At the time of writing this, I am traveling across India via
train, on a 29 hour train ride. Never
been on a train for this long before and it has been quite the experience. One more thing to add to the experiences
had. I’m on my way to Kolkata to apply
for a visa into Bangladesh at the embassy there. Once we receive it, we will be able to move
onto Bangladesh, thus drawing my time in India to an end.
The last month here has been an interesting one, with a wide
range of emotions. Within the first two
days here, I already had diarrhea.
Within four days, I was throwing up, once on a moving train while
surrounded by Indians. Another thing to
add to the list of experiences.
Admittedly, I hated it here the first two weeks. I didn’t like the smells, the food, the heat,
the clothing, the stares, the dirtiness.
And I was honestly looking forward to coming home. But alas, I still had 2 ½ more months to go
before that could happen. Plus, as the
team leader, I couldn’t let that desire to leave be known to my team. I had to keep the good attitude and encourage
everyone else in being here. Not always
fun being the leader.
But as time went on, I learned to not hate it so much. Somehow God gave me grace enough for each day
and helped me to face the various things I had to face. And I began to see little blessings in the
everyday. It’s amazing how much little
things become the biggest deal when you’re in a third world country. For example, in a couple of houses we visited
for ministry, they served us coffee. We
hadn’t had coffee for a few weeks, only tea (that was really just boiled milk
with a slight flavor of tea). And it was
so good! Then another morning, the ywam
base surprisingly made pancakes for breakfast!
This is amazing considering that every morning breakfast is either rice
or some sort of mashed corn meal. (We had rice 3 meals a day, so something
different, particularly pancakes, is amazing.)
On a couple of other occasions, I
was able to have hot water for a shower.
This is such a blessing, especially considering there were some days
where we didn’t have any water at all.
So it was little things like that that just reminded me of God’s
goodness in providing little things to make my life a little easier or
enjoyable.
As I struggled in being in another country, I began to
question why I was here. I decided to
staff in ywam again because I have a heart for seeing young people discipled,
and in the past have enjoyed going to other countries. But I have also realized that I really enjoy
my comforts, especially as I’m getting older.
I don’t really enjoy bucket showers, random power outages for hours on
end, constantly being dirty, eating rice 3 meals a day, or doing all my laundry
by hand. I enjoy a comfortable life,
like I’m sure many people do. But in
being willing to lay down my comforts for while, I have been privileged to be
used by God, and to learn to appreciate the many blessings I have in my life.
Over the last month, I’ve been to numerous homes in slums
where the people are struggling to get by every day. I’ve been blessed to share my testimony with
them, to teach them parables from the Bible, to teach of Jesus’ ability to save
and what He can do in their lives. I was
even privileged to be one of the first ywamers to bring the Gospel into a Hindu
family’s home. I’ve seen a woman be
healed of crippling arthritis, prayed for countless women and children, help
run a VBS for a preschool, painted a mural at a school & helped build a
water filtration system at the same school.
A lot has happened over the last month and numerous seeds have been
planted.
Yes, it has been a struggle to be here, and I can’t say that
I feel called to live here, but this experience has been good. I’ve been able to walk alongside my 5
students and help them in their struggles as their worldviews are being
changed, and they’re beginning to realize how truly blessed they are. I’ve been able to help point them to Jesus
when they are frustrated with how this culture does things, and hopefully
become more of the men and women God created them to be. I’ve been able to be a light in this dark,
dark place and hopefully draw people a little closer to Jesus and into a saving
relationship with him. India is hard,
but there are blessings in the midst of it.
Thank YOU for helping me to be here and be a part of all this.
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