Yesterday was extremely eye opening and overwhelming...in a good kind of way, one that makes your mind turn a million miles a minute and causes your heart to beat outside of its chest. We went to Thatha's church in Vijayawada and later went onto the city streets.
At church, we sang Marvelous Light in front of 500 people. It was wonderfully horrible. We were extremely off pitch and it wasn't in Telugu. The worship team felt bad for us, so naturally they tried to help the situation by putting dubstep to it. Expectantly, we went into uncontrollable laughter and couldn't finnish the song. We answered questions afterwards about God in America and Jenna and I shared our testimonies.
We later got dropped off on a street, that was to say in the least, complete chaos. People, motorcycles, cows, and street vendors were everywhere. We stuck out like crazy as Americans. The smells and sounds were indescribable.
I like to think in lists and they help me to process better. These are some of the paradox's I've seen so far:
Right next to the diamond mega store, a man with one leg was begging. Comparably, a shack made from tree palms is the next door neighbor to a 5 story home.
In the middle of the street, a man crippled with Polio (a prevalent disease in this country) laid face first on the street with his legs twisted and his ribs poking out of his back. Meanwhile, people scurry around him ignoring the gift they've been given to healthily walk between stores.
Cows are given food and water to drink while children are forced (most likely by a gang) to be painted and paraded on the streets to beg for money.
Men are lined up in front of Mother Teresa's Home for the Dying and the Desolate in desperate need for food and love while we were offered free food from vendors that we could not accept.
Devadaasi, an outlawed Hindu tradition where a wife would be burned alive with her dead husband, no longer exists. However women are still abused and treated lower than men. A justice systems exists, but it does not protect the weak. If a pastor hears of this, all he can do is pray because he will be killed if he reports it.
As followers of Christ, the most valuable thing we can do is pray on behalf of these suffering people to our good Father. It was extremely hard to not lay hands and pray for the poor on the street. Sadly Christian prayers are not accepted in the mostly Hindu streets and leads to violence. We pray and hope that doors will be open for us to share the redeeming love and healing of Jesus. For now we pray Ephesians 3:18 that the people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ's love.
