To the Church on the Street Corner in India

To the Church on the Street Corner in India,

You challenge me. 

You inspire me. 

You encourage me. 

On our first day of ministry in your little village you showed me what church should look like. Not how fancy the building should be. Not how many people are in attendance. But where the focus should lie. How the body of Christ should look. How natural it should be to love. Everyday after that you showed me another lesson. Thank you for these lessons! My concept of church has been changed because of you. Here are six lessons (one for each week I spent with you) that I pray stick with me forever:

1. You remain in constant prayer. You seek the Lord out. You turn to Him first. I saw this through my sister that came to join us in prayer every day, twice a day. We saw this through praying with you and seeing healing occur. We saw this through ending every service with prayer for your body. Praying after every service was humbling for me. I haven’t always been confident praying out loud, I’m still not there, but I definitely got a lot of practice with your church family. 

2. Your act of communal worship is beautiful. The way you don’t have one person lead is different for me. You pass the microphone throughout the congregation. You even passed the mic to me. If I’m honest, it wasn’t always the most beautiful sound but it was for sure a joyful noise! You are living out ??Psalms? ?95:1-2? so well! “Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!” 

3. You show that true community is the body and that the body is the church. You rely on one another. You each have unique gifts. You let others shine in their gifting. I experienced this the day we prayer walked and met our sweet auntie who was lying on her bed struggling for breath. You let my team pray with you, you let us grieve with you, you let us just sit with you. You let me sing the song that has held much of my heart for 10 years. You let us in as a part of your family as the body of Christ. I’ve never felt love as strongly as I did in that little house church on the street corner. 

4. You welcome the children in as an integral part of the church. I am blown away by how you involve your children. You let the little children come. You let them lead worship. You see them as their father in Heaven sees them. Your children in your congregation changed me and my teammates. I will never forget walking (and running) through the streets excited to share the love of Jesus with your children. The little hands holding my index finger, squeezing tightly, guiding us from house to church, knowing the walk to your presence in their sleep. You have congregations FULL of children and that was unexpected but beautiful (still laughing at God that it was my day to preach).  

5. You are bold for the Gospel. You walk down the streets (well after midnight) banging the drums, shaking the tambourine, and singing loudly the praises that our Father so boldly deserves. You stretched me out of my comfort zone many days. You move to villages where no one has heard the gospel. You understand that it may take time, and yet you still sow. You will reap the Harvest. You want everyone to hear – those who have ears, let him hear. I want to be more bold like you. 

6. When you celebrate Christmas, it is pure. I will never forget my Christmas season spent in the little villages of India. It wasn’t my typical Christmas but I would never have changed it. You are focused on the birth of the Savior and nothing else. You see Jesus as a baby, the Son of God, who was sent here by his Father to die for the sins of the world, to die for my sins, to die for your sins, to die for everyone’s sins. I loved celebrating Jesus’ birthday with you, thank you for inviting me to all his birthday parties!

For each of these lessons I learned in my six weeks spent in your presence I am asking myself these six questions…

Am I in constant prayer?

Am I participating in communal worship?

Am I active in the body? Am I choosing to bring my gifts to the table?

Am I welcoming in the children?

Am I being BOLD for the gospel?

Is my celebration of Christmas and who Jesus is pure? 

Thank you for welcoming the person who was different than you in. I am forever thankful that I am now apart of your family.

Your sister,

Kristin