It's been a pretty amazing/intense/crazy/exhausting/exciting few days!
I'll try to fill y'all in on as much as possible, starting with today, but we'll see how long I can type before it's time to head to bed...
It's Sunday evening now, and we had a great day today. Our team split up to attend two churches this morning and were then able to spend the rest of the afternoon getting some much needed time to rest! I can't speak for everyone else, so you're stuck (again) with my own take on the day...
I had a bit of an upset stomach this morning (along with a fair number of others on our team -- none of us think it's anything in particular that is causing our discomfort, just a combination of new foods, inconsistent sleep, lots of sun/heat, etc.) but took some drugs and prayed that I would be able to make it through an entire church service without having to run to a bathroom. This was particularly important given that our team was to sit up front for the duration of the service and bathrooms are not as easy to come by in the smaller villages as they are on the Harvest India campus.
At any rate, we arrived after the service had started (apparently this is pretty standard practice) and walked in during one of the worship songs. I absolutely love the Indian-style worship. It is SO different from our music at home, but still very beautiful. I wasn't aware until we arrived that we were visiting the church that is pastored by one of our favourite Harvest India translators, Daniel! He's a pretty busy guy, it seems! He works with Harvest India quite a bit (he's been one of our primary translators this trip), in addition to pastoring this church in his village, teaching at the Bible College, AND to top it off, he (along with his wife and sister) also run a small orphanage in his village.
Anyway. So that was an exciting surprise. Daniel had us introduce ourselves, and then the kids sang some songs for us (SO CUTE!!). One of our team members shared a brief testimony and Brian (!) preached a short message. It was quite the service! I was supposed to pray after Brian's talk but was finding myself overwhelmed (and unsure if I could stand long enough to pray without either throwing up or passing out -- not sure if it was the heat, the food, or if it was just God informing me that I wasn't meant to pray) so another of our team members prayed instead :)
We (and all those in attendance) were then given a handful of this crunchy, salty snack food (delicious!) after which we walked out and prayed for / blessed each person in the church. I love how much these people love to be prayed with / touched. They are such beautiful, precious people. Just before we got up to do that, however, this one little girl walked up to me, took off the necklace that she was wearing, and proceeded to tie it around my neck. Whoa.
It was such a strange moment -- on the one hand, it was so incredible that this little girl would share something like that with me. On the other hand, it was also very difficult to accept, knowing that this was likely something very precious to her. At any rate, I was totally overwhelmed.
After we'd prayed for the people in the church community, we were able to enjoy lunch with who I assume are the leaders of the church. SO GOOD. We were also honoured in that one of the menu items was beef (which they would have had to have killed in secret at some point -- beef is rarely served here as it is quite expensive and difficult to obtain). To top things off, just before we left, Daniel and his brother presented each of us with a beautiful wooden cross to hang in our homes and remember him and his church by. Definitely couldn't keep the tears in at that point.
I just can't get over the generosity/servant hearts of the people we meet here. I feel like we are walking away with so much more than we could ever hope to give. I'm grateful, however, that we are seeing God at work and are constantly being reminded that none of this is about us.
I had a brief conversation with one of the men (Peter) who we see a lot around the house where we're staying and he told me that he was an orphaned child (at the age of 1) who was adopted by Suresh and Christina (they run Harvest India). He then told me (very excitedly) that he has his own family now. A wife and two children -- a son who is three and a daughter who is a year and a half. He has finished Bible College through Harvest India and is serving with them until he is called by God to pastor his own church.
So Sunday... we went to church and by the time we were back at the guest house where we're staying it was about 4pm. I took a nap, we had some time to debrief once the other team arrived back (around 4:30), and otherwise we were able to spend our evening just relaxing and continuing to get to know one another.
Saturday (yesterday), the highlight was definitely visiting the Mercy Camp. Harvest India provides food for the poorest people in this area every Saturday morning and so this week we were given the opportunity to serve that food. We were then introduced to the doctor who provides free health care and medication to these people and to pray for him and for those who were in the health centre while we were there. What an amazing man!
On Friday we spent the morning playing games with the children at the elementary school. I was super excited to find out (afterwards) that the game Heather and I taught (human knot) was a totally new game both to the children and to the translators. We'd thought they would like it (they really love to touch and be touched...), and were happy to hear that we were right! The kids were so sweet -- we really just had a TON of fun spending time with them. I also had a great time taking pictures!!! It's soooo much fun taking pictures of people who really want to have their picture taken! Kids were constantly coming up and saying, "one photo? one photo?" which really meant "as many photos as I can convince you to take of me?" I can't wait to post 'em for you! It'll have to wait 'til I get home though. Internet is reliable but not particularly fast.
In the afternoon on Friday we spent time with the Asraya (pronounced Ash-ray-ah) women. The most touching thing, for me, was when one of the women, as we were walking from their sewing room to the courtyard where we would spend our time together, grabbed hold of my hand (with both of her hands) and just would not let go. She held on to my hand as we walked, and as was sat down, and for pretty much an hour seemed to want nothing more than to continue holding my hand. Again, I was just overwhelmed by the ways in which love is so often expressed in something so seemingly simple as seeing, hearing, and touching.
I feel like words don't come close to doing justice to what we've experienced so far... But God is alive and active in India and we are so so so grateful for the many opportunities that we've had to be witness to what He is doing here in and through Harvest India.
Blessings, friends!
I'll try to fill y'all in on as much as possible, starting with today, but we'll see how long I can type before it's time to head to bed...
It's Sunday evening now, and we had a great day today. Our team split up to attend two churches this morning and were then able to spend the rest of the afternoon getting some much needed time to rest! I can't speak for everyone else, so you're stuck (again) with my own take on the day...
I had a bit of an upset stomach this morning (along with a fair number of others on our team -- none of us think it's anything in particular that is causing our discomfort, just a combination of new foods, inconsistent sleep, lots of sun/heat, etc.) but took some drugs and prayed that I would be able to make it through an entire church service without having to run to a bathroom. This was particularly important given that our team was to sit up front for the duration of the service and bathrooms are not as easy to come by in the smaller villages as they are on the Harvest India campus.
At any rate, we arrived after the service had started (apparently this is pretty standard practice) and walked in during one of the worship songs. I absolutely love the Indian-style worship. It is SO different from our music at home, but still very beautiful. I wasn't aware until we arrived that we were visiting the church that is pastored by one of our favourite Harvest India translators, Daniel! He's a pretty busy guy, it seems! He works with Harvest India quite a bit (he's been one of our primary translators this trip), in addition to pastoring this church in his village, teaching at the Bible College, AND to top it off, he (along with his wife and sister) also run a small orphanage in his village.
Anyway. So that was an exciting surprise. Daniel had us introduce ourselves, and then the kids sang some songs for us (SO CUTE!!). One of our team members shared a brief testimony and Brian (!) preached a short message. It was quite the service! I was supposed to pray after Brian's talk but was finding myself overwhelmed (and unsure if I could stand long enough to pray without either throwing up or passing out -- not sure if it was the heat, the food, or if it was just God informing me that I wasn't meant to pray) so another of our team members prayed instead :)
We (and all those in attendance) were then given a handful of this crunchy, salty snack food (delicious!) after which we walked out and prayed for / blessed each person in the church. I love how much these people love to be prayed with / touched. They are such beautiful, precious people. Just before we got up to do that, however, this one little girl walked up to me, took off the necklace that she was wearing, and proceeded to tie it around my neck. Whoa.
It was such a strange moment -- on the one hand, it was so incredible that this little girl would share something like that with me. On the other hand, it was also very difficult to accept, knowing that this was likely something very precious to her. At any rate, I was totally overwhelmed.
After we'd prayed for the people in the church community, we were able to enjoy lunch with who I assume are the leaders of the church. SO GOOD. We were also honoured in that one of the menu items was beef (which they would have had to have killed in secret at some point -- beef is rarely served here as it is quite expensive and difficult to obtain). To top things off, just before we left, Daniel and his brother presented each of us with a beautiful wooden cross to hang in our homes and remember him and his church by. Definitely couldn't keep the tears in at that point.
I just can't get over the generosity/servant hearts of the people we meet here. I feel like we are walking away with so much more than we could ever hope to give. I'm grateful, however, that we are seeing God at work and are constantly being reminded that none of this is about us.
I had a brief conversation with one of the men (Peter) who we see a lot around the house where we're staying and he told me that he was an orphaned child (at the age of 1) who was adopted by Suresh and Christina (they run Harvest India). He then told me (very excitedly) that he has his own family now. A wife and two children -- a son who is three and a daughter who is a year and a half. He has finished Bible College through Harvest India and is serving with them until he is called by God to pastor his own church.
So Sunday... we went to church and by the time we were back at the guest house where we're staying it was about 4pm. I took a nap, we had some time to debrief once the other team arrived back (around 4:30), and otherwise we were able to spend our evening just relaxing and continuing to get to know one another.
Saturday (yesterday), the highlight was definitely visiting the Mercy Camp. Harvest India provides food for the poorest people in this area every Saturday morning and so this week we were given the opportunity to serve that food. We were then introduced to the doctor who provides free health care and medication to these people and to pray for him and for those who were in the health centre while we were there. What an amazing man!
On Friday we spent the morning playing games with the children at the elementary school. I was super excited to find out (afterwards) that the game Heather and I taught (human knot) was a totally new game both to the children and to the translators. We'd thought they would like it (they really love to touch and be touched...), and were happy to hear that we were right! The kids were so sweet -- we really just had a TON of fun spending time with them. I also had a great time taking pictures!!! It's soooo much fun taking pictures of people who really want to have their picture taken! Kids were constantly coming up and saying, "one photo? one photo?" which really meant "as many photos as I can convince you to take of me?" I can't wait to post 'em for you! It'll have to wait 'til I get home though. Internet is reliable but not particularly fast.
In the afternoon on Friday we spent time with the Asraya (pronounced Ash-ray-ah) women. The most touching thing, for me, was when one of the women, as we were walking from their sewing room to the courtyard where we would spend our time together, grabbed hold of my hand (with both of her hands) and just would not let go. She held on to my hand as we walked, and as was sat down, and for pretty much an hour seemed to want nothing more than to continue holding my hand. Again, I was just overwhelmed by the ways in which love is so often expressed in something so seemingly simple as seeing, hearing, and touching.
I feel like words don't come close to doing justice to what we've experienced so far... But God is alive and active in India and we are so so so grateful for the many opportunities that we've had to be witness to what He is doing here in and through Harvest India.
Blessings, friends!
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