New Zealand Adventure: Outreach: Part II

Continuing where I left off... (which means if you don’t know where I left off go down and read part I)

After another ten hour train ride we made it back to Calcutta and we settled back into Lee Memorial Girls School. On Sunday after we had recovered from the train ride, which usually took about a day, we went out into the center of Calcutta in an area known as New Market and we did some street evangelism and how we did that was this: We bought around ten five-liter water bottles and a few hundred cups and we offered a free cup of water to people walking the streets and when they asked why we were giving it away we were able to tell them about Jesus. On Monday we worked with Mother Teresa and the ministry that she started there in India. It is really awesome what the Sisters of Charity and the volunteers are doing for the city. Hundreds of people come from around the world to volunteer their time to partner with the Sisters of Charity and the houses that they oversee. While I was there I worked at the house known as Daya Dan which is a house for children who are physically and mentally handicapped. It was so amazing to help out the children and to see how much people who aren’t even Christians are willing to give up their time to help others. The three days that we worked with Mother Teresa were some of my favorite on the whole trip.

We worked with the Sisters of Charity and Mother Teresa Monday through Wednesday and on Thursday. On Friday we got on yet another train ride headed for Jharsuguda. Jharsuguda is ten hours southwest of Calcutta. We decided that one of the places that we were going to go for our outreach was Jharsuguda because of a man named John Bridge. John Bridge came to speak to us at the beginning of our school, I think it was on the third day of the school. He told us the story of how he came to India over thirty years ago. He also told us about the compound and how he has built up an orphanage and a school with over twelve hundred current students. The story was incredible. Because of what John had said to us on that day our leaders, when thinking about outreach locations and after having chosen India, decided to go to where John had his ministry. John had asked us before we arrived to have a program for the entire compound the second day we were there, so we spend the first day and a half working on an hour program for everyone which turned out really well. During the three and a half weeks that we were at John’s compound we had a lot of time to play with the kids in the afternoon when they weren’t working on their schoolwork or their chores. The kids there are amazing, most of them speak english fluently as well as two other languages and they were only ten years old. Our schedule while at the compound was usually pretty full. John planned out a schedule for our entire time there so that made things a little easier for our team leaders.

Since the whole idea of our missionary work is to come along side missionaries who are already established in other countries we were willing to do whatever John needed us to do. Most of what John had in mind for our team was church meetings. You are probably wondering what that entails considering it is in India and so the churches are not like our normal churches at home. Well, I will enlighten you. John, during his thirty-year ministry in India, has pioneered many, many churches. Before John had come to India the area of Jharsuguda and the surrounding area and just about all of the state of Orissa had basically no Christians whatsoever so almost all of the churches in that area were started by John. Because John pioneered many of the churches he has the responsibility to oversee them and to make sure that the Indians running the churches correctly. What John had asked us to do for all of the churches was to encourage and build up the believers in those churches. The way that we did that was with testimonies, skits, songs and stories. Almost every single day we were there we went with John to different churches and day cares. John had us go to different churches and hold programs for the children there. John’s main focus is children which is why he has a school and why he had us go to these day cares. The children there were always so good at paying attention to whoever was speaking and we always felt so loved by all of them, it was so amazing. Day care visits usually consisted of the same schedule as church meetings except that we usually didn’t spend any time actually praying with the children because after our hour they usually started to lose focus and become rowdy. After every church meeting and every day care visit, without fail, we were given a meal to eat. The meal almost always consisted of bananas, chai tea, rice, and sometimes a trail mix-type plate of food. Everywhere we visited the people were so kind and hospitable to us. We were never in want of anything.

Our time in India flew by so fast, it felt as if we had been there only a few days instead of almost a few months. During our last week in Jharsuguda we got on yet another twelve hour train ride. This time our destination was Jaypore. Jeypore is almost directly south of Jharsuguda. While in Jeypore we had a full on schedule and I mean full on!! Every day that we were there we had between two and three church visits. And, if you remember what I said about church visits and how long they usually last, we were completely exhausted every night. Most of our visits were not in the actual city of Jeypore but in cities surrounding it so we almost always had a couple of hours in the bus everyday. We never really got bored though, my group was so close with each other that we were basically family. We were able spending so much time with each other without wanting to strangle each other and that was a huge blessing to all of us, especially the leaders who had to deal with us.

We stayed in Jeypore for a total of four days and we went to at least ten different churches on visits. We were all extremely exhausted by the end of it and we, as much as we could, enjoyed the rest on the train ride back to Jharsuguda. We only had a day or two back in Jharsuguda before we had to head back to Calcutta so that we could head home. Outreach was almost over. But just because it was getting close didn’t mean that we were done. Our last day or so we spent a lot of time finishing up some painting that we had started in the orphanage building at John’s compound. In each of the rooms we painted different Bible stories. In one room we painted David and Goliath, in another we painted Jonah and the whale, in another Moses in the reeds, and in the last we painted Esther and the king. It turned out really well and all of the children really liked it. We took our sixth and final twelve hour train ride east back to Calcutta from Jharsuguda and we spent our last day in India starting our debrief time. It was a good time to recount what had happened throughout the entire outreach.

Our first impression of India was at the Calcutta airport at three in the morning. The first thought that we had when we got there was “Wow! This place is a dump. It’s so dirty!” On leaving India we went through the same airport and when we got into the airport our first thought was “Wow! This place is so clean.” Our view on life and the way that Indians live was completely changed in the time that we were there. We flew from Calcutta to Bangkok, Thailand. The other students on my school, who had gone to Chennai, India on the other outreach team, were already there. We met up with them and we were able to enjoy some good catching up time as well as seeing some of the city before we got on our final plane flight back to New Zealand.

The final two weeks of the DTS consisted of a debrief week which we learned all about re-entering into the “real” world after this amazing experience that we had. We were also told about how we were to deal with the change that happened to us and how to put that to use when we got home. We spent the final week of DTS in Auckland at the Pacific Regional Conference. It was a great time where we got to hear all about what God is doing in the Pacific. We had people come and speak from all over the Pacific and give presentations on their country. It was amazing to see that God is working everywhere, and how God is using people from everywhere to enhance his kingdom.

So that is my outreach to India. I hope you enjoyed hearing about what God has done in my life during my time in India as well as all that He has been doing in India just in the short time that I was there. I had an amazing, amazing, time and I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything in the world. I would like to thank all of you who have been so very faithful in supporting me with your prayers. It has been greatly appreciated. Prayer is so powerful and I would like to ask all of you to continue praying for me as I figure out what I am going to be doing come Autumn. I have been thinking and praying about returning to Newcaslte, Australia where I spent some time after my DTS ended. There is a YWAM base in Newcaslte and while I was there I felt right at home. I have been praying about returning there in October to staff a DTS, the same school that I just finished, and I ask that you would pray for discernment for me in making this decision, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you again for all of your support. I am so grateful for all of you who have been praying for me, it has meant so much to me over this time in my life. I have posted some pictures below to show you a little more about my trip.

This is everywhere I went by train while I was in India.