A few of my Favorite things (Part 2):

VBS WEEK 2

My team did 6 Vacation Bible Schools (VBS), my ministry group led 3 of these VBS.  The second VBS my team did was my favorite one.  I love to work with children in general; I usually work with the younger kids.  However, this week I worked with the teenage group.  The way we ran our VBS was that one person ran each of the 5 different stations and then 5 of us were each in charge of a group.  I figured that the other group leaders would probably choose the younger kids for their groups, so I headed for the older kids. Older kids are not my forte.  This particular week I was struggling with the Lord, and was not that open to hearing him.  Because my kids could mostly understand English we could explain the gospel better to them and go into more detail then we would with the younger kids.  

At one our Stations my teammate, Seth, was talking about our skit of the day. He was talking about how God hears us pray. Which “ironically” is exactly what I had been questioning, if God could hear my prayers? Seth then went on to tell the kids that how much God loved them, again exactly what I doubted too.  Seth did not know what was going on with me, but everything he was telling the kids was what I needed to hear.  It’s amazing how God works.  

 I was working with an age group I don’t normally work with.  If I had been with the younger kids, I would not have heard the same message I did with the older kids.  This week was the week that I really connected with my kids, I could have real conversations with them, instead of broken English conversations that none of us truly understood.  

I thought I would end this post by showing some of the awesome photos my teammate Kristen took on my camera from this VBS.

One of the kids reciting the Bible Verse for the day

Drawing a picture about the day's bible story

Blowing Bubbles

Helping at one of the stations

The Bible verse for the second day of VBS

David and Goliath skit

A few of my Favorite Things:

In an attempt to share some about my trip, I decided to do some post about my favorite things and People from India.

Someone who made a big impact on me was this little girl, S. I met her by accident; I almost missed a wonderful opportunity.  I almost did not go to the soccer game that day, I’m so glad I did.  S is 8 years old, and later to some of my teammates became known as Noelle’s little friend, because she would come up to me every time she saw me in the village. This picture is from the day we met. She came up to me as I walked with one of my teammates (who already had a gaggle of kids with her) and grabbed my hand and started walking with me.  I was immediately drawn to her because she had a cleft lip.  You would never know that she was different though.  We talked about all sorts of things that day.  My favorite line was when we were talking about Bible verses and how she had to recite one in Sunday School.  I asked her what it was and if she would recite it to me and she said “no, because it’s in Hmar and you would not understand it.” I just laughed and told her my favorite verse (Isaiah 41:10 if anyone wandered).  She told me about how she prayed to God, and how she knew that God was always with her. 

It struck me that she had the child-like faith I had always heard about, the one that Jesus encourages us all to have.  

“And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them.  But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.  Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.” 

Matthew 21:16 ESV

S has the childlike faith, I have thought about her since we came home.  She surprised me; this child who lives in poverty has this Joy that could only be explained by a child who truly knows Jesus.  This 8 year old girl is an inspiration to me, she has a child-like faith that we should all inspire to be.

Processing is Tough!

I have been home for 2 weeks as of today.  But I’m not really home; my heart is still in India, and with my teammates spread all over the USA/Canada/and Mongolia.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to be home, I love my comfy bed, and getting to hug my mom.  But my heart is broken, I miss India and my new family.  Being the big theatre fan that I am, I went to support some of my friends in a local show today.  One of their moms saw me and said, “You’re back! You’ve on solid Ground.”  Then she asked me for my top 3 moments from India.  It shocked me; someone besides my mom actually cares about my trip!  Everyone wants to know how it was, and once I give the generic answer “It was great! I got to see God work in really awesome ways.”, then I get a smile and some people might ask me one or two more questions and then we go on about our lives.  

This got me thinking, should I have been shocked that she asked me these questions? The answer is no!  In fact one reason people may not have asked me is because I haven’t really wanted to share.  It’s been too hard to talk about everything that happened the last month in my life.  It makes me mad at God; because why would he do all this and then take me away from these people I now call family?  I haven’t wanted to talk about my trip because I haven’t wanted to fully process my trip.  I have processed some, through talking with my mom.  However, I haven’t wanted to.  I have wanted to live in the past and dwell on the last month of my life. 

God has opened my eyes by her question.  It was his way of telling me that He brought me home so that I could minister to my friends and family here in the states.  Its great to do all these wonderful things in other countries but if you don’t share these adventures with the people back home because these are the people who have supported me through all of this.  These people want to hear about my adventure.

So here it goes, my top 3 things from India (In no particularly order).

1.    Getting to love on all the kids, but my favorite moment was getting to love on this little girl.
2.  God told me how much He loved me, and why He loves me so much. (see Blog from India for more details).
3.   My teammates and Leaders were some of the best people ever.

A BONUS ONE

1. Our contacts in India, who were some of the sweetest people ever

 

Put a little Trust in it.

I wrote this blog in June while I was on the mission field in India

As our time here in India is ending I’ve been questioning why God wanted me here. Now don’t get me wrong I’ve enjoyed my time here in India immensely. Yet I’ve still wondered why God called me here. What did he still have to teach me in these few days we had left?
Last Sunday I wasn’t feeling well so I stayed back when the rest of the team went out to church that day. It was during this time that I was finally still. For those that don’t know me-I am always busy, I am never still. So when my team had left and I was at our house by myself, I did not have any distractions. God finally had me in a place where I was still and not distracted. It was during this time that I was reading my bible and praying to the Lord. Doubts started coming to light that I had in the back of my mind, and I now had the time to deal with them.
I took these doubts to the Lord and the more I prayed the more confused I became. I went to talk to our leaders. Actually, I paced outside their room for about 15 minutes before one of my teammates pushed me into their room, so I would go talk to them. I’m so very glad that she did. As I talked they helped me realized that I had a big journey with the Lord ahead of me. The Lord was talking to me big time and it was time for me to fully listen.
As the week passed I spent days struggling with what God was telling me. He was calling me to leave my chains behind and trust in him fully. Trust is a big word. I struggled with the fact that I was scared to trust, I was afraid to leave my chains behind and trust God completely. My leaders challenged me to take my fears to God and to really search for him. God doesn’t say search for me and I will hide, but search for me and you will find me. So I searched and searched. I used my free time to read and journal, to find God.
Then on Thursday it finally clicked. I was doing a bible study that talked about how Ester was a poor girl whose people were looked down upon yet when she came before the king he saw not the junk of her life but the good in her. He saw a queen. We are like this. We are Esther and God is the king. He chooses us to be his children, his sons and daughters. This is what makes us special. God chose each and every one of us. He made us in his image. I realized that while all I was seeing was the junk, what God sees in me is his Princess. This junk was keeping me from fully trusting in God. It is because I am a child of God that I am special. This makes me unique because when God created me he didn’t make 2 of me, it is just me. God loves me because I am His.
God brought me to India so that I would finally slow down and listen. So together, we could deal with my junk. So I could grow closer to him than I ever thought I could. I have left behind my fears and decided to fully trust God. He brought me here so I could learn to fully trust in Him.