This past summer of 2009, God gave me the opportunity to go out on missions with KCM to the country of India. I specifically remember the day they called out my name and told me my country. India was the first on my list but never ever did I think God would really send me there.
As I landed foot in India, I questioned myself over and over again as to why God had sent me specifically to this country and what He wanted me to get out of this missions trip. There were a lot of times on the trip where I felt frustrated, bitter, and lost. I wasn’t sure what I was doing and a lot of the times I felt like I lacked a lot of knowledge and passion, to even teach the kids at the school we were at. We taught at St. Paul High School, a school of about 2,000 and my teammates and I each taught our own class ranging anywhere from 30-80 students. We taught the gospel, taught VBS songs, and made crafts during class. These kids were precious and I was joyful to be there with them but although I was physically present, my heart just wasn’t there.
After teaching the kids for about 2 weeks, our team had the chance to travel around India for 10 days. It wasn’t until we traveled around India and really experienced what India was all about where God really spoke to me. We stopped by the Ganjes River at Varanasi, one of the biggest and dirtiest rivers in the world. My teammates and I got to ride a boat one night to check this river out and to witness the rituals that the people of India practiced alongside the river. I vividly remember this night so well. The fires were burning, people were chanting, and people were dunking themselves in this filthy water; water that carried the burned bodies from the rituals. As we sat on the boat and watched these people perform these rituals, I just remember Pastor John simply telling us to pray for them. I prayed and prayed. It was then that my question was answered. Why did God send me to India? It was so obvious…for the lost, for the unsaved, for the broken. Right then and there, my heart ached and broke for the lost of India. These people, they were worshipping and idolizing these gods who do not exist. How could they not know? I wanted to scream at them, “What are you guys doing? Don’t you guys know Jesus Christ, our one and only Savior who died on the cross for US, WE who are nothing but worthless sinners, and 3 days later resurrected from the dead?” And looking back at that moment something I realized after coming back home was, “Wow this is what God must feel like when he looks at us, His own children…He shouts and cries in pain as He tries to catch our attention…His heart breaks for us, He shows us endless love, He shows us grace and mercy. All he wants from us is to simply spend time with Him. We’ve failed Him so many times yet He loves us unconditionally and forgives us over and over and over and over again.” I think the whole time in India I was waiting for something “big to happen” for something “crazy to happen” but in the end, God humbled me and showed me that in the end, all that mattered was the salvation of the lost people in India, US, the world.
You know India isn’t what you think it is. People have this narrow-minded image of India as having the worst weather ever, the worst food ever, etc. But these people live such futile and simple lives. They’re the ones who are so lucky to live this simple life. The people of India are so happy and satisfied with their lives. It’s not the idea that India is a poor country or anything it’s the fact that this country doesn’t know God, and in the end that’s all that really matters. Nothing else matters, but the Gospel maters. We’re not any better back here in the US. What I realized was hat we do the same thing here back in the US, we idolize and worship the internet, our friends, our family, school, work, etc just as the people of India worship their gods.
Coming back from traveling, back to the school we taught, I knew that we didn’t have that much more time. There was still soooooo much to be done. As my leader had kept saying, “MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY OPPORTUNITY”. I didn’t want to leave India, thinking to myself “I could’ve done more.” After what God had revealed to me at the river, I soaked in every opportunity that was given to me back in the city of Bangalore. Back at the school, to end our time at India, we had one on one evangelism time with our students and I remember talking to one of my 5th grade students about what she wanted to do with her life. Just to tell you guys, up until this girl I remember I was pretty discouraged because I remember almost all of my students telling me that they were “Christian” but also claiming to believe in like 3984209 other gods. But imagine this; imagine sitting across a 10 year old girl repeating these words to you “I wanna do what you guys are doing, I wanna travel to other countries and tell them about the Gospel, I want people to know about Jesus, the way the truth and the life” I remember thinking WOW, this girl is 10 years old. God works in the craziest ways and He used a 10-year-old girl to show me that nothing was impossible. Nothing’s impossible when it comes to the gospel. It needs to be heard and it needs to be known. I was sent to India to do God’s work, to let people know the truth. What I realized was that when it came down to it, it came down to life and death. Eternity in heaven or eternity in hell. I had to remind myself, I’m nothing but a sinner, I’m not any better then them. I once was lost, and God used the people around me so that I may be found. We have to remind ourselves that we were too once were lost and that now since we are found, it’s our turn to tell others about the gospel. I can’t imagine how my life would be like if I wasn’t saved. God created us perfect in His image, we were bound to sin, and we deserve hell, but Christ died on the cross for our sins which He did not commit, His grace covers all, and now it is our duty as followers of Christ to SPREAD THE GOOD NEWS.
