On our way out of the city, I watched the landscape change. The oppressiveness of this city and the darkness that I've seen in it started to fall away. The land turned green and lush. We went past many rice paddies that were so green that it didn't seem like nature could produce so rich a color. This is the India I've pictured in my head.
We stopped at Jubilee 1 and 2 on our way out. These are homes for girls about an hour and a half from Mumbai. When we pulled up, we were instantly welcomed. The girls took us inside the first building and served us some tea. One of the girls immediately started braiding Casey's hair. Casey has the gift of making fast friends. I tend to be slightly more reserved than her, but she has a richness about her life that comes from experiencing and being with people. I can see that I'm going to need to drop several of the cultural 'personal space' boundaries, both physical and emotional, to really make an impact and be impacted. When the girl asks to braid my hair, I don't hesitate.
One of the girls takes a liking to me. We sit and talk some, and she offers to give me a tour of the upstairs rooms. The furniture and possessions in them are sparse, as to be expected in such a place, but the walls are bright pink and yellow. Artwork and crafts hang from every available space. This is truly their home, and they are happy to be there. They have made it their own. The girl leads me over to her space, and offers me a bracelet of green beads. I accept, and then glance at my wrist. I'm wearing a hair tie, one of the watches we plan to give to Ashagram and the wooden bracelet I bought in Zambia when I was there two years ago. After some consideration, I hand her my African bracelet with an explanation on where I got it. She offers me a necklace her mom gave her. I have to turn this one down. I tell her that I can't possibly take something so special, and that this wonderful bracelet (that is my favorite color) is more than enough.
We went back downstairs for the beginning of the Sunday service. When I got there, someone was playing around on a set of three bongos. It took me a minute, but I began to realize that this was how we were going to enter into worship. It was quite effective. The girls near me started praying softly. The sound of their prayers swelled into a song:
You're worthy
You're worthy
You're worthy of our praise
Forever and a day
They then went into a song I hadn't heard before:
I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"
This was powerful stuff. These girls, I realized, had been rescued out of that hell I had just left. And they were singing about giving everything instead of going through the motions. This, lades and gentlemen, was the first 'holy 2X4" I got smacked upside the head with on this trip. How many years have I gone through the motions? By the grace of God, I have never experienced the hell on earth they know. I've had some bad and hard things happen, and I know the painful, exhilarating and terrifying refining fire of God. These girls are strong. They are healed, they are whole in God. And I sit at home and go to my little church and live my little life. In this moment, my life can no longer be little.
Finally, they sing:
Our God is greater
Our God is stronger
God you are higher than any other
Our God healer
Awesome in power
Our God
If our God is for us
Then who could ever stop us
And if our God is with us
What could stand against?
And I believe every word in a new way.
Casey later told me that the first time she heard them singing, God said to her, "This is the sound of awakening." It is very true. Being in the same room as these girls worshiping the God that saved, rescued and healed them is an awakening. I didn't know it at the time, but God kicked open the door of my heart with this experience. I needed it to be completely open, strong and tender. I would want to pour more than my heart could possibly contain. And in this moment, God gave me the divine ability to do so.
I was going to Ashagram, and I was never going to be the same.
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