Sarah Rinn
December 28th, 2007
So here is the scoop on Incredible India. Sorry it has been so long but for safety reasons we couldn’t get on the website at all while in India. (PS I promise more pictures are to come to this blog...check back later)
We arrived in India in early December. The evening we got in we immediately headed into the heart of Delhi to stay at a “hotel” for the night. The taxi driver dropped at the end of busy market street a ways down from our hotel. There is nothing like dragging your bag through streets filled with trash, urine and poop while trying to avoid bicycles, tuk tuks, rickshaws, carts, cows, and people. We finally arrived and had a good night’s sleep before heading to the orphanage the next day.
Just getting to the orphanage was an adventure in itself. We battled traffic, beggars, and mass amounts of people as we fought to get to and on the metro. We got off the metro at the nearest stop to the orphanage and waited for Ann to search out transportation options from here. The cheapest and “easiest” option was taking bicycle rickshaws.So we loaded up 2 people and our huge bags on the back of each rickshaw while a skinny Indian man peddled us towards our home for the next couple of weeks. What a sight it was for the locals when 15 rickshaws full of white people came peddling by. After several wrong turns and many stops for directions, we finally arrived at Emmanuel Children’s Home about an hour later.
I can’t describe how great it was peddling through the gates of that oh so familiar place with about 130 kids cheering and so excited to see us. I immediately started looking for my 3 boys from the last time I was here, Deepak, Surgrive, and Zamjelam. All 3 were there which was a miracle because only about 30 kids from last time were still at this orphanage. It was so great to hear them call me “Sarah Auntie” again!
While at the orphanage we spent a lot of our time loving the kids and playing with them.& nbsp; We were also responsible for getting the kids ready for their “Christmas play.” While the kids were in school during the day we worked on painting, sanding, cleaning, and getting the water taps up and running again. When we arrived the kids would have to haul buckets of water from a tank to their rooms and the bathrooms. Some of the buckets were heavier than the little girls carrying them. Praise the Lord that by the time we left all the taps in the kitchen and bathrooms were working!!!
God really touched my heart once again in India! For some reason this time more than last God broke me for the kids and gave me understanding of what they live through. You may remember that last time I was at Emmanuel the temperatures were around 120 degrees Fahrenheit. This time it was so cold that at night in my sleeping bag, in my tent, in a building I would get cold. The kids had to bathe in this weather with buckets of cold water. It broke my heart to see their little bodies shivering to get warm. To see that these kids not only live in the extreme heat but also the cold (oftentimes going barefoot and without warm jackets) really impacted me.
I think the point when I finally felt Gods heart of compassion for these kids was one night I was talking to a 10-year-old girl named Neha (sister of my little boy Deepak). She started to tell me about her family and how she got to the orphanage. She said that her mother used to beat her and tell her she hated her. She even told Neha that she wanted her to die. As she sat quiet for a few seconds all of a sudden she burst into tears (which is a sign of weakness and not easily accepted in the Indian culture) and laid her head in my lap sobbing. I couldn’t help but cry with her as I caught a deeper glimpse of what these kids’ lives are really like.
While at the orphanage we were also privileged to meet with the director of the orphanage. He has survived persecution, imprisonment, and assassination attempts to keep Emmanuel and many other orphanages open. He spoke to us about the issue of living a committed versus surrendered life. He challenged us to think about how many of us were willing to live a life committed to Jesus, but not always willing to surrender everything unto Him. He challenged us to think about giving up comforts and our will for His good and perfect will…wherever that might take us and at all costs.
We were also extremely privileged to take a trip to the Himalayas to learn about world religions from a South African missionary living in Delhi. Towards the end of our time in India we headed to the mountains on quite an adventure. What a trip it was getting there. We took an overnight train to a bus that was supposed to be a 10 hour ride. However, 30 hours later we finally arrived at our destination (that’s right we slept on a mountain in the bus overnight). Not only was this trip stretching and really cold, but I learned a lot from this woman living in a country lacking many comforts of life. God showed me even more about what a surrendered life looks like.
Leaving India and the kids was sad once again. However, I am so thankful that God willing I will be back there next summer. Right now we are in Hawaii for debrief and a Luke 10 journey. We will be flying after the New Years to Guatemala for our next adventure. Hopefully blogging wont be as sparse anymore.& nbsp; Until the next good story…peace out.