India Adventures - Part 4

Thursday 09/08/2012

Happy anniversary to my awesome parents!! 26 years and still going strong!! Love y’all J

                  Today, while driving I realized how many people don’t have Jesus in their lives, and not just people in India. It broke my heart, but really reassured me as to what my mission is as a Christian. It may not always be easy following Christ and doing what he has called us to do, but it’s all part of being his perfectly made child.

Monday morning, I went with Mr. and Mrs. C  to a few different places. We went to a place called the Good Samaritan School. It’s a school for children in the slums. We started at the secondary school and talked to some people there, then headed out to a slum. The people living in this slum are known as the trash pickers. They are the absolute lowest in the caste system. Their home is practically in a dump and the smells were so strong and overwhelming. For a while I thought I may not be able to handle it, but I still managed. When we got there, the children were just heading back from lunch and they all flocked us. Swarms and swarms of little children with wide eyes came up to shake our hands and tell us hello. Their faces lit up when we would acknowledge them. Mr. Chandler got 2 of their classrooms to sing to me. Luckily, the kids are taught English in their school, so these were songs I could understand. That afternoon I went with J to a slum to a women’s meeting. On our way there, we saw a ginormous temple for a monkey (Really?!?! What can a stinking monkey do for you?? Nothing!!).  The women reviewed all the stuff they had already gone over and I just got to sit back and observe, since most the women only spoke Hindi it was a little difficult for me to communicate. At one point we split off into groups and I was with J and three older women, all of whom had accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. One of em had only accepted him 15 days prior, and even though she couldn’t read, she had her children read the bible to her daily. I got to talk to all three of them a bit through J. They were all a little distraught, because their families did not know Jesus. One woman’s husband had passed not knowing Jesus and that made me hurt for her and him as well. To get home, J and I took the metro and I even rode part of it by myself, which I am very proud of haha.

            

      Wednesday, I went with J again. This time we went to a slum. A woman had built a little room there and used it as a school. When we got there, we were greeted right away with some very excited young children, who loved my camera very much. They all had friendship bracelets for us and loved posing as I snapped pictures and having me pose while they snapped pictures. One girl, Neha (Nay-ha), was right there with us immediately. Right away, I could tell Neha was very different from the rest. The just had to sit right between me and J and listened very intently when J spoke. At the end of the discussion, J asked all the girls what gods they believed in. Most said they believed in all the gods, including Christ. When it was Neha’s turn, her response was “Oh no, there is only one God, Jesus Christ. He is my Lord and savior.” She then proceeded to tell us about how she reads all the bible stories in Hindi over and over again and they even get a channel on their tv that plays bible stories, which she watches daily. After the talking was done, we danced and danced and danced. They showed J and I a lot of their dance moves and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Any time either of us stopped to take a break, someone would pull us right back in. When it was time to work on henna, Neha was very excited to give me one (she was much better than the last girl to give me henna). While, she gave me the henna, she told me a bible story in Hindi and had me repeat it back. She also taught me some common Hindi phrases and was very excited when I even used one of them with the other girls. When it was time to leave, Neha and one of the girls walked us to the end of the street and helped us get an auto, and told J that she must bring me back next time. I definitely won’t argue with them on that one. To get home I had to take an auto on my own, which I didn’t think would be a problem…until we got lost haha. Well we were never technically lost. We were in the right neighbor, but only guessing on the turns. My driver was really nice too. He asked me a little about myself, but it was a short lived conversation, because it was hard for us to understand each other, and he had write down the address and he stopped and asked for directions. We found it pretty easily, but I felt so bad, so I paid a little extra. He was a nice guy and hopefully I was able to bless him through my generosity.

                  Today we just ran errands and Mr. C left to go to meetings and won’t be back til Saturday late (their anniversary is that day). They keep a bag of beanie babies in their car at all times, for children that are begging on the side of the road. Today we had a little boy and girl come up to the window. We gave em both beanie babies, but the girl you could clearly see was ecstatic. She was grinning from ear to ear and was dancing with her little koala on the side walk. It warmed my heart to see her so happy. 

I ask that you all pray for me to have perseverance and to stay focused on what exactly it is God is calling me to do. Thanks for the support. 143!!