I would like to say that one night while I was sleeping God came to me in a dream and said go to New Delhi, India with a team through Adventures in Missions. No, it was not like that at all; then again it rarely is. My calling to go to India was like a subtle burning in my heart, or at least that is how it started.
As you all know last year I attended Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. Liberty was okay, I’m not going to lie, there were many aspects I did not enjoy, but nevertheless it was decent. Liberty, being the Christian school that it is, always tried to implement into us students the mindset of a missionary. They told us that Jesus called us to go and make disciples, and reach the lost, and serve your community. We had amazing speakers from all over come and tell us of the wonderful things their ministries were doing. There were concerts, and seminars, and all of them were very entertaining and enlightening. I really enjoyed where I was at, but something began stirring inside of me.
I do not want to sound opinionated or cynical, but something was pulling my heart to leave Liberty. I began to feel confined. I felt as though I was getting told everything I should be doing as a Christian from these speakers, and professors, but I had no way of putting anything to practice. It seemed as though I was living in a bubble being told how to live in the outside world, but was never let out of the bubble to “give it a go.” I was spending thousands of dollars hearing a speaker telling me something I already knew in my heart. I told God one night that I was very unhappy. I told Him that my heart yearned for places like Zimbabwe, and Romania, and Sudan. I told Him I wanted to go.
That is when I started looking on the Adventures in Missions website. I saw that there were two trips in the time slot that was available for me: Kenya, and India. I knew right away which country I wanted to go to, Kenya. I love Africa; I’ve been there, and I missed it. Kenya has a tourist attraction to one of my favorite author’s past residency, and I wanted to see it. I was sure that Kenya was it, so I applied. Well, sometimes God has other plans. After a couple of days something didn’t seem right about the whole ordeal. I started praying and felt like God wanted me to go to India.
You know it’s funny how God places desires in your heart for a reason. The more I’ve studied India the more I get anxious about being there. However, until now, I’ve never realized how destitute the souls in India are. India is a place with many different religions, but few there know who Jesus is. I work in a daycare, and I change diapers, and feed babies, and play with toddlers, and etc. But it amazes me and hurts me to know that in India there are children who do not have someone to change their diaper, to give them kisses, or to feed them. When I’m sick I love that my mom, even though I’m almost twenty, still buys me a bottle of ginger ale, and sits with me. But there are people with who are sick with leprosy in India who have no one to feel compassion for them, and spend time with them. We live in a country where the concept of “the American Dream” epitomizes our mind-set. Someone who grew up in the poverty stricken streets of New York City can grow up to govern the entire state of New York and live ine a three million dollar mansion. However, in India, if you are born into a certain type of group, like the Dalits, you can never get out. If you are a Dalit, you are the shame of society, and because of India’s caste system it will never change.
I know that I do not have anything to offer the world. I am extremely unfocused, I have many personality quarks, I am not wealthy, I am not smart, and I am not strong. But I do have a God who is all of those things, and He happens to live inside of me. God is “How I was called into the Mission field,” as vague as that statement sounds. Honestly, if it were not for Him, I probably would have never thought to go on this trip.
