As we drove under the archway entrance, past a rice paddy and down a road lined with palm trees we arrived at Canaan Retreat Center. With such peaceful surroundings, I knew that this retreat center was going to be a place we would enjoy meeting youth and college ministers from around Hyderabad. We were in Ghatkesar, about 1 1/2 hours outside of Hyderabad.
This wasn't just any retreat for me (Donna), this was a retreat where we would teach the Teen Worker's Curriculum that I and other youth workers in the US have been developing for the past three years. This was our inaugural training in two ways, one- the material had never been taught to youth workers before anywhere in the world, and two- this was the first time that Here's LIfe Inner City has trained ministers in India.
We partnered with Youth for Christ and Campus Crusade India, Evangelical Union, Shining Stars and a couple of local churches, there were 33 of us in all. Some of the highlights for the youth worker's attending were the lessons on Biblical Manhood, Emotional Intelligence, What are your purpose and guiding values, Sharing the Good News with Teens and How to Prepare Young People for Marriage. We had several instructors, Tom, Megen, Jean, Myself and our host, Peter Wiig.
As we were watching the end of the retreat slideshow, I had such a great feeling in my heart that our hours of brainstorming, collaborating and writing for these lessons hasn't been in vain, but that finally the people who we have a heart to minister to, equip and empower have been touched with this material. I thank God that this is only the beginning of equipping passionate people to share the love of Christ with teens as they walk alongside them through life.
It’s been a while since our team (Candice, Daniela, Drew & Naomi) has updated you on our lives here in India, because we have been doing a lot of traveling as we were sent out to rural villages and towns during the first two weeks of being here. So this post will be a bit longer than the rest as we attempt to update you on two weeks of ministry here in India.
week one: 07/04 - 07/09
My team and I spent the week in the rural village of Athmakur. We arrived on Sunday morning after a two-hour bus ride from Hyderabad and were joyfully greeted by the Pastor of the local church and his beautiful family. Over the course of the week, we began to live life with this family, taking upon ourselves their passion for this village and its people.
One of our ministries to the village over the week was leading a VBS for the children there. On our first day, forty-two kids from all over the village gathered around the simple church grounds, eager and courageous in spirit.We began to lead them in the knowledge of God’s love, yearning with all our hearts to convey its deepness in the simplest of forms to their young minds. The kids were beautifully eager, hanging onto every word we spoke. Our only hope was that their eagerness was drawn to the Spirit rather than the group of Americans who came to their village. Towards the end of the night, we began to play games with the kids, and the church seemed to almost explode with joy. Our team then noticed a man, sullen-faced and angry, staring through the window. When Premdas, our dear friend and translator, approached the man, he began yelling in Telugu, shouting that we were corrupting his son with the words of our religion. He then demanded his son leave with him and stormed off toward the village.
The next day as we sat in the church preparing for the days events, we received news that shook us all quite deeply. The father that dragged his son out of the church that night beat him so badly that the boy suffered from pains in his body. The father then took his son to the doctor, claiming that the candy we had given his son made him sick. He even went so far as to report us to the local newspaper, saying that the foreign Christians had come to corrupt and convert their children, forcing our religion upon them. The reporter that the father spoke to was also the largest anti-Christian Hindu in the entire village. Our fears began to rise as talk spread of our motives within the village.
Later that day, we were scheduled to speak at a school assembly. Our aim was to encourage the kids in their value through Christ's deep love for them. When we arrived at the school, the anti-Christian reporter was there, camera ready in hand and face screaming his utter disgust for our being there. Originally, our talk included references to God and His creating us out of His great love for us. But because of the strong anti-Christian sentiments, we decided to re-word that section of our speech, trusting that the Spirit would move despite the absence of a direct reference to God. Praying that the LORD would protect us as we did His will.
I was much reminded of the book of Esther during this time, in that although God’s name may not be in the book, His name is definitely on the book, working together all things for the good of His people. So that became our prayer…that the LORD’s name would dwell on the assembly even if His name was absent from its content.
We witnessed God’s providence in a beautiful way that day. As the reporter’s suspicions were silenced by our omission of God’s name in the assembly, his demeanor was drastically shifted to welcoming us with open arms. So much so that he wrote a story about the Americans who came to India, which appeared in four local newspapers the next day. Thus, he opened the doors of other villagers’ hearts to be more open and accepting of not simply our presence, but also the words we spoke. God truly has his hand upon us, working all things together for our good. May we continue to trust Him in and through all things. His love for us is constantly breaking walls and uniting hearts. May we embrace this plan of His that is in perfect orchestration before us.
week two: 07/11 - 07/16
This past week, our team was sent out to a coal-mining city about six hours away from Hyderabad with team PULSE. When we first arrived, our hearts were a little bit shaken as we missed our kids from the previous ministry sites we had learned to call home. There was a mundane spirit surrounding our hearts and minds that we couldn’t seem to shake the first night there. But, we knew that the LORD had brought us to this city for a purpose much greater than our own desires. We spent the next few days in fervent prayer that the LORD would search our hearts and challenge our minds. During the week that we were serving in the town, we were stretched to our limits in a beautiful way. Over the course of two days each team visited two churches, and within those churches we led a main service to the full congregation and then were split up in order to lead a women’s and men’s time in a more intimate setting.
Something we’ve been learning here in India, through experience as well as through word of mouth, is the lack of fellowship within church communities. Although the people from the local villages or towns gather together for church on Sunday mornings, there seems to be a lack of fellowship outside the walls of the church, or even within them. So, during our time together as women, it was our deep desire that the women of these villages would come to know the beauty of fellowship. We led them to the book of Exodus, where we explored the ways in which God used women, specifically Moses’ mother, to raise up a great man of the LORD that literally changed the course of history. As the women came to realize their role in the Kingdom we began to challenge them with the power of community as we asked them to form groups of two to three women and simply pray together, sharing their struggles and joys with their fellow sisters. What followed was a beautiful display of the Kingdom. The room was filled with voices; so much so that one could not discern one voice from another. Women were opening their hearts to one another, allowing vulnerability to take center stage. And then we began praying, collectively. We couldn’t understand a word of Telugu, and they couldn’t understand our English. But we began glorifying the LORD in a beautiful way that morning, spreading the Kingdom in uncharted territory. The worries of anything left behind at home or at our previous ministry sites began to melt away as we watched the LORD cross every barrier, whether cultural, emotional, or lingual, to unite his daughters in the glorification of His name. It was the first time that these women had ever experienced spiritual fellowship, and our prayer for them is that it would continue even after our fingerprints have left their hearts.
The LORD is truly doing big things here in India, and we are so blessed to be used in such beautiful ways. May we continue to see ourselves as broken vessels, fixed by the King, and directed by the Spirit. May His good, pleasing, and perfect will be done.
Peter with Nagarani and Dhayakar – two of the children who accepted the Lord
This past week, The Justice League team (Victoria, Peter, David, Megen) left the congestion and dense population of the city for Bommakal, a village of 1200 people located about 170 km from Hyderabad. We soon discovered that we had exchanged the smog of the city for intense heat and humidity and dirt roads that, while not congested with traffic, had to be shared with amazingly large and unconcerned herds of livestock. These roads also took their toll on our vehicle; the faithful old sumo fell prey to a punctured tire the second night we were there, which required an emergency tire change (including at least 4 attempts at jacking up the vehicle, which only proved successful when the entire team lifted the gigantic sumo high enough off the ground to properly position the jack) on the side of a deserted road at 11:00 pm. When we first arrived at the afterschool center and met the kids we would be working with this week, our response matched theirs: reserved. Having just finished an amazing week with the kids at Ashirvad (see previous posts), it was hard to keep from making comparisons between the two groups of children. While the Ashirvad kids had been overflowing with love and enthusiasm toward us, which they expressed in amazingly good English, these village kids seemed shy and hesitant to interact with us. To further complicate connecting with them, they spoke virtually no English. At our nightly team prayer times, we asked God to open our hearts to love these kids without making comparisons. We had decided to begin the week with an experiential activity that would allow us to present the gospel to the kids. As I shared and asked questions, I noticed that their response was usually “I don’t know,” but I assumed that they were still feeling too shy to venture an answer. Based on what we had been told about the kids, we were under the assumption that all of them were familiar with the gospel and that about half of them knew Christ as their Savior. We continued to emphasize the gospel, but it wasn't until our third night in Bommakal that we found out that these statistics had recently changed. The afterschool center had taken a year's break from its programs and had only reopened a few weeks before we arrived. Our host in the village told us that nearly all of the students were Hindu and that this was their first involvement with the afterschool program or the church. That night, our team went back to our lodgings stunned and overwhelmed by what we had just learned. No wonder the kids didn't know the answer to the questions I had asked them about the gospel. No wonder they were shy and still learning how to love and be loved. Our team of four went up on the roof of the church where we were staying and sat in silence as we remembered the eager pairs of eyes fixed on us as we shared those words of life, those serious faces that appeared to be listening as though their lives depended on it. And we realized that, in fact, their lives did depend on it. It had been difficult at our previous ministry site to look into the beautiful faces of the kids at Ashirvad and realize that despite their happy smiles, unless God does a miracle, they will die a difficult and early death as a result of AIDS. How much more heartbreaking to look into the equally gorgeous faces and bright eyes of the kids at Bommakal and realize that, unless God does a miracle, they are headed toward an eternity in hell. And so, sitting there on that rooftop in an Indian village, we began to pray. We prayed for the souls of those kids who, we realized, we had come to love every bit as passionately as we had loved the Ashirvad kids. We prayed for the church there that makes up such a tiny percentage of the population of the village and for God to use those believers to lead the kids to Him. And we prayed for our remaining time in the village – 1 ½ days seemed so short suddenly. We felt that what we had to offer was so little, yet we knew that the same God who fed 5,000 people with one boy’s lunch was able to take our small offering and multiply it for His purposes. We had no idea when we offered our last days in Bommakal to God how He would choose to use them. The day before we left the village, we decided to give the kids an opportunity to respond to the gospel. We led them in making simple origami hearts and writing the names of people they loved on the hearts they had made. Then we told them if they loved Jesus and wanted to invite Him into their hearts, to write His name on their hearts. Peter shared with them that the love they have for the people they wrote down is tiny compared with God’s love for each of them. He asked the group to close their eyes and anyone who wanted to pray and receive Christ as Savior to raise their hand. To our astonishment, 24 students raised their hands! As one of our team members said later, those hands weren’t just raised – they shot up and they stayed up the entire time Peter led them in prayer. In fact, we had to remind them to put their hands down when we finished! We went “home” that night and climbed the stairs to the same roof where we’d sat and prayed the night before. Again, we were stunned and overwhelmed – overwhelmed by what God had done and stunned that He had allowed us to be a part of it. We realized that God had done a miracle and that we could now look into 24 pairs of bright eyes and know that these beautiful, amazing children are now sons and daughters of God and that we will see them again one day in heaven. Before we left Bommakal, each of us made an origami heart identical to those the kids had made. Each heart is covered with names, written in different colored markers, some in English, some in Telugu characters – the names of the children of Bommakal. When we drove away, we took those hearts with us as a testimony to us of the way God taught us to love those children and a reminder that 24 of those children also have their names written on His heart and in His book of life.
Before coming on this trip to India we were often asked, "Why are you going to India? What ministry are you partnering with there? What are the needs there?" The following story of Rayudu, although heartbreaking, paints a vivid picture of the ongoing needs here and of the hope that the Shining Stars Centers for Youth Development are offering to the children and families that attend on a daily basis.
Rayudu (pictured above with his sister) was always an excellent student in school and excelled at everything he did. He was known as a child "who always did his best at everything." His parents (top picture) were devout Hindus and Rayudu frequently urged his parents to turn from their idol worship and follow Jesus--a decision he had made while attending a Shining Stars Youth Development Center in his neighborhood.
In January, of 2006 Rayudu (age 12) was scratched (not bitten) by a stray dog. He went to the doctor and started on a regimen of rabies shots, but the doctor did not seem to indicate that the risk for rabies was very high since it was only a scratch. Rayudu's family is very poor and could not afford to finish his regimen of shots--so they did not take him back for his follow up appointments. They did not think twice about it since the doctor did not emphasize the importance of coming back for the rest of his shots.
Three months later, in April of 2006 Rayudu began to act strangely and he was taken by the director of Shining Stars (Peter Wiig) to a local hospital. They mentioned that he probably had rabies and referred them to another hospital down the road for treatment. Upon arrival at the hospital the doctor told them, "He will die, 100%." Upon hearing the news of his impending death Rayudu said, "I am not afraid to die because I will go to be with Jesus in heaven."
Although Rayudu was briefly distressed about his own fate he quickly began to think of others:
While lying on his hospital bed he placed both of his parents hands into Peter Wiig's and made Peter promise that he would take care of them.
He collected all of his father's money and asked that it be used for the education of his siblings (like his sister's pictured above).
He also asked the Shining Stars to promise to take care of his sister's education and help her to study.
He told his mother that he wanted all of his clothes and body parts given to the poor (though he himself was very poor).
Family and friends gathered around Rayudu until late into the night where they sang worship songs, prayed with him, and said their goodbyes. He passed away at 12:30 a.m. on April 26th, 2006.
His memory still remains with all that are involved with Shining Stars. Within a couple of days of his death Rayudu's parents asked Jesus to be their savior! This is something that we know would have brought Rayudu great joy and is an answer to his many prayers.His brother and sisters are all still involved in Shining Stars and their beautiful smiles light up the room.
Shining Stars has honored Rayudu's request and recently secured funding (through much work & effort by the staff) for all of his sibling's education up through high school. They also receive help daily with their school work as tutoring is a key part of the after school program.
The Shining Stars Centers have taken measures to prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again by educating the staff and getting connected with a local agency that provides rabies shots free of charge.
This story illustrates the important role that the Shining Stars Centers are playing in the lives of families here in Hyderabad. They are not only sharing the good news of Christ with the kids and their families, they also serve as valuable resources for many poor families here in the city. Rayudu's siblings are now getting an education they probably would never have gotten without the help of the Shining Stars staff. This ministry is doing a mighty work for the Lord here in India and their ministry is impacting many lives. It is our privilege and honor to serve with them this month and hopefully in the years ahead.
Tom and I (Donna), along with Peter Wiig (all pictured above) have stayed behind this week in Hyderabad to prepare lessons for the Teen Workers Training Retreat we're doing this Thursday-Saturday. Here's Life Inner City is partnering with India Youth for Christ, Campus Crusade and Shining Stars to train 30-40 people working with youth. This is an exciting training for me because this will be the inaugural training using training curriculum that Here's Life Inner City's Youth development department has been developing over the past 3 years. This is my first editing project ever! Please pray for:
Pray for God to bring the people he wants there for the training. We are expecting between 30-40 people there which would be fantastic!
Pray for Donna, Tom, Peter Wiig, Megen, and Jean as they teach/lead the various seminars.
Pray for the participants to be blessed and encouraged by the training and that they would apply the lessons learned to their various teen ministries throughout the city of Hyderabad.
Have you ever felt trapped or helpless? Maybe money and available resources have kept you from experiencing such moments of desperation. Last week, team P.U.L.S.E. (Wade Norman, Jean Johnston & Tiffany Nickles) went to visit a home with a few workers from YWAM (Youth with a Mission). One of the houses we stopped at was a one room home filled with five residents. A widow and 2 of her 4 children anxiously invited us in. There was no room for all of us to be in their home at the same time so most of us sat on the ground outside. During the conversation we discovered that the widow and her youngest and only son were infected with H.I.V. The widow and her two daughters really enjoyed our company and we really enjoyed theirs. I (Wade, pictured above) felt helpless and humbled because it was all we had to offer. The original plan for that day was to help YWAM finish building a restroom for this family. However, due to rain our plans for completing the restroom were put on hold. My heart was filled with pain as I looked at the two girls as my own sisters. I tried to imagine my own sisters going through similar hardships. It was difficult to say the least. Before we departed from their home I was asked to pray for the family. This request alone compounded the pain I felt for this family. What could I possibly pray that would take their eyes off the reality of their current circumstances? I felt unequipped but I prayed anyway. As I began to pray the pain that surrounded my heart slowly turned to joy. God wasted no time reminding me that He cared for these people more than I could ever know. Who was I to think that I had anything to offer this family? God exposed my prideful motives that I had buried under my heart. I was convicted as the words of my heart foolishly belittled the power of prayer and by belittling the power of prayer I was belittling the power of God. This situation, like many others, was an opportunity to trust Him. I needed to believe that God could help this family and that He would help this family in the way that He chooses. Sometimes I want God to work the way I want but God is not afraid to blow my mind by doing something totally different. This family will continue to be reached out to and loved by the local ministry here and I will continue to pray for God to do a miracle in their lives. Praise His Holy name and lets give thanks that we have hope in Him! --Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are acheiving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal --2 Corinthians 4:16-18.
This is an exciting and faith stretching week for our teams as they are all outside the city of Hyderabad working in rural villages. After spending all of Sunday night traveling on a bus Team Pulse (Jean Johnston, Wade Norman, & Tiffany Nickles) and Team Hydergood (Drew Gehrke, Candice Reddy, Naomi Jaramillo, & Daniela Sanchez) arrived in a small coal mining town named Godavari Khani where they are staying at the Calvary Gospel Church. In the town they will be speaking at local school assemblies, working at a Shining Stars Youth Development Center at a local church (doing VBS type activities with the children, homework, skits, Bible stories, games, arts & crafts, etc.), leading a Women's and Youth Bible study. Please pray for them:
Pray that they are able to sleep well this week after starting the week so tired from their late night travel.
Pray for God to speak through them as they speak at local school assemblies.
Pray that God help them make special connections with the children at the youth center and that they would be bold to share the Love of Jesus with the children.
Pray for unity as these 2 teams (Team Hydergood & Team Pulse) work closely together for the first time.
Our third team, The Justice League (Peter, Victoria, Megen and David) left at noon on Sunday for Bommakal. Bommakal is a small village where they said the only cars they've seen in the last day was the one they drove and a delivery truck. They are helping to jumpstart the Shining Stars Center for the new school year by visiting the children in their homes and inviting them to the Center for tutoring and Bible lessons.
Pray for the Justice League:
Creativity in connecting with the kids.
Healing for Victoria and Peter as they recover from a cold.
Thanks for praying for these teams! Check in tomorrow for update and prayer request for our busy team leaders.
“We love because He first loved us.” These simple words from 1 John are the first steps to understanding my experience at Ashirvad Children’s Home. If I have ever seen love with my own eyes, it was at Ashirvad. Ashirvad is a home for children who have been affected by HIV/AIDS. Most of the children are orphaned or semi-orphaned (a situation in which the father has died and provision for the family is nearly impossible) but all of them have been affected by HIV/AIDS and many of the children are HIV positive.
We are called to “love one another.” Before working with these children, it was easy to question what that even means. Now it is all too easy to understand. Seeing the way these kids treat each other was one of the greatest definitions of love that I have ever witnessed. Love is when Ramya sees Bharathi struggling with putting a flower in her hair so she immediately removes the clip from her own to help. Love is when, in the middle of a game of Chain-cut (a crazy form of tag), twenty girls will pause at any moment and rush to help a fallen and injured sister. Love is when Kumari can just look at Pooja and know why she is crying. The love that these children have for one another is captivating. It is a reflection of the love that the staff so wonderfully pours out to them by caring so ardently. Above all, it is a reflection of the love of Christ that was poured out for each of us.
Friday was one of the hardest days of my life. It was the day that my team, The Justice League, and I had to say goodbye to the children. With each hug I was overwhelmed by memories of the past week. Their faces are engraved in my mind and in my heart and I long for the sweet music of footsteps pitter-pattering on the rooftop where we played. I had approached our time at Ashirvad with the standard American missionary mindset; I was going to serve these kids. Saying goodbye in those final moments reiterated what I had learned from my first moment there; each act of love that I witnessed was a service to me.
Our last act of service to the children was, perhaps, the most rewarding of all. Looking at the model that Jesus set forth in his Word, on how we should love and serve one another, we decided to wash the feet of each of the children. Even after we had given our explanation they kept asking why we were doing this. We took buckets and basins of water, and one by one gently washed their little feet, occasionally taking a moment to look up into a pair of big, sparkly brown eyes that looked amazed to be served in this way. Those eyes alone were another of the beautiful ways in which those children served me and each of the members of my team. Ashirvad means ‘blessing’ and I do not believe that a name more appropriate could ever be possible.
Please pray for Ashirvad Children’s Home and Ark Family Ministries (the group from which it is based.) Pray that God will provide all of the needs of the children and the staff. They are currently praying that God will give them land so that they can care for more children and so that the kids have more room to sleep, play, and just be kids. Please pray for their finances and that the three children who do not have sponsors would be sponsored. Ask God to bless this ministry with grace and favor from the community and please pray for the health of the children. For our team, I ask that you would pray that God gives us perseverance in ministry and that we would continue on with a servant’s heart. I ask also, that you would pray that we would take this lesson of love that we learned from the children and staff at Ashirvad and apply it to our ministry and to our lives.
Our first week of ministry here has gone really well and I feel like we are off to a great start. As co-director of the project (working alongside Donna Perkins) I have a somewhat unique view of the project. I often feel like a parent as we send the teams out to their ministry sites each day to share God's love with those they interact with throughout the day. Much of our work as directors is behind the scenes working out logistical details, planning future ministry site details, preparing our group meetings (like Bible studies, training talks, etc.), and praying for the teams throughout the day. Sometimes we get the chance to join the teams and watch them/join with them as they minister to those they come in contact with and those times are always a breath of fresh air. I know that Donna and I are thankful to lead such a wonderful team but have also felt the urge to join in more of the direct ministry--we both love teaching and working with children so we have to hold back and look for opportunities as God opens doors for us. Our main job here is to empower the teams and put them in a place where THEY can use their giftings to serve and minister to others. A few other thoughts/highlights I wanted to share with you as I have been spending time processing what God is teaching me:
I am so proud of all the students/team members as they have stepped out in faith to minister each day! We have challenged them to be F.F.A.T. (Flexible, faithful, available, and teachable) throught the entire summer and they have definitely taken us up on that challenge and demonstrated godly patience & flexibility day after day. They continue to work hard each day to prepare but things here never go as planned! I have been so impressed as our teams have adapted to ever changing circumstances. I have also appreciated their hearts for the people they are ministering to. They have been praying with/loving on many people who are HIV positive. This is not easy work--it is emotionally draining and heartbreaking for them to see these wonderful children, who are so full of energy and hope, then have to stop and watch them take their HIV meds. Please pray for our teams to continue to be F.F.A.T.
Do you ever feel like you have so many distractions/comforts built in all around you that it makes it difficult to maintain an intimate relationship with God? Being here has stripped me of many of my comforts and taken me out of my comfort zone. There is so much different here--like the food, clothing, no hot showers, unfamiliar surroundings, a new language, fewer entertainment options, etc. and this has been so good for me because it has forced me to focus on what is most important--my relationships with people around me and my relationship with God. It has also led me to think about the many "distractions" that I have at home that lead me away from people and God. As Christians we know that the only things that last for eternity are God, people, and His Word. This trip has been a good reminder for me to make some changes and invest more in eternity. It also inspires me to try and bring as many people into eternity with me as possible by sharing the good news of Christ's death and resurrection with as many people as I can!
Lastly, another highlight for me has been getting to know Peter & Mercy Wiig the founders of the Shining Stars Centers for Youth Development here in Hyderabad. Peter is pictured above with Donna and I and I am amazed by the work God has been doing through him. It also breaks my heart to see that they are underresourced here and undersupported. I hope that we can do something to help provide them with ongoing resources to better equip them for their ministry here. He shared with Donna and I that they sometimes feel isolated and I would love to see our ministry of Here's Life Inner City partner with him to help him feel empowered, encouraged, and equipped for the ministry here. I am also praying that God raises up the necessary support that his family needs. If you are interested in joining their support team please get in touch with me and I will let you know how you can get started (tom.norris@ccci.org).
Please pray for the following for our India project: 1) Pray that we would continue to grow in our relationship with God. 2) Pray that we would be unified as a team and encourage one another. 3)Pray for Peter & Mercy Wiig that God would provide them with all the necessary prayer & financial support for their ongoing ministry here.
One of our first team experiences in India began on Sunday. Our contact Aruna brought us to church. We were unaware of it at the time (until "church" was almost over), but it was actually a small house fellowship made up of HIV positive families. Many had come to Christ out of Hinduism and Islam- mostly widows and children - and they met there because they may not have felt comfortable at a typical church. It was a beautiful experience. We sang songs of worship in Telegu to the Lord. Later, Tiffany and I had opportunity to share our stories of how we came to faith in Christ (pausing at each phrase as it was translated into Telugu for those who did not know English) and Wade gave a message that focused on Luke 15. The most beautiful part of the service was when a woman wept as she spoke of how she had been praying and praying to have a Bible in her own language (Tamil). She had finally received the Bible that morning and she kept kissing it and thanking God that she now had opportunity to read God's word in her mother tongue. Something that I so often take for granted (I have several Bibles) meant the world to her. Today (Monday) our team served at the Nareekshena (Hope) clinic for those infected with HIV and AIDS and we served at a Christian school originally founded to give the Children of Leprosy patients a solid education (today many of the students are orphaned or semi-orphaned from HIV or other issues). We will be serving at these sites for the next several days. I am still processing all that we saw and experienced, but I have come to see many many ways that something as devastating as HIV and AIDS is being redeemed by God to bring people to faith in Christ and to give a hope and a future. What Satan meant for evil, God has used for good!
As mentioned in a previous post we discovered that we have access to the roof here. We have used it as a place for team meetings, planning, and just a place to hang out during the very little free time that we have now that our teams are working at different ministry sites each day. Please pray that our teams would work well together, find the time to prepare their work for each day, and that we would see God use us in powerful ways in the lives of people we meet each day.
Today the Justice League Team (David, Victoria, Megan, Peter) visited a school for children infected and affected by AIDs. From the moment we laid eyes on them, we knew it was gonna be a good day. They absolutely took your breath away. They were beautiful and kind and generous and affectionate. Their love was all that we needed after the tough time we have had adjusting to our tough schedule. With so much to prepare and almost no time to do it, the our team has been running on fumes and prayers. We've been feeling overwhelmed and under-equipped to love properly.
Please pray for our energy, focus, and harmony. With the tough schedule and jetlag exhaustion, we're finding it hard to love as we should.
Though at the school, love was in plenty, as the kids gushed over us.
Honestly, it was hard to imagine that these bright, happy, loving children were either infected with HIV/AIDS, or had parents who were infected with HIV/AIDS... or both.
After dinner, we saw our first reminder that these were no ordindary children. We quietly observed some of the children taking their medication, and fought back tears that were welling up.
In our team brief, we couldn't hold back the tears any longer as we prayed. We were so grateful to have met these kids, and so humbled by their love. We were in awe of the love of Jesus, as he redeemed these kids as His own.
We prepared hard last night to prepare a lesson for these kids.
But the only lessons given today, were for us.
Please pray for team Hyderagood (Drew, Candice, Daniela, Naomi) who are out in the field in the remote rural areas this week. It was an unexpected assignment that they accepted with a servant's heart.
Also Tiffany on Team Pulse, is battling a cold. Please pray for her as well.
Today is our third day in India! It is also the beginning of our first week of serving! Our group has been divided into three teams, each of which will be serving in a different part of India in various ways. Here’s a breakdown of the teams and what we will be doing this week:
Team Hyderagood: Daniela, Drew, and Candice.
Our team will actually be a bit different from the rest. We will be traveling outside of the Hyderabad area to a rural area called Athmakur and staying in a rented house there for the week. We leave today and won’t be returning to St. Ann’s until Wednesday night.We’ll do some additional training here on Thursday and Friday with the large group, but we will be traveling back to Athmakur on those days as well to continue to serve in the same area.
We were asked to lead a service at one the local churches in Athmakur today, so we will be leaving St. Ann’s right after breakfast for that. Then, during the week we will be spending some time visiting the families of the church. We will also be serving at a local school everyday, where we will be sharing a lesson with the children there as well as simply spending time with the kids. In addition to that, we will be speaking at three different school assemblies about character development. The children that we will be working with range in age from five to fifteen, all of who speak the local language here in India, Telagu. So we will be traveling to all of our sites with one of the staff here that will translate for us. He is such a blessing!
We are so excited for what the LORD has in store for our team this week!
Team PULSE: Tiffany, Wade, and Jean
…coming soon.
The Justice League: Megen, Peter, David, and Victoria
…coming soon.
We are so excited about the work ahead of us! Please continue to keep us all in your prayers! Specifically, if you could be praying for one of our leaders, Tom, who is diabetic. His insulin was accidently frozen, and is now unusable. Be praying that the LORD provide the proper medication for him, and that his body would react positively with it. May we be in complete dependence of the Father.
We arrived in India this morning at 4:00am. After going through customs and collecting our luggage, we were eagerly greeted by Isaac, one of the staff members from the Shining Stars Centers for Youth Development. He helped guide us to the St. Anne's Retreat Centre, which is where we are staying while in Hyderabad. He brought us out to his waiting car and a taxi bus and helped us load all our belongings into the two vehicles. After a few minutes of packing we began our one hour drive to the retreat centre. Along the way we all sat in absolute awe of our surrounds and that we are actually in India!We could not have been more excited to be here!
Once we got to the retreat centre, the staff allowed us to check in and we got the keys to our spacious, lovely rooms. Seriously, they are amazing! Then, we were served breakfast 8:00am, still trying to adjust a bit to the twelve and a half hour time difference! Can you believe that we are on the other side of the globe!? We’re still in shock! But it was nice to have the morning to simply relax as a team and get to know the retreat centre where we will be living for the next month.
As we walked back to our rooms, a few of the girls noticed an open door leading to a balcony, so we decided to check it out as the view here in India is beautiful! As we began admiring the scenery, we noticed a set of stairs around the corner that led to the roof, and at this point some of the men had joined us as well. Naturally, we climbed up the stairs to the roof.It was breathtaking. We felt as if we were standing on top of the tallest building in the middle of the city, being able to look out as far as the mountain ranges allowed.
The scene before us was littered with densely packed buildings and houses. They were almost ancient looking, sporting chipping paint along almost every angle, scattered with pieces of clothing hung out to dry, and screaming character with their assorted colors. All enclosed within the confines of the beautiful mountain ranges.And, not only was the view breathtaking, but the sounds were almost mesmerizing. Cars honking for sometimes absolutely no reason but to warn another of its presence, stray dogs barking as they roamed the streets, and a constant flow of traffic noises and chattering added to the soundtrack. We were all taken captive by the beauty of this place, and as we sat up on that roof together, we began to talk about why.
The people and the landscape simply are, and they make no apologies or excuses for it. The buildings are full of character in their worn condition and broken appearance. Almost as if to say that they are content being so, just as they are. It’s a rather beautiful thing.
See in America, we have becomes so consumed by the American dream. Our motives and condition are fixed upon the attainment of certain things or ambitions, perhaps a house with a picket fence, the best car, or a put-together family. And even when we fail to attain such measures, we lie. We put on a façade to mask the imperfections, telling the world we have it all together, when in reality we are falling apart.
Life here is unapologetic. It is what it is. There is such vulnerability here. No attempts to display false perfections. Brokenness is reality, and it is on beautiful display. May we learn from this place, from these people. May our brokenness lead us into relationship with this nation for which God is yearning.
