I thank our Lord Jesus Christ for giving me the opportunity to go to India. This trip was a big blessing for me. It amazes me how much God can use you if you just give your life to Him. I only dreamt of going to India and serving the people there, but God made it a reality. When I came to my manager at work to ask for the time off, they let me go without a problem insisting that I must come back after I returned from my trip. After the conversation with my manager, I clearly understood that is was God’s will for me to go to India. With the blessing of my parents and family, I departed from Portland on November 6, 2012. Flying alone gave me the opportunity to spend time with the Lord and feel His hand over me.
When I arrived at the orphanage my heart quickly attached to the children. It broke my heart that each child was in such desperate need of love and attention; there were always several children all around me during prayer time, as well as during other activities. Most of them always had something to tell me and clearly wanted my attention only on them. I felt honored to be there with the kids, teaching them about our Savior. There were times when I would run out of ideas for the Bible lessons and I would ask the Lord to help me and lead me. The amazing thing is that almost instantly I would get great ideas for the lesson.
One Thursday, which was when we normally had church service, one of the missionaries was sharing her testimony. In her testimony the missionary mentioned several things about her family. When I turned to look at the orphanage girl who was sitting next to me, I noticed tears rolling down her cheeks. I put my hands around her, and hugged her tightly, trying to hold back my own tears. Later, as I was talking to the same orphan girl, I asked her if she was staying for Christmas because a lot of the kids would be visiting their family and relatives for Christmas. The girl answered with a sad face, saying, “My mom will only come after I die.” This broke me inside, knowing that these children are longing for a family.
A couple of weeks after I got to the orphanage a team came with a physician to provide medical help in the surrounding villages. I had always held a big desire to go on a medical missionary trip, and here God blessed me with this chance to go and provide medical help to the people of India. Of course, once the missionaries left the orphanage, children would not stop coming to me with their medical needs, I absolutely loved helping them. One of the boys cut his foot open and had to get stitches. It took a while to heal, but almost every time I changed the dressing we would pray together about his foot. By the grace of God, it healed very nicely.
God also gave me the opportunity to travel to Nepal with another sister and teach at a school. It was great working with all these young children and telling them about Jesus Christ. Most of the children at the school were Hindu. We also visited Churches and had the privilege of giving our personal testimonies and encouraging words for the believers and the youth. For me, it was amazing seeing people gather and just sit on the floor and praise the Lord with all their hearts. This showed me how hungry people are to hear about our Savior.
Through this trip, God taught and showed me a lot. We often think we do not have the ability to do certain things. However, if we trust in God, He takes us and uses us. Often, we depend on ourselves and think that we can achieve something by our own strength and we fail because we can’t do anything with our own strength. We can only find strength in Him. The best place to be is in the center of God’s will. I truly felt that, everyday having His peace and happiness inside of me. There would be times when it would get difficult and I could truly feel people praying for me as I felt God’s hand over me. Praise God!
