I want to start this off by saying that no matter what I write in this final entry (or have written in previous entries) will not in any way give you a full understanding of how this years’ trip to India has captured my heart. I won’t fully understand how my team members felt, either. I can state the obvious based on conversations, watching everyone interact with the children or fluctuation in emotional status, but it wouldn’t come close to what’s actually going on inside each one of us at this moment. I promise to do my best, however, in sharing my heart with yours.

The children of India will forever have a place in my heart. I went there to be there for them, but in so many words, they were there for me. You look at them and say they have nothing. I did, at first, but soon realized how wrong I was. They don’t have toys, at least not what we shower our children with. The most up to date wardrobes, the medicine to keep them well… I can go on & on about what they don’t have, but it’s what they do have that taught me a lot about myself, about life and so much more. It’s their faith in our Father, our Lord, The Provider.

In everything they do, they praise God. They thank Jesus for shedding His blood for us, for saving us from death & giving us the chance to spend eternity in His presence. They thank Him for their pastors who have heard the call from God to take care of them. Pastors with hearts of gold, whose sole concern is that of the children’s well being. They pray that He will provide. They are still in waiting for Him, understanding that it is all in Him time. This is when He calls us.

We are the answer to many of these prayers. God calls us to be there for these children & their pastors. You, me, your family, friends & even your co-workers can have this calling. I can only suggest that you talk with God & see what he puts on your heart to do. He may ask that you support one of these orphanages. He may call you to help support a friend who has heard His calling to be in India with these children. He may want you to go to India, step foot into their home, hold the children closely & show them your love & then turn around to their pastor & his wife & say “May God continue to bless you & keep you safe while you continue to do His work”. That last one was my calling & I would give anything to do it all over again. But I can also love them just as much from here until that time comes again, until then, I told Him I would not let it stop in India, that I would do what I can from here until it is time for me to be with them again.

Before I left for India, God told me that it was there that I would truly know Him. He wanted me to know His Son. I wasn’t sure how to take that. “Don’t I know you?” then I had questions like “What am I doing wrong”. I found out that it wasn’t anything like that, more like He felt I was ready for what’s next in my walk with Him. On our way out of Mumbai, He “kick started” something in me. At first, I wasn’t sure that I liked the idea. I was actually asking Him to reconsider something else. He said “No” & I’m glad He did. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to truly know what was taking place there. People are asking me why Goa stands out more to me & it’s not cause it was my favorite place, although extremely beautiful, but it was the 1st time I was able to feel & see the strong presence of the Holy Spirit. Oh, how I wish I knew the words that could bring you with me to that very moment. It was supernatural, it was powerful, beautiful… No! None of those will do. What I can say is that He is working over there. I saw it, I felt it & I will never forget it. It didn’t stop in Goa, either. He was all over those children. Bathing in their love for Him.

Today, I got an email from one of the many life long friends we made over there. He expressed how thankful he was to God for us & that the children are still praying for us & that our time with the children is unforgettable. It funny, cause he took the words right out of my mouth.

I’ll wrap this up in saying that I’m not much of a writer. I had a very hard time with getting my thoughts straight in order to share with you the wonders of this trip and what it meant to me, to us & to the children. I finally just prayed that God would be my hands & and share with you what He thought best. Thank you so much for your prayers. We hope to see you the next time we go.

God Bless.

Tia

Posted by Tia Longhouser at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

They tell you that once you go, you’re changed forever and I went to India expecting some earth shattering revelation. I am ever one for overblown expectations. The thing about India is that it does change you forever, but not often in some epiphany of divine communication. I’m sure some people get that, but I have yet to be that guy.

The changes it wrought were mostly small, yet deep seated, changes that are singularly more significant than any Mac truck force realization could have been. I find myself awake, alive and with a deeper understanding of what God intended for us to be. I feel more focused and more at peace than I have ever felt. I found my faith shaken to the core, not by disappointment, but by the clear demonstration of the absolute pettiness of the concerns or worries that held me back.

There is no way to truly put into words the things that you see on a trip like this. You cannot communicate the years of pain, betrayal and need behind a child’s smile; perfectly relay the stories of sacrifice, loss and faith in the face of amazing adversity; you cannot understand it on a visceral level until you’re looking that person in the eye and stand in their environment. Disconnecting from the fog of your own perceptions is a truly impossible task until you understand how truly distant you are from your own definitions of comfort and safety, pain and adversity.

We spoke to a child that lived in a train station and ate food from garbage cans; watched a man who had saddled himself with immense debt to care for 15 children weep as months of prayer came to fruition at the very last moment on a happenstance encounter with our team erased it all and gave him money to continue. We heard from a pastoral student that had no place to live, no email address, no phone number, nothing, yet he rejoiced that he could walk the streets and preach the gospel; sat with a pastor that had started his school, church and orphanage in a town that he chose because they had just burned thousands of bibles and witnessed his unshakable faith that God would provide.

In the face of incomprehensible conditions, real persecution, and a seemingly impossible task of changing the course and culture of a country of 1.4 billion people, men and women are stepping out to “suffer with Christ” not just for a couple of weeks or months, but for years or whole lifetimes. Children are being saved from the streets, people are coming to know Christ, and God is moving the impossible to the possible in increments.

I spent much of my life disenchanted with Christianity because of the hypocrisy and pettiness of many of the Christians I encountered as a Pastor’s Kid. At one point, I felt that God was a crutch used to hold up feeble hatreds, justified “us and them” mentalities, and make “train wreck” people feel good about themselves while changing nothing. I had already abandoned much of that thinking as youthful angst, but in India, all I could hear was God in the back of my head saying “Do you see now? Do you see what it’s all about? Do you see what it means to suffer and why it’s considered glory? Do you still think I’m a crutch?” I was crushed and humbled.

I still don’t know all the changes it wrought in me, but it’s coming together. I went to India looking for answers. I came back with those and more questions still. Yet I know this: I am wired for this. I am more alive today than I was a month ago, and I have had any idea that what God might ask of me being too difficult shattered into tiny pieces. I do not know if that will lead me back to India on a less temporary basis or if it will lead to something else. I just know that God answered my question of Purpose; it is the form in which that purpose will be realized that I have yet to see.

I’ll leave it on one last note. If none of that had happened, if it had been just a trip to another place to do some things, and life was not changed in any tangible way, this one moment alone would have accounted for every penny spent and every moment surrendered. If ever there is a moment where you know you’re seeing God in all of his glory doing exactly what he promised he would do, it is this:

Posted by Jeremy Brookins at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After going through thousands of photos, I have selected 99 that I felt best represented the trip. These were the ones that popped out at me and do not include many shots not directly related to the work. I may add more in the future as I get more time to look at the TONS of them that I have.

All of the photos in this batch were photographed by Mary Lyon. Kelly Morrell and Tia Longhouser may have photos they want to put up but I haven't had a chance to see them yet.

i58 Projects in India - September 2006

Finally, a little bit of the video that was taken. Kelly Morrell shot this with her digital camera:

Posted by Jeremy Brookins at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)