Instead we were being given flowers, treated like royalty, seated in front of them in chairs while they sat on the floor. I felt as if I was not worthy of the treatment they gave me. I kept thinking back to my question on the plane, is this a sacrifice at all? At this point it definitely did not feel like a sacrifice.
At breakfast I sat next to JD, who has been on the Rock Harbor trip before as well as another trip where he stayed for several months to work with Harvest India. We started talking about how love is given in Indian culture. He mentioned that in the United States we tend to not give love until it has been shown to us first, this is radically different from the culture we were now experiencing, where love is given away before we even have a chance to deserve it. He warned us of how easy it can be to place up guards because we are uncomfortable being loved in this way, but challenged us instead to lower our walls and let them love us, to let ourselves be known.
Challenge Accepted! This was my prayer for the remainder of the trip. To be able to receive love as well as give it in the way the people of Tenali did so well.
We had three church services to lead this day. At every service we would lead worship, someone would speak a word of encouragement, someone else would tell their testimony, and a message would be preached. The first was at an established church in a nearby village, the best part was getting to pray for the congregation afterward. The second was an english service led by the Rock Harbor Residency team, which I was excited for, but had a hard time connecting to the people there, even though they spoke more english than anyone we'd interacted with so far.
Praying at the morning church service.
Leading worship at the english service.
In the evening we split into our two teams and each went to lead an outreach service. These services are in villages a little farther away and are held outside in the streets. I was going to give my testimony at this one, so I was a little nervous. On the drive I was trying to figure out which passage to use for my testimony and decided on Ephesians 2:4-10, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--and raises us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Honestly, I cannot remember a single word I said in my testimony that night. But I remember wishing that I could have elaborated more on the verse. I wished that I could have explained more about God's faithfulness when we are not faithful, because his nature is graciousness. And as I was sitting there thinking about all of the things I wish I could have said, John went up to preach the sermon. Without ever discussing it, he chose the same passage to teach on.
It was a reminder that God is able to and will do what is his will whether or not we participate. He wanted that specific outreach to hear that specific message, so he made it happen. Not so that we would be glorified, but so he would.
When they gave the call to response, quite a few women stood up to recieve Christ. It reminded me of Acts 2:47, "And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved." And our only response was to talk about how good our Lord is.
The drama that we performed at the outreach.
Some of the kids danced for us, they were like little pop stars!
The women and children at the outreach.
No comments:
Post a Comment