We’re home! It was so sad to say goodbye to all of the friends we made throughout our trip, but we are thankful to have time to rest now.
Alot happened during our last week in India…
Friday: This was our last day at kids camp. The entire week leading up to this day we told stories about JC. So the last day we talked about the resurrection and how G wants a personal relationship with everyone He has created. We got to talk to them about hope- and that even though their circumstances won’t change, they can have freedom from despair by the power of JC. We also made beaded bracelets that told them of the good news, so that they could go home and share the stories they learned with their families. Our kids hung around a long time afterwards just to be with us. It was terribly hard to say goodbye to them. We walked out and sprayed a can of “snow” (it came out like silly string but it was foamy and white) so all the kids enjoyed playing in the “snow”, in 110 degree weather. It made for a sweet goodbye. We left in rickshaws to go take our translators out to lunch. But on the way, our rickshaw runs into a car and creates a HUGE dent. The car driver gets out yelling at our rickshaw driver, and within one minutes theres a crowd of about 30 people surrounding us- all yelling in Hindi. So the three of us quickly get out and into another rickshaw to catch up with our translators, who we can no longer see in front of us. Lunch was great, it was good to get to sit down and relax with our translators to just talk.
Saturday: We went over to an Indian family’s house for lunch. They served us yummy potatoes and biryani with chicken. The couple pulled out their keyboard and sang us a few songs in Hindi. Then Grace got to get her guitar out and we sang them a couple worship songs. It was a sweet time of fellowship. That night we went to the market in our neighborhood and ate at dominoes. A couple of young beggar girls followed us there. So we thought, why not invite them in for dinner? So we went outside, brought them in, and ordered them a pizza. Their eyes are so big the entire time- and their hands covered their mouths in awe. They spoke absolutely no English, but it was fun to just sit and make silly faces at them and us all laugh. No doubt they had never been in a place like that, much less had people order food for them. We enjoyed their company and simply wanted to communicate to them that they are loved.
Sunday: It was our last time at church so we said goodbye to all of our friends. We then headed off to another small church nearby to hear one of the teachers at ASL give a sermon. We said goodbye to a few more friends there and left.
Tuesday: We met some fellow believers earlier in our trip at a m organization called TruthSeekers Int’l. One of the men had invited us to go to a slum school that he had started.. So the 3 of us took a taxi with him over to far west Delhi to visit a Muslim slum. It was really heartbreaking. Its a pretty large slum consisting of houses mostly made of blue tarps over bamboo sticks. The school was in an abandoned building nearby b/c if class was held in the actual slum, too large of a crowd would have gathered. And when i say school, it really just means a tarp spread out on the ground for the kids to sit on. No blackboard, no paper or pencils, no chairs, no door, and no roof. Just a few kids eager to learn to read and write. We taught them a few english songs, worked on pronunciation, and played duck duck goose (which they LOVED). We then headed into the actual slum to see the bamboo hut that the man we were with built. We were all immediately bombarded with women and children wanting to shake our hands and talk to us. We took a few pictures and left quickly b/c it wasnt extremely safe for us if too large of a crowd gathered. On our way home we saw a man on the road dead b/c he had just been thrown off his motorcycle. That really shook us all up. And made us think about the urgency we should feel to reveal the mystery of Christ to these people.
Monday-Wednesday: So after kids camp was over last week, we recognized that we had a few days free before we left on Thursday to go back to America. We decided to hold a “Success Seminar” at ASL for the adults. Its very common that during the sunday night conversational English clubs, that people want to talk to us about how to have a better life or make more money. We thought that we would attract alot of people by holding a discussional seminar that talks about these things and what real success in your life means. And we did! We had about 10-12 people show up every night to simply discuss what it means to achieve success. And every night G continued to lead our conversation to more and more Truth. Monday we talked about what hinders success and what aids to success- more of a conversation about achievement- i.e. getting a degree, finding a job, etc.. Tuesday night we had them talk about why they wanted to be successful. This led to them sharing that they ultimately want either money, happiness, fame, or satisfaction. The last night was truly an experience of God’s power. We introduced the question of what is your purpose in life? B/c if achieving success wont bring you lasting happiness, what will? The people of India are very very religious and eager to talk about the idea of a god or gods- whatever religion they may be. So they started asking us what we thought our purpose was (by this time they were just dying to know what we thought true success was). We couldnt help but talk about JC and that we believe that we can fulfill our purpose each day that we live- by loving G and being obedient to serve and love His people. Basically by the end of the night, they had pulled the gospel out of us, simply b/c they wanted to know more and more about this God that we believe in. I even ended up handing out a few bibles and they were fighting over them- cause they wanted to read more about JC. We were really in disbelief about how far our discussion had gone. And i had even told them like 3 times that class time was over and that they could leave- but they just wanted to stay to ask questions.
We are all very thankful to the people who made this trip possible for us, in financial support and in prayer. And thanks for keeping up with our travels on this blog! God bless.
-Rachel
If you’d like to seem some of our photos, go to both of these links! (you dont need a facebook account)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045671&id=1549260087&l=16b0b25a34
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045687&id=1549260087&l=e6eef16a4c
