Wild

India is such an incredible country. I LOVE IT! Many of the woman dress in bright colors, flowers in hair, & bangles on bangles. I want to wear it! The music, the dancing, the LIFE! The men have some pretty cool getup too. There seems to be an ice cream stand just about every street corner. Safe to say, ice cream is one of my love languages so you can imagine I have had quite a bit of that! 30 cent ice creams are tempting to say the least, haha!  India, & the craziness of it all gets me pumped up, I love the thrill! This is my favorite country when it comes to cultural experience so far. But what has excited me most, has honestly been experiencing God touching the lives of people around. Following Jesus is such a WILD adventure.

I am so excited to share with you some of my recent experiences.

Let’s start with the 24 train ride to New Dehli. The views were amazing. The sleeping rest time was good. & the food served was fun to taste & experience, but there was more too it as well.

Upon boarding the train, I felt a nudge to intentionally engage in conversation & life with these once strangers, now friends rather than keep to myself in the little cubby of a bunk bed.

The friendships made were such a gift. My friend & I got assigned to sit next to 2 elder men, who could have easily became our “India Grandfathers”. In some ways, they totally did become that! We felt very taken care of by them. 

For hours upon hours we had conversations about life, careers, india, America, Jokes, & our faith stories too! It was awesome. It was such a sweet, sweet friendship made.

There was another sweet family on the train that became friends, & we too also shared some great times together.

It was laid on my heart to write each member of that family an encouraging note. So I asked God “who do you say this person is” & wrote whatever came to mind in faith that it would minister to their hearts. From the encouraging notes & conversations engaged with this family there were a couple remarks that left me honored, humbled, & inspired to keep trying to be the hands and feet of Jesus that best I can, wherever we go.

One member of the family had said “surely this was a divine appointment from God, we were meant to meet each other on this train ride”. Another had said something along the lines of “I will never forget this train ride experience meeting you, you are the best citizen I have ever met in my life”.

Humbled & honored, I could only think to say, “All glory to God, He loves us so much & I pray I can help share that love. I am so thankful for this time too. It is a true honor”

This reminded me of something. Jesus has transformed my heart where the thought of being “weird” or “different” does not cross my mind as much as it once did. It’s too wonderful to stop! It is not exactly normal for a stranger to make friends with strangers on a train ride. It’s not exactly typical for a stranger to write notes of encouragement to people they just met hours before. It’s not always conventional to chat about very personal experiences like ones faith journey. But what is there to loose in doing that? I can’t really think of anything if it’s compelled by love. & I am so thankful to come to this conclusion. People watch, listen, & notice actions. If it means living out unconventional ways, I’m all about it especially if it helps to share the love of Jesus. I plan to only get a little wild-r each day, haha!

Coming off the train, God did something really cool too! There was a woman waiting to be picked up on the side of the street, & she happened to have a wrist brace. There was a nudge in my spirit to go & pray for her.

Before I know it we are shaking hands exchanging names & she’s sharing with me about about her wrist pain. I then asked if I could pray for her wrist to be healed in Jesus name.

“Sure! Wow thank you so much!” She said.

So we prayed. & guess what. Her wrist was healed! She took the brace off & started to wriggle her hands around. The look on her face was precious, & I’m sure the look on my face was filled with joy too! God healed her wrist immediately in that moment.

God is good, better than we think! & I really believe He’s in the business of restoring all things. So cool! My desire is to partner with that love, wherever these feet may go. One of my favorite things to remember, is that this is an invitation for everyone & everyone. Following Jesus is an invitation for everyone & I believe it is the greatest one to ever exist.

“Be light
Be love
Be life
Wherever you go”

“Jesus did not teach us how to live without miracles. It wasn’t His experience, nor should it be ours.” -Bill Johnson

“Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to Him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever. Amen!” Ephesians 3:20-21

We will be in the north part of India for the next 2 weeks and in this time some friends & I will most likely have an opportunity to visit some distant relatives of mine who live close by & manage and run a school for the blind children. I can hardly believe this opportunity has come up, but all I know is God truly has a way of working things out in beautiful ways. More details to hopefully come soon.

Until next time my friend,
Kailey