Right now while I’m here and our Indian friends are there, the work in Allahabad is going on. The temperature is 116 degrees but the training of village leaders, the work of the drama team, the building of new schools and the conducting of Saturday Bible classes will continue.

In Delhi and Lakhimpur there will be hundreds and sometimes thousands of believers gathering for further training in the truth of the gospel. They will learn how to share their faith in the good god Jesus with all their friends and family members. Baptisms will take place in little cement rectangles with water we wouldn’t set foot in.

In Anantapur the good work of feeding the poor, caring for Aids victims and their children, caring for the handicapped and building house church networks goes on tirelessly. And in Peddipalli, a little further north, tiny house churches meet regularly to read and study the Bible.

In Karnataka, this very day there is an outreach to a small, backward village. It is summer vacation and a group of children will gather to hear stories, play games, sing songs and have a nice meal. They will feel the love of God, many for the first time.

I read in a devotional this morning that Jesus spoke more about caring for the poor than any other topic. Why do we forget that? I don’t want to forget.

Today I’m capturing the pictures of each of our beloved friends in India and keeping them strong in my mind. I’m picturing that little group of children sitting in neat rows and hearing new stories, learning new songs, eating a delicious meal. I’m imagining each little mind processing the new ideas they’re hearing. A god who loves them. Imagine that.

I knew immediately I’d made the right decision because of the response I got. And I also knew in that moment that I’d almost missed it–that still small voice that prompts us sometimes to do the kind thing, the loving thing, the unselfish thing. I suppose in one hundred years no one will care if I did or didn’t exercise, and maybe no one will care if I “heard” and obeyed the call to show more love. But I know and God knows that I did it right that time. For once, I slowed down enough to listen and to choose to hear and obey. There was an instant payoff and it made me wonder how many times I totally miss the small promptings of God. And just for the record, it’s not about guilt. If I’d packed up my gear and gone to play tennis I don’t think the Lord would have put a black mark by my name. I just think I would have missed the goodness and joy of a special moment. God is like that–wanting me to have a full and joy-filled life.

Grace has another project in the works. She travels regularly to a very backward village just an hour away from her home. There is one Christian family there and she goes every two weeks to conduct a mini-service in which she shares a Bible story and teaches songs. About 20 children gather in the home of this believing family. So Grace did some research and found another nearby village which has no believers at all. She will conduct a four day summer camp the last week in April (yes, it’s summer and hot then). She’ll gather between 90 and 100 children and teach Bible lessons, songs and games, share the Gospel message and feed the children a lunch. Teams India is supporting this project and the cost is about $550.

I so admire Grace for being diligent to go to the places where the needs are greatest, make a plan and then follow through. Grace is not supported by any larger ministry, but her local church supports her with prayer and encouragement. Her entire extended family desires to spread the word of Jesus and alleviate suffering and need in their home area. Grace’s long-term plan includes living on a small farm in the center of five small villages, but the cost of land is prohibitive at this point. Thanks to all who have supported Grace in her wonderful work.

Closer to home, a long-time friend died suddenly, we have a dear friend with cancer, another with heart problems and my mother is in a rehabilitation center after breaking her hip. In the midst of circumstances that break our hearts, I’ve been asking myself this question: How do we adequately show our compassion for one another? How do we truly share in one another’s pain?

We say things like “My thoughts and prayers are with you.” We may even go the extra mile sometimes and write notes or send e-mails or do a kind deed. But I’m pretty certain that we never fully enter into another person’s pain. We stand beside them and offer the bit of empathy we can gather, but then we go back to our daily life–we do the laundry, go to the bank and decide what to cook for dinner. If we’ve personally experienced the situation another is facing, it helps, but still, it’s another’s pain and suffering, not our own. It lives a distance away from our heart. It’s not that we’re cruel or uncaring people, we’re just limited in our capacity to really experience another’s grief.

I have a theory, but I might be wrong. I think a thousand years ago people lived in little communities  and knew just a small group of people. There were other villages a distance away and they were either the enemy, or a place to find marriage partners. Life was simpler and quieter and people didn’t watch all manner of carnage on screens each evening. There might be violence and war from time to time, but people only knew about the losses in their own community. They didn’t carry the weight of a whole world of trouble. How can we care about five or eight or twenty million people? How can we take in the sheer scale of evil and disaster over the face of the earth?

The truth I always come back to is this: we can’t do it, but God can. When I try to care deeply for others I will always find my responses wanting. I’ll feel deeply when the pain is mine or if it belongs to someone I love very much. I’ll feel it less when it’s a friend or acquaintance. I’ll barely react when it’s someone I don’t know. But here, finally, is the good part. Because God lives inside me I can, when prompted or when I seek Him wholeheartedly, walk in selfless, agape love. I didn’t used to think that was possible, but yes, it is. It is costly though. That love is like Lucy’s healing elixir given by Aslan–it’s very precious. I want some.

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.