Thriving

I got to visit Kolkata recently.  Kolkata was like breathing again to be in that city! I love Kolkata so much! I got to go to the girls home and see Ambika the lady I worked with for a few months in 2009, as well as to see some of the ladies. It was so great. Some of the ladies I worked with in the past in the red light district were now working in the vocational unit, a place where they now make bags and blankets that are sold to provide their income. I was asked to share a devotional that day, and it was just such a refreshing blessing.  Some of the ladies I remember meeting in the past in the Brothels, some of them their daughters in the home of hope.  One women, I remembered immediately and almost began crying. 


She, her mother, and youngest daughter were in the brothels the first time I met her in 2004.  Her older 3 daughters had recently moved and were in the safe home. This was the year the Father spoke to me and asked me to give money to an older women and a toddler in need for groceries. They had touched my heart each day I saw them and when the Father asked, I slipped some money in the women’s hand. Little did I know it was the same grandma to the little girls that I had been working with in the home. Over my time in 2004 I came to know the little toddler’s name was “Mahima” which means glory. I left that year pr*ying for her rescue and ability to one day live in the home with her sisters.  In 2007, I came again to Home of Hope and got to work with her sisters and found Mahima had been taken out of the Red Light District and was growing and doing well in her new safe environment. I have continued to pr*y for their mom and family. This year, 2015, I came to see their mom again thriving and doing well in HER new environment. She has been working for a few years now in the vocational unit. She is out, free of her life in the brothels. Thriving and doing well. She worshipped the King with us and sang and I sat in awe of what the Father can do.  It takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight, but here I was sitting watching generations of a family having been transformed and changed for the Kingdom’s sake. What a beautiful display of redemption. The Father is so good.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Bhindi or “Tikka” Mark on the Head- What is it?

Image
(Pooja tikka mark) Many westerners have asked me what the Bhindi or red “tikka” mark means or why I am willing to wear it as a Chri$tian. Many people associate this mark with H!nduism. In my contextualization classes we were taught about finding the difference between culture and religion. The scripture is clear that we don’t want to do anything to compromise our Chri$tian faith and values. At the same time the go$pel is full of the liberties that Chri$t brought to us through the cross. We are no longer obligated to religious practices and rituals. Chri$t fulfilled the law. As we work with non-believers we don’t want to make Chri$tianity another religion. We don’t want to make following Chri$t more difficult than it has to be. Following Je$us doesn’t have to mean abandoning culture, it just has to mean abandoning any other faith or practices of that faith. As teachers, we have to help our disciples find this difference as they come to follow the Father more and more. We don
Read more

But God...

Every Knee Will Bow And Every Tongue Will Confess Truly everywhere we look is need- physical, emotional, financial, and spiritual. I see the man with elephantitis lift his giant leg to shift his position as he sits on a mat begging for money on the side of the road. I see a woman sitting on a patch of grass on the edge of a busy highway practicing her meditation attempting to find her inner peace. I see a young girl on her way to school stop to touch the street cow and then touch her own forehead in hopes that her Hindu practices will reap the blessing from her god (cow). Simultaneously, I see a shop keeper allow the giant cow to mosey along his street front restaurant; he even offers the cow freshly made roti (bread) as to not offend his “god” passing by. I see another person practicing yoga with all the pristine positions and poses. Her breaths are well practiced, yet her face is stricken with the look of anxiety and distress.  I see a young man who was
Read more

The ugliness I sometimes see

Image
We returned home today, August 18th, to the vastly different country that I now call "home". The things I so easily become immune to while living here rage their ugly heads whenever I return. It’s a mini culture shock and re-initiation if you will. I watched from my hotel window as a woman outside bathed her child in brown water. They live in an uncompleted brick shack with holes and a plastic sheet roof that monsoon has mostly destroyed already. Besides the beauty in the color of the scraps of clothes they are wearing there is nothing beautiful to the sight. No running water, no comforts to enjoy- simply day to day survival. My heart broke as I watched her. I looked down to my own sleeping baby tucked away in a nice crib with clean sheets and clean clothes. Sin is a horrible thing! It’s mared the world God created and his original beauty designed. It’s brought sickness, poverty, and brokenness. My heart aches for this woman, and at the same time rejoices in the
Read more