Some lessons can be learned in 45 degree heat...
It will be hard to forget my experience in India. Even before our journey began, we had already heard the stories of how “life changing” it is… how incredible the kids at the orphanage are… how even guys have left with a heavy heart and a tear in their eye…
With those stories mulling around in my mind, I must admit that I was a bit worried about an “anti-climax” – worried that my expectations had been fed by the “special cases” of a few lucky people & hellip; and that I would be disappointed if my own experience didn’t match up.
Which is why I prayed.
As I have been learning in such a precious way this year, I completely turned it over to God1. I asked that He would give me my own “special case” – my own unique story of being moved and touched and broken...
And God, of course, answered my prayer. Plus some.
It would be hard (impossible, really) to do justice to the experience using only words. And pictures could never give you the full picture. But these are my tools so I will try to use them as best I can to share with you a few of the moments and lessons that I will never forget:
...on living together: experiencing the basic unselfishness with which the children lived... the brotherly and sisterly love that is evident in the way that they interact and share with one another... sharing chores, sharing time, sharing games and crayons and marbles and stickers and sweets...
…on generosity: a little girl offering me her banana - almost insisting that I eat the suppertime treat that we had given the children in the first week we were there… another little girl giving me a coin – probably all the money she had – this one firmly insisting that I keep it... the worth that action placed on the coin went far beyond its monetary value, the treasure it created far more than what it could buy on earth...
…on living a prayerful life: the children meeting together to pray at 5:30 each morning and again in the evenings… I could feel my spirit delighting, celebrating and agreeing with the hundreds of little Hindi voices crying out to God… some with such fervour and emotion, some even with tears… these are children who know – really know – that their God hears and answers their prayers...
…on being served: a little 9 year old girl pulling me into an empty classroom to kneel on the dusty floor to pray for me… the senior girls delighting in making us coffee or serving our meals or bringing us cold water...
...on being accepted: feeling the love that the little kids had for us – the way their faces would light up when we came to visit them, the way they threw themselves into our arms or pulled us into their rooms… girls and boys alike accepting us and loving us and sharing their world with us...
n…on treasuring lives: “worth giving your life for” … the words that had been shared with me as I chatted to one of the GC leaders about how precious each little child in that orphanage was revealing themselves to be… the same words that ran through my head a few nights later as I fell asleep on the hot cement floor of one of the rooms in the girls’ hostel: on one side of me a tiny body holding onto my hand as she fell asleep, on the other side an even tinier body with the arm of one of the older girls wrapped around her...
Towards the end of our time at the orphanage, I became sick (again) – something colon-related according to the doctor who by that time had been a regular visitor to all the bed-ridden, diarrhoea-ridden Global Challengers whose bodies were just not coping with the Indian climate. With only a few days remaining at the orphanage, I told God (respectfully, of course) that I would simply not allow my pathetic body to get in the way of me enjoying our last bit of time with the kids. And each time I hauled my body out of bed to join the evening service or head to their rooms for some play-time, I felt none of the weakness and soreness that I had felt in my body earlier in the day. God knew my heart was to serve Him and the children, and He showed His faithfulness each time I turned to Him, drew strength from Him and put His Kingdom first2.
Through work and play and sickness and heat, our time in India was physically and emotionally draining. But at the same time – in a way I felt for the first time on a whole new level – God energised and refreshed me. He gave me an excitement for each new day, and for anything that that day had to throw at me. I really understood – experienced first hand – the biblical concept of joy in the face of troubles, trials or hardships... the confidence that no matter what the world aims at me, God will never walk me through anything I can’t handle... and that I’ll come out the other side tougher and stronger and better in Him3... a newer, improved version of me – perhaps one step closer to the “me” that He knows me to be...
Thank you – and I sincerely mean thank you – to all the people who responded to our appeal for finances for the work we did at the orphanage. We were able to raise the necessary funds to make headway on the restoration work on one of the buildings (the northbound GCX group will pick up where we left off towards the end of the year), buy the girls new mattresses, and to treat the kids with various smaller items like fruit, soaps, shampoo, hair clips, crayons and colouring-in books, games, sporting equipment… and of course some sweets!
Ain’t That the TRUTH:
(Because everything I experienced and learned and realised about God was only so because God made it so ... and it was recorded as truth waaaaay before I was ready to accept it as the Truth)
1 : Philippians 4:6-7
2 : Isaiah 40:29-31
3 : James 1:2-4 ; 1 Peter 1:7
These are just a few verses that I was reminded of as I was writing, but I know that almost every point I have shared in this blog is carried on a biblical promise. Time fails me now, but if you have further references, please share them in a comment below!