A day in the life of a local missionary...in India...in a village....far far...FAR away.

Before you read this post try to clear your mind of any expectations that you might have stored away in the back of your head of what ‘missions’ and 'church' looks like. Let me remind you, as I constantly have to remind myself, that India is far, far...far away from the Western world, not only physically, but also culturally and, in many ways spiritually. God is a God that never changes, but the way that he moves, the way that missionaries work, the food, the climate, the lifestyle, the big and the small are for the most part, different. For many of us that have (well, had...) not visited India, things are so different that we really can’t even grasp the ways that culture would actually effect things like spreading the gospel. So, let me see if I can paint you a small picture...

  Last week I went on my first ‘overnighter’ outside of the city. I tagged along with a worldrace team as they made there way into different villages hoping to get an inside look at the daily life of  rural village pastors and their congregations. 

We loaded up a van and set off....and when it broke down 20 minutes outside of the city, we loaded up another van and set off again! Rule # 1, when in India...be flexible.

Take Two!

The first village we arrived in was under the charge of Pastor Dasubabu. He currently ministers to three villages and shepherds three house churches, one Covenant Church and a Covenant Children’s Home (CCH) Orphanage. The CCH, the Covenant building (where we stayed) and the pastor’s personal living quarters are all connected on the same lot, and all share one bathroom. We set up camp in the church and then headed out, further into the village.

CCH home right behind Church

Two of the 10 CCH kids

The first home that we arrived at was the location of one of Pastor Dasubabu’s house churches. We were welcomed in, given chairs to sit on and offered cold drinks and snacks. While we waited there (for what exactly, we didn’t know..sometimes in India you just wait) we had a chance to interview the Pastor and ask him about his own testimony. He became a Christian when God healed his wife of sickness. He was so grateful that he dedicated his life to the ministry and decided to become a full time Pastor. Many, if not most, of the conversions and proclamations of faith that I have seen in India have been the direct result of healings, visions and other miraculous signs. He received minimal training and was sent out to to make disciples, heal the sick and proclaim the good news in three villages near his hometown. That is what he has been doing ever since. 

Eventually we began to see what it was we were waiting for. Women and children trickled in, heads covered, bibles in hand. We were going to have an impromptu service- Tuesday morning at 11:30am. I have no idea how the word spread, but before I knew it, the room was full! They sang. We sang. The Pastor preached. We preached. He prayed. We prayed.

This is how the day went. We would go from house church to house church calling services and meeting together with the Christians that have become part of the congregations. At each service we would worship and then one of us was asked to speak. I was so impressed with the world racers that always carry a 'word in their back pocket,' ready to give it at any moment. Like one of them said, 'You should always have a few cakes baking in the oven, cause you never know when people will be hungry!' 

I know I talk a lot about worship in India, but it is the most beautiful thing. I can't say this enough: EVERYONE PARTICIPATES. Sometimes there is a drum, sometimes there is microphone and sometimes there are just our hands and our voices. Even when we sing in English everyone is clapping and dancing along side us, longing to be part of the sound that is lifted up to the Lord. When, where, with who...it doesn't matter- they love to worship! In a country where spiritual darkness is a real power and a real enemy, worship of the one true God is both the best offense and the best defense.

Second House Church

Covenant Night Service

At night we were fed and ...groomed...by the women in the field. They are good to us.

Prayer is a huge part of the Christian walk, and missional movement here in India. Day two was spent visiting the houses of Christians, praying for them and encouraging them with scripture. I have gotten used to Indian women walking up to me, covering their heads and asking me to pray. They usually point to a part of their body that is afflicted, or to their womb, or their children, whatever it is that they want to lift up in prayer. They never understand what I am praying over them, but they pray along with me in Telugu. At first I was scared that, as a foreigner, they thought I had magical prayer powers, or some sort of special ability, but, I have found that they don't expect anything magical from US, they just love to pray. They are so thankful for prayer and really feel loved at the thought that we would travel across the world just to meet with them and pray for them. Its an act of honor, of love, and of trust in the Lord.

House Visits

What prayer often looks like in India

To be honest, I spent a lot of my time playing with Children, teaching them songs and a bit of English. They love to sing 'The love of Jesus', 'Waves of Mercy, Waves of Grace,' and 'You came from heaven to earth...' Those never get old! (#middleschool #thegreatescape..anyone?). I would say I'm more gifted in 'play' than in 'prayer' but, thats just my own opinion! 

Can I take a p

When the second afternoon rolled around we were told that we were going to get to see a baptism! The man who was being presented was 76 years old and had been following Christ for 7 years. He had never been baptized, and had recently decided that he was ready and willing to take that step. We all piled into a van- again unsure of exactly what was going on. Was he being baptized in the church? Were we going to have another service? Were we headed to another house? After about 20 minutes in the car, I really started to wonder what was going on, so I asked the translator, 'Uday, where are we going?'. 'To the water,' was his reply. To the water, of course. You need water to get baptized, right? Another 20 minutes later and we arrived at a beautiful waterfront. It was just in time for sunset and so we all ran down to the water, and the Pastor walked right in. For the amount of time it took to get to this place..7 years, plus 40 mins in a car- the actual baptism went very quickly. In and out and yes- rejoicing! I have never seen such joy in the face of a man who, most people would say, was 'out of time.' He knows that his life is just beginning and thanks to Jesus, he has been given an eternity in Glorious Heaven. I'll let the pictures do the talking here.

One last service that night- worship, preaching, prayer, food- and we were on our way home. Is God moving in India? So fast that I can hardly keep up!!! 

Second Saturday's

One of the projects here at India Christians Ministries is called CCH, which stands for Church Children’s Homes. The homes are family style, churched based orphanages where the children not only have the pastor’s immediate family taking care of them, but the entire church family nurturing them as well. It’s as if each pastor adopted ten children but the entire church body takes responsibility for parenting them. ICM currently runs 40 homes and they have hopes to open 20 more in 2013. 

UNICEF estimates that there are over twenty five and a half million orphans under the age of 17 living in India. There are more orphans in India than there are people living in Texas or New York. Only about 60% of orphans aged 10-14 go to a school of any kind and many are left to fend for themselves. Indian Christians have found it impossible to stand still. They don’t just hear the statistics on the news or look them up on google, they see them. They live them, and they are taking seriously their call to ‘care for the Orphan.’ 

Every second Saturday of the month Indian children have the day off from school. (Oh yea, did I mention that India works on a 6-day school and work week!?). Each month, on this special school-free saturday, the 15 CCH families in our district come and meet together at the office for a day of worship, games, food and medical check-ups. 150 children and their ‘parents’ pack into the upstairs level (roughly equivalent to a fellowship or prayer hall) that is made to comfortable seat about 30 to 40 adults. 

They spend the morning singing, dancing and worshiping all together. In this country, when its time to worship- everyone participates. The five year old kids who can’t sit still for more than 5 minutes, the over zealous 10 year olds, and the awkward middle-schoolers ALL raise their hands with the Hallelujahs, clap and jump along to the beats and sing at the top of their lungs. The best part is that none of these kids are annoyed that they have to spend their free Saturday at ‘church.’ Exactly the opposite- they are ecstatic to be together and to be praising God. 

After lunch- which was paradoxically chaotic and quite organized- the kids went back to worship. I kept waiting for at least the little ones to poop out, but its like they know that they were made to worship and they never get tired of it! Another hour went by before we transitioned into games and crafts. 

Duck, Duck Goose was on the agenda but when I was given 30 energetic kids of all ages, half of a room barely big enough for all of them to stand and an hour to ‘play,’ I quickly had to re-consider. Deep Breath. Thank goodness much of my life has been spent at summer camps, retreats and children’s programs. I jumped up onto the couch and motioned for everyone to come close and watch carefully. I held up 3 fingers and grabbed 2 other children. We formed a group of 3. Then I held up 5 fingers, grabbed 4 kids and we made a group of five. I nodded to see if they understood and then started shouting out numbers. They screamed and giggled and started running around trying to form the right kind of group. When they found the right number of people they would raise their hands and shout ‘Aka, Aka!!’ which means ‘Sister, Sister, look!!’  Thumbs up. A different number- more squeals, more laughter.

After four rounds of screaming the Hokey, Pokey- Three versions of Simon Says, Five speeds of ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes,’ and 20 minutes of just making animal sounds and motions, I was finally told that games were over. Praise Him. I have never thought about God’s sustenance in terms of ‘getting through game time,’ but let me tell you- He provides in every circumstance. 

Tired out from the day, sweating and smiling the children said their goodbyes and headed back with their pastors to their homes. The older kids shake your hand and the smaller ones (with no reservations) point to their cheek and ask for a kiss, each one screaming ‘Bye aka, bye aka!!’ 

Many of the homes are still looking for financial sponsorship- please pray that God would be moving hearts in this direction! Check out ICM’s website for more info, or ask me- I could talk about these kids till the cow’s come home. (No pun intended....)