There and Back Again: India and Beyond

Photo by  Aman Bhargava  on  Unsplash After my stay in Mumbai, where I learned about urban poverty and related issues, I traveled to the state of Odisha where some friends of mine are working to make a difference among the rural and tribal populations.  When I was in India before, I spent the bulk of my time there, and it was amazing to see how the work has expanded over the past four years. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to see many of the people who I had met previously. My arrival had been kept quiet, so most of the people, including the children, were not expecting to see me. Some, who had been here four years ago during my last time in India, immediately recognized me, others being more tentative. Many asked my name, and when I said “Jessica,” their faces immediately lit up, and they said “Jessica, sister!” This time, I had the wonderful opportunity to work with a team of students who were putting on a special children’s program. It ...

Photo by  Daryn Stumbaugh  on  Unsplash Throughout this blog series, I have discussed what it means to trust the Lord in a variety of contexts: when our desires and dreams are yet unfulfilled , when we are lonely , when we fail to measure up , and when we surrender to the Lord’s way . In this post, I would like to explore one of the things that can undermine our ability to leave what we have surrendered in the Lord’s hands – fear. As humans, we are well acquainted with fear – we fear change, we fear the unknown, we fear losing control, we fear being lonely, we fear that we won’t measure up. We fear. The problem is that if we give into our fears, we find ourselves falling deeper and deeper into despair, succumbing to more fears and ultimately paralyzing ourselves. Even worse, we often end up hurting the people around us. It reminds me of the 2013 Disney animated film “Frozen.” The movie portrays two sisters (Elsa and Anna) – one of whom is ruled by her fears,...

Photo by  Fabrizio Verrecchia  on  Unsplash Have you ever felt lonely? I mean, really lonely? Like that aching, gnawing feeling that you are all alone in this world and that there is no one and nothing to satisfy. Or the feeling that you are alone in the midst of a sea of other faces and you don’t really matter all that much. Shortly after moving out of my parents’ house post-graduation and obtaining a job, I found myself feeling incredibly lonely – but, not the kind of lonely that comes from living alone or not being able to spend time with my friends. No, this was the kind of lonely that comes from desiring to have the closeness that comes with being in a romantic relationship, but presently not being in that state. Not that I have a lot of experience with romantic relationships, but like most people, I have a desire for those things. A desire to love and be loved, to hold hands and whisper words of affection in another’s ear, to talk about life and dream...

Photo by  Matthew Bedford  on  Unsplash It is hard to believe that just a little over a year ago, I submitted my application for an internship with Global Hope India. It’s funny really; I had spent more than a month considering whether I should dare to fill out the form, and finally, I gave up the internal war I had been fighting and went for it, praying that God would give me clear direction as to how I should spend my upcoming summer. In no way did I imagine how fast things would come together. Just a couple days before I headed home for Thanksgiving break last year, I received the reply – I was accepted! Christmas break consisted of a whirlwind of activities and preparations as I talked to family and friends about what I would be doing, wrote support letters, and applied for my passport. My spring semester was a continuation of that as I learned about the Indian culture, shared with even more people and made decisions about where and how I would be spending m...

Today, I was waiting for my sister to finish her chores and listening to the radio when Focus on the Family came on. The featured speaker happened to be Andy Stanley, and he was talking about how we as Christians should respond to the needs of people around us. One of the things he said was that we have all grown up thinking that we have to be fair to everyone, to the point where if we cannot help everyone, we simply do not help anyone. The problem is that instead of even one person receiving our compassion and aid, no one does. His challenge was that we should choose to meet the needs of the one, rather than giving nothing to everyone. So, as I am preparing to go to India, where I will most definitely be seeing hundreds of people living in poverty and children who do not have the opportunities afforded the majority of Americans, this concept of meeting the needs of the one instead of giving to no one is quite convicting. I know that this is a choice I will have to make each day - wh...