Day 4 part 1

I woke up at 4:30am even though we didn't need to meet in the hotel lobby until 7am. I was thankful to discover that we had hot water in the bathroom and, after a nice shower, found a nice place in the hotel to sit and journal about the day before. I don't typically keep a daily journal, but on this trip it was such a good idea because now I can remember details like this! :-)

When 7am arrived, I was already in the hotel restaurant sipping on a cup of chai tea (have I mentioned that I would drink 3 or 4 a day in India?). We loaded the team into 3 taxis and left for our day. Not even 10 minutes later we had to turn the taxis all around and go back to the hotel. No one really knew why, at least those of us who didn't speak Hindi. There was some debacle with one taxi or driver not being legally allowed to drive foreigners out of the Agra city limits. Anyway, while that was being figured out, I enjoyed sitting at a small cafe across the street eating breakfast with the team and Sunil.

When we finally departed again, an hour later, I truly experienced an Indian Road Trip - around three hours of traffic and potholes to get us to village #1 for the day. I sat in a back fold-down seat of a vehicle comparable to a 4-runner. Deshpande was sitting across from me and 5 other people were in the front two rows of seats in the car. Sitting sideways on a fold-down seat probably didn't help me not feel carsick... Along the way Deshpande was kind enough to give me an agricultural lesson on the mustard plants, sugar cane, and banana trees we were driving past (when we weren't in a larger city area). I still can't get over the fact that we were sharing tiny roads with people on foot, motorcycles, bikes, semi trucks, donkeys, and other rural carts.

The first village, I can't find the name of it, had crackling speakers loudly blasting an announcement as we arrived and got out of the taxis. We walked to the chairs set up for us underneath a colorful tent and surrounded by interesting trees. The voice on the loudspeaker was saying "our visitors have arrived!" and people from the village quickly arrived and joined us so that we could start.

Similar to the day before, we sang and spoke to the people gathered there. I believe this was more of a "believing community" and they all seemed very receptive to what we were saying. I was honored to share for just a minute or two the things that were on my heart.

This is the gist of what I shared: “My name is Katie and I am from the state of Texas in America. I am a follower of Jesus Christ and, in my own way, a TruthSeeker. I came here to tell you about my God because His love is so great that it compels me to share that love with everyone. One thing that I love about God, is that He is an international God—I can serve Him and you can serve Him. He loves all people regardless of their country, age, or gender. When you believe in Jesus and experience His love, your life has a peace and a hope that never fade. In my country, we have heroes of our past who fought for freedom and, from what I’m learning about your country, you also have people in India’s past who have fought for freedom. Jesus also wants justice and freedom for all nations and people. He wants equality for us, the people He loves. I am honored to show you God’s love today, and that we are all created equal, by washing your feet.”

After the singing and speaking was done, and it was time to wash feet, I only washed a the feet three women before standing to the side to let the other women on our team rotate in and have a turn. The Indian women in this community seemed much more eager and willing to get up and let us wash their feet. As I stood to the side, one of the Indian men who was traveling with us came over to me and said "the women are curious about you--you should go be with them." Taking his advice, I walked over to the women sitting in the sun and sat with them. Oh how I wish I spoke Hindi at that moment!

I'll let the pictures speak about the beauty of that moment to me:





This was probably my favorite 20 minutes of the trip. I had to get up because the women wanted to wash the feet of all the ladies on our team. It was literally and spiritually touching to experience this moment and I hated leaving. I must have embraced more than 20 women on our way to the taxis.


They were incredible. This is why you should go to India. To meet people like this that change your life and help you realize how little you understand about life and love and living. I'm so glad that God let me meet the people of this village on that day.