Too much contemplation in the Throne Room of our Heavenly King—we are left with less to share about our daily lives. Over the last two weeks, as we’ve been connecting with family and friends from the states, they continually ask: “What’s happening there?” “What is something monumental that you’ve experienced in India lately?” “What are your daily activities?”
We are left speechless…
What do we tell about? There are hundreds of small and larger wonderful things happening here—with us and the ministry, with our host family and neighbors, and with the culture we’re living in. Yet, even something as great as living in India pales in comparison to the things we are searching out and learning about our Lord and Lover. Let me warn and encourage you with this reminder:
Even your greatest life ambition and most desired experience becomes a faded shell when spending a few moments in the Presence of the Mighty ONE. Let us not deceive ourselves with earthly pursuits.
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Here I am preaching again. For all who want an actual account of what we’re doing with our time, I’m afraid I’m failing miserably. This morning I sat down to write out some fun things that have been happening…… and a page and a half into my writing, I had dwelt entirely on Christ and the overwhelming qualities of His love and sacrifice (I’ll post that tomorrow, provided my Lord doesn’t take me home). My second attempt is also quickly heading in the same direction. :) Bear with me, I’ll try again:
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Let’s start with a picture (maybe then I can stay on track...):
This is our wonderful church family of Hebron Prayer House. While to you a picture like this may look really, really strange in lots of ways, this is one of the more familiar parts of life to us now. It took us months to discover how they (and we) could sit on the floor cross-legged for two hours or more. The secret for them is that as little children, sitting cross-legged is considered “proper” and little three-year-olds are repeatedly repositioned until they master the arrangement. Having sat that way for decades, the older people have calluses on their ankle bones and their knees have grown to rest in that position. For little Chelsea and me, our poor ankles and knees are repeatedly sore by Sunday afternoon, and our feet fall asleep (I’m talking deep sleep, where you wonder if they’ll wake up or if, in attempting to stand, you’ll crash to the floor and be rushed to the hospital for an amputation. …just kidding :)
The two biggest benefits that we can see of sitting in this manner are: 1) without chairs, more people can squeeze into a limited space; and 2) it is really fast and easy to shift into a kneeling (face-to-the-ground) prayer and worship position. As you can see, those who have grown up sitting in chairs and those whose limbs are no longer as flexible sit in chairs in the back of the church.
This picture was taken this past Sunday while Pastor David delivered a stirring message to his congregation. Chelsea and I still only understand about 4% of what’s being said and the cultural meanings attached; but we devote our time during the message to prayer for our Indian and American Church families and in reading the passages that are referenced.
On to exhibit #2:
During Sunday School last week, we did a very memorable thing to the children: We blinded them all! Using their own chunnies (scarves) against them, we made them feel like the blind man from Matthew 8:22. The boys were loaned (no interest charged :) some chunnies from Chelsea and my stash.
While they were experiencing temporary physical blindness, we explained how, before they surrender their lives to Christ, their spirits are dead and blind; they have no more spiritual understanding than they have of physical sight. But, when He saves us, Christ brings life and sight into our spirits. “Jesus asked, ‘Do you see anything?’ [The blind man] looked up and said, ‘I see people; they look like trees walking around.’” Next we made the kids untie the chunnies and drape them over their heads like a veil:
Now they could see some things, but not everything and not very clearly. This picture shows the boys are partially blind. Also shown: Pastor David Dayasagar explains the connection of physical sight to our spiritual sight. When we believe we receive a portion of God’s Holy Spirit, who awakens our spirits, gives us some spiritual sight, and is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance of eternal redemption (Eph. 1:13-14).
But, God is not pleased with us only having partial spiritual sight. Jesus again touched the blind man’s eyes, and then “his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly” (Mark 8:25b). Our Lord invites us to gaze into the mysteries that even the angels long to see. This requires real spiritual insight; and we must ask for the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our understanding even farther so that we may grasp His love and power (Eph. 1:17-19). We closed with a time of prayer. Please also pray with us that these young ones “being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:17-19).
Whew! On to the next exhibit (#3 or #4? –I don’t know!):
Wonder of wonders! We got a package from our beloved church family at home (Graham, WA)!!! That’s Chelsea’s face of anticipation as we prepare to open it…
It was filled with all sorts of necessary, handy, and delightful surprises for us, for our church, and for our host family. We are overjoyed with the love and encouragement packed in among all those items.
We can’t wait to use and distribute all these wonders! (Not to mention, use a few as bribes and tantalizing prizes for little urchins :) This box, along with the other little packages, notes, and cards we’ve received, have greatly helped to ease our sense of isolation and homesickness. Thank you all, so much, for these un-price-able gifts.
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Let’s keep moving down the corridor of the exhibition hall. On to a few of our less-serious pastimes:
Another small but delightful treasure we’ve just received…
This crazy little racket is charged with an electric current so that, when it comes in contact with a small, flying, painfully-biting, annoying, pest, it causes the little vermin to explode. (Not a very pleasant description: I’m sorry for distressing any faint-hearted readers. I’m also sorry for all my adoring fans who thought I was tender-hearted to even the most wretched of beings; I’m afraid you’ll have to remove me from that pedestal.)
We now have the addicting occupation of jumping up, grabbing and turning on our lethal “sword”, and attempting to hit a homerun with every flicker of shadow that catches our eyes. No, we’re not paranoid; the mosquito population within our living quarters has significantly decreased in the last few days. We find that now, even if we see several flying around, when we grab the racket they all disappear as if by magic. (Our theory is that down at the local swamp, there’s rumors bein’ whispered among the residential mosquits of a deadly monster that hums as it advances. They say there’s no use standin’ up to it; best to just hide away.)
Ahem… enough about rumors, moving on:
You will be shocked and (we hope) delighted to learn that your friendly little Northwest Americans are returning to our ancient family roots: We’re becoming HIGHLANDERS! (Can anyone say “Heidi of the Alps”?)
In an effort to tame our unruly locks (and diminish their heat-holding abilities), we’ve been experimenting with Indian-approved hairstyles. Crowning braids have been our greatest success thus far. With this useful excuse in hand, we now revert back to our childish/girly ways of “doing each other’s hair.”
Chelsea is now aiming to perfect her hair styling abilities in order to add that skill to her impressive résumé. Meanwhile, I (Bethany) am attempting to begin on this long journey of fixing up hair since I hope to one day be cranking out acceptable styles on my own children’s heads. The picture of Chelsea above represents: 1) my first attempt to French braid another person’s hair; 2) my first time ever doing an inside-out braid; and 3) my first time braiding a crown. Pictured below is one of the many awkward positions which the patient must assume in order to achieve this dazzling appearance:
On to a final major addition to our daily lives here:
It’s Kitten Season!!!
Say “hello” to Puss (we call her Pounce) and Tiger!
Here they are pictured in the full power of their invasive abilities. Our house owner, Premeela Auntie, acquired these two little, hungry, lovebugs last week. You can see them disturbing our games, climbing all over us, and traveling in and out of every nook and cranny they can find (including the window grates). They beg and complain as well as any kittens we’ve ever met.
Our host family also received a surprise addition of a few kittens. The local stray (whom we named “Munchkin”) adopted their home when Suhasini coaxed it in with some milk and bread. In exchange for food and board, she keeps the rats out of the house. But apparently this friendly little street cat was a little too friendly with her own kind as well. Three weeks ago she added 3 little fuzzballs to the family. They’re not sure what to do with the little tikes yet…
Until tomorrow!
ANDARIKI VANDENALU
I LOVE your beautiful braided hair!
ReplyDeleteJenn