Day Six - Part 2

It is amazing to me that I am half a world away from my family and friends tonight. As I write this, you are in church celebrating the reformation. As I write this I am in India watching and participating in a transformation. We in the US are so very spoiled. We in the US are so very comfortable in our lives and churches, our surroundings and our schedules.

I want you to see what I am seeing and have seen today. I want you to know how very blessed we are. We on the India team had the privilege of going to Vellore to “house churches” that are being started by church planters in India. John, Rachel and I had the privilege of going to a “church house” on a rooftop in the middle of a city filled with traffic, with cows, sheep, goats, chickens, carts, bikes, trucks, dirt, garbage, cattle dung, urine and God’s people. That church was one of the most beautiful, spirit filled churches I have been in.

We were to give our testimonies, but God had other plans. Time was short due to travel on most interesting roads, and by the time we arrived at the church it had begun and praises and glory to God were literally filling the sky. John gave a short sermonette after praise and then we were asked to pray for the people there. 40 or so woman came up for prayer with us. I have never seen more than one person step forward at our church for prayer after service at the time it is offered. Why? Is it because we are so comfortable with ourselves and our lives in the US that we feel we do not need it anymore?

We prayed for woman and for their children, some sick, some wanting their children to do well at school, some widows or woman abandoned by their husbands. We prayed for them all. Some brought oil to be blessed and we prayed over the oil and blessed it. Then leaving the church, we were invited into humble homes to pray for more woman and their families. And at that moment, I knew why God had tugged at my spirit a few months ago and said..GO..go to India, I have work for you to do. He wanted me to be here to see what I am seeing, to smell the odor that I am smelling, to touch the sweating sticky hands that I am touching and to hug the people that I am hugging. He wanted me to be here to do these things for him. He has work for all of us to do. But to do that work, sometimes it becomes uncomfortable, sometimes it becomes a stretch.

I would ask tonight as I write this that whenever it is read by you, for you to pray, pray fervently, continually, in earnest for all of your brothers and sisters in Christ, half way across the world, or sitting next to you on that church bench. God has given us a mission and he has given it to all of us. It is to love one another as he loved us and to spread the word. So pray for your brother, your sister in Christ and pray to be a blessing to them in whatever way you are able. Can you do that? Can we do that? Can we step out of our comfort zone and stretch ourselves until it is uncomfortable? Our Christ did. He left heaven and came to earth and ultimately died on the cross for you, for me, for the women and children I saw today. Step out. It is a good thing to do. Step out. It is a GOD thing to do. May God bless you and please keep us in your prayers.

Diana