Navapur
the name Navapur means new horizon... indeed it was a new chapter for many of us coming to India for the very first time...!!! the kids there really stole our hearts, they broke us, they challenged us, they convicted us...all of them are up by 5.30 every single day to do their devotions... the passion burning in their little hearts lights up their faces as they sing praises to their Lord and King...they live each moment with such simplicity...their whole life is packed in one small suitcase, that contains everything from clothes, food supplies and memories of home... they love like there's no tomorrow and they smile like they've never known pain...really we all had so much to learn from them. one particular day we were doing devotions with them regarding Jesus washing the feet of His disciples...and we were convicted to wash their feet...at first they didnt let us because they wanted to wash our feet instead! such humility!! washing their feet did something powerful in my heart...serving the least of them is such a great priviledge bringing with it a new revelation each time...earlier on in the trip i just looked all around me and saw such tremendous need and as i did i felt that my love is so small compared to God's love for mankind...but as the children turned around and washed our feet...God's love washed over me in waves and floods...once again i was reminded that His grace is so sufficient and the only way we as Christians can respond to the needy is by asking God to fill us with His love more and more...we cant love supernaturally on our own. we need His grace and His love in us to love like He does...powerfully and deeply...for us to be Christians that live out of the deeper places we need to be able to let God take us into deeper places, places where your life, your heart and your all gets wasted for the Kingdom of God...
the Kingdom of God...is such great treasure...a lesson we all learnt at the 4 village churches we visited...people that worship in mud houses in authencity and simplicity...they dont have much, but they have a Kingdom treasure that is impossible to miss...and they hold onto Jesus with such zeal that it makes you want to worship the King of Kings even more madly...for me the best bit about visiting these churches was worshipping in hindi...worship that was just so rich and so pure...on the second last night in Navapur we went out to our translator's church where they were holding a youth rally...i must say that hearing worship rise through the vast and plain surroundings of trees and mud houses was incredible... its amazing that whether we live in a city, or a village, in a proper house or a mud house, for those that believe...Jesus is still the King of Kings...Cindy and Fenny did their wonderful dance entitled "who am I?"...doing the drama was a bit of a squeeze in that place but it worked out well...we had a lot of laughs which was kind of strange because it was a pretty serious song...but after speaking to a few of the village folks we realised it was the first creative drama done in their village and they'd never seen anything like that before...they were all so curious and so welcoming at the same time...i'm sure we sowed some great Kingdom seeds that night... riding on the bus home (back to the children's home) through the village was filled with lots of laughs and chatter...and being out there driving in the middle of nowhere expands the size of the sky as you realize that although you've known God and continue to know Him one of the things you'll never quite be able to fathom is the size of His heart and the amount of love in it for every person...its like this ceaseless bottomless tumbler that continues to overflow and overflow...leading kids church in hindi was a tough one but a good experience...its funny how God places you in a ministry that you dont have a passion for, uses you and grows you in it and then uses you in a totally different environment and country...hahaa He really does all things for a reason :)
on the day we left, the students at the Navapur Bible college prayed for us and wow! was it awesome!! they really are serious about spending their lives in service for Jesus....they know the costs involved and that the road is so narrow yet they are willing to go into some of the most unreached places around... strengthening and encouraging people like these teaches you more and you receive much more than you intended to give...they have such precious hearts!!!
saying bye to the kids was hard...literally because there were soooooo many of them crowded all around us, some hanging onto us, others not letting go of our hands...but also much more because their little hearts had so captured ours... there was this one girl called Manisha, and as i hugged her she said to me, "you wont forget us will you?" even though there were so many of them, its then that you realize that each one of them wants to be loved, wants to be known, wants to be held, wants to love back... they gave us so many cards just to make sure we'd remember them and to say thanks for all we'd done, even though we were only there for 6 days... after one last photo we were off in the jeeps to Surat from where the team was catching a train to Delhi, and we were heading back to Udaipur... there are so many beggars at the stations and especially seeing children begging is quite heart breaking...however some of them are quite cheeky.. you kinda laugh and cry at the same time... :) well this is India... :)
the name Navapur means new horizon... indeed it was a new chapter for many of us coming to India for the very first time...!!! the kids there really stole our hearts, they broke us, they challenged us, they convicted us...all of them are up by 5.30 every single day to do their devotions... the passion burning in their little hearts lights up their faces as they sing praises to their Lord and King...they live each moment with such simplicity...their whole life is packed in one small suitcase, that contains everything from clothes, food supplies and memories of home... they love like there's no tomorrow and they smile like they've never known pain...really we all had so much to learn from them. one particular day we were doing devotions with them regarding Jesus washing the feet of His disciples...and we were convicted to wash their feet...at first they didnt let us because they wanted to wash our feet instead! such humility!! washing their feet did something powerful in my heart...serving the least of them is such a great priviledge bringing with it a new revelation each time...earlier on in the trip i just looked all around me and saw such tremendous need and as i did i felt that my love is so small compared to God's love for mankind...but as the children turned around and washed our feet...God's love washed over me in waves and floods...once again i was reminded that His grace is so sufficient and the only way we as Christians can respond to the needy is by asking God to fill us with His love more and more...we cant love supernaturally on our own. we need His grace and His love in us to love like He does...powerfully and deeply...for us to be Christians that live out of the deeper places we need to be able to let God take us into deeper places, places where your life, your heart and your all gets wasted for the Kingdom of God...
the Kingdom of God...is such great treasure...a lesson we all learnt at the 4 village churches we visited...people that worship in mud houses in authencity and simplicity...they dont have much, but they have a Kingdom treasure that is impossible to miss...and they hold onto Jesus with such zeal that it makes you want to worship the King of Kings even more madly...for me the best bit about visiting these churches was worshipping in hindi...worship that was just so rich and so pure...on the second last night in Navapur we went out to our translator's church where they were holding a youth rally...i must say that hearing worship rise through the vast and plain surroundings of trees and mud houses was incredible... its amazing that whether we live in a city, or a village, in a proper house or a mud house, for those that believe...Jesus is still the King of Kings...Cindy and Fenny did their wonderful dance entitled "who am I?"...doing the drama was a bit of a squeeze in that place but it worked out well...we had a lot of laughs which was kind of strange because it was a pretty serious song...but after speaking to a few of the village folks we realised it was the first creative drama done in their village and they'd never seen anything like that before...they were all so curious and so welcoming at the same time...i'm sure we sowed some great Kingdom seeds that night... riding on the bus home (back to the children's home) through the village was filled with lots of laughs and chatter...and being out there driving in the middle of nowhere expands the size of the sky as you realize that although you've known God and continue to know Him one of the things you'll never quite be able to fathom is the size of His heart and the amount of love in it for every person...its like this ceaseless bottomless tumbler that continues to overflow and overflow...leading kids church in hindi was a tough one but a good experience...its funny how God places you in a ministry that you dont have a passion for, uses you and grows you in it and then uses you in a totally different environment and country...hahaa He really does all things for a reason :)
on the day we left, the students at the Navapur Bible college prayed for us and wow! was it awesome!! they really are serious about spending their lives in service for Jesus....they know the costs involved and that the road is so narrow yet they are willing to go into some of the most unreached places around... strengthening and encouraging people like these teaches you more and you receive much more than you intended to give...they have such precious hearts!!!
saying bye to the kids was hard...literally because there were soooooo many of them crowded all around us, some hanging onto us, others not letting go of our hands...but also much more because their little hearts had so captured ours... there was this one girl called Manisha, and as i hugged her she said to me, "you wont forget us will you?" even though there were so many of them, its then that you realize that each one of them wants to be loved, wants to be known, wants to be held, wants to love back... they gave us so many cards just to make sure we'd remember them and to say thanks for all we'd done, even though we were only there for 6 days... after one last photo we were off in the jeeps to Surat from where the team was catching a train to Delhi, and we were heading back to Udaipur... there are so many beggars at the stations and especially seeing children begging is quite heart breaking...however some of them are quite cheeky.. you kinda laugh and cry at the same time... :) well this is India... :)
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