closing ministry time in Chennai

Over the last few weeks we have had the priviledge of being part of an incredible ministry in Chennai India.  Each week we rotate between three different ministries:

1. packaging and rolling medical equipment here at the base,

2. Participating in medical treatment in the leper colonies,

3. And working at Little Lights Childrens’ Home.

The connection between these three ministries makes each one uniquely important.  If we were not preparing medical bandages, they would not be able to help in the leper colonies.  If they did not help in the leper colonies, the lepers would not trust them to take care of the children.  And if the children were not coming to the center, the cycle of poverty could not be broken.

But cycles can be broken.  There is a way out.  Tables can be turned.

And the tables here are turning as they always do in the kingdom of God.

In a leper colony where fathers do not know how to treat their sons, the children are becoming “parents” and the parents are the ones who need discipline.

In a society where the leper girl is not accepted at school because of her social stigma-yet she gains better marks than all her classmates-the students are becoming teachers and the teachers are the ones who need to learn.

I’m beginning to believe all the more in a different world for India.  One in which the children grow up and become doctors, not beggars.

Where leprosy is healed and done away with BY those doctors.

Where temples are turned to hospitals not places of sacrifice,

And the doorposts will be washed of their idolatrous pictures by the blood of Jesus.

Where the children will rise up and say no more.

And the caste system will only be memories in history books.

Well that is the India I believe is possible.

All the more because I scrubbed its future (the children) in the shower this morning, fed it breakfast and know the workers who invest in it.

Nothing in the world could stop a group of people who believe something is possible and serve a God who can actually make it happen.

Thank you to EVERYONE who has been praying for us.  We could not do all this without your help.  Our time in Chennai is coming to a close.  But there is more waiting for us in Kolkata….