps. This is what Jesus talks about in His prayer: “On earth as it is in heaven.� In the midst of poverty, ignorance, prostitution, and more, God’s kingdom is being brought to earth in a powerful way through these children.
My team has been talking about that a lot recently. On earth as it is in heaven. Maybe our purpose here on earth isn’t just to have a salvation experience, and then wait around until heaven. Maybe our purpose is to work, with the allotted time we each have left, to bring heaven to earth. Bring the Gospel, bring Jesus, bring peace, give up ourselves and live like Jesus. We all say yes, that’s a great idea, who wouldn’t want heaven on earth? When it comes to living it out though, we stumble. It’s just too easy to brush a nudging from the Holy Spirit off as some weird thought that popped into our heads. Plus, we don’t want to look like lunatics, Jesus wouldn’t want that right? Jesus spit on the ground and put mud on the eyes of a blind man to heal him. He spoke to huge crowds and made people angry. He overturned tables and drove money makers from the temple. He cast out demons, healed the sick, raised the dead, and then commanded us to do the same. That was back in Bible times though, it’s different now….right? That’s not a very realistic calling in today’s modern world…..right? My eyes have slowly become open to the fact that those things that Jesus commanded are not only meant for years past, but are currently being practiced by disciples all over the world. And, if it’s happening everywhere else, why I am I missing out? Why is the American church in general missing out? I’ve had a small taste of it now, and I want more.
Stay tuned for more on Amri Tola and one girl’s testimony.
