There were at least three reasons why I made this trip to India: to gain firsthand experience about what it is like in India, gain much needed experience in international travel, and a time of prayer.
My interest about what it is like in India is stimulated by the fact that Connie and I are sponsoring a high school girl near the Chennai area through World Vision. When I write to her I want to have some experience I could write from that related to where she lived. I want to be more relevant while establishing a friendship with her. I now can send her a picture of the Bay of Bengal and actually say that I have been there; a bay that is near to where she lives.
Maybe a picture of a church in Chennai could be used to start some spiritual conversation. It is a catholic church.
It is next to the Annai Vailankanni Shrine.
Travel to and from China is no problem for me because I know the route and don’t have to leave an airport for an overnight stay. To go to a foreign country and travel there is something I lack experience doing and takes me way outside my comfort zone. With the invitation to go on the Jesus Film trip I realized I needed to become more comfortable with international travel. I decided on a quick trip to Chennai, India from China to gain this experience in preparation for some possible future travel. With a bit of fear and trembling, I made travel arrangements and waited for the day of departure to arrive. It did and Father and I left for a marvelous time together.
We flew from Wuhan to Hong Kong, where I took a picture inside the Hong Kong airport. They sure had many Chinese food choices there. I am standing at gate 34. Behind me the gates go all the way to 80.
As travel time went by I realized the experience being gained was quickly translating into confidence and excitement and has left me with a hunger for more travel. It is interesting to note that I have no desire to travel as a tourist and see the sights, but instead I want to get into the areas where people find life difficult and learn about them and pray for them. I do not want to travel for my enjoyment. I want to travel to see what Father sees and to learn about his heart feelings so that I can know how to pray and possibly be involved. This trip has ignited a huge desire to know Swathi, her family, and the environment she lives in. I pray for health and strength to travel there and spend some time there if I can.
I spend time in prayer walking here in Wuhan; a time of observing, listening and talking with God. This trip to India was to be a prayer flight; a time of observing, listening and talking with God. Father really spoke to me on this trip about the difference in traveling primarily as a tourist or as a servant. As a tourist your focus is on things in the world that excite you; that you enjoy seeing or doing. The focus is you and those things. Traveling as a servant, I desire God’s love characteristics to be seen in me to draw people to the Father. Again and again on this trip as my life touched another it drew smiles and conversation. On one flight an Indian man sitting in the middle seat next to me watch an act of service and reached over to me and held my arm and with emotion said, “You are a kind, good man.” Again and again I could see and feel the effects of God’s love. It was truly a special trip.
I am spending a third of my life over here. I do see some of the tourist things because they enhance my study of culture here, but my focus is on the people who live here and how they live. I do not want to leave here with the excitement of feeling I have just seen many nice things, but instead with a burden that I have lived among a people and have been touched by how they live. I come here to be involved, as best as I can, in eternal things, not to look at things or have experiences that will soon pass away. Some of the fruit I have been blessed with here I will be able to enjoy forever. Being a servant is about giving. Being a tourist is primarily about receiving.
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