“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13) I have never experienced this well-known verse more than I have over the past two weeks. My attitude toward all of the challenges that we face here has taken a complete 180 degree turn. I finally feel able to take each day as it comes and accept whatever it is that God has for me, whether it is staying in the apartment all day or getting out. Adam and I were even talking last night about how we could live here if we had to. Its not that that is what I want, but I could do it, whereas even two week prior I would never have considered it. I can’t point to any epiphany that lead to the change; I have prayed the same prayers since I got here about God changing my heart. I sincerely believe that God allowed to me experience such depths that the turnaround would give Him even more glory, because there is nothing that I’ve done that can explain this sudden change. I think He wanted me to experienced the sorrow deeply enough that I could live in the joy more fully. Its been a difficult but amazing journey, and I thank God for His goodness in knowing what each of us needs.
God has provided for us in many surprising ways this past week and a half. Last week, a client from America visited Adam’s work and had brought his 14 year old daughter along on this trip to India. Usually, there is someone at Adam’s work who would have taken her around sightseeing, but it was a holiday (yes, another holiday), so most people were gone. They then asked Adam if I would mind taking here around. The girls and I were more than willing to do it, so we had a lovely day of shopping and having lunch at a resort with this girl. It was really fun for the girls to hang out with this girl, especially because she was British born and had just moved to America two years ago. Hailey is fascinated with Great Britian and really wants to visit there.
This past week was one of the best weeks we’ve had here. We had heard for some time from folks at church that there was a Canadian lady and her Indian husband who lived near to us. They are Christians, and she is homeschooling two young boys from our apartment complex. Back when I was in a lousy state of mind, I didn’t feel like reaching out to them. They put on a summer leadership camp (its summer break for kids here), and Hailey agreed to go so I signed her up and left it at that. Over the next several weeks, several other people, including non-Christians from Adam’s work, told us about this couple and said that we should meet. The guilt of being disobedient to what God obviously wanted finally got to me, so I reached out to the wife, Janice, and we went over to their house on Saturday. They are an awesome couple doing some great things for the Kingdom. Janice, while of Canadian heritage, was brought up in another part of India, where her parents were missionaries and had a children’s home. She is much more culturally Indian than she is Canadian.
Mohan, Janice’s husband, has a crazy story as well. He comes from a family who has been Brahmans (the high priestly class of Hindus) for many, many generations. He began schooling to be a Brahman at the age of four. Very shortly into his studies, he began to questions what the Hindu priests where teaching him; things like how their religion originally believed that there was one God, and then later they believed there were many Gods. He kept questioning them about the many contradictions he was seeing. Once you meet Mohan, you can just imagine these priests tearing their hair out at this rebellious kid! Rebellious continued to be the watchword for young life. His family had enough of his, and he eventually left home in his teen years and went to a big city and became part of a gang that sold drugs, exams answers for the major school, you name it. He eventually went to a university there and met a guy there that introduced him to Christ. And not just any guy- a guy who went around dressed as Sherlock Holmes…. This guy was apparently very fond of Sherlock Holmes, but it was his way of coping with his shyness and helping to share the gospel by getting people’s attention. Who would have though! Anyway, Mohan found Christ and became a passionate follower. He and Janice have recently adopted a baby girl named Sara, who is just adorable.
Janice and Mohan held their camp for Hailey’s age group this past week, and it was such a blessing to us all. For the first time, Hailey interacted on a very personal level with many Indian kids her age and learned some really great lessons through the camps activities. The most important lesson that she learned, which she shared with us, was that she now feels comfortable about socializing with Indian kids because she realized that they have the same issues as every kid no matter where you are from. She was also able to handle it when the kids would slip into speaking Malayalam. The cool thing about the camp is that because it’s a leadership camp, kids from many important families in town go there, including many Hindu kids. Janice and Mohan share each day some aspect of the Gospel in camp. On the last day, Mohan even shared his story of being a Hindu and challenging their beliefs and finding truth in the bible. It could see the impact on one girl in particular, so I will be praying for her.
On a final note, prayers for peace for our driver Rinish and his family would be appreciated. His father died three weeks ago, and his uncle just died last week. Its been rough on his family, especially his mother whose brother it was that died. Another prayer request is for a wife for him. Even among Christian families, marriages are still often arranged, and it is the role of the father to find a bride. Rinish has been anxious to get married since we first arrived here, and since his father died, it makes it that much harder for him to find a wife.
Thanks again to everyone for your prayers and e-mails!! We love you.
P.S. This is a shout out to Carie Lopez in Chicago- I am so glad that God has used me and Margaret to encourage you! God bless!
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Simon's Story
This past week or so has been pretty good. I think I’m finally learning to rest in God and take each day as it comes. It doesn’t matter what situation I am in- as God told Paul, His ‘grace is sufficient’. I also trust that He does indeed have something more in store for us here. Adam and I agreed that even if nothing monumental were to happen here, we have been totally blessed by some incredible people that we’ve met here. We have also heard some incredible testimonies. I’d like to share one of them…
SIMON
The pastor’s son-in-law at Radiant church, where we are attending here, met Simon at work at Technopark. Simon came to Radiant last week and shared his testimony.
WARNING- I want to share the graphic detail of his accident, as he described it to us, because I think it is powerful, but be warned that it is not easy to handle.
Simon became a Christian a few years ago and followed the Lord mostly half heartedly at first. One morning, on his way to work, he had a feeling that he should look into getting some insurance in the event that he had an accident on his motorcycle. He made a mental note to do so and got on his motorcycle and drove out of his driveway. He was unaware of the enormous gravel truck barreling toward him. In a split second, he was hit by the truck, run over by the back tire, and dragged for several hundred meters underneath it. The truck driver knew he had hit someone but because of its full load, he was unable to stop quickly.
When the driver finally stopped, Simon looked down and saw that the entire front of his lower body was ripped open. He could see all of his internal organs and his own spine. His genitals were completely ripped off of his body. His legs and feet were totally crushed. At no point in this was he ever unconscious- he experienced the entire incident completely. As he lay in agony and terror on the road side, he begged for someone to take him to the hospital. Out of the hundreds of people that had gathered to look, no one would. This is often the case in India; if you take someone to the hospital in your car and they die on the way, you are left to deal with the body, so no one wants to get involved. Finally, he called his employer on some bystander’s phone and someone was sent to come and get him.
He was taken to the medical college in town, where he was told that he would most likely lose at least one of his legs. He feared this greatly and prayed that it wouldn’t happen. After many hours of surgery, he came out with both of his legs, but they remained badly crushed and he still had many open wounds. Over the course of the next few months at the medical college, the flesh in his legs began to putrefy. He described how the stench from it overwhelmed him. Infections began to set in, and the many flies in the hospital began to transmit his infection to other patients with open wounds in the room that they shared, so they moved him to an isolated place.
It took many, many months of healing and numerous surgeries to save his legs and close the wounds. He also suffered from urinary tract infections constantly and had to be catheterized for two years, which he found unbearable. Finally, the last surgery placed pins in his leg, and he eventually found healed and was able to return to work.
A few weeks after he returned to work, the man driving him had a head on collision with another car. Simon, sitting in the passenger seat, felt pain in his leg and looked down to see his femur sticking out of the leg that had just healed. Again, he went to surgery and went through months of healing. He was scheduled for one last surgery to fix a portion that was not healed. He was at the point where he just could not take another surgery and cried out to God. A few days later, he went in to have the pre-operation x-ray. After the x-ray was taken, Simon heard a commotion from the doctor in the back. The doctor came out and said that he was canceling the surgery because the break had been miraculously healed!
Simon is now completely healed but walks with a sever limp due to the rod in his right leg. Because both legs were saved, he has been able to continue playing drums, which is the main passion in his life. He also loves dogs and has several breeds of large dogs, including a Golden Retriever, a Rottweiler, and a bull dog. He is amazed that Christ took him through all that he did, and he has been able to share his testimony with many people.
I don’t know about you, but this story sure puts things in perspective for me!! My life is pretty blessed!!
Have a wonderful week.
SIMON
The pastor’s son-in-law at Radiant church, where we are attending here, met Simon at work at Technopark. Simon came to Radiant last week and shared his testimony.
WARNING- I want to share the graphic detail of his accident, as he described it to us, because I think it is powerful, but be warned that it is not easy to handle.
Simon became a Christian a few years ago and followed the Lord mostly half heartedly at first. One morning, on his way to work, he had a feeling that he should look into getting some insurance in the event that he had an accident on his motorcycle. He made a mental note to do so and got on his motorcycle and drove out of his driveway. He was unaware of the enormous gravel truck barreling toward him. In a split second, he was hit by the truck, run over by the back tire, and dragged for several hundred meters underneath it. The truck driver knew he had hit someone but because of its full load, he was unable to stop quickly.
When the driver finally stopped, Simon looked down and saw that the entire front of his lower body was ripped open. He could see all of his internal organs and his own spine. His genitals were completely ripped off of his body. His legs and feet were totally crushed. At no point in this was he ever unconscious- he experienced the entire incident completely. As he lay in agony and terror on the road side, he begged for someone to take him to the hospital. Out of the hundreds of people that had gathered to look, no one would. This is often the case in India; if you take someone to the hospital in your car and they die on the way, you are left to deal with the body, so no one wants to get involved. Finally, he called his employer on some bystander’s phone and someone was sent to come and get him.
He was taken to the medical college in town, where he was told that he would most likely lose at least one of his legs. He feared this greatly and prayed that it wouldn’t happen. After many hours of surgery, he came out with both of his legs, but they remained badly crushed and he still had many open wounds. Over the course of the next few months at the medical college, the flesh in his legs began to putrefy. He described how the stench from it overwhelmed him. Infections began to set in, and the many flies in the hospital began to transmit his infection to other patients with open wounds in the room that they shared, so they moved him to an isolated place.
It took many, many months of healing and numerous surgeries to save his legs and close the wounds. He also suffered from urinary tract infections constantly and had to be catheterized for two years, which he found unbearable. Finally, the last surgery placed pins in his leg, and he eventually found healed and was able to return to work.
A few weeks after he returned to work, the man driving him had a head on collision with another car. Simon, sitting in the passenger seat, felt pain in his leg and looked down to see his femur sticking out of the leg that had just healed. Again, he went to surgery and went through months of healing. He was scheduled for one last surgery to fix a portion that was not healed. He was at the point where he just could not take another surgery and cried out to God. A few days later, he went in to have the pre-operation x-ray. After the x-ray was taken, Simon heard a commotion from the doctor in the back. The doctor came out and said that he was canceling the surgery because the break had been miraculously healed!
Simon is now completely healed but walks with a sever limp due to the rod in his right leg. Because both legs were saved, he has been able to continue playing drums, which is the main passion in his life. He also loves dogs and has several breeds of large dogs, including a Golden Retriever, a Rottweiler, and a bull dog. He is amazed that Christ took him through all that he did, and he has been able to share his testimony with many people.
I don’t know about you, but this story sure puts things in perspective for me!! My life is pretty blessed!!
Have a wonderful week.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Struck by Thunder
In that silly Disney kid’s movie ‘Snow Dogs’, where Florida dentist Cuba Gooding Jr. goes to Alaska, there is a line in it about tough, grizzled James Coburn being the only man who was ever ‘struck by thunder’. A storm rolled through in the evening a few nights ago, and we felt like we were nearly struck by thunder. One of the thunder claps was louder and more powerful that anything that we have ever experienced. It gave us a better understanding of what it must have been like for the Israelites when Moses was on the mountain with God!
Aside for the storm, the week’s excitement was when Adam preached at church last Sunday. As I mentioned last week, our pastor felt that God was telling him that Adam should be a teacher and invited him to speak the next Sunday. Adam is obviously very busy with work all week, so he wrestled with the decision of whether or not to accept the invitation. After about two days, he knew that he was running from it, and God led him- appropriately- to teach out of Jonah. He also focused on prayer and how we should reflect on how much time we spend with God. I love the book of Jonah because of Jonah’s humanness, like how he was so mad about God not killing the Ninevites that he wanted to die himself. I’ve wrestled with God about things myself, particularly about spending so much time cooped up in the apartment here, and said things to God like ‘This is so stupid!! What a waste of time!!’ In my bitterness, I’ve also found myself, particularly early on here, not praying that much because of my bitterness. The part that Adam touched on that really affected me was how Jonah was in the belly of the fish for THREE DAYS before he prayed! I never realized that. I’m sure everyone knows that he was in the belly for three days, but I never observed that he waited that long to actually pray. When he finally did, God had the fish spit him out.
How many of us are more like Jonah than we want to admit? As human beings, our tendency is to do things under our own power and turn to God as our last resort. There are times when God will deliver us from our troubles quickly when we turn to Him, like Jonah at that point, but I’m finding that it’s the times when my will does not align itself with God’s, or that He is taking way too long in my opinion to answer the prayer in the way that I want, that I have trouble continuing to pray and seek His will. Strangely, I didn’t really have that problem in America, even through some really tough stuff. Maybe that’s one of the reasons that God is taking me through this again here- in America, I can go meet with a friend or pick up the phone and get immediate support. Here, the feeling of isolation is often overwhelming, and I see that God is really the only one that I should need to turn to. That’s not to minimize the importance of fellowship, of course, but maybe it has been a heart issue for me and this apartment is my fish belly!
Overall, Adam did quite well for it being his first real sermon. The Swiss family said they were touched by it and couldn’t believe it was his first time teaching. This couple also had two other couples with them that week visiting from Switzerland, which, as we joked, increased the congregation by 40%! They spoke German and knew only a few English words, so it took some of the pressure off of Adam. Adam was also blessed by the in-depth study that he had to do in preparation for the sermon. He said that he will never listen to a sermon the same way again!
Aside for the storm, the week’s excitement was when Adam preached at church last Sunday. As I mentioned last week, our pastor felt that God was telling him that Adam should be a teacher and invited him to speak the next Sunday. Adam is obviously very busy with work all week, so he wrestled with the decision of whether or not to accept the invitation. After about two days, he knew that he was running from it, and God led him- appropriately- to teach out of Jonah. He also focused on prayer and how we should reflect on how much time we spend with God. I love the book of Jonah because of Jonah’s humanness, like how he was so mad about God not killing the Ninevites that he wanted to die himself. I’ve wrestled with God about things myself, particularly about spending so much time cooped up in the apartment here, and said things to God like ‘This is so stupid!! What a waste of time!!’ In my bitterness, I’ve also found myself, particularly early on here, not praying that much because of my bitterness. The part that Adam touched on that really affected me was how Jonah was in the belly of the fish for THREE DAYS before he prayed! I never realized that. I’m sure everyone knows that he was in the belly for three days, but I never observed that he waited that long to actually pray. When he finally did, God had the fish spit him out.
How many of us are more like Jonah than we want to admit? As human beings, our tendency is to do things under our own power and turn to God as our last resort. There are times when God will deliver us from our troubles quickly when we turn to Him, like Jonah at that point, but I’m finding that it’s the times when my will does not align itself with God’s, or that He is taking way too long in my opinion to answer the prayer in the way that I want, that I have trouble continuing to pray and seek His will. Strangely, I didn’t really have that problem in America, even through some really tough stuff. Maybe that’s one of the reasons that God is taking me through this again here- in America, I can go meet with a friend or pick up the phone and get immediate support. Here, the feeling of isolation is often overwhelming, and I see that God is really the only one that I should need to turn to. That’s not to minimize the importance of fellowship, of course, but maybe it has been a heart issue for me and this apartment is my fish belly!
Overall, Adam did quite well for it being his first real sermon. The Swiss family said they were touched by it and couldn’t believe it was his first time teaching. This couple also had two other couples with them that week visiting from Switzerland, which, as we joked, increased the congregation by 40%! They spoke German and knew only a few English words, so it took some of the pressure off of Adam. Adam was also blessed by the in-depth study that he had to do in preparation for the sermon. He said that he will never listen to a sermon the same way again!
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