India 1 Team: Day 5
This morning we had the opportunity to meet with one of the IMB’s mission strategist named Kyle who shared about the several different opportunities and programs to serve internationally. Our young adults were able to hear about opportunities that are as short as 2 months and as long as 2-3 years. We also were able to be challenged to live outside of our personal comfort zones and to allow the Lord to use all of us for His Glory. This is not just being the hands and feet of Jesus, but beyond, allowing our eyes to cry His tears and our hearts to be stamped with His glorious Mission.
In the afternoon we visited a Tibetan Refugee Camp called Majnu ka Tilla where we covered the entire village with prayer in teams of two. This little village had homes that were built on top of each other and small cramped curvy streets with stagnate water. Currently there are no Christian missionaries that have yet engaged in this village and our time of prayer was prepping the soil for the seeds to be planted in the future as teams after us would be broadcasting the message of Christ.
In the heart of the village was a Buddhist temple where candles were burning and monks were there chanting their mantra. On the outside of the temple were these metal containers with writings on the outside. Speaking with a middle-aged man named Justin who was originally from Japan, he explained that these containers attached to the outside of the temple were called prayer wheels. Two times a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, Buddhist would walk around the temple and spin the prayer wheels which represented prayers for prosperity, health, career, and for happiness that would ascend into the heavens. Inside the prayer wheels were pieces of paper that prayers were written out by Buddhist holy men. Although Justin did not know the actual prayers inside the prayer wheels, he viewed this activity as his prayers, to seek a peace in his life that he was lacking. He shared that spinning these prayer wheels were one of the ways that he was able to seek ultimate happiness in all areas of his life. We prayed over the man and asked for him to seek the truth which is only found in Jesus.
Later in the afternoon until early evening, we travelled to a community park that was near some of the government buildings, including the United States embassy. While in this park, we observed several “new” things since we had arrived in India including large open fields of grass, beautiful flowers, tall trees, and trash cans (yes- these were the first public trash cans that we had seen in four days in a city of 24 million people) .
In this park, several families were gathering for a Muslim holiday called Eid al-Fitr which is a holiday that marks the end of Ramadan where Muslims families break their time of fasting. As we prayer walked, our intentions were to engage in conversations with individuals about what they believed and why.
Lance and I were able to prayer walk together and experience conversations with Afghan Refugees that were celebrating Eid al-Fitr together. We spent about 20 minutes talking about their life experiences including how difficult their situation was in India as refugees since they were not permitted to carry work visas and had to nearly beg to find low income work. We were able to exchange email addresses and agreed to find each other on Facebook to continue in conversations that were just begun at the steps of a mosque that held the remains of important Islamic leaders from the 1500’s. Imagine that. A small town Kentucky boy having a conversation for the glory of Christ with four Muslims from Afghanistan in the midst of an Islamic holiday, God is so good.
While at the park we also were able to experience culture as Lance and I were invited to play cricket for a few moments with Indians that only spoke Hindi.
As we engaged the culture, we came to realize that we humans have so much in common including celebrating holidays, playing games and the joys of an afternoon family picnic in an open field of green grass. With all of these commonalties, I was reminded of the common need for salvation. All of humanity is fallen and finds itself in the desperate need of hope. A hope found only in Christ. A saving hope that many have never heard.
Lord, help us to be your hands, your feet and use our eyes to cry your tears for the masses that are lost in hopelessness without you.
John Adams
India 1 Team
