then on to our flight home. The lady standing behind us works for one of the top accounting firms in the U.S. She is returning home after 6 weeks at their India office. She tells us how her company has shuffled a lot of their work to the relatively cheap, yet hungry and educated India talent pool.She tells us that she has enjoyed India- though she admits she has not seen much of it. Her India hosts partnering with her U.S. company are careful to not expose their American partners to too much of India they may find distasteful. "To tell you the truth, we have really only seen what they what us to see," she tells us. "We only go to the nice restaurants and hotels- they drive us everywhere in nice limos, it is all very staged."
She hasn't seen much of the poverty of India. She is fascinated by our experiences and after hearing about the orphanage in Monipur she hands me her card and asks if I will give her more information saying she would love to contribute to this cause.
"My experience in India is all business and career, I'm afraid, nothing like what you guys have been doing. I would like to do something positive here."
She hasn't seen much of the poverty of India. She is fascinated by our experiences and after hearing about the orphanage in Monipur she hands me her card and asks if I will give her more information saying she would love to contribute to this cause.
"My experience in India is all business and career, I'm afraid, nothing like what you guys have been doing. I would like to do something positive here."
It seemed very odd to me that her company would want to insulate American workers from the harsh reality of poverty in India. How can someone spend six weeks here and not see the horrible poverty?
But then again how can a person spend his whole life in America and not see her poverty?
I think we would all be shocked by the hunger and poverty and deep needs that exists all around us every day. It is there, but like the woman in the limo in India, we are conditioned to not see it.
You don't have to go to India to see poverty.
But in my case, God has used India to help me see Oklahoma City.
1. Christ at work
For a good picture of Jesus at work I will think of the families I have met in Delhi and Luknow and Calcutta who have moved into the slum in order to pull children off the street and into a shelter where they can find food, clothing, protection and the love of Christ. But before these families moved toward the needs, they had to be willing to open their understanding and see it with the eyes of Christ.
2. Hunger and thirst.
"Hunger" has moved into a new category in my consciousness. It will be more difficult to use this word loosely. I have seen not just physical hunger, but
genuine spiritual hunger as well. While standing in the registration area at the conference in Bhubeneswar, a young man walked up to me and with great intensity said, "I want to know what you know about prayer."I asked him to explain further and he said, "I have so many questions for you- like how do you worship?- how do you hear God talking to you? I am a new Christian and I have so much to learn."
He looks tired to me and so I ask how he got to the conference "My friends and I traveled 20 hours on a train" he says.
I hesitate to answer him. I cannot think of a time in my life in which I was so eager to experience a Christian gathering that I was willing to endure 20 hours in confined space and discomfort. I realize in that moment that there is nothing in my context that can identify with this kind of passion. How odd the American church would seem to this young man, I think.
3. Incredible grace.
I have a better idea today of what Jesus meant when he said, "blessed are you when you are poor". Jesus said that our righteousness is like filthy rags. In seeing the worlds unbelievable and desperate needs, I am reminded when I see this poverty that this is what I look like if it were not for the incredible grace of God. There are families in Calcutta who have lived for generations on the same little corner of the street. They eat garbage on the street, they beg on the street, they sleep, take baths and exist on that little piece of real estate their entire lives just as their parents and grandparents before them have lived. It is only by his grace that my life is any different. "Nothing in my hands I bring, only to the cross I cling", has new meaning to me today.
4. Eternal Perspective
I have a new appreciation today for the work of William Carey and Adoniram Judson. Here are two Baptist missionaries who gave their entire lives to spread the gospel in India. There are parts of India today that are almost 100% Christian because of their work. The foundation for the Evangelical Christian church in India that is now beginning to emerge and gather momentum was established over 200 years ago by these incredible men. I learned on this trip that it was Carey who started the first bank in India, the first printing press and the first translations of the Bible into the three top languages of India were all accomplished by a man who had almost no support from his home country. Carey was a brilliant botanist and linguist, but he used his skills and talent for the glory of God to reach the lost at great personal sacrifice. And yet, in his lifetime, Carey saw none of these fruits from his labor. He never served a big church. He did not gain wealth or fame. His wife lost her mind in India. He left the culture and lifestyle of London and endured incredible hardship in a foreign land in order to cultivate the hard soil of a pagan world view for the cause of Christ.
Truly, life that matters is life that is given away.
5. Opportunity
I can see how our church can have a real impact on many lives by supporting the orphanage in Monipur. Very few dollars can pay huge dividends in the Hope Center. I would like to see our church make a longtime commitment to this very important and impactful work. I would like to send future groups to this orphanage to help build and support their mission.
I am somewhat embarrassed to say it, but India has opened my eyes to our own community. I see now with better clarity how important our strategy of LP2C is at home. I have grown even more passiona te toward our initiatives in affecting real change through our community strategy. I will work with more intentionality and purpose now toward what we are emphasizing in these ministries.
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