We ministered at the most amazing church. As we pulled up it was evident that it was in a much poorer area. The church was typical of the churches here. They are made with brick slabs and have a metal roof. There are slots in some of the slabs to let air in. Just one big room, only they had hung beautiful chandeliers in it and hung golden drapes. The attempt of elegance in otherwise humble surroundingsreally worked well and had a sweet touch. The moment we walked in, I felt such freedom and love. These people, though much poorer than we have ministered to as of yet, were so hungry for a move of God. We were seated and they were smiling and waving, trying to catch my eye. The worship was nothing short of amazing and it was not because of their musical gifts. They were a bit off tune, the drummer was a little boy and he really only knew one beat, the sound system kept screeching…but oh my, how they wanted to sing glory to the Lord. At first I even cringed and the messiness of it, and then as I watched them, and could feel their hunger, it began to sound so beautiful and brought me to tears. I thought of the scripture, Psalm 100 where it says:
Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
I loved sharing with this church. I could have talked all night, and they were so encouraging! Why, they clapped and hooted and practically yelled bravo as I was going to sit down. Pastor taught on deliverance and then led them in an actual deliverance. People were physicallymanifesting as they were being set free, and as we prayed for these dear ones, they were so set on getting free of the spiritual hindrances in their lives. We prayed for many, there were mostly women and so many children here. I asked the Pastor for his address and plan to send them a Sunday school care package when I get home.
Well there is just too much of this evening to ever talk without running the risk of rambling and going on too long. I’ll just sum up the love I felt with an example of one particular woman. She was sitting across the church during the service and kept glancing at me and smiling. She would give me thumbs up and would wave and smile so big. When I was sharing she was just beaming at me. Almost like a mama proud of her child, and like that child, it encouraged me and gave me great confidence. After the service she came right over to me with outstretched arms, looked me straight in the eyes, her eyes beaming lights, and as she hugged me ever so tightly, she said “Oh, I just love you, I just love you so much”.And you know…shemeant it. I felt that love. I could only hope to reach out that way to a stranger at my church, to make them feel so welcome. So again, I learned yet another lesson in life, through the example of the poor and humble people in a supposedly not so entitled nation. But then I realize, they are not so poor after all, are they?
Sunday
So the services have been awesome. There is a lot of bondage here and the Christians struggle in many areas. But Pastor Kyle is doing deliverance services and many are getting set free and healed and receiving salvation. This truly is the church at its finest. They worship God with so much passion and love for the Lord. There have been healings and deliverance and prophetic words flowing.
It is Sunday morning. I hear the practice in the church next door, Pastor Ivans church. Yet I hear drums down the street. The drums get closer and as I look out the window, 2 young boys are beating a drum loudly and walking down the street. There are 2 men following after them with a basket and what looks like fruit and veggies. What I learn is that they are drumming to conjure up good spirits and waking to the temple with their offering. The cows of course are roaming around, you can smell smoke in the air. Off in the distance music, I am assuming it’s a Hundu song of sourts, the woman next door yelling at her family, and the beginnings of music coming from the pastors church, which is right in his back yard. It all blends. The church has microphones and speakers so there is no doubt that the music and ministry of the word flows and echos….Its going to be a good day.
Saturday we went to the ocean with Pastor Ivans family. What a wonderful day we had, especially seeing the excitement of the children. The van driver was Hindu. There are so many religions here. You drive down the street and see Hindu temples and right next door there could be a Seventh Day Adventist or a Mormon church. There seems to be a pretty good tolerance for your neighbors choice of religion. What was so interesting was that we sang worship songs nearly all the way. The driver didn’t seem to mind one bit. I had to wonder what he was thinking. I am sure that he was blessed, and in some way ministered to.
I am excited to tell you also, that I was baptised while were at the ocean. It was so lovely to swim in the warm waters. The water here is very brown, from the sand and dirt, but nonetheless I was not about to miss the opportunity to re affirm and confess my believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Right there at the very beach were India discovered Guyana in the early 1800’s. With Suriname in the background and the warm waters of the Caribbean. It did have its own flair of exotic adventure that I do love so it deemed so appropriate. I love this country. For all its dirt, poverty, garbage, and mosquitos. It is full of hope for future generations to become set free and reverse the curse, through a living Savior, that is over the Land. The Christians here are strong. They know how to Love Thy Neighbor, regardless of their religions, and their light, and the power that flows through them will eventually shine as a witness to draw in the hurt, the sick, the lost. Keep these loved ones in Guyana in your prayers. You may not know them by name, but God does, and they are so precious in His sight.
Flight great, although I understand why the y use the term “the red eye” for overnight flights…who really can sleep during those! Other than the fact my 2 suitcases were not on the plane, it was pretty non eventful….
It was wonderful to arrive. Pastor Ivan picked us up with 2 of his kids, Lydia (11) and Timothy (15)..we drove around 4 hours, adding an hour wait for a draw bridge to come open. The reunion with Sister Hemo was so sweet, as was meeting
her children. The home is welcoming and we have our own room upstairs. When they built this home they but the upstairs as an apartment so that when guests come they have a place..and with Hemos gift of hospitality…it is quite comforting
The Lord has surely blessed this family. They have moved into their own home since I was last here and went from an outdoor church underneath a house, to a beautiful church right next to their home. We had a nice restful afternoon and had a service in their church. The worship was…well there really are no words. It was as if I could hear the angels sing! After the worship I leaned over to Linda and told her I could have heard angels and she was so pleased, she had thought she heard then also, only wasn’t going to say anything as she wasn’t sure, until I told her also! Pastor Kyle shared the word and afterwards many came forward for prayer for healing, family, and many other issues. We laid hands and prayed and many said they felt the power of the Lord come upon them. Sundays service will give them an opportunity to share what did for them, and I am looking so forward to hearing their testimonies.
Afterwards we did a service at a neighboring church. There were 5 pastors holding a meeting and I was able to see Pastor Samuel and his wife, who I met last trip. Good service followed by a good meal provided by Sister Hemo..and a great nights sleep. We went to the market which of course, I loved, and we are getting ready to go to Brother Samuels church tonight. Looking forward to experience a move of God…..
travel day
Here I am flying from Minneapolis to New York International airport. Its been an interesting journey so far. I woke up to a mess from my deep freezer thawing! I had a mad rush to take out all the still cool and somewhat frozen meat and get it to my moms house, while finishing packing last minute, hustling kids out the door with their packing…so we get loaded…beef, chicken, suit cases, kids, and all. I rush Josh to the car pool friends only to realize that Porshia, our beautiful 4 lb Pom was left in the drive way. We all thought everyone else picked her up. “Honey I forgot the dog” at its finest. So we fly back to get and her thankfully find her only a few houses away and my vision of her running down the highway after us quickly went away.
Everything else was pretty uneventful and I arrived at the airport in plenty of time. I met a few guys while waiting for our flight, and after introductions and all, I ended up sharing my whole India testimony and how I met Pastor Matthew and how Messiah Missions came to be. It was so exciting to share the testimony and the one man from Maine was very interested and had a heart to do some Missions…being a physical therapist he would be a great fit for a medical missions trip. Well you never know what could come out of this meeting, he has the website address I am sure I will be hearing from him again. It was a great God connection..as was the seating arrangementon the flight to Minneapolis. I sat next to a young man, Levi from Sturgis. His wife Kristy was in another isle and though I offered to switch seats, he declined since we were already up in the ari and it was a short flight. It turned out a very enjoyable flight! His sister is a missionary with YWAM Texas and he is a solid Christian. We talked about God, divine appointments, missions, and I shared with him some great Christian musicians and we pulled them up on my itunes for a quick listen. He shared with me a ministry that is likeminded in missions and orphans. Hope this friendship can stay in contact and again, we shared contact info. (well he has the MM card and my email and said they would write with the website/..
So here I am..next flight. I was moved to a seat in the emergency exit with lots of leg room and an empty seat next to me. Looking forward to New York. I love international airports. I love the cultures, the accents, wondering what everyone story is, where are they going? So for now, going to dig in a big book and thank God for my new little notebook computer so I can get this all written down..
Here we “go ye” again…Guyana
Well it looks like another adventure for me. It is funny, I seem to have been in a kind of boring limbo lately, yet when a door opens up to go on a missions trip, its like my whole being wakes up and the connectors begin to work again. It must be that when we walk in our calling, in the passions the Lord has placed in our hearts, that we are so in the will of God, that things just begin to line up. About this time last year I doubted I would even go on another missions trip. I didn’t even finish the last of the blogging on the Thailand/India trip, as when I got home I was literally not even in my front door and I was met with a drama that turned into one of the most painful and hurtful times in my life, and it almost ripped my family to shreds! Well fast forward a year and yes, there is still an aftershock from the tragedy that happened but there is healing in time, and I have seen God move in our lives in powerful ways that I would not have seen otherwise. So I am grown a little more, seasoned a lot more, and am learning first hand the power of forgiveness and how we must make that choice to forgive, whether we really “feel” it or not.
So now it is a new season. A door has opened for me to go to Guyana South America. And yes, I am off the charts excited. I am going with dear friends of mine, Pastor John Kyle and his wife Linda. We will be staying with Pastor Ivan and his wife Hemo. The exciting part for me is that this ministry we are going to, in Guyana, was the first mission trip I had ever gone on 14 years ago! So much has happened since then. I was a very new Christian, around 2 years saved. You see, when I got saved, it was like the next day I opened my bible and read “go ye into the nations” and my heart began to race, my spirit leap and I said “yes send me”! I knew right away I wanted to go to the nations, but as a single working mother, in much dept, and walking out the healing left from scars in the world, world travel seemed like a far away possibility. I had many instances where I would get a confirmation on this call, and even though I walked in faith, I would wonder, “how God, how on earth is this going to happen”. My first prophetic word I ever received, was this ..”I see overseas airline tickets for you, the Lord says to tell you YES, you will travel around the world and minister to the nations”…it seemed so wild, but now I see all the tickets, some free, some discounted, some just able to purchase after hard work and a second job..the fulfillment of a promise that seemed so impossible at the time.
My goodness, how much has happened since then!
I could reminisce with many stories about what God did in that first trip, but I will just take the time right now for the one that had the most impact on (well 2 really, I DID hear angels singing when we were flying over the jungle to the worlds 2nd largest waterfall but that’s another God story) What I want to share is about Hemo, Pastor Ivans wife. This amazing woman kept asking if she could wash our clothes. Seeing as her laundry room was a table, a scrub brush, a big tub of water and a clothes line out in her back yard, I didn’t want to inconvenience her. It was miserable hot outside and it seemed to be an extra burden on her. But she seemed to be grieved that we weren’t giving her our clothes so we finally consented. It took her ALL DAY to wash those clothes, she scrubbed and scrubbed, and I finally went out and asked her if I could help. She was adamant that I could not and when I pressed it, feeling so bad that she was doing all this work, she replied with “please, you don’t understand. I have to do this. I do this for my Jesus”. What a heart of a servant. This attitude could help to change all of ours perspective, if we could just get a hold of serving, for our Jesus! What a love. Yes, I was humbled.
And now,after all these years, I am returning. When I left there, what the Lord spoke in my heart was “yes you can do this” and now I go back having set foot in many countries. Around 9 I think, counting a few airports. And that God is in it is obvious. This time I will go back representing Messiah Missions, which God birthed out of a lot of love, prayer, patience, and friends, (thank you brother Steve)..and I will be taking a step for Pastor Ivan to have a covering under Messiah Missions so that he can have some exposure for his ministry. I intend to reconnect with them, and hopefully we can help them shoot forward with connections and financial help. Pretty exciting times. And this time I will not step foot out of this town without knowing I have some intense prayer covering over myself and my family. So please keep me in prayer and I will complete all blogs on this trip, and will not be blind sided again. My next write I’ll share a little about Guyana and how the Lord is “filling my suitcase” for this next step of the journey. Departure date: Oct 4.
Bless you
Lea
And PS..It looks as if there may be another India trip in May of 2012. Possibly more of a medical missions trip as I have a few nurses interested in going. My heart is heavy for the lepers, they are so beautiful and I really would like help them. And did you know that around $200. will cure a leper? What about sponsoring a leper, just like we do for the children? Any thoughts?
About Further India Blogging
I know I have skipped around… easy to do when you are in a whirlwind such as I have been these last 2 weeks. I have more India stories written in my journal, but we had no internet. I will be copying from my notes to this blog soon. I still want to tell readers about the orphanage, the pastor’s meeting, the widows, describe the village life and about the India Christians. I may be writing awhile on paper, but for now, I am just a bit wore out from our12 hour day of travel. Stay tuned!
Visiting Laos
Today I took a day trip to the Triange that is where Laos, Burma and Thailand meet. An amazing connection was that we spent the day on a van tour with 2 couples from Israel. They live right outside of Jerusalem. The trip was awesome. I spent time in a village in Laos, only they were not letting foreigners into Burma, so we only saw it as we went past on a boat between the 3 countries. Never the less, way cool. We also had time in a little hill tribe village and the village where the “long necks” are. You have probably seen photos, they wrap their necks in the metal rings to get long necks. I didn’t go into that village as they were charging for it. They locals kind of put these people on display anyway, and tourists go take photos and leave 15 minutes.
We ate lunch with a man and woman who were on our bus. He was a man from Sweden and the woman was Thai, obviously, hired by him for companionship. It was really sad when you realize the relationship. We spoke to her and she had such a gentle nature, and was so sweet. He was an older gentleman who we spoke to breifly, but he couldn’t look at us in the eye. I wonder why? They both appeared to be trying to have a good time, but there was something about them. It was if they were walking in shame and trying to hide it. So sad, that it is part of her culture and she had little other options. So sad that he is so lonely that he has to go to a foreign country to find a woman to pay to spend time with him. Yes I prayed for them, and will continue to do so. Also met another couple from China, but they didn’t really talk to anyone.
I exchanged email address’s with the couples from Israel. We have agreed if we visit each others counties to contact each other, though they have no idea where South Dakota is 
The best part of the day was being able to listen to Hebrew all day. Even though I didn’t know what they said (I did hear the name Obama once, and would have liked to known what that was about). The very best part was being able to tell them that my friends, and myself, pray for their country daily. It seemed to really touch their hearts and they thanked us..
Oh… and I spooned a package of dirt and a rock in Laos, to go with my dirt from the orphanage in India and dirt from Thailand. I think this is a great way to have a prayer reminder, a small jar fill of a part of that country. God is so good!
Visiting the Leper Colony
I have been so looking forward to meeting with the lepers this trip. The last time I was with pastor Matthew, he asked me to go see them the last day. By then end of my trip, if I looked at him, I would burst out crying… we never did go needless to say. I was so heart broken by the end of the first trip, I had cried daily. I had felt so helpless to all those who presented needs… it had been overwhelming. The stream of needs are never ending. But eventually, I realized that I can’t do everything, I cannot meet every need. I can only help where the Lord leads and provides. All I can do is love them. And love them, I did!
The lepers came to us this trip. They set up a tent and sat out the tables of rice. The 4 trykes we bought were there, these things were amazing. They are a large tricycle with a crank on the side instead of pedals. There is a flat bottom that allows the leper with no feet, and useless legs, to crawl onto the seat, independent and free of assistance. It helps to restore their dignity. We visited with them, and I shared a letter written by my friend Mary. The letter told them that she prays for them. They just soaked it in, so in awe that someone in America would pray for them and would want to know them by name. I shared with them in 2 Kings where the Lord used the lepers to discover how the army had fled and they took news to the king that there was food and provision after the long seige…I told them how the Lord picked them, for their bravery, as they had nothing else to loose, and they saved the city. They loved the story, and kept raising their hands in praise and to shout “hallelujah”! I encouraged them how the Lord can still use them in their city, and how brave I thought they were. They are my heros! Michelle and Heather also shared with them. They shared how much the Lord loved them and we tried to encourage them the best we could.
Many of them were very happy. They were beaming with smiles when we took their photos. A few others sat very quiet and did not respond much. Some had no fingers, and hardly any hands, no toes, feet or noses. And yet, I saw joy. I saw it when they praised the Lord. I saw it when they prayed. This group of people have been praying for me, my family, friends, and church going on five years. Don’t you think the Lord lends a special ears to these Saints prayers? And now I finally met them and we became friends. We hugged and visited and cried together. We provided them with rice and gave them a love offering. Most of them live by begging, and by the offering and rice given monthy by Pastor Matthew and his family. It was so amazing to bless them with an offering that was large enough to provide them fresh food and some clothing. And to see their faces light up to get on the trykes and try them out…oh joy, it was remarkable. It was quite sad to leave them. You can be sure that when I am able, I will be sharing with you their photos.
A highlight of our adventure was when we were driving down the road in a auto later. We actually passed 2 of the lepers riding down the road. It really takes two to use tryke, one pushes from behind if they are too weak to use the crank. Then, once it gets going, the one on back sits on a platform. It was quite hillarious to see this man just flying down the road, embracing his new found freedom. Close behind, you could see his wife, who still has the use of her feet, running with all her might to keep up with him. We pulled to the side to wave and take photos of them. They beamed with pride to be seen on their new trykes.
And if you would like to know what impacted me most about the lepers is the fact that they can receive treatment. Around $150.00 will cure a leper. It is true, only $150. If caught soon enough, it will stop the flesh eating condition before it renders them immoble. If they receive treatment afterwards, it will stop it getting worse. They recieve a daily shot, for 6 months to a year.
Rajesh has gone to medical school. It is his heart to start a free clinic for the treatment of lepers, as well as villagers who are sick. He wants to minister to his people and help heal them. Providing medical help also opens a door for prayer ministry and introducing the gospel to those seeking help. I plan to stand by him with this vision. I am excited to see how this could get started. I am floored to think that for such a small financial amount, one of these dear souls can recover from this terrible desease.
I also have to mention a little girl living with them. She does not have leprosy now, but I am concerned that if she stays with them long enough, she may contract the disease. She and her mother are staying with the lepers because she had polio. It has rendered her feet and legs useless, leaving her a cripple. They live there because there is no where else for them. Her eyes were amazing and spoke of a pain that says this is all there will ever be for her. Then they set her on a tryke. She had a spark about her. I pray this spark remains and catches on fire as she grows up and learns that there is a loving Jesus who will one day make her whole again.
I was not sure about leprosy being contagious, but the Pastors son, Rajesh, explained it to me a little better. It takes around 3 years of living around leprosy to be at high risk. The bacteria will get into the soil. It is rare that a white person would ever get leprosy as it usually only will affect a dark skinned person. He said to just be sure to wash our hands and feet afterwards. Which I did, quite thoroughly.
That is an overview detailing our experience with the blessed lepers. I am sure I will see them again. I don’t know how I can not. They are a part of me now. They pray for me, I pray for them. They are beautiful.
