Mumbai

IMAGES OF INDIA ...















Today i am home, sweet home after 10 days in India...10 days of being so blessed by God to be able to give the little i can give in terms of preaching, prayer and ministry to Christians and non-Christians alike...
10 days of seeing God move in spite of and above things which happened out of our control, but always within His control. For truly the entire team of 12 stood only by His grace, as we experienced physical and spiritual challenges in doing our work...
The day before we left Mumbai had been bombed by terrorists. I was praying so hard that God would make it possible for us to go despite the danger, and so was jumping for joy when the official word came that we can go. But had to reassure my 2nd daughter who was quite dismayed that i should be going into such a place at such a time - that God holds my life in His hands all the while; there is no one and nothing - not even a bomb - which can take away my life, if He doesn't will it. So Mumbai, it was...
It was hard enuf planning logistics for 3 teams going 3 different directions; what more, within my own team, we were split again into another 3 sub-teams; straight away upon arrival at Mumbai, we were whisked off to diff. places. I found myself quite alone travelling into a village some 1 1/2 hrs drive away from Mumbai. The church was slap in the middle of a field, and to reach it or get out of it, we had to walk via a small pathway strewn with rocks; at nite it was absolutely pitch dark and we had to carry torchlites. Toilet was 2 shacks outside the church building, which thankfully were clean and decent. Along the pathway was a hut where a family made muruku for a living, and a slum settlement where we did children's work in a little space within houses...children ministry is always fun, for Indian children are ever so approachable and friendly; they come forward to touch you, shake your hand, ask your name again and again, so... lovable. I had a grand time teaching and they learning the Malay song Goyang-Goyang, and telling them the story of Jonah and the fish!
God is so good to answer the desires of my heart... i had so much looked forward to visiting Dharavi, reputedly Asia's largest slum settlement, but it appeared initially i had to stay in the village. So again i was praying hard, God, i want to minister in Dharavi.. and again He made it be.. the plan was changed and i found myself in the most horrible, gut wrenching, pit of pits, where so many human bodies live together side by side in what i call holes, not homes or houses. Built 2 storey high out of concrete so close to each other you just have to stretch out both arms and that's the distance btw neighbour and neighbour. Each hole is barely 10x 10'- its kitchen, bedroom and everyting rolled into that space. They use steel ladders to climb up to the 'homes' built one on top of another; and get thru by a hole in the wall of the downstairs portion...outside there is no drainage, drains are stuck full of stagnant water, rubbish everywhere... children naked, everyone walks around barefoot... such filth, dirt ... i dunno how to describe it. People hv to gather at water pipes to collect water, and yes, to lug pails all the way up the steel ladders to get it into their 'house'. Alleys are so narrow if one person is coming one direction, the other from the opposite has to move aside and stand still to give way. And amidst all this, people are doing business, tanning leather, selling sundries, sewing/ironing clothes.. my heart broke... no human being should be living in such conditions...
But even in such hovels, God moves.. as we distributed tracts and our Indian church members shared the love of Christ, some listened, invited us into their homes to pray, posed for my camera...and in the midst of all that misery, a teenage girl who spoke English responded to my sharing and opened her heart to Jesus... yes, in the midst of such darkness, the light of God can and did shine..
Even in the places which were bombed, which we managed to visit on the last day in Mumbai...yes, i was at the Taj Mahal hotel, and the other 2 places as well.. it had turned into a huge parade of people massing around the area, some praying, some walking holding placards proclaiming peace and unity,TV crews,police and guards evrywhere.. wat a heartbreak that it shld take a tragedy to bring together people of all tongues and age in a common denouncement of the utter incomprehensibility of terrorism - the ultimate derangement of man's nature - humans killing humans...yet again in the midst of such horror, God preserved 1 sole terrorist to survive to tell the story of man's wickedness, 1 out of 9... who says there is no God?
We left Mumbai by nite train, which took us 1,600 km 24 hrs from west to east, down south to Chennai... and again, He answered my prayer; for stuck in a coach with us, 2 of our fellow occupants, a young girl and a Nepalese guy heard the story of how God gave His only Son to save the world...
I can only thank God for His faithfulness, for even at the end of our missions, He was with us... our car suddenly stopped in the middle of the highway as we were journeying back from the village.. the brakes had jammed... i wouldn't be here today if there had been a bus or a lorry tailing us, the 3 of us were all seated at the back, literally sitting ducks for a rearend collision... truly angels must have been shielding the car from any other vehicle, despite it being the main busy h/way into the city.. and such are the wondrous works of God, that even in this kind of situation, in the middle of nowhere, we were able to share in broken Tamil to an Indian Muslim family, whose run-down house was by the roadside.. God is truly everywhere, everytime... it was only later that we realised our accident actually averted another more serious one which would have happened to the car owner's family, becoz the next nite they had to travel long distance for a relative's funeral... thank God it happened to us, and not them... that's the wonder of a God who knows all things and works them out for the best.
So,i look back on the past 10 days, in awe of an awesome God to whom i can only give thanks, praise and glory , for indeed He is worthy.