We just had a team come back from India. They have been in New Delhi for the last 3 months ministering to orphans and in leper colonies. One of the things we do with teams is debrief them when they return. We want to get them thinking about what they’ve seen and experienced and begin to help them process through what God has shown them. One of the questions we ask is this:
What was something that was hard for you on the trip, how did you face the hardship and get through it, and how did God redeem that struggle?
Here are some of the answers from different people on the team. I’ve put the first initial of the person at the end of each anecdote. Several of them are ‘K’. For some weird reason about 8 out of the 10 participants have a first name beginning with ‘K’.
I was extremely homesick. My family has always been my comfort. God became my comfort in the absence of my family. I also knew that India was going to be dirty and gross. It was and I hate being dirty and gross. At some point during the trip God showed me that I needed to be willing to give up cleanliness for the name of Jesus. I was able to do that and Jesus desire to love the people of India through me was more important than my being clean. M
I thought it was silly when people would say that God knows us better than we know ourselves. After all, I’m me, who could know me better than me? At the leper colony I was confronted with things I’d never experienced before. I saw a dead person for the first time. I had some reactions that I didn’t expect and they weren’t good reactions. I guess God put some things in front of me to bring out some things in me that need to change. It was amazing to realize that He really does know me better than I know myself and puts me in situations for the purpose of revealing the things in me that need to change. K
I didn’t like anyone on my team. At one point I told them all that. God showed me that I could love them. As I made the decision to love them, I found that I was able to love them and that it was a real love. K
We were at an orphanage and there were kids everywhere. They were hanging on us and we couldn’t get a break. They were pulling at my skirt so much that I had to keep pulling it up to keep it from falling down. I was getting really frustrated and angry wondering why these kids couldn’t calm down. Jesus showed me that He had always been in demand by people who needed to be loved. Wherever He went He was in demand. People mobbed Him and wanted to be near Him. From that point forward I considered it an honor and not a burden to experience the same thing that Jesus had experienced. K
That’s a taste. As I sat and listened to their stories, I was seeing a group of college age kids who had been changed. The perspective changes that have taken place are foundational and they’ll see things differently from here on out. It’s a blessing to be a part of something that allows people to experience God in real ways. As He reveals Himself to them He shows them who they really are and it changes them. They want to be more like Him and to do that they have to face their own falleness and give it to Him.
