I was afraid to hang out with the lepers, not necessarily because I was afraid of what I would see or catching it or anything like that, but because I tend to get queasy over medical things. I was afraid that I would not be able to love them well. But in light of what I had been learning so far, through JD's challenge to allow myself to be loved as well as the realization that I am bad at believing in unconditional love, I was praying like crazy that God would give me the strength to love in the way that he loves, with boldness.
I happened to be the first one out of the van when we got to the leprosy outreach and the first lady I saw most likely had been dealing with leprosy a long time ago. By this stage she had lost all of her fingers and her nose was starting to go as well. But by God's grace I was able to go up to her, grab her hands in mine and pull her in for a hug. No queasy!!
You see, in India, just as it was in the Old Testament, those with leprosy are outcasts. They have to stay away from others to keep the disease from spreading. They are not talked to and never to others. They are not talked to and never touched. So who know's how long it had been since this woman was hugged? You could see her demeanor change, you could see in her eyes that the hug was precious to her. And I figured if eye contact, holding a hand, offering a smile or a hug was all I could give, I would give them well.
We served them a meal, put on a worship service, passed out their monthly rations and clothes, and prayed for them. Even though these people were the ones who had the least amount of social interaction and knew next to no english, I was able to connect with them so well. I laughed with so many of them. Hugged so many of them. It felt like family, like home. Something I seriously did not expect, especially at this outreach.
Worship at the Leprosy Outreach.
Serving meals at the Leprosy Outreach.
I was asked to give a word of encouragement at the elderly home, which we visited next. Elders, much like lepers are seen with no value and are often forgotten by the very children they raised. Harvest India has multiple homes to house these elders only requesting that they eat and pray. They are the prayer warriors of Harvest India. So as I was preparing, Ecclesiastes 3:11 was placed on my heart.
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from beginning to end."I wanted to share with them that while they may never see the fruits of their prayers on earth, in Heaven Christ will show all of us the work in eternity he accomplished because of their faithfulness to ask.
Naturally, I was pumped to be there. This little lady was the first face I saw when I arrived. She reached out to grab my hand and I pulled her in for a hug. We both laughed and she reached up and pinched my cheeks, like a grandma would. All of a sudden she was pulling me in, and kissed me on the mouth. I sure hope that my shock did not show on my face. It was one of those "Is this really happening? …I think so" moments. When in India, right?
The significance of this moment did not hit me until the following day. We were singing How He Loves us at our team devotion, and sang the line "when heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss." I have always thought that line did not really fit, but this time singing it this lady's face popped in my head. And I realized this woman showed me the extravagance of Christ's love more clearly than I had ever seen it before.
This woman could have just hugged me and left it there. But she showed her love much bigger, and took a risk in doing so. She chose the most extravagant symbol of love, a kiss. A kiss I very well could have rejected.
In the same way Christ could have come down just to teach us a few things and ascend into the clouds. But instead he also chose the most extravagant symbol of love, to die on the cross in our place. Knowing we could reject this act of love, and many do. For a long time I rejected this act of love.
The outreach went well. We were blessed to be able to pray for the residents there. This was the first lady I sat with. She was not well enough to join us outside for the service so Shayna and I went inside to visit with her. As I sat next to her I grabbed her hand and looked into her cloudy blue eves, probably as a result of cataracts, but they held so much emotion. She started talking to us in Telugu, and crying. But the moment worship started outside she stopped crying and smiled.
It was a beautiful moment with just that knowledge alone, but later we found out this woman was widowed two years ago and had not stopped crying since then. Yet when she hears the worship of her Savior she smiles. You could see she knew God and that the peace of God was upon her in that moment.
Preaching at the Elderly Home.
Last we traveled out to the leprosy colony Harvest India is making. It has a church and homes for the families to live in. They can be in community and have their needs provided for. We held a worship service and passed out their monthly food rations and clothes then we hung out with the children.
A lot of them spoke english pretty well because they have had to go into the cities to work to provide for their families. There were these sweet girls who wanted to show us their homes, and their goat.
Also on the way home I saw a monkey. It was awesome.
Passing out clothing and food.
Some of the guys hiked up the mountainside next to the colony, this was the view.
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