Street Kid Loving

 

Before I left for India, during our last day at training camp, I prayed that God would break my heart and show me what it meant to love with His love. He answered my prayer the first day that we were in India. I don’t know which child I met first but the children who live outside our house have broken my heart every single day for two months. They are the most precious and loving children in India. They have absolutely nothing, and some live in trash, but they insist on giving me food whenever they have it and they pick wild flowers and hand them to me. It’s funny, I thought that I was going to bless them, but it feels like they have blessed me more! 
   At the same time it is the most frustrating thing in the whole world. Since playing outside is not a ministry site, and our host does not like us to go outside often, it makes it very challenging to find time to play. If there is time in the day to play then a guy has to come outside as well, and all our chores have to be finished. So after meeting all these requirements, we finally go to play but we speak no Hindi and the children speak very little, extremely broken English.  Sharing Christ with them verbally has not happened because of the language barrier.

 

At first when I realized that I could not tell them about Jesus, I was devastated. I thought that they were lost and would not be found because I could not speak Hindi. But God really has worked through that lie.  He has taught me that even though I may never see the children come to know Jesus, He would never stop working in their lives. That HIS love breaks down All barriers, verbally and culturally. And even though I leave in a week, Christ will always be there fighting to win their hearts over for Him.

About a week ago we were having worship in the front room with the front door open. I was sitting in the door way, and four of the children were standing outside the door listing to the song, “How Great is Our God.” Then one of the little boys, Tinku, starting to sing along to the chorus. I don’t think he understood what he was singing, or even who he was singing about, but listing to his little voice sing praises to the one true God broke my heart into pieces. I started crying and one of the older girls, Pinkie, who was also standing in the door way wiped away my tears with her hands. It was one of the most beautiful moments on this trip, one that made me realize that God has it all under control. 

Apart from God teaching me to trust and rely in Him, He has taught me about His love. How He loves the people who follow after Him, and how He chases the ones who turn away from Him. He never stops fighting for His lost sheep. He never gives up hope – He simply loves. 

It feels like such a small and easy thing to do, love the children. But after a long day of loving on orphans and lepers coming home and loving even more children can be very challenging since everyone on team just wants a break, but God has given us the strength and the endurance to love them even more.  It will be one of the hardest things to leave them, but I know that God has all the children in His hands, and that He will provide for them and reveal Himself to them.