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By Grace Fox
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| BCCN columnist Grace Fox is seen with Ankit, the child
she sponsors, and Ankit’s mother. Fox visited India and Nepal in
April, on a short-term missions trip. |
SWEAT trickled down our legs and backs as my husband
Gene and I loaded our suitcases and travel-weary bodies into a
non-air-conditioned Jeep.
Nearly two years had passed since someone had suggested
a short term missions trip to India, and now our feet were on Indian soil.
The city seemed surreal, like a National Geographic article come to life. Rickshaws, bikes,
motorcycles, buses and taxis – vehicles of every description rallied
for street space; he sounds of beeping horns and blaring Hindi music filled
the air, mingling with the black diesel smoke spewed by cargo trucks.
Cows meandered amid the chaos. Stray dogs slept
stretched on the road’s edge. Sari-clad women sat beside vegetable
carts. Uniformed teens strolled home from school, passing kids squatting in
the dirt. A beggar with no arms crouched with an empty dish before him.
I longed to freeze-frame each scene and capture each
person’s expression on film, but I hesitated. Ours was not merely a
sight-seeing trip; it was an opportunity to serve the people of India and
to allow God’s love for them to change our hearts.
I spoke at several women’s conferences. We were
also privileged to meet several national missionaries.
One fellow told of establishing a Bible training
institute. Students have included a converted female Maoist terrorist and
former drug addicts who are now passionate evangelists.
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A woman spoke of caring for 25 impoverished children
whose mothers are forced into prostitution – sometimes by their own
husbands. By removing them from their dangerous home environment, she
provides them with education, medicine, nutrition, the gospel – and
hope for the future.
God challenged us as we prayed with them:
“They’re serving me solely because they love me. Persecution
knocks at their door, but they’re willing to take the risk. Are
you?”
For 10 years, we had been sponsoring a child through
World Vision (WV). When the trip turned from talk to reality, we were able
to meet our child, Ankit, and his family.
We’ve found it easy to write a quarterly cheque,
send it to WV, and go our merry way until the time comes for the next
cheque.
But standing in his family’s mud-and-rock house,
speaking with his parents about their daily challenges, and seeing
first-hand their struggle to provide their children with the barest of
necessities, has changed our perspective.
We can encourage this family through financial support.
But we can take it a step further by mailing simple reminders of our
friendship and prayers. From now on, cards, stickers, balloons, pictures
and other lightweight treats will now be regular demonstrations of our
participation in their lives.
Before the trip, we’d prayed: “Bless others
through us and change us in the process.” We headed home, thankful
for God’s answers – and suspecting that there’s more to
come.
A more detailed account of Grace Fox’s trip to
Nepal and India is at gracefox.blogspot.com
June 2007
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