Jai Ho

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”(?Romans? ?8?:?37-39? NIV)

It’s hard to find accurate words to wrap up India, so bear with me. I’m incredibly humbled to look back at the last three months. The lessons that I’ve been taught in this time are far too many to fit in one blog post. I truly hope that you reading this, and I can sit down and talk about all the works that The Lord has done. In my heart, my family’s, and most importantly, the kids that we’ve loved on. If I had to narrow it down, I would say the biggest lesson I’ve learned is dependency. I’ve fallen on my face more times in India than I ever have before. I’ve learned how to fully, and actually depend on God to get me through each day. Each hour of ministry. Because if I didn’t, I literally would not have made it through the day. I needed Him more than ever, I myself was never patient enough, forgiving enough, or even loving enough. If I was going to give these kids what they deserved, it had to come through Jesus. And Jesus did it. Through Jesus we saw breakthroughs in kids. Kids beginning to walk, talk, seizures stopping, sores healed, confidence growing, kids being accepted into schools, new opportunities opening, kids blossoming all because they were being prayed for and loved by Jesus.

It wasn’t until I stepped foot into Victory home that I fully saw what The Lord had planned for me in my time in India. Victory Home is home to SCH’s older boys, all with different ranges of intellectual disabilities. When I walked through the gate the first day and into the courtyard, it felt right, I felt so at peace about being at Victory, but that didn’t make it easy to love those boys. I was scared. I didn’t know how to interact with so many of them, I didn’t know how to love them. This is where my lesson of dependency came in, I had to depend on The Lord to have patience with them, to have simple interactions with them,  but I also had to depend on The Lord to change my heart to love these boys. I’ve never experienced the love of Jesus more than from those boys. It’s funny the places you find Jesus the most, mine just so happened to be a little coral house’s courtyard playing duck duck goose with ten boys who looked at me and loved me the way Jesus does. It was with their love that Jesus transformed my heart to love them as He would. When those gates opened everyday, when I was greeted by ten smiling faces, it felt like home. I could never thank those boys enough for the love they showed me, I can only pray that I gave them what they gave me. 

It’s not a coincidence that those boys live in Victory Home, because we serve and love an incredibly VICTORIOUS God. When we place ourselves in His will, it’s a win-win. I gave Jesus three months but He gave me more than I could ever imagine. I learned more about Him than ever before. I learned who He was. I won. And He gave our kids ten white girls who were committed to loving them with every last ounce in us. They were faithfully greeted by us everyday. Love was lavished upon them. All because of Jesus. They also won. We all won.

As I leave tomorrow and close this chapter of my life, I’m finding peace in the fact that I was created by, and loved by a God who has VICTORY over EVERYTHING.
And I’m walking in this truth.

“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (?1 Corinthians? ?15?:?57? NIV)

He is victorious!