Update From India #3
Yesterday we drove four hours to the Region of Rawrangal. I’m pretty sure I misspelled it. It was a long 4 hour road trip on some very wild stretches of roads. The teams spent a great deal of time preparing for activities they were going to do with the children of the orphanage we visited. Team members purchased school supplies for the children, gave them tons of candy, led them in different songs and activities then the children from the orphanage taught us some songs in their native language.
As we arrived each of the 50 kids from the orphanage had mini roses in their hands to greet us with. Their faces were beaming with excitement and joy. We enjoyed an amazing meal prepared by the Pastor’s wife who oversees the orphanage/school. As the team engaged the kids and ran around playing games the entire campus became alive with sounds of laughter and cheer! I can’t even begin to imagine how childlike we as God’s children will be when we meet Him face to face. Yesterday’s encounter with the kids reminded me of what I have always felt heaven will be like! The sounds of their voices filling the air with just unspeakable joy was captivating and hard to leave. I had the privilege of speaking at this unbelievable church located on the orphanage property.
And after a 4hr visit we then set back on our 4hr ride home. I was asked to share my Sunday message with the other people from the team that weren’t there with us because they were speaking at other churches. And this led to a powerful time of healing discussions and extended times of worship on our return.
Today is the beginning of a 3 day ministry conference and I will be speaking to 300 Pastors from all over India. Leaders from churches as small as 20 people to as big as 10,000 members will be present. It is an incredible honor to be here and quite humbling. One of the clearest takeaways for me has been seeing how the people of India who proclaim the name of Jesus find themselves in great need. The average person survives on less than $1.50 per day. There is extreme poverty! But as you engage the people they never complain about what they do not have, they boast about the God that they serve and His daily faithfulness in their lives. We as the western world could learn so much from other parts of the world. God is very present in India because prayer is the primary response to necessity in this country. When the Scriptures say, “Give is this day our daily bread” in India it’s a literal prayer, but equal to that the God we serve never leaves the righteous forsaken, He ministers, He meets, He is present and He is our provider. Missing my family, friends and church community but I sense your prayers upholding me and sustaining me. Please keep praying for us. Love y’all