India 7/26/2010

Hello dear friends and family members! Most of you already know, but God did bring my team and I back from India safely, three days ago. The past six weeks were so packed and such a blur that now that I’m back It’s sometimes hard to believe any of it even happened. But memories and pictures of all of the new, amazing people we got to meet there help keep it real.

In short, here is how our trip went down: Days 1-3 were flying and travelling days. We missed our connecting flight in London, so God blessed us with an entire afternoon exploring the beautiful city! After two more flights (around 20 hrs. flying in total), some complicated taxi rides, and a bus ride, we arrived safely at the Mission India Seminary in Nagpur, India. For the first week of our trip we attended chapel at the Bible College, got to know some of the staff and students there, spent time at the orphanage there, and also worked in their library (helping with cataloguing, organizing, etc.).

The campus was huge and beautiful, and the people there were such a blessing. Almost every student and faculty member that we talked to had insane testimonies about how God called them and drew them in by extreme healings and miracles. One of our friends named Poornima had been married to a Hindu man who beat her, had two children by the age of 16, and then was abandoned by her husband who took her two children and married another woman! Somehow in all of that difficulty and distress she found God and He called her out of her darkness and into the Mission India Bible College. Please pray for her, she still struggles with a lot of health issues and sadness from being separated from her children.

After those few days, we boarded a 16 hour, non-AC sleeper train (which was QUITE the adventure… let’s just say it was very hot and very over-crowded, all in all a rare and awesome experience) to Delhi, then switched train stations and took 6 hour AC train to Haldwani, India. We were picked up at the train station and transported to the Haldwani Mission India campus where we spent about 3 ½ weeks. There we met David and Bindu Lukos who run the campus and orphanage (the campus was one huge building that included the chapel and classroom, dorms for the orphanage and students and the Lukos’ house). Our team had hoped and expected to be able to do some outreach with the Hindu people in the area, but this did not end up happening. If the church does overt outreach, it is under cover due to persecution of the Christian church. But God showed us that there are so many other ways that He can use us!

So, while there, we got to participate in VBS, in the nightly campus chapels, got to play with the kids in the orphanage every day (there were around 25, and sadly 2 more were added to the original number while we were staying there), got to visit a leprosy colony and talk to the people there, got to minister and meet with Christians in various churches hidden in the city, and got to play with and feed a group of 20+ mentally handicapped men. We also got to teach Bible classes for a week! So, basically in every ministry that we did, God was breaking the false expectations that many of us, including myself, had.

I guess somewhere deep down I had this conception of what I thought a mission trip should look like(something with a lot more evangelism and a lot more hard manual labor) and was expecting to get to participate in things where the result and impact were “greater” or rather more readily seen. Whatever my conception was, it apparently did not include spending hours on end pushing children on swings, helping children with their homework, talking about the reason we were there only with Christian people, re organizing book shelves, or baking cookies that hardened into rocks. I truly believe that God did use us in a great way and that though our impact wasn’t the one we had “hoped” for, our very presence had one! What the Indian churches needed most was love and encouragement, not a building project. Thank God that this was His plan, and thank God for all He taught me through all of these little things, and for the other things He taught us…

… Like patience! In the first week in Haldwani our group was faced with the difficulties of overcoming the cultural and language barriers with our hosts. There were a lot of misunderstandings due to poor communication and the limited English speaking ability of the people on the Haldwani campus. But once we prayed, talked it out, and took up an extra measure of patience we were able to overcome the frustration and have a much more positive experience for the following weeks!

After our time in Haldwani we travelled back to Delhi where we took a bus to Agra for a day and saw… drum roll… THE TAJ MAHAL! It was beautiful… and I got to drive a bicycle rickshaw for a bit on the way back! ☺ We drove back to Delhi that night, stayed in a hotel, and then saw all sorts of famous sites in the city the next day. We saw some tombs and temples, including the tomb of Mahatma Gandhi.

After our sightseeing was done, we took two lovely AC sleeper trains back to Nagpur where we were welcomed by our old friends. It felt like we were being welcomed home ☺. We spent five more days on Nagpur campus, serving in the same ministries as before. On our last day, they had a goodbye ceremony for us and later some of the girls came by and gave all of us henna tattoos. We departed the night of the 22nd and had smooth travels and flight connections all the way through, which was quite the miracle in itself!

There is so much that I could say on the whole about this trip. The trip took all of us off guard and God broke all of our expectations, which turned out to be a great blessing once we processed through the initial frustrations. I can say without a doubt though that the past six weeks have taught me to be endlessly more thankful for every little thing in life. A big thing God taught me while I was gone was that I have so much to rejoice in and yet often focus on things that cause me not to. Even in the darkest times, at least I have a savior and a lover of my soul watching out for me and pulling me through. The Indian people we met have so much joy in even the smallest and simplest things, and amongst all of the difficulties and frustrations of travelling it was refreshing and encouraging to be reminded of the joy that is found in Christ.

I also learned a bit about spiritual warfare on this trip. In the midst of God working in my life and showing me the key to a joy-filled life, I felt great oppression, loneliness and even doubt in God and His truth. I’ve learned a lot through the process, including the importance of loving God with ALL my mind and strength. God has shown me a lot about the magnitude and reality of His love. Please pray for me as He brings me through this learning process! There may be pain in the night, but His joy comes in the morning!

Christ is sovereign and to be glorified in all that we do, even pushing a kid on a swing. He is our reward in heaven, we shouldn’t feel the need to or expect gratification from the things we do for God on this earth, though He is faithful and never fails to bless the lives of those who serve Him.

Praise God for all He did, all He is doing, and all the things He has yet to do! Thank you all for your blessing of praying for and financially supporting my team and I and for allowing me to have the honor of this awesome experience! As they say often in India: “God is good: all the time, all the time: God is good!”. (please check out www.teamindia2010.tumblr if you haven’t already).

With Love and Gratitude,
Kendall Robins :)