First Encounter with Locals

January 6, 2011

I had a nightmare the night before- I was lost in India and I was calling for my leaders. I grew scared, Indians were touching me and pushing past me. It gave me the creeps. Apparently I talked in my sleep too, I woke one of my roommates, whoops lol. I'm glad the dream wasn't real, because it would be bad to be lost in India...

In the morning I took a bucket bath. In India, you fill the bucket up, warm it up, then use a smaller bucket to pour it over you. That's how you bathe. You have an electric device that's made to heat up your bucket. It's actually really dangerous, if you stick your hand in the water while the heater is on, it will electrocute you... People have died from making that mistake, so I was very cautious while drawing this bath lol!

Today we were to reach out to the locals. When we met with them, they were so nice! They invited us into their homes and we had worship with them. They were poor people, but they were happy. They played a drum and sang worship in their tongue, then we sang to them our worship songs in our tongue. We then prayed for each other, we prayed for their puppet making business, and that their sick would be healed. 

A little girl named Akisha gestured at me. At first I thought she wanted to hold my Bible, but instead she pressed earrings into my hand. Surprised, I looked at her and thanked her. Next thing we knew it, children started giving all my teammates earrings. Then they started serving us chai (Indian coffee) and cookies. Can you imagine these people who have nothing giving us these gifts? I pray God will bless them to an overflow...

When it was time to go, they all gave us a hug and a little girl held my hand as we walked back... Jesus may you hold her hand... Hold all their hands...