Color and Dirt

After a week, I think I am finally adjusted to life here in India. No bathing every day, washing clothes in a bucket, everything being slightly damp (if not totally drenched) all of the time, and only drinking water from bottles or jugs. Most of the work done at Rahab's is prevention against sex-trafficking. We go into a small town nearby in the slums and work at building a better community that will empower the women and give them good options for work as well as a resource center to come for if they need any kind of help. We spent each morning this week working in a pre-school and each afternoon/evening in sewing classes with women from the slums. My favorite part is when we have the translator sit with us and translate stories that we share from the Bible and from our lives with the women. Sometimes they get to open up and share as well.
On the day that I shared, I told a story about my life and how God worked in it for the morning class. But for the afternoon class I felt lead to share the story of Hannah who prayed for a son and gave him over to serve God. I learned later that one of the women, Netra, has been struggling for a long time because she cannot have kids. She cried when the story was over. A lot of the women have struggles with their husbands and with their families because of the religious animosity towards believers. Many fathers and husbands have drinking problems. Most of the girls are married at a very young age. My friend Cincoa was married at eight years old to her uncle, whom she is now seeking a divorce from.
I'm not sure I anticipated how hard it would be to hear about other people's sufferings, and to even watch it happen. I feel like I don't know what to do or how to help a lot of times. They language barrier has been really difficult for me. I struggle because I feel like I have nothing to offer.
But yesterday during women's nutrition, I stayed outside and played with the kids. It was a riot because Soni, a girl in my pre-school, had a live crab on a string. They were dragging it around like a pet. There was one little boy whom I started to play with. He was responding so well to me, even though he didn't know what I was saying. We played the whole class, just different little games and he laughed a lot. When the class was over one of our team members informed me that he was deaf, and that his family did not take care of him so he spent a lot of time with one of the other women who comes to translate for the nutrition classes.
It was just really cool because I know that I communicated with him yesterday and that we both found joy in each other. It didn't matter that he could not hear me. He understood me. It gave me hope that if I could give the message of love to this little boy, then there are ways to love all people without necessarily being able to speak words to them.
I would love to have your continued prayers for strength and persistence. Pray that God's love would be shown as strong as it really is, stronger than any darkness in the world. Pray that more opportunities would be evident, and that we would have truth always on our hearts, ready to share. Pray that I would be more and more willing to rely on my team members for help and guidance. Pray that we would work as the body of Christ is supposed to. Pray that we don't get discouraged, but grow stronger each day. Pray that in all the dirt and grime, we would celebrate and praise God for the beautiful colors. Pray that walls would tumble down and the truth be obvious, that Jesus Christ is the one true God who saves us.