India Update # 1

So it's 4:12am and I have been awake for an hour with jetlag and I thought about getting some sleep, but my mind is more clear now than it has been in the last few days and I'm in one of those deep thoughtful kind of moods, so I thought I might start on this update :) 

I think I may do a series, as there is so much to share, and it's nicer to get several shorter emails than one LONG one...at least, I think so;) 

So here is part 1 :)

I was just chatting with a friend and describing my time in India a bit. 

She asked me if it was hard to be back (something I hadn't really thought about) and this was my response: 

No. Not really. Just very different.

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I think it could have been hard, had we been in a more hopeless place, but though our friends there were not as wealthy in material things, they had such a wealth in The Lord, that it doesn't feel wrong to see all that we have here... So it's not hard in that way. In fact I feel a little sorry for us, because I see how free their lives were.

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It's almost like we are standing in a sea of fresh water grumbling about the fact that we are wet, and they are standing in the desert praising The Lord for the communal well :) spiritually anyway :)

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("We" speaking of American Christians, "they" of the body there in India) 

It was so simple there. People just lived and served God. There wasn't drama. There wasn't entertainment. There was fellowship. It was beautiful! And peaceful. And unexplainable. 

So I shall try in the next few updates to put words to something that I'm not real sure how to put words to. I pray that The Lord will anoint my fingers and mind to the task of representing His Bride, our brothers and sisters in India. 

I  am do thankful for this opportunity to introduce you all to some more of our family! Brothers and sisters you didn't even know you had! 

What joy it is to be a part of the body of Christ! 

And before I start with the details of the trip, I'm going to go on a bit longer ...because I can! Because this is my update ;D 

May I just take a moment and highlight one of the highlights of this trip : Rachel Baker! 

What an amazing, powerful women of God! Wow! It was wonderful to spend this last month serving with her in India! 

Rachel is so thoughtful, practical and loving! And so fun, y'all! 

We had a blast! 

I am provoked to righteousness and pressed by her life more then by most. Her strengths are often my weaknesses, her wisdom and insight and thoughts flow on a different path then mine, and she see things and articulates things that I don't often see or have words to wrap around. 

It amazes me how The Lord has brought us together in Him as co-laborers for His kingdom. I don't know many people that press me Spiritually as much as Rachel. 

She has a quiet boldness, a gentle ferocity, a steadfast endurance, a deep love for others, she walks with a willingness to lay down her life. She is full of fun and adventure. She sort of makes me feel like saying "I want to be like that when I grow up" :D 

So I am thankful for my partner-in-crimes-against-the-kingdom-of-darkness :) 

Love ya Rach! 

Step one: "India"

About three years ago while I was traveling with His Little Feet (www.hislittlefeet.org ) my good friend Rachel and I started seeing India very highlighted. Almost everyday for a while there something would come up or be highlighted about India. We talked about it, prayed about it, pursued it a bit, to no avail. At one time someone told Rachel that when she was going to India to take me with her :) 

So as the years went by India was tucked away in my heart and my mission there was represented by the little pictures of sponsor children hanging on mini clothes pines from twine strung across my bedroom wall...

I begin to wander if I would every really go there. As I became more and more involved with the ministry at home and more and more "tied down" to responsibilities, it seemed as if that door might never open. 

Was I wrong? Was this really the mission field God had called me to? Why had it seemed for so long that He was leading me in one direction only to be seemingly "out" of that path and possibly for good... 

Oh ye of little faith, wherefore did ye doubt? 

Surrender became the theme of my days. Seeking to know God's ways. To understand His will. Hoping in Him. He was my Rock, my anchor. 

The enemy loves to try and play with our minds during times of testing. When we remember the promises of God and the things He has revealed to us, the enemy likes to come in with that same lie with which he tempted Eve "did God really say..?"

I have found in myself, and I suspect it is the same with many, that it is not the frontal face-on attacks that trip me up, but rather the steady drip of questions and doubts. 

I think Satan knows better than to come at me head on, because he knows that he will soon be body slammed with truth. However, his tactic is to stand far off in a dark corner and make little sounds at night that keep me from getting a deep sleep, wearing away my strength slowly and subconsciously. Keeping up a steady barrage of mindless noise in the background. Listening in on a conversation about what God has done and piping up with just one question "oh, uh, did God really say that?" Or "are you sure you understood that right? Was that really what He meant? I mean, "Gods ways are so much higher than our ways" and "in this world you will have tribulations". So maybe God's way of doing that would be to make everything in life hard and-uh- "bad" so that you can have allot of good things in heaven. You know, don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth..." Hmm... 

So with that, India was left in Gods hands and questions entered my mind. 

Don't ever give place to questions from the devil! They will make you so weak when you aught to be strong. So unsure when you aught to stand firm.