I fell in love with a country I thought I was going to absolutely hate. India was the country I was most worried about when signing up for the race. I knew it was going to be a hard month filled with many challenges but man was I wrong. I had a preconceived notion on what the month would look like. I started praying from the very beginning of the race that God would change my heart and give me something to fall in love with and he showed up in big ways. Not only did I fall in love with India, I fell more in love with God. It was hard in all the ways I expected but beautiful in ways I could never have imagined. I still dont like the food, the streets are dirty, traffic is insane, and it does smell from time to time, but the people are amazingly loving and God is at work in mighty ways. That in it self makes up for any negative thing that ever crossed my mind over the month.
Last month my team was in Hyderabad India working with ICM ministries. We partnered with serving at the Covenant School of Worship. The Covenant School trains men and women to be raised up as worship leaders, preachers, and how to live above everything else for Christ. After the men and women finish the school they get sent out all over the southern part of India to different ICM church plants. There they become worship leaders for the church.
Our role as a team was to come along side our ministry contact and support the school in different ways. This included writing testimonies of the staff, teaching English, working on different media projects, visiting the slums and my favorite thing, worship .
From the very beginning, stepping of the plane God started transforming my heart. I knew the school was going to be a special place the moment I walked in the door. Living in a worship school gave me the opportunity to live my life in constant freedom to worship God and it was so good for my soul. It was a refreshing month where I was able to drawn closer to God by worshipping Him. I was able to fully trust Him and able to walk out in boldness.
Each evening, the brothers would lead worship for everyone or we were able to go to the slums to lead worship. Being able to join the worship at night was such a blessing. Watching the brothers freely worship gave me the opportunity to feel the same freedom. We danced, sang at the top of our lungs, raised our hands, prayed powerful prayers, heard the Lord speak, and even was able to explore creative worship through painting. For the first time I felt the freedom to worship the Lord in anyway I pleased, with no restrictions. I was for the first time not afraid to worship in complete surrender to God.
It was an amazing month filled with so much love from God. He knew exactly what I needed in this part of the race. He transformed my heart to fall in love with India and fall more in love with Him.
*I still need to raise $3,000 in this next month to stay on the race. If you would like to support me and the ministry please click on the support me tab on the left hand side of the scree. Also, please pray for my team as we head to the mountains of Nepal to reach the unreached and work with orphans.
