Let’s just BE in India

We were in India for barely a week, but it felt like longer. Every day was so full and so different from anything I’d experienced before. The food, the sounds, the smells, the clothing, the people… everything was so… India… there’s no other way to describe it. So many of my favorite memories are of people and moments shared, life lived together, that it’s hard to write about what we did. But I’ll try to do both.

Some of my favorite moments?

Cuddling with Eden on a rooftop, and the way she would tip her head back to feel the breeze in her hair. Carrying Brianna to the park, and the way she would wrap her little legs around my waist like a monkey baby. Jumping on a trampoline with Dinah and Jasmine, and hearing their insanely happy giggles. The way Theo always seemed to smell like Oreo cookies. Celebrating Teagan’s birthday, her first birthday with a family, a day we all let her know that she is precious and treasured. Dancing and singing praise songs with Charlotte and Brianna, worshipping our Father together. Spending my morning prayer time in a room that had been used to worship other gods, praying for the kids of Anchor Home as they move into that house, that they might grow up to know the true Anchor of their souls. Washing the feet of caregivers who pour out their lives and love on these precious children.

 

These moments were precious to me, but they may be hard for you to understand. I struggled a bit myself, coming from a very “do” oriented culture and perspective, with the “be” culture that I found myself in. For those of you who, like me, are very action oriented, here is some of what we did:

 

We sorted through a storage room, sorting clothes (and tossing a few stained and torn items) so that items are easier to find and therefore use. We washed and painted walls, and made a safety rail on a banister in the new Anchor Home. We spent time with children at the park, in their classrooms, on rooftops… sharing God’s love with them and seeing and experiencing it ourselves. We washed feet and ministered to women, and had our feet washed and were ministered to by them.

 

Writing this, it seems so insufficient. India was so much more than these moments and work/ministry projects. But maybe that more can’t really be put into words, only known deep in your soul. In India, I saw God’s love in a way that I never have before. Maybe in a place so very filled with people so very lost and searching, a spiritually dark place, the Light shines brighter. Maybe in a place where so many have such obvious and tangible physical needs, our spiritual needs and the One who satisfies them are so much more obvious.

 

If you’re thinking of going to India, if God is tugging your heart even just a little bit that direction, say yes. With confidence or a bit of hesitation, say yes. God has something to show you about Himself, and His great, incredible, unimaginable Love. Stretch yourself, go outside of your comfort zone, do something out of the norm. If God is calling you to India, say yes. Go. You won’t regret, I promise.