this little light of mine

We just returned from our trip to Andhra Pradesh and it was such an eye-opening experience. Bryan, Rebecca, Abe, and I joined the KCM team on this trip. The team was split into two groups and we stayed in two different villages. For the past week, we had no access to running water and bathrooms so we had to take a bunch of water bottles and a lot of baby wipes (we eventually ran out...). In the village my group stayed at, a lot of our ministry was working and getting to know the children. We stayed at a St. Paul School and church, as KCM team also prepared VBS ministry for the children using body worship, skits, crafts, and sermons. During the mornings and afternoons, we would visit different villages (we visited around 8-10 villages) and do ministry there. We tagged along with the body worships and skits the KCM team prepared. Following that, we had opportunities to pray for the people in the villages. Some of the villages had absolutely no believers, while some had a church with a few believers. One village had a Christian community, but that was only because those people were kicked out of their villages for being Christians. Another village, we visited being told that the village had no believers, but as we were leaving, a grandma came to us saying she was Christian and asked for prayer. A few villages had a few number of believers, but there was no church in the village and so they aren't able to grow in their faith. So that was a brief recap of this past week. It was such a blessing to have teamed up with the KCM team; they were so welcoming of us and made us feel like a part of their team right away.

There was this one light bulb that lit up the whole room in the church at night. And as we were debriefing, we talked about how if that light bulb went out, the entire room would be dark, but if there were many other lights in the room, we wouldn't notice much of a difference if one light bulb went out. Just like this, I realized how much of a light we Christians and the church should be. In some of these villages that had a church, the church plays such an important role in the faith and salvation of the believers.And I thought back at home, if for some reason, a church shut down, the people are able to attend other churches. But here, the growth of their faith depends on the one church in the village. It hit me that we as Christians can't always be in a "Holy huddle", but we need to be the light in places of darkness.

There's also another story regarding the light bulb. So we were able to build relationships with children of the village we were staying at. There were around 15 kids that came out constantly; they would knock on our windows in the morning waking us up with "Good morning, sir/maam!" and would bother us til we went to sleep by trying to talk to us through the windows. One of the nights while we were debriefing the light bulb stopped working, so we thought the power went out. Then three or four of the kids kept trying to play with us, and our natural response was "Come back tomorrow! We'll be here tomorrow!" and we ignored them for a little as we continued debriefing. But they kept bothering us, and we found out that they were trying to help us fix the light bulb. They told us to take it out and put it back on, and suggested maybe the light bulb went out and not the power. He then offered to go buy a new one if we gave him the money. The KCM team leader ended up going with the kids to go get a new one. This was probably one of the memorable highlights of this trip. It wasn't just us being used by God to bless them, but God has used them to bless us. My biggest hope and prayer is that these children will grow in their faith and have a relationship with Jesus. Please keep the villages in Andhra Pradesh in your prayers: that God would raise leaders and churches in these villages; for God to strengthen and encourage these churches to continue growing; for there to be light in the places of darkness.

I have so many smaller stories regarding the time we spent with the kids, in the villages, ministry, bathroom situations, and others, but this is all I will post for now. Please continue to pray for India, and that the gospel would continue to be preached and shared throughout this country.

Pastor Abe bought us a Kurta/Kurti, an Indian traditional clothing

St. Paul School had a whole parade for the KCM team, Bryan, Rebecca, Abe, and me!

We shook all the students' hands (more than a thousand students!)

Walking down the parade!

KCM performing their body worships and skits to the students at St. Paul School in Bangalore

A beautiful view on the rooftop at Teacher's Quarter

One of the roads in the village we stayed at

A kid playing with a tire and a stick

A meal we ate at a hotel (hotel = restaurant; restaurant = hotel)

This is the school/church we stayed at. (Sorry this is a bad picture...)

This was a house in a village, and the grandma who lives in this village wanted to proclaim her faith by painting a cross on her house

The missionaries prepared us a nice meal after this trip of beef curry and some kimchi!

I will be updating more and posting pictures soon! We will be going on another day-trip this Friday with KCM. Please keep us in your prayers, and sorry for this brief notice!