Saturday, September 29, 2012

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


Friday, September 28, 2012

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: 

Thursday, September 20, 2012

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.

Friday, September 14, 2012

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



Thursday, September 13, 2012

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

Sunday, September 9, 2012

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


Tuesday, September 4, 2012

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