A Visit to Some Missions in India
This is love for God; to obey his commands …
(1John 5:3)
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
A Visit to Some Missions in India
There are a number of different ministries in India dedicated to showing their love for God by obeying the above New Testament commands. As a result, people in India are coming to the Lord by the thousands. But, in a country with a population of over a billion people there is so much that remains to be done. I am thankful for all those Christians who are stepping out in faith in India, and other countries also, and doing the work that God has commanded them to do. Their work is not without risk. Some face very real personal danger. They are true disciples.
In January of this year I and several friends were blessed to have been able to travel to India to witness, first-hand, how two of these ministries are showing their love for God. We attended house and cell church meetings and observed leadership training sessions in northern India. And in southern India we attended church worship services in villages, stayed a number of days at an orphanage supported by Agape Interfaith Ministries, International (AIM) and we saw how they were also looking after widows.
Northern India
We arrived in Delhi on the night of January 5 and were met by my friend, Roger, and members of the ministry team there, who loaded us and all our baggage into their car and drove us back to the house where we would be staying for the next six days, or so. Roger explained to us that this ministry was primarily involved in planting house and cell churches in the region of northern India. The house churches are usually planted in the more rural areas while cell churches are within the cities.
Our host’s house was about a ½ hour drive from the airport. Once there, we were each led to simple, but clean and comfortable rooms for much-needed rest after a long (15 hour) flight from Chicago.
Next morning, after breakfast, we all (Roger, myself, Pat, James and Marcia) went up on the roof of the house and prayed for wisdom and God’s leading and protection to be with us during our entire visit to India. At that time our host was away from home doing his ministry work, but was planning on meeting up with us later that afternoon. After prayers we went downstairs and Roger introduced us to some of the members of the ministry team. They were all very friendly and helpful people who are totally committed to becoming warriors and servants in the Lord’s army.
We had this day, Jan 6th, to relax and recuperate from our travels until mid-afternoon. Then around 3 o’clock we were loaded back into the car and driven to the home of a friend of our gracious host to attend our first Christian house church meeting since our arrival. This was just one of over 5000 house and cell churches that he and his ministry have planted! We actually arrived somewhat early. Our driver introduced us to the owner of the house and we got acquainted and chatted while we waited for the ministry leader to arrive. This took about an hour. During this time we also listened in on the singing of worshipers in an apartment across the hall. Although we could not understand Hindi, there was no mistaking their enthusiasm.
Then our host arrived, and shortly after, we joined those whose singing we had been listening to. It turned out that there were about 50 or so men, women and children jammed into a room roughly the size of my own living room - about 12 x 18 feet.
The five of us were led up toward the front of the crowded room where there were chairs waiting for us (most of the worshipers were sitting on the floor). The people finished their last song and they all fell silent as our friend began to speak. Whatever it was that he said to these people in Hindi, it was spoken with passion and strength. At times he would pause for an answer and the people would respond fervently in unison.
A short time later, Roger was called up front where he gave a short Biblical sermon about how the Lord’s strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). As our host interpreted for the audience Roger called their attention to three of the women there who have each done great things through the Lord by planting many house churches and bringing many to Christ. All 3 of these women were small of stature. To look at them I would not have thought them to have any special talent for speaking, training or organizing. Yet, each had already borne much fruit since stepping out in faith and following Jesus’ commands.
About this time the rest of us were made aware that, in a few moments, we were each going to have our own turns up in front of this audience.
It is one of my great shortcomings that I dread speaking in front of an audience. However, our purposes were different from Roger’s as we were each called upon to give our personal testimonies. I prayed and told myself that God wouldn’t let me fail in this. It’s just not in His plan. So, I got through it, as did the others, while our words were interpreted for us.
After all the testimonies were given there came another hour, or so, of singing and talking. Then there were closing prayers. What followed caught me completely by surprise. The people all swarmed around us, excitedly greeting us and wanting to shake our hands, even the children. And when all the handshaking was done they began asking us to pray for them. Many of these were general prayer requests, but there were a few who asked us to especially pray for their healing; a heart condition and a chronic cold, to name a couple. Mostly we had to discern the nature of their prayer requests through hand gestures or body language, although occasionally there was an interpreter nearby.
Before we had arrived in India - while we were still sitting at the airport in Chicago in fact - I, Pat, James and Marcia had had a discussion about the things we each hoped to give and get out of our visit with and support of the ministries there. It had been my own desire to step out in faith and subject myself to some challenging situations in order to grow closer to God and to become aware of whatever my spiritual gifts might be. And since I am basically a shy person, especially in a room full of people unknown to me, I now became keenly aware that I was getting just what I had asked for. Although I have been a Christian for several years I am still coming to know just what it means to be a follower of Jesus. And this was the first time in my life I had actually laid hands on someone, by myself, one-on-one, and prayed for them. It seemed like such an awesome responsibility. I prayed that I was worthy.
We were at this first house church meeting about 3 hours, or so. It was interesting to find out later that, at the time we first arrived, these Followers had already been singing and worshiping for almost 3 hours! We left at around 9 o’clock and were driven back to our host’s residence where we finished off the evening with some tea and a delicious meal.
Around 7 PM the next night we arrived in another part of Delhi where there was a quite larger group, 200 or 300, I think, who were worshiping in the basement of a church. This was one of the ministry’s cell churches. Again we were led up to the front where we sat in chairs, on a stage this time. Our friend preached a sermon, followed by Roger. Then the rest of us took turns giving our testimonies. Like the night before, this was also a very passionate group of worshipers. Towards the end they were all standing with their hands raised, eyes closed and chanting or speaking in tongues resulting in a sort of low roar in the basement.
During this time we came out among them and began praying for them, laying hands on them as we went around and mingled with them. They were all worshiping intensely, seemingly unaware of our presence. One woman fell to the floor and was prayed for there. After a couple minutes she stood back up and resumed her worshiping, never having opened her eyes.
Awhile later their chanting died down and a final prayer was spoken and the service was complete.
Almost immediately we were again surrounded; the people crowded around us to greet us and shake our hands. We were shaking so many hands we had to shake two or three at a time. Also, as before, they asked us to lay hands on them and pray for them. And so we did. Now their eyes were open and some asked for specific prayers for healing, spiritual wisdom and other things.
Although all the worship services in Delhi were in the evenings, we also sat in on one or two of our host’s training sessions for other leaders in the ministry during the daytime. Plus we had several opportunities to engage him, and others in discussions on various topics. These informal chats were very enlightening.
We took some excursions while we were staying in northern India. There was a gap in our schedule of attending worship services in Delhi, so we managed to get out to Agra for a tour of the Taj Mahal. This was a 6 hour trip each way and it gave me a chance to take some pictures of the cities, people and the countryside. It also gave me a chance to fulfill another reason for coming here: that is, to see for myself how the people lived, to see their culture in action. I felt this would help me become emotionally connected to this faraway land. It was too easy for me to sit at home here in the United States and hear about the poverty and need in a place half way around the world and think to myself, “That’s so sad. Somebody should DO something”. Before this trip I never gave serious thought to the possibility that that “somebody” might be ME. And so eventually I would always end up just pushing the whole thought out of my mind. To get past that, I wanted to subject myself to the truth of what was happening in India. Getting out and about, I thought, would help accomplish that aim.
I did get many pictures, and so did the rest of the group. There were, however, some really poignant ones that escaped me. I found out it is really difficult to take good pictures from a fast-moving car while weaving in and out of traffic! But some unforgettable images are still in my mind:
Images of a little girl, 4 or 5 years old, dressed in filthy rags walking up to a car window to beg while it was stopped in traffic; a man with a withered arm begging; a woman with a baby in her arms and a child walking beside her, all of them begging, too. I saw a poor man who was dipping water out of a gutter and drinking it. I saw pigs running loose in the city and drinking from the same gutter. I missed all these pictures with my camera, but sometimes you just have to see them for yourself, anyway.
Southern India
On January 11 our visit in northern India was finished and we flew down to Hyderabad, eight hundred miles, or so, to the south. Here, we were met by our new hosts, members of Agape Interfaith Ministries, International (AIM). They loaded us all into their car and drove us approximately 2 hours to a remote village where, for the next five days, we were blessed to be able to stay at an orphanage.
Upon our arrival at the orphanage we saw that the children had been waiting for us. As we stepped out of the car they all began to sing. They placed garlands around our necks, and some did a special dance for us. Following that, others demonstrated their ability to recite Scripture (I am told that some have memorized 38 chapters of the Bible, including Psalms 119!). What a wonderful reception. None of us spoke Telugu, but we all enjoyed it immensely just the same.
This welcoming lasted 30 minutes, or so. Afterwards we collected all our bags and our host took us up to our rooms. In a short while we were all settled in and had gathered elsewhere in the house to visit with this next soon-to-be friend, and get acquainted. It happened that our host’s wife was back in Hyderabad at that time, staying with their daughter who was in the hospital. She did arrive a couple days later, though. So we were introduced to her then.
The day after our arrival we were given a tour of the orphanage. We had heard about some of the repairs and improvements that were needed there, and as our host showed us around the building we took pictures and made some notes of these things. It is a good sized building that was donated to AIM about 30 years ago by World Vision. It currently houses about 200-300 children and young adults. But it definitely needs some fixing.
There are many windows, but much of the glass and screens are damaged or missing, so there’s little or no protection from mosquitoes.
There is a water pipe leaking inside one of the walls. This is causing the concrete to deteriorate and get water stained and moldy. This leak needs to be stopped and possibly some concrete and plaster repaired. And the whole building needs a paint job inside and out.
They have no hot water. The children take turns taking cold showers outside, behind a wall. Electricity is rationed by the power company. The day after our arrival we were honored with another singing and dancing performance, this time inside, in the meeting hall where there was a stage. Partway through the event, the power was cut off (apparently this happens once or twice a day without warning). So the show was delayed while they dragged out some battery-operated sound equipment to continue.
Some windows facing the prevailing winds have screens, but no glass or shutters. So during the monsoon season, water blows into meeting halls making them essentially unusable. Also one wing of the large meeting hall has no attic or insulation and the summer heat bakes on the metal roof and makes it unbearable for those inside.
The kitchen is a simple, primitive-looking structure; it has a roof, but the walls come up to only about waist high, leaving the rest open, with no windows. Food (mostly plain rice) is cooked in big pots resting over wood fires. There are no “utilities”, gas or electricity, for cooking.
In spite of all these needs, and plenty more, these kids all seem grateful to be there. They are safe, clothed and fed regularly, provided with an education and are being raised to know the Lord.
Of course, one cannot room at an orphanage for days without hearing about some of their heartbreaking stories. And a few of these were related to us by our hosts.
In the minds of most Hindus the caste system still exists, even if the government does not officially recognize it. And in lower caste culture sons are prized, life is cheap and young daughters are a burden, at least until they are old enough to do useful work. The families in these lower castes are poor and it is not unheard of for the parents to actually abandon their daughters to live or die at a dump site to make things easier for the rest of the family. Dressed in rags, this child may spend the rest of her life, however long that is, fending for herself and scavenging for food in the trash heaps. I find it hard to even imagine the fear and emotional trauma these girls must experience. I can’t get out of my mind, the thought of what might happen to some of them who are not rescued in time. When our hosts hear about children like these they are taken into the orphanage, regardless of the extra strain on their budget.
This was the case with one girl whose story we had already been told by Roger. Her mother was a widow with no means of support. A man said he would marry her if she would first get rid of her daughter. So this poor young girl was taken to the dump and left there. She was only about 5 years old, and she lived alone like that for 4 or 5 years before the orphanage found her and gave her a home.
Worse yet was the case of an infant girl, only 2 or 3 days old when the police found her lying in the dump. She was facing certain death. By the grace of God none of the scavenging dogs that seem to roam freely throughout all of India had found her first. The authorities brought her to this orphanage and she was taken in . . . and given the name, Grace. Grace is now about 13 or 14 years old.
It’s easy for me to hear such stories and feel anger and sadness. But, then I think about what God has accomplished, for children like these have been rescued spiritually, as well as physically. If they had never been abandoned they might never come to know Jesus!
AIM, International also has been working hard to meet the needs of widows and homeless men. In another outlying village they administer a home for the aged which we visited. It was a sight to bring tears to your eyes. We brought along food which we handed out to them. They looked so poor and hungry! Again, a low caste widow in India is really at the mercy of society. And much of the society around them is already busy just trying to get by. So, AIM tries to keep these poor old people fed. Many of the widows are then sheltered at night by generous villagers while the home is sleeping quarters for the 9 or 10 otherwise homeless elderly men.
AIM, with its orphanage and home for the aged in southern India is a real bright spot among these poor villagers, with young and old alike struggling to survive.
Of course, sharing the Gospel is also a core purpose of AIM, International. Our hosts have planted over 100 churches (not house churches). While we were staying at the orphanage we drove out to several of the outlying villages to participate in worship services with the local people who had been brought to the Lord through their efforts. In every case you could see that these people were really worshiping from the heart. It felt good to be among them. They also would shake our hands and ask us to pray for them. I felt honored to do so.
One day we rode in the orphanage bus on a drive out to a village. This was because many of the girls were coming along with us in order to sing along with the villagers during their worship service. What a treat! We even got to listen to their singing all the way there and all the way back. It was wonderful.
The trip to the orphanage was such a blessing. When I think about it, I realize being around these children is like having a glimpse of God’s plan in action. Children and young adults alike, they are all being raised to know the Lord. If they had not been first left homeless they may have been doomed to live out their lives in darkness.
Monday January 15 we were scheduled to leave the orphanage and head back to Hyderabad. After we were all packed we spent time with the children. Since I had arrived I had been writing some of their names in my PDA, and now groups of them were clustering around me to make sure they were included, and that I had their names spelled correctly. Much time was also spent by all of us taking that “one last picture” before we left.
To my disappointment, my camera’s memory card filled up before we were done, and I could take no more pictures. Because of the language barrier I had a difficult time explaining this situation to the children, and there were so many more pictures to take. There were at least three other cameras among us, however, so I truly hope that none of the children got left out. They understood we had to go. But each seemed to have a strong need to be sure he or she would not be forgotten. I haven’t forgotten them yet, and I pray for them every day.
We left them at about 1 in the afternoon. Another 2 hour drive and we were back in Hyderabad. The next night we would be boarding the plane for the flight back to Delhi. Our India trip was winding down, but we had two more important people to meet before we left Hyderabad.
We had taken rooms at a hotel in order to get a good night’s rest before our travels the next day. While there we had the pleasure of meeting a businessman who stopped by to see Roger. This fellow Christian owns a company in Hyderabad. He has been working with several ministries to distribute programs designed to build databases of the many people groups, including their languages and dialects, in India. With this software, the databases will be combined with GIS (Geographic Information System) data to plot the size and exact locations of these groups in cities and villages all over India. This important information can then be used by various ministries to map out where best to spend their time and resources to more effectively spread the Gospel in the country. Hallelujah!!
The following day, before we left, we had a chance to meet another friend of Roger’s. Roger had talked to me a lot about this man. He has been involved in the training house church leaders in some of the southern states in India. He seemed a humble, sincere servant of the Lord.
During our visit with him we learned that his wife is also taking an active role in spreading God’s word. She has found her purpose in starting house churches and ministering to handicapped children, as well as distributing food to the needy in their area.
This couple has also taken orphans into their home. One of these orphans, an 8 year old boy, was born with AIDS. His parents both died from it. Sadly, it appears that he will soon die, also. But, Roger tells me he knows the Lord. And so, he is already in God’s hands.
We left Hyderabad on the night of January 16 to begin our trek back home via Delhi. All but Roger, that is. He and his friend were planning to head out the next day for work in even more southern regions of India. It would be another month before Roger would return to the U.S.
After some delay, I finally flew out of Delhi on January 21. During the long flight back to Chicago I began to unwind and reflect on all I had experienced the past 2 ½ weeks. I had kept a diary, more or less, and now I counted on it to help me remember what I had done, where I had been and the people I had met. I didn’t feel exhausted, or even particularly tired. I had stayed well the entire trip and never even got a single mosquito bite. The food agreed with me, and in fact was very good. I had certainly had some challenging moments, but that was what I wanted. My traveling resources had increased while my expenses had gone down. All in all, it seemed that God had really watched over me through everything.
My diary has given me a framework for my thoughts to recount those past events while writing this report. But the creation of the report itself has helped me realize some of the impact this trip will likely have on my future:
I want to continue to be involved with the missions in India. I believe in what they are doing and will continue to talk to other people here, at home, about it. I hope to go there again someday, and take my wife, Sharon, with me. I will continue to pray for them. And I will continue to pray for myself, asking God what actions He wants me to take on their behalf. I believe that visiting these ministries has brought me closer to God.
Conclusions
For thousands of years the people of India have lived in darkness. But now, in the midst of that darkness, there is Light. And thanks to people like our friends and their ministries in northern and southern India, and all those who went before them; and to all those who contribute to these ministries their time, expertise and resources, the Light is spreading and getting brighter. This is not happening because these leaders have genius and personality, although they may have these things. It is happening simply because they are obeying God’s commands.
It is spreading fastest, by far, within the lowest castes; the poorest and weakest of the people of India. I believe this is in perfect alignment with God’s word:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
God Bless,
Mike Monson
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I gazed upon the works of man And stood in awe of its grandeur And my mind was inspired . . .
Then I looked into the eyes of a child And I saw the joy when she knew I cared; And my heart soared, for my soul was nourished. |
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