Writing has opened up a lot of different opportunities for my team here in India. A main role for me has been interviewing. I’m in charge of collecting stories. If people aren’t met, and questions aren’t asked, what will there be to write about? My preconceived ideas about this country have been shattered.
Well, except for the traffic - it’s all I imagined and more.
I’ve talked with some pretty incredible people in the last two weeks, and have felt honor and humbled to be entrusted with their stories.
o Daisy has a heart for street children, and as a 24yr old single started a ministry reaching out to kids in the most dangerous parts of Chennai. Now her and her husband have a home that cares for 35 children, to rescue them off of the street and restore them into the children God created them to be. Their giant family is a blessing to be apart of, even if only for a week. In the last 20 years Freddy and Daisy have changed the face of their city - ministering in the slums, caring for abandoned children, teaching, training, and serving with their whole hearts. I’ve been living with this family and am praying a vacation is in their near future - it would be their first in 18 years.
o Wilson prayed to God that he would never work with people with AIDS, which is exactly what God asked him to do. He spent the first years with his team cutting bushes, cleaning sewers and chasing wild pigs out of a hospital before the Hindu owner allowed him to talk to the patients. Now he has ministered to over 5,000 people, building friendships, caring for their children and starting support groups for people living with AIDS. I was amazed at all of the ministries that have come out of this project, but cut the deepest when he told me the hardest part of his job, “burying your friends every day.” Working with the sick and dying means Wilson does funerals 3-5 times a week. “The hardest was doing four in one day,” he said in a soft, shaky voice.
o Jayaseely was born and raised in a leper colony, losing both of her parents to the disease at a young age. She made a goal to help the people her country was ignoring, and dedicated her life to holding medical clinics in every leper colony in Chennai (a seven-million population city). I sat and talked with her as her team scraped deformed and decaying feet, washed and wrapped them in bandages. My heart broke as I thought of her service day after day, year after year, to the people most call “untouchable.” But her purpose through it all, she told me, is evangelism. “In a world of suffering, that’s all that really matters.”
These are a few of the people I’ve met. Just a slice of their stories. And it can be overwhelming for me to know just how to capture them in words. But what I do know is that India is not broken. They’re not helpless people, waiting on street corners for hand outs. They are strong, smart and intuitive people who dedicate their lives to service. They are teaching me what it looks like to love the way Jesus spoke of. Without glamor, without attention, without recognition. Without a giant salary that dictates their commitment level.
Coming to a country full of questions means an immediate openness to learn, and a humbleness to realize (yet again) that I don’t have it all figured out. Not even close. But living here, I think I’m getting closer. Closer to understanding love, faith, and God.
One small step at a time.
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