At the beginning of the month, we made our transition from Africa back to Asia. As always, travel days are extremely long and tiring, but we were all very excited for India and the new experiences that awaited us.
This month our team is located in Sikaria, a town in the north eastern part of India, in the state of Bihar. We are working with G.E.M.S. (Gospel Echoing Missionary Society), a rather remarkable and large organization that is working to impact this region holistically, by not only meeting the tangible needs of the community while simultaneously working to spread the gospel of Christ. They have established schools, churches, children’s homes, hospitals, and so many other ministries that are impacting the region in an incredible way. Check out their website to see all that they are doing.
There is a group of three German guys who are partnering with G.E.M.S. for a year; they are working with us while we are here. It has been a lot of fun to be around a group of guys again, especially since other than Thailand, we have been in a group with the majority being girls. It has been amazing how quickly we have bonded and how easy it has been for our two groups to work together.
As for the ministry, being that G.E.M.S. has such a variety of areas in which they work, we are doing a mixture of things this month. There have been several school visits, where we did different programs for the kids. The ministry that I have been most excited about has been painting murals for the new school building that is being constructed. A previous World Race team had painted a few of the rooms, so they asked us to continue doing similar work. All of us guys worked together on a mural of Noah’s ark which turned out awesome.
Another cool opportunity that I have had is the chance to play volleyball every night of the week with the men who work at GEMS. Six nights a week, they play volleyball for two hours and I have love being able to play some organized (that is a relative term I guess) sports again.
Over all, getting to hang out with a group of guys, doing some art (of sorts), and playing some sports, I have felt the most like myself in a long time. I am really thankful for this month and just what God is doing through this time. It has been so refreshing after going through three hard months in Africa. Perhaps God is charging me up so I can finish strong the last three months of the race.
