I just want to take some time to reflect and let all of you know
how the Lord has answered our prayers!
1. The
second week we were here, Raelyn, Heidi, and I went on a prayer walk around our
neighborhood. We passed many Hindu temples in peoples homes and received many
many stares from the locals. We started praying that someone would see us
walking around would invite us in. Minutes later we had an interaction with a
sweet lady named Lupa. We communicated with her as best we could and found out
she was a Hindu pastor. She asked if we were Christians and we said yes. We
thought she would shut down and stop talking to us. Hindus here don’t talk or
interact with Christians at all, they actually persecute Christians. She
surprised us by inviting us into her home. We have been able to visit Lupa and
the Lord has been blessing our relationship with her. Praise the Lord for his
favor and protection in this relationship.
2. Barasat,
India, if we want to be honest, is not an easy place to love. It was super hard
for our team the first couple of weeks with the heat, the smells, the people’s
stares, and trying to figure out what ministry was going to look like. Over
this two month period, the Lord has answered many prayers in our hearts and
allowed us to fall in love with this place. To fall in love with the trashy,
busy, noisy roads, to fall in love with fried bread we eat every night for
dinner, to fall in love with having thousands of mosquito bites, and most of
all to fall in love with the boys. He has completely changed our worldly
perspectives to an eternal perspective. He has given us so much joy in our
hearts and allowed us to make such sweet connections with the boys. We can all
tell they are trusting us more and even telling us “I love you� before bed
every night.
3. Sanjeev
is a little boy here at the orphanage that when we first met him, he never
talked. He always looked into space and never looked at anyone in the eyes. He
has only been at the house for about 6 months so he is relatively new. He cried
everyday and we could never figure out what was wrong. We have been praying for
comfort and that he would be happy in this place. All of a sudden last week, a
switch flipped. We have never seen him so happy before. He is getting along
with all of the boys, he is smiling all the time, jumping in all of our
pictures and telling us he loves us. We don’t know what has happened but we are
sure that the Lord has done an incredible work in his heart!
4. Almost
everyday, this lady Asheesh and her son Aroti stop by the orphanage. We talk to
her, with the little Bengali we know and she has been inviting us to her home
the past month. She has been trying to tell me directions and I watch her every
time she leaves but she disappears in the distance. Yesterday on our prayer
walk, we ran into her in the slum area and she invited us into her home and
served us tea and bread and we got to share sweet time with her. The Lord
divinely brought us to this place in the middle of nowhere to encounter her!
These are only a few ways I have shared with you how the Lord has
showed up and showed us how big He is and how GOOD He is! We have so much to be
thankful for.
