Where are the men? Probably working in the fields as the women tend to the cooking and “home” chores. Is the baby a boy or girl? How many of these girls will be married soon or perhaps they already are married. Who is taking the photo? Are there white people around, maybe a mission station?

Take a look at the clothing. It’s probably woven cotton, and quite rough. These are poor women. Their meals will be mostly rice with a few vegetables or herbs thrown in. The water in the background may be the place they wash their clothing and also the source of water for drinking and cooking.

What are they thinking? What are their dreams. Oh, I just love India!

Women have been on the cutting edge of missions worldwide. In India the reasons may be different than in other parts of the world, but in Hindu families the women are responsible for maintaining the family shrines and conducting the family worship. It takes place in the early mornings when the women wash the murtas (idols), dress them, offer bits of food from their day’s meals to them and sing songs or recite mantras. The women sometimes teach their children these rituals too. Thus it was a natural entry into the worship of the people when Indian women were trained to take Christian teachings into the villages. They met with the women in their homes. They asked after their health, sometimes brought medicines from the white compound, prayed for the families and taught any songs or scriptures they may have learned. They spoke life into the homes of the people and offered to meet needs. Then they invited them to attend meetings at their mission stations or they brought the meetings right into the villages.

Some of the Bible women learned to read English and were assistants to pastor’s wives as they began to teach the women to sew and later to read. Bible women often traveled in twos and were able to enjoy much more freedom than they would have in their normal Hindu or Muslim lives when many women were required to stay at home in seclusion. Not only could they travel freely, they were paid small sums of money. They were thrilled with their new lives. They often carried large oversized Bibles to mark the fact that they were Christians and not Hindu women who traveled for less lofty reasons than sharing scriptures.

I happened on a website with hundreds of old pictures of India. Look at this one with the women in front of a simple hut made of bamboo and roofed with thatch. Seeing these pictures helps give me the visual information I need to as accurately as possible describe life in another time and place. These pictures fascinate me. It’s like taking a peek back into history. Don’t you wonder how these women spent their days and what their lives were like? Are they sisters or friends? Do they live in this little hut? There’s no substitute for real photos to inform my writing of such a different time and place.

In looking back today at the work Teams India accomplished in 2011 I felt a great sense of satisfaction. We gave scholarships to four high school graduates, three sewing machines to graduates of the Women’s Bible College in Cherial, paid for the support of a pastor and wife who oversee three house churches, supported women’s projects and business ventures in Karnataka and paid for the tuition, books, supplies and uniforms for thirty-seven children so they could attend good schools.

While it is impossible to weigh the long-term benefits of some of these investments, we can be sure that the Father is pleased when we share from our bounty. The $10 I spent on two coffee drinks can pay for a month of education for a child and the amount I spent on Christmas dinner can buy a sewing machine for a woman who can then support her family. Our dollars truly do change lives.

Thank you for your support in the past and may I ask you to continue to support the work in the future? The exchange rate for the rupee is more favorable than it’s been in the past ten years and there are always more smiling faces of little children who would love a chance to go to school.

Right now I’m homesick for the sights and sounds of India. The work there gives me more satisfaction than anything else I’ve done. Once again, many thanks for being part of it.

I first met Dr. Mary when I took a course called the History of Women in Missions. I don’t even know if she was paid for teaching the course that term because there were only two of us in the class! I was so taken by the wisdom and knowledge of this woman who had been a medical missionary to Pakistan for seventeen years. Dr. Mary came off the mission field when she needed to be caretaker of her ailing parents and she never returned. But oh, the stories she has to tell. Heartbreaking stories of young women dying needlessly because the men in the family wouldn’t allow them medical care, funny stories of cultural miscues, and always the warmth and affection of this woman who always says, “The safest place you can be is in God’s will.” Dr. Mary often signs her name, “Mary Wilder than ever.” I just love her.

When Roger was seeking direction for his work abroad I took him to meet Dr. Mary. It seemed like the right thing to do. Sure enough, her desk mirrored the Boar’s Nest (Roger’s office) and they became instant friends. Dr. Mary heard a bit of Roger’s story and stopped the conversation to introduce him to Dr. Galen Currah who in turn introduced him to Dr. George Patterson and…before we knew it Roger was being mentored in all things related to house church and the work in India was birthed.

I was given permission in my missions course to focus on India as I wanted to be able to support Roger’s travel there. My own travel had not yet been revealed:) I learned so much in that course and the knowledge gave me a good foundation for understanding Indian history and culture.

I’d travel many miles to give honor to Dr. Mary. She is a truly humble servant of God whose life experiences make her a rich resource for those fortunate enough to spend time with her. Oh, one more thing–she always has chocolate to share with friends.

But the song I loved the most came after Julie talked about her latest trip to southern Mexico where she and her group work with an orphanage and provide education for a number of children. Sound familiar? Of course I was all ears by then and paid close attention to the lyrics of the song. “I have seen hunger, I have seen pain….I’ll never be the same.” and “There is no hunger that cannot be filled, there is no broken heart that won’t be made whole…God in His mercy has given His love…And we’ll never be the same.”

I know Julie from Oregon Christian Writers. I loved her spirit the first time I heard her sing. There is just no doubt that she loves God and she is willing to use the considerable gifts He has given to her to encourage and bring the warm fuzzies to others. (I was going to say “bless” but warm fuzzies is good too.) So Julie and I are sisters of the heart. We both know what it means to visit another culture and recoil at the pain, the suffering. But we also know that God is big enough for all of the problems and He alone can bring the kind of healing the world needs. Thanks, Julie for sharing your gift and you’re right, we’ll never be the same.

Dress up in your finest

Share your resources  

Take a break from daily tasks 

Eat something special 

Remember those less fortunate

And hang out with good friends.

A very blessed Thanksgiving to all of you from Teams India.

Last night Roger and I helped serve a meal at Angels of God. I love going there to pack up bags of groceries and help with the work of distributing food to the needy of the community. I worked in the back room the first few times I helped. Back there it’s dusty and cramped and the work makes my back hurt, but my heart feels better. Last night I helped serve out the hot meal that’s free to all every Friday night.We served over 250 people.

I was surprised that there weren’t more families. The majority of those eating were single men and many of them were young, maybe in their thirties. There were those who looked apologetic as they passed through the line. Some looked well-groomed, some not. A few dropped a few dollars in the can at the beginning of the line. There were lots of people who have missed their dental appointments for most of their lives and lots of hairdo’s that haven’t seen the inside of a salon. There were also many friendly smiles and a few efforts to sneak in an extra plate because they were really hungry, or maybe wanted a plate for later.

We worried a little bit that there wouldn’t be enough of the main dish for everyone. But as it turned out there was just enough. Some people had seconds. I noticed that almost everyone took everything offered, including the cauliflower and broccoli. They wanted to be full and weren’t picky.

I really love serving the poor. There is something inside of me that likes to give and I like the physical effort involved. But guess what? After we finished our shift, we got into our car and drove to the grocery store where we picked up a treat for ourselves and then drove home to our comfortable home in the “burbs.” I was mindful as we walked up our walkway and into our warm home, that we live thousands of miles away from the people who ate their dinner at Angels of God, and yet it’s only ten minutes away.

John Willems was our pastor and when I asked him what I should call him he replied, “Just John”. Mennonites aren’t big on hierarchy but they are big on love and family life. We were taken into their little fold and loved like crazy. My kids had lots of “grandparents” there at Salem Mennonite and we found lots of “parents.” We were only there five years before leaving for seminary training in Virginia, but those years were foundational in our lives. We learned about peace and justice, both on the global level and in everyday life. We saw personal devotion modeled and were accepted just as we were which was quite a leap from where most of the Mennonites were. We saw real love in action.

Yesterday Salem Mennonite celebrated fifty years of being church and family. We were so glad we made the trip down and enjoyed the celebration. We saw lots of faces from the past and enjoyed some wonderful memories. They were trying to see us as we looked thirty years ago and we were doing the same. Lots of gray hair, but the same twinkle in eyes. It was fun and brought back so many great memories.

A special thank you to John Willems who was “Just John,” but played such an important role in our lives with God.

 

CPM’s require intentional beginnings with authority quickly given to lay and local leaders. They rely on people willing to share whatever they know whether it be testimonies of their own belief story, Bible stories or songs. They require a certain boldness and certainty that God’s words are true and that Jesus is at the heart of their church experience. Long lists of rules, requirements to leave a culture or people group, financial dependency on Western money–all these things are obstacles to the multiplication that takes place in CPM’s.

Leaders of CPM’s are more caught in a wave of activity than in charge of it. They depend daily on God and not on strategies. They “go with the flow” because each movement is unique to that people group. They must be flexible and willing to be constant learners.

CPM’s are exploding right now in India, China, and some locations in Africa. In one district of China beginning in November 2,000 a CPM grew. It began with seventeen people drawn from three small state churches. This small group was trained in evangelism and discipleship of new believers and how to form house churches. The result was after two months they had twenty small groups formed into churches. Six months after that they had 327 small groups with 4,000 newly baptized believers. Six months later there were 908 house churches and 12,000 new believers. At the end of 2008 it was estimated that there were over two million believers in the area. Names of leaders  and names of towns and districts are not shared for the protection of the people involved.

Each of the participants in the Thailand training are involved in planting house churches. Even the flooding of the area didn’t dampen their spirits as they learned more about the principles involved in reaching a people group with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

While Roger is going through the shift from one culture to another, Ruth and Jess, our friends from church are experiencing India for the first time. They’re sending back great pictures and I know many of the places they’re visiting. I also know that inside, they’re probably experiencing some culture shock, no matter how much fun they’re having. It’s just not possible to see the poverty and need without for at least a few moments wondering if you could trade places with one of the Indian people. Or could you live there full-time? Could you eat the food and live through the harsh weather conditions? Could you live in a tiny, dark room with a single burner stove and call that home?

For me there is always a fairly painful period of time after I come home in which I weigh all these facts once again and ask myself hard questions. Why was I born in America and why do I have access to plenty of good food? Why do I live in a nice home with comfortable furniture..and so much more. There aren’t easy answers and I always come back to the fact that I can choose to live a generous life of service in the place I find myself, wherever that might be. But I can never take my comfortable life for granted now that I know how so much of the rest of the world lives.