Stars over India

 India is a dark place. Spiritually there is little to no Christians here, Christians make a whopping 4% of all of the population. Down the road from us is a giant temple for one if the many Hindu gods that they worship. It is a tough environment for a Christian to thrive and do ministry. However, India is not only dark in the spiritual sense it is also literally dark.  

When it gets dark out I automatically turn my head above me. I have always been baffled by the great expanse that is space. Not only because of the unknown but also because of its beauty and the way that God is written all through the sky. But at night in India, where it gets dark around 6:30, there are never any stars. This is more than likely due to pollution and overpopulation, but I often find myself looking up in false hopes that I can see just one. Just one star that will provide some comfort of the sweet, humid summer nights star gazing in Florida. But no, there are no stars to be found over India.   That being said I have been doing a study of the book of Philippians and something caught my eye.  

"… So that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life – in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me." – Philippians 2:15-18

  I love this verse so much. Not only does it say that by showing the word of God and living in Christ we are set apart and shine like the beautiful and awe inspiring stars in the sky but it also tells us how we are to do it; by pouring out as much love of Christ as we can and rejoice in it! That is so mind blowing and profound, I love it. Not only did it help me in my usual ministry of sewing and being with the kids, it also helped in something that I wasn't prepared for even a little. Village ministry.  

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love talking about Jesus. I get so excited and experience this unexplainable joy. It is just so much fun. But to try and preach to a group of Hindu strangers, who only spoke Telugu, and were more than likely only there to see the white people. That was something totally different. However against all logic I found myself speaking up when they asked who wanted to speak at the village. Weird.

  God led me to a verse in Isaiah   
"For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold- plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”' Isaiah. 30:19-22

  So. Cool. It was perfect for India, a place filled with darkness, hurt, and especially idols. I had to say this but what all was I going to say? I had no clue, but for some reason I felt incredibly at ease about the entire situation.   We got to the village to a pretty large crowd, and as soon as the villagers saw our arrival they began to crowd around the dusty courtyard.

The courtyard was a slab of concrete with plastic lawn chairs lined single file for us to sit on facing the crowd. With a sketchy microphone and one hanging light to illuminate all of us, we began worshipping and the crowd was incredibly receptive. Satya, our contact at ICM as well as our translator for the night, told us he had brought many groups to preach to this village, but he had never seen the people be as receptive and engaged as they were tonight and that they saw something in each of us that they had not seem before. We hadn't even began the four part mini sermon series yet! We were only singing! It definitely helped set the stage.  

I found out the order of girls speaking; Alicia, Kady, Tori, and last but not least… Me. Boom. Last one to speak, the last one to leave an impression on 40+ people, the "grand finale". No pressure, right?   All of the girls did AMAZING. They set the stage and really let God use the, as a vessel to efficiently and gracefully bring the gospel to this crowd of Hindi men, women, and children. Before I knew it, it was my turn… And I still had absolutely no idea what I was going to say. So I grabbed the microphone and as boldly as I could said," I spent a lot of time with God trying to find out what needed to be said tonight, and I believe He wants you all to hear this…" Then Satya began to recite the scripture from his Telugu bible. Before he could even get to the second verse, the power shut down. I looked at him, shrugged my shoulders and he kept going with the light from his phone.  

I wish I could tell you exactly what I said word for word after that, but it is honestly a blur. The only thing that was certain was that I was loudly, literally due to the lack of microphone, proclaiming the word of God to a group of Hindus in complete and total darkness. Not even a flicker of light from the lamp above. But I was told that it was received well, and did not fall on deaf ears.   It was quite the hurdle and was honestly really awkward, but upon looking back on it I realized something incredible.  My team and I were the only source of light that God needed in this situation. We were letting the God use us in a way so beautiful that we didn't need a microphone, lamp, or anything to let His Word be proclaimed.  

If I take nothing else from this trip I will take this with me; God will use me as his light regardless of the situation.  All I have to do is roll with the punches and be willing.