Answered Prayers

   This week He gave me the joy of learning about faith. God has showed me that He is so true to answer our prayers again and again. Each time one is answered, He never ceases to amaze me and leave me in awe of how powerful He is. If you have faith that He will do it, He will! I will tell you a number of answers to prayer which have strengthened my faith tremendously and I hope it does the same for you. The other girls on the team and I spend some time each week with three believers who own shops on the beach. Susanna and I visited one of the ladies, Leah, and she was very down because another woman, who is not a believer, owed Leah a great sum of money for three years. She wrote it down in her books that she would repay Leah. Then recently she told Leah that she never owed her any money. She never wrote it down and denied the truth. Leah came to us just very hurt and in need of prayer. She felt powerless in this situation and felt all she could do was pray. This woman isn't a believer so she did not see any wrong in being dishonest to Leah. But we knew that God can do all things, even convict the hearts of the ungodly. We prayed together and then apart and after a couple of days the woman called and told Leah she would pay her for what she owed!

   Another answer to prayer was with a woman named Sheela, who comes to our Life Skills and English classes every Tuesday and Thursday. This Tuesday Sheela was very distraught and asked us for prayer concerning her sons. Sheela and her family are Hindu but they are open to pray to Jesus. One of Sheela's sons has been getting into fights with other men (both sons are in their late 20's) and causing much trouble in the family. He wouldn't even let Sheela, his mother, leave the house at times. She also wanted us to pray for her other son, Neil, to contact her because she had not heard from him in a very long time and it made her upset that he would not speak to her. We then prayed with her for her sons and for her family to come to know the Lord. We always pray for salvation but we pray in English so they do not know what weare asking Jesus. Thursday when we saw Sheela again; she was eager for more prayer to Jesus. She told us that her son who was causing trouble was now doing well and that her other son Neil called her the very next day after we prayed. Praise the Lord! Neil told her when he called that he has been reading the Bible also! We are now praying that Neil will become a believer and reach Sheela. She is so hungry and knows something about Jesus from all the other gods. When we pray with her to Jesus, things actually happen! I think she is realizing that. I pray she is.
 
   Sheela asked us to pray for some other things regarding her family and just before we started praying another woman named Sunita came up. She prayed with us and afterwards she said something that truly amazed me. Jules, another girl from our team, prayed with Sunita last week. Sunita is a young woman but she has been suffering from an eye problem for quite some time. She said they were very painful and her vision was very blurry, especially in the mornings. She explained this to Jules and Jules was thrilled to get to pray over her and see God work. Sunita told us that after Jules prayed over her, she was healed! My eyes filled with tears as I was in awe of God and how is constantly revealing Himself to these people in India. Through answered prayers he reminds me of His word and how we must have faith that He will heal and work through us to glorify His name. Matthew 17:20 says "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." At times, I find myself doubting God, especially at home. But he has taught me to have much faith. Know that we serve a God who is alive, not dead. He is working all the time and is ready to move when we ask in faith! Remember that He can do all things. NOTHING is impossible with God.

Blessings,
  EG- Goa Volunteer

Beyond Barriers

During the week, I help look after roughly 100 kids ranging in age from 3 to 14 years old. I love them all, but one girl in particular has captured my heart.

Radica is old enough to to be in the second grade, but she, like so many girls in India, does not attend school. However, this has not dampened her joyful spirit. Every day, she comes in with a smile, big personality, and and infectious laugh. Radica only knows about 5 words in English, and I only know a few more in Hindi. Neither of us has a clue as to what the other is saying, but that has stopped us from forming a bond.

When I started working with the children I was very frustrated by the language barrier. The fact that I could barely pronounce their names, much less speak fluent Hindi, weighed on me very much. However, God has shown me that, despite these boundaries, He is able to work through them. As humans on this earth, there are things we are simply not able to do. However, our Savior is able to work through us despite this. When I receive a hug, or tickle a child, or make a silly face at a student, I see that His love is indeed getting through to those I am ministering to. Moses was not the best public speaker, and yet God worked in amazing ways through him. No matter how inadequate we may feel, He will always be able to work through us.

Blessings,
SB - Goa Volunteer

Spiritually Disabled

This week was a little different from most. Schedules were changed around in order to accommodate sickness and other meetings going on. Because of this, I was able to work in the other ministry location and go back to the after school program that I hadn’t been to in a while. It ended up being one of the most special days I’ve had here so far. There are several children in the slum that have leg deformities. Two of the girls are sisters, and the boy is from a separate family. The oldest girl can walk on her own, but the younger boy and girl have to scoot around or rely on others to carry them from place to place. While we were walking in on Wednesday, the boy wanted me to carry him, and the younger girl sat in my lap the whole time during the lesson. She even gave me her drawing she had colored after the lesson. Being there and having the opportunity to love, to hold, and even carry these children reminded me of something my friend Andie told me after her trip this summer to Kenya. After visiting a Mother Teresa orphanage for the mentally and physically disabled she related that to how we are spiritually disabled. She taught me a lot about this, but it wasn’t until i was with these children with physical disabilities that I understood for myself what this meant.

Psalm 23:1-4 says, “The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right path for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff they comfort me”.

God showed me through this experience that it is impossible to live a holy life in this sinful world without him. We have to rely on him to provide for us, lead us, and sometimes even carry us on this path of righteousness. We as humans will fail in this world if we try to rely on others or even ourselves too much. We have to fully be dependent on God knowing that we are debilitated without him. Seeing how those children are physically dependent on the people around them, made me realize how I need to be in my relationship with God, dependent on him for every aspect of my life.

Blessings,
JL - Goa Volunteer

Seeds and Seasons

We found out Diwali is next week which is one of the biggest Hindu holidays, so this week ended up being our last week of ministry. It was hard to say bye to the many people we’ve met at our different locations, not knowing if we will ever see them again. There were a lot of emotions packed into this last week. Joy that God gave me the opportunity to meet such wonderful people, laughter thinking about the experiences and funny moments we’ve had being here, sadness in having to say bye to people I truly care about and love, and excitement for time adventuring and debriefing next week with my team before I go back home. I was sick yesterday so I stayed back at the house and in that time I was really able to reflect on what has happened since I’ve been here. 

One thing that was revealed to me in that time was how it was hard a lot of the time to feel like I had purpose here, that God was really using me. But what God showed me this past week especially was that he uses us even in the mundane. That we are his hands and feet whether we sharing a bible story to a room full of women, or letting a child play with our hair, or rearranging furniture for a new stitching class. That God uses us in so many different ways to plant seeds, and even though I won’t necessarily see those seeds develop, it’s evident that God is working in these women and children lives and softening their hearts, and he is allowing me to be able to be a little bitty piece of the puzzle. When he called me here he didn’t expect me to know what I was doing he just told me to love his people and he would do the rest. 

These women and children have taught me so much; I loved seeing their smiles everyday among the pain they experience at home. To be able to love them through a hug or a smile when communicating it was hard. To be able to just spend time with them and listen so they felt like they were a person and what they say matters. I don’t know if I’m ready to go back and be immersed in American culture after being here this long. But I know this season of my life has almost come to an end and I can’t wait to see what God has planned next!

Blessings,
 JL- Goa Volunteer

Help Is On The Way

     
      Recently, I had the distinct privilege of serving in India with a small, but awesome team of women.  We grew close quickly as we spent literally every moment together in this foreign land.  Many nights we stayed up laughing, crying, praying and discussing all the events of the day.  On one such night we stayed up late rehashing the day’s activities.  As the night wore on everyone drifted off to sleep.  At some point in the night, I awoke to go to the restroom, which was located in our room, a mere 3 feet from one set of bunk beds.  Remember this; it will be important later in the story.  Several days earlier the door knob on the outside of the bathroom had become dislodged.  We tried to fix it to no avail.  At some point it simply fell off completely, we put it to the side and made a mental note to attempt a more thorough repair at a later date.  I believe it was 3 am when the inevitable happened, I went to open the door and the inside knob came off.  No worry, I thought to myself, I am resourceful, and I will simply find a way out.  No need to wake the team!  As I looked around I quickly realized there were no resources, no tools, nothing to pry the door open with, and nothing that could substitute as a tool.  Being raised by a self proclaimed MacGyver I was perplexed at this situation.  No tools, no resources, nothing!  I did not want to wake my team but unfortunately there was no way out!  I began with a slight knocking on the door, calling out, “guys, guys, anybody awake, hello?”  No answer.  I called out the window perpendicular to the window beside my team members heads.  “Guys, wake up, I am locked in the bathroom!”  No answer, no sound whatsoever.  I became a little more anxious as I realized no one could hear me and there was no place to rest in this Indian style bathroom.  Had I been home I may have crawled into the tub and called it a night.  It was hot and stale, and sweat began to run down my face.  There was nowhere to go and no where to rest.  My knocking went from slight and polite, to pounding and constant.  My voice grew louder as my frustration grew. “GUYS (pound, pound, pound!) WAKE UP, I AM TRAPPED!”  After a long while of frustration I prayed, “Lord, a little help please.” Finally, after 30 minutes of banging and yelling I heard a faint, “come in.”  Did my team member just say “come in?”  In disbelief I yelled back, “I CAN’T COME IN, I’M LOCKED IN THE BATHROOM!!!!!” I heard movement finally, muffled laughter and questions.  The laughter grew both on my side and theirs as they realized the situation.  I heard the rustling outside of the door.  Finally, my dear friend held up her cell phone to the quarter sized hole.  I could see the light and knew that they were now fully awake and ready to help.  They all admitted they had heard a faint knocking and had wished it would go away!  After a short while I was rescued. Afterward we laughed until we cried!

     The next morning we awoke to more laughter as we relived the crazy circumstances of the night before.  Unexpectedly, the Lord spoke softly to my heart.  He used the situation from the night before to impact my heart in a way nothing else could have done.  As I mentioned before, I am resourceful, and I come from a family of resourceful people.  A blessed life full of family, friends and love, never in want.  Yes there were hard times but I never went to bed hungry, I was never held against my will and there were always resources available for me to reach my goals.  The short time locked in that bathroom took me to a place of helplessness.  I had no resources for the first time in my life.  There was no way out.  I could not rest on my own strength.  Although I banged and yelled with all my might, no one could hear me.  And when they finally heard a faint sound, they turned over hoping it would just go away.  How many women trapped in the horror of human trafficking feel this way, not for 30 minutes, but constantly?  How many people hear their faint cries and simply turn away or wish for someone else to take care of the problem.  Helpless, hopeless and defeated for the first time I can ever remember.  Help lie a mere 3 feet away in some wonderful Christian women.  But they were asleep.  Is the church asleep, are we unable or unwilling to hear the cries of these women.  Like the sudden bright light shining through the quarter sized hole in the broken door, we can be that sign of hope for these women.  When they see the light of Jesus in us they will know that help is on the way.  In the form of a Jewish carpenter, who died to set them free?  Not just spiritually, but physically from the chains of human trafficking.

Blessings,
J - Volunteer Bangalore

Our Savior Loves To Laugh

Rahab's Rope Volunteer - Goa, India

Growing up, I never thought of God as being a particularly humorous person. Strong, loving, and protecting, yes. A penchant for comedy? Not so much. Recently, however, it was made quite clear that our Savior does indeed love to laugh, while blessing us in the process.

Three of us work in a preschool during the morning, which takes two buses to get to. We had one day off due to a national holiday, which we used to get some much needed rest. Fully expecting school to be in session for the rest of the week, we got up, caught our buses, and greeted the children happily over the next two days. When Friday morning arrived, we got an unexpected surprise. As we were nearing our final stop, our team leader got a text from the school principal. Someone who had worked in government had passed away, therefore school was canceled. All we could do was smile and chuckle. The fact that school had been canceled was one thing - finding out 10 minutes before we got there was another.

If this had happened in the States, I would have been annoyed. 'Why didn't I find out sooner? I have to spend another bus fare just to go back? I could have slept in!' Instead, I imagined God's expression, smiling and chuckling as He handed my team the unexpected blessing of 5 extra hours of rest. He indeed has a sense of humor, and now I know that sometimes, His answers to prayer come in the form of a laugh.

Blessings,
SB - Goa Volunteer

Ministering In A Place Of Chaos And Beauty

India is a place of contrast, chaos and contradiction. You don't have to be here long to see and understand it. Billboards of glamorous people and high rises stand over slums made from concrete, dirt and plastic siding. The people here are also a study in contrast, we have found beauty in an Aids clinic and also in the slums of Bangalore.

In the mornings, five of the ladies on the team begin the day by serving at an Aids clinic, while two of us get the awesome privilege of tutoring/teaching two little girls who live at the clinic. The young girls are two of twenty-two children who live at the facility. The two young girls are orphans, like all the girls in the facility, both parents having died from aids. We are teaching them the alphabet, numbers and colors. We also sing with them, tell them stories and just generally love on them. They are two beautiful jewels.

Rahab's Rope Volunteers - India

In the evening, our team heads out to the slums to minister to young girls ages 12 to 16. You have never seen such beautiful smiles. Their smiles are such a contrast to the ugliness of the poverty that surrounds them. We tell stories from the Bible, sing worship songs, and help the girls with their English. They are so smart!

Each one is learning at least two languages, math, science etc. What a blessing it is to hear their voices sing out songs to God, praises, and yet they live in a dark place filled with idolatry, superstition and a sense of hopelessness. There is so much pain here and yet we find ourselves singing and laughing... even dancing with these young girls. Wherever Jesus is, there is hope.

Please pray for these young girls, that They would truly give their hearts to the one true living God who created them and loves them so much.


Blessings,
Calvary Chapel East Anaheim Volunteers

Quilt Making Class

Rahab's Rope Volunteers Teach Quilt Making

Today is one more day to take the opportunity to empty ourselves and to look to the One that gave it all for us, our Lord Jesus.

In the morning we went to the slums to work with the ladies. We are teaching them how to make quilts. As I'm writing this, I see their faces and see how happy and ready to learn they are. They are excited to learn how to cut an even square of fabric and how to sew a straight line. We want to teach them how to do excellent work so they can have a finished product that can be sold.

Along with sewing class, we sing with the girls, pray for them, and tell them stories from the Bible. Today we told them about the women who touch Jesus garment. We are praying every day that the Holy Spirit would reveal to them who Jesus is. That they would know that He is not another god but the Savior.


Blessings,
Calvary Chapel East Anaheim Volunteers

Jesus Loves The Children

Jesus Loves The Children

Today, we started our day with an inspiring devotion from one of our team members. The devotion was about prayer and allowing the Lord to guide us and be willing to go where He leads us. We split into two groups again and headed off to the Aids home. There I worked with another girl from our group and we did the laundry. It really makes you appreciate the luxury of a washer and dryer back home. I won't ever be able to look at laundry the same again. The worker from the Aids home who taught us their way of doing laundry worked there for 10 years. He is 27 and works harder than most people I know. Not only does he work all day at the Christian Aids home but then has to care for his father once he gets home. You can truly feel the Lord's presence on the grounds of this facility. I am so blessed to be here in India and be able to work with so many Godly people.

After lunch we went to teach the children in the slums. This is my favorite part of the day. To be around these beautiful little girls is beyond words. We taught them the 12 spies who went to Canaan song and they sang us a few songs. My girls read some passages from one of their school books in english. Then they asked me to tell them words out of the text so they can practice spelling them. They are so eager to learn and already so smart! They taught me "Ya Pier Lexi" means my name is Lexi in Tamil. They also taught me "Yun Pier Yenna" which means what is your name and a few other phrases. They have the most beautiful smiles I've ever seen. They all hugged and kissed me and kept asking me to come back tomorrow. As I left the building tonight, a woman in the street grabbed my hand, placed it on her head, and motioned me to pray for her. She did not speak much english. For anyone who is close to me you know I have a strange fear of praying out loud in front of people. This was a huge moment for me because the Lord chose me out of the whole team to pray with this woman, so of course I did. It was such a beautiful moment I will never forget.

The whole team was invited to a home cooked Indian meal by a local family. The food was delicious and the fellowship was incredible! I miss home and my family but I am loving and enjoying India, my team, and the new friends we've made. International Pastor, George Foster said "God never intended for us to be mere recipients of His love; He calls us to share it with others. We are not to be reservoirs, but channels by which His love can reach the world. When He pours out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, He wants us to leak like sieve...the whole point of being blessed is to pass the blessing to others"


Blessings,
Calvary Chapel East Anaheim Volunteers

The Amazing Rat Race

I'm not quite sure how to start this blog, there's been a lot of opinion regarding what I should post about our last couple of days. For the sake of "drawing in my audience", I will tell you all about my early morning with a new friend..
He doesn't have a name yet, but he's already famous around here.

Last night I claimed the couch here in the guest house (it's pretty snuggly), and at about 2:30am I was bit on the toe by a rat; no real problem, no rabies, not a lot of blood but he got away. He's going' down, though.

Once we got our day started we were told we would be splitting up to go to two different areas so that we could be most effective. My team went to the hospice care facility that takes in HIV/aids patients and to the slums to work with the young girls.

I was not quite prepared for what I saw at either place but today was a orientation day and tomorrow we will be starting the real service work. I won't go into too much detail but it was totally incredible to see the hearts of not only the people at the facility but mostly those running the programs. The young girls were so sweet and excited that we were there to just love on them.

We can't wait to really get involved and build these relationships and also just be a servant anywhere we can be helpful.

It's truly amazing what the Lord is doing here in Bangalore let alone the entire country through the amazing people who pour so much into this ministry.

Can't wait to share with you all when we get home!!

Blessings,
Calvary Chapel East Anaheim Volunteers

Rahab's Rope 2012 Volunteers

Check Out Videos From Our 2011 Trip: 

Human Trafficking Lesson

Today we went through a 2 1/2 detailed lesson on Human Trafficking. It was educational, disturbing and heart breaking all at the same time. It made us realize how much we need to pray for these men and women all over the world who are involved.

Later in the day we sorted the nine suitcases of donations including healthcare products, school supplies and items for girls. Thank you to everyone who donated items. The people here could not believe the amount of things we brought.

Rahab's Rope Volunteers

We were blessed to have an Indian women cook us dinner. She made butter chicken and homemade Indian tortillas. It was terrific!

God has blessed this team with several skills and abilities that we will be using this week at our teaching locations. We are preparing to help at a sewing center and in the slums, teaching English and telling Bible stories.

We really appreciate all your prayers and words of encouragement.

Calvary Chapel East Anaheim Volunteers

Exciting News! Nine ladies from Calvary Chapel East Anaheim have joined Rahab's Rope in Bangalore, India. We are excited to welcome them! They will be a wonderful blessing to our staff and teams already working in India. 

Follow the Rahab's Rope Volunteer Blog for updates and stories from Calvary Chapel East Anaheim ladies. Feel free to comment and leave kind thoughts. The staff and volunteers at Rahab's Rope love hearing encouraging words.

Rahab's Rope 2012 Volunteers

38 Year Old Indian Woman Celebrates First Birthday

We have celebrated two birthdays while I have been here in India, one today and one at the end of last week. For each, we bought a cake. Last week we celebrated the birthday of a beautiful widowed friend. We brought her a cake and sang “Happy Birthday” to her and all the while she said, “Why waste your money on me?” We explained to her (several times) that we weren’t wasting money. Because she is special according to God she is not a waste of money, time, or life. She is a precious individual and worth celebrating. She denied it. She denied her worthiness multiples times throughout her birthday celebration. As we walked out of her home, at the close of the celebration, she denied her worth a final time. She denied that she was beautiful, which we reassured her with our love that her beauty ran deep, inside and out. 

The cake we brought her was her first birthday cake ever. She was 38 years old.

Blessings,
MW - Summer 2012 Volunteer

God's Love and Healing in India

Rahab's Rope Volunteer

It is absolutely amazing the ways in which God works, heals, and loves. It is amazing that He would send me halfway around the world, in complete selflessness, to minister to these dear people in India. The Lord is the best Doctor. His methods of healing may not seem conventional to our human minds, but when we look at it from the big picture and not just from one tiny pixel, we can see that His methods are much more broad and effective than anything we could hope for. I say all this because of what He is doing in me. He is healing me. I have prayed for so long that He would heal me spiritually. 

Earlier this summer I felt so hopeless that I would never be healed. But God’s sense of humor is one of irony, or that seems to be the case when He deals with me, a lover of all things ironic. It is ironic that He would have us go do something so selfless, and heal us in our selflessness. My human mind cannot understand His ways. All I can do is wonder in awe of God's love and healing. 

The Lord speaks so much in India. India is a place of constant spiritual warfare. God knows when His children need to hear from Him more. His children tend to know that we need to seek Him more than ever in the mission field full of spiritual warfare. While volunteering with Rahab's Rope in India, The Lord has shown me several passages in His Scriptures, most of which I have never read before. Perhaps I have read them before, but it was here in India that God revealed the meaning to me. One passage that He revealed to me when we arrived in India was in Jeremiah 31:2-6. He promised healing and renewed joy to Israel. It is what I have witnessed since being here, and it is what many of the girls we are working with need.

           The girls we work with have such a capacity for love. It is more than I’ve seen in many Americans. It is astounding. And they love us along with all the Rahab's Rope staff and volunteers so much! It practically breaks their hearts every time a team leaves.  It so easily will break your own when you have experienced the love they have and realize how serious our departure is. They don’t have Facebook or addresses that we can write them at. We may never see them again, lest they are reached and find Jesus; thankfully, then we shall see them in Glory. I pray, for the girls’ sake, that God sends someone more permanent to minister to them.  Short-term missions trips are great opportunities for us and for the girls.  But they also need that constant person so they can come to learn that not everyone will leave them, especially our loving Saviour.

Blessings,

MW - Summer 2012 Volunteer

Finding Strength In The Book Of Daniel

Rahab's Rope, India

      Coming to India has felt like I have been transported back into the Old Testament times as the culture here is saturated in idol worship. I felt like God kept bringing me to the book of Daniel in the months before this mission trip and now it is clear why. I found strength in the book of Daniel. Daniel was in exile in Babylon and was a minority there in his spiritual beliefs. He was often tested when it came to standing up for his beliefs despite threat of certain persecution or death. Daniel and his companions did not waver in their beliefs, but fully relied on God no matter the outcome. The believers here are the minority in this society. The non-believers here risk much to choose to believe in Jesus Christ; therefore, many are hesitant to accept Christ as their one and only Savior. They risk being beaten by their husbands, not finding a partner who shares the same beliefs, being treated as outcasts by their relatives for not following tradition, losing business, and being shunned in their respective communities. In America it is easy to take for granted the freedom we have to believe whatever we want. We face little persecution to follow Jesus in America.

      I cannot imagine being a non-believer here and being asked to change my beliefs to accept a new hope and salvation through Jesus Christ when facing so much adversity. It seems one would be desperate for this new hope and would jump at the opportunity to know Christ, yet I wonder if I would if I were in their place when everyone around you are Hindus and that is all you have ever known. Would you? I would like to say yes, but I honestly do not know. That is why it is so important for the body of Christ to be united in prayer and to be bold and fearless in loving others to Christ. We have to support the church worldwide. We need to be in constant prayer for our missionaries around the world and for the salvation of non-believers. It is a dark environment here. Sometimes it can feel very heavy when you see Hindu worship everywhere you look, in the buses we ride, mini temples on every corner, pictures of idols in the homes, the constant smell of incense burning in worship to idols, people who live in slums flooding into elaborately built Hindu temples to worship carved images, homeless half-dressed children in the streets, when we hear stories of spousal abuse often because a woman gave birth to a girl instead of a boy, when a mother asks you to take her daughter back to America with you to give her a better life and/or because she does not want her, women and children begging for food or money everywhere you go, homeless men with diseased skin sleeping in allies.  It is easy to be discouraged here and believe there is no hope for India.

      Despite this seemingly hopeless saturated population of idol worshipers, there is a strong body of believers here and their light is shining in their neighborhoods and growing.  As a volunteer here the past couple of weeks I was reminded of the early church and how Paul would visit and write to the new believers to encourage them in their faith. I believe that is what I and the other volunteers have been doing here; coming alongside the believers established here and encouraging them, letting them know that the universal body of Christ is alive and that we are all walking together in spreading God’s word, that we are here for them and believe in them. Rahab’s Rope is so involved here in a multifaceted approach from teaching preschoolers and their teachers about Jesus, teaching English and meeting hygiene needs of mothers, sharing Jesus with young women who are learning marketable job skills, discipling and fervently praying with local believers, tutoring school children who are from Hindu homes and teaching them Bible stories each day, meeting non-believers where they are in their homes and loving them, encouraging the local church and youth group in praise and worship, playing with and giving food to homeless children in the street who are most likely never shown love, to sharing testimonies and more. This is what mission work should be in my opinion; submersing yourself in the community and sharing daily the gospel of Jesus.

       Change might be possible without Jesus Christ, but I am convinced it will not be lasting or effective. There is no hope without Him; without losing ourselves and finding ourselves in Him. India is in dire need of knowing Jesus Christ, and the staff members and volunteers of Rahab’s Rope are working hard to make this happen. I am honored to have been a part of what is happening here. I don’t know that I have felt so alive in my faith before as I have while here. God is moving mountains in India and the seriousness with which the believers here take their faith in Jesus Christ is so inspiring and admirable.  It seems since there is so much at stake, the dependency on God is so much stronger. It is exciting to talk daily about your faith with other believers and what God is doing or showing you. There is a deep sense of community, relationship and passionate spirituality here in the local body of Christ that I feel is missing back home with our comforts and conveniences, and of which I hope to inspire upon my return. 

Blessings,

Rachel - Summer 2012 Volunteer

A Story Of Joy

My heart is so full right now. Full of heartache, sadness, pain. But mostly it’s full of hope. It’s full of love. And it is certainly FULL of Joy.

I love stories and I love sharing experiences. So today, I think… maybe, just maybe, I am going to do just that. The complicated thing is finding the right words. I suppose I’ll start with telling you about a little girl named Joy. Her name isn’t really Joy but it might as well be.

This is Joy:

Joy is a precious child that I met on the street in India. There are a fair amount of children that beg on the streets throughout India. Many of them have tattered or very little clothing on their body. All of them are VERY in need of a bath and a good meal to fill their tummies. I love getting to love on them. It has become a part of my daily routine as well as the teams that I’ve been blessed to lead. We simply stop and play, hug, and laugh with these kids. I have a ball that I keep in my bag and it makes a great toy to toss around with the precious little ones.

Some days we sit and share juice boxes, snacks, and broken Hindi. Most days people give us weird looks and tell us not to bother with these kids. Every single day these kids fill my heart with such joy. These children have been on my heart from the day I first stepped in the city back in May. It has been an incredible blessing to watch the Lord move in this city and in these children. 

Back to Joy:

I’m not really sure how old she is. Typically children here look younger than they actually are. So your guess is as good as mine. I have a feeling that regardless of this young ones age… she has seen a decent amount of hardship in her short life span. She doesn’t go to school, but she is old enough. She has a family. Her older sister sometimes begs with her on the streets. I have no idea where her mom is, but she does have a mom. A mom who sends her out to beg.

I’m not sure how often or if she ever is hugged and held. She is extremely good at making people feel loved though. This, I do know. A few weeks ago a group of us got off the bus in the city. As we got off, I instantly spotted Joy. She came up to the group of us and as my friends leaned down to her she cupped her tiny hands around their faces. Joy looked them in the eyes with such love. She didn’t do much … just smiled, held their heads, and walked away.

My friends were talking amongst one another later in the day. One friend said: “I saw Jesus this morning.” The other two instantly responded saying they did to. In that little girl. They saw Jesus in Joy. 

I wish you could meet this child. She is a light. A BRIGHT SHINING LIGHT. She makes my heart hopeful because despite the darkness that roams the streets… the Lord is rising up lights. He is sending people into the nations, but He is also shining through small children. Precious children that are born into darkness but aren’t consumed by it.

I don’t know Joy’s life story. I don’t know if I’ll ever see her again, but I know she is a child of a King. And my prayer is that she won’t stay on these streets for long, but if she does…I know she will continue to be a bright light. 

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” 

          -Matthew 18:10

Blessings,

Danielle - Summer 2012 Volunteer