Why India?

So... why India? My church does trips to a couple of other countries, as well—Mexico (though I don’t think that trip is occurring this year), Rwanda, and in the future hopefully Afghanistan. Rwanda would actually seem like a natural choice for a first trip with Pathways—I sponsor a girl in Rwanda through Compassion, and probably would’ve been able to arrange a visit with her if I went on that trip (and I do really hope I can visit her someday—she’s awesome, and after all, she did invite me to her brother’s wedding last year). Even before visiting South Africa in 2004, I felt much more of a pull to Africa than to some other places in the world. I would be super psyched to go on a trip to Afghanistan. I didn’t have a particular life-long burning desire to visit India (though if you know me, I pretty much have a burning desire to travel anywhere... I can’t think of a place I’d turn down).

Yet even coming up to the initial information meeting about the India trip, back in February, India and its most voiceless people were weighing heavy on my heart—and showing up everywhere in my life, it seemed! So far, things have fallen into place exactly as they needed to, in a way that only something where God is working can do.

The night before that info meeting, I was making macaroni in my apartment, and I wondered to myself, “if your life was a movie, would you watch it?” I thought about how I would ask my friends and family to pray over whether or not I should go on the trip... of course, I’d have to work out the logistics, too: the financials, the time off work, and how all of the above would affect any other travel plans I might want to make in the coming year. Then it came to me that maybe I’m supposed to accept what God calls me to do, without figuring out the logistics first—to leave the details up to him, and trust that it will all work out. I also heard in my head, “sell everything you have, and give it to the poor.” (Not what I wanted to hear. Hopefully this trip won’t involve quite that kind of a sacrifice, but the point is... it’s not always convenient, or easy, or without sacrifice, to be Christ’s hands and heart here on Earth.)

About a week before the info meeting, I’d started reading Half The Sky, which is a book about women’s oppression and empowerment worldwide (which I highly recommend to everyone, by the way). The beginning chapters I’d read so far were mainly about trafficking of young women and girls for the sex trade; many of the stories took place in India, near places like Hyderabad, Bangalore: places also mentioned in the information meeting. As it turned out, the mission trip will be centered in the slums around Bangalore. The meeting started with a video about the plight of the Dalits, the “untouchables,” and described the same things as I’d been reading about all week: the uneducated, marginalized people taken advantage of, the young girls stolen or sold and brought to places far away where they could not communicate or know how to advocate for themselves, the lack of healthcare or education or basic services like sanitation.

After the meeting, with India heavy on my heart and in my prayers, I went home and looked at my calendar. I had nothing scheduled during the two weeks in July when the trip would take place. I am blessed to be at a point right now where I have the PTO to take off work, and finally a fully staffed department, but still—2 weeks is a big chunk of time to be gone. When I ran the possibility by my boss a couple of days later, without hesitation he told me, “go.”

That same evening I received an invitation to the wedding of two friends from church, and when perusing their wedding website, I read about how she’d found her dress and the place she bought it from—and while I’d heard part of that story already, the part I hadn’t heard (or didn’t remember) was that her dress store donates part of its profits to the Dalit Freedom Network—an organization committed to ending trafficking of the very people the group will be going to serve. I hoped that all the things that were falling into place—all the little reminders of this group of our human family, half a world away—were because God wanted me to head down that path, and not because God was trying to teach me some lesson in massive disappointment. So I prayed, I put in my trip application, and I waited... and waited... longer than I’d thought I would have to, but finally last week I heard the news: I’m going on the trip!

It's a little surreal so far, since I don't really know a lot of the details yet, including exactly what we'll be doing while in India. I'll keep you all posted though (obviously, hence the blog) and ask for your continued prayers for the pieces to fall into place for this trip to be a success: which I would define as safety for everyone involved; increased building of relationships with the communities in India; being able to provide services that will impact peoples' lives in a real way; and being able to show the people we serve the love of God through our actions.

Welcome!

Welcome to the new blog, where I'll be keeping everyone posted on my trip to India, coming up this July.

At this point, there's not much to tell-- I'll be traveling in a team of about 10 people from Pathways Church. We'll be primarily working with people from the Dalit caste ("untouchables") in the slums near Bangalore, in southern India-- particularly with one community that has just recently been moved into more "permanent" housing (still not like our standard of living, but better than where they had been). The exact scope of the work we'll be doing is yet to be determined, but is likely to involve helping this community set up services and infrastructure in their new development.

I'll keep you posted as I actually have more details to share! In the meantime, you can help support me and this entire trip with your prayers.