Day 3: Dip Your Chicken in the Yogurt

That’s what we did today…dipped our chicken in some yogurt…while eating on a banana leaf in the middle of the jungle. Yeah, dinner was awesome!

The day was awesome. Let’s start from the beginning.

Some chicken, rice, harboiled eggs, fruit, and a bunch of other stuff we couldn’t see in the dark

Orphanage

After a breakfast of potato crepes, hardboiled eggs, hand squeezed grape juice, and curry, we drove over to the Harvest India school and orphanage. This school houses mainly children whose families were lost in the Tsunami. The kids were so joyful and well behaved! The school has some of the highest marks in the state! All of the orphans are from the lowest caste systems. A few shared some of their stories. It was heartbreaking to see little boys and girls trying to choke back their tears and share how hard their life has been. Yet God has provided for them a new life with new possibilities.

This was how they welcomed us:

Orphanage Greeting from Ryan Axtell on Vimeo.

Ashraya House: A Place of Hope and Dignity

Next we walked across the compound to visit Harvest India’s Ashraya Women’s Home. Harvest India buys women out of the sex trade and provides schooling and crafting for them to help them build an independent future.  Many of these women are trafficked into prostitution, sold by their families or coerced into a life of prostitution at a young age.  As we looked into their eyes, it was clear that they were still struggling with the emptiness and pain from their past and yet reconciling that with the truth that God values them more than they can imagine and offers them healing, hope, and dignity.  This is one of the hardest ministries here because in Indian culture, prostitutes are “unclean.” Once they are deemed as such they live their life with a permanent stigma, leaving them feeling cast aside and forgotten.  Women who aren’t virgins are seldom married (and about 50% of Indian marriages are arranged) and never open up about their past experience for fear of ruining their hope for the future.  Harvest India helps to arrange marriages for these women in addition to providing them much needed medical care. In the Ashraya home, these women learn to make purses, pajama pants, and pillow cases in order to support themselves in another way.  Unfortunately, since these products are made with “unclean” hands, no one in India will buy them.  They depend on foreign visitors like us to support the work of their hands, and we’ve brought a bunch back which will be sold in the Cornerstone bookstore!  This portion of the day was a highlight for Heather, who is excited to partner with the Ashraya Home with her business, Ransom Me, which aims to raise funds for programs that aid victims of sex trafficking.

Elderly Home

Driving for one hour in cramped SUV’s to an the elderly home was another experience in itself with oncoming trucks and buses playing truth or dare with our vehicle. When we arrived we were bombarded with flowers and hugs from the old people as they warmly greeted us in front of their home. The elderly in this home are forgotten by their families and have no place to go. All of us were choked up as we heard the stories of abandonment and then restoration as they come to this home to live out their final years with the care and compassion that only God can give. Many of them actually come to Christ in this home and these people become the prayer warriors that sustain Harvest in India.

Outreach Night

some of my handclappin’ pals

Saresh and one of the local pastors

We ended our day by heading out over bumpy dusty roads to a village where Harvest India has been ministering through different types of relief work. As we drove in we could hear beautiful native music and see lights in the distance. In the middle of what seemed like no where a portable sound system, lights and a stage were set up. When we arrived there were probably over 100 people (women sitting on the ground, men seated in the back, waiting for our teams. We were introduced to a local pastor,  enjoyed more Indian praise songs with me distracting several beautiful kids in the front in a random clapping game (so many beautiful smiles). I was able to lead several worship songs as more and more people arrived to check out what was going on. Marty introduced Kara one of our team members to give her testimony which was a really big step of faith for her never having done it before. Kara did an amazing job supported in prayer by all of us, she will never be the same! Chris, one of the members of the Canadian group shared a message based on God’s love for women tied to a gospel presentation. Niall closed with an invitation to accept Christ with over 100 standing and praying to receive Jesus as their Savior. Harvest India will be following up in the village to be sure there is an understanding of who the one true God is and what that decision means to them and help discern between different types of decisions. We were all able to pray for dozens of villagers as the evening drew to a close. The work of the Holy Spirit was powerful in a small village in India last night. What a blessing to be able to be part of that!

Thanks for all your prayers and support. We’ve enjoyed reading your comments and sharing our experience with you guys! Tomorrow we start our VBS…which is gonna be amazing! The kids are so ecstactic…this is 3 days of holiday for them!

Church Service

Here is video update of our church service a few days ago.

India- Baptist Church Service from Ryan Axtell on Vimeo.