I've spent the past 3 weeks in Madurai, Southern India. It's been an amazing experience, especially as we have been able to have many different opportunities for ministry here.
We did a lot of home visitations in slums, sharing with the residents and praying for them.
I remember one house we visited in particular. The lady's name was Maria. She's a mother of two, a son around 4-years-old and a daughter around 2-years-old. She Maria was 1-year-old, she got Polio, which caused her to be partially handicapped. She cannot walk properly on her left foot. Because of that, she rarely leaves her house, which is approximately 3 x 3 metres square. Her elderly mother does her shopping and fetches the water daily. Her husband works, but he is an alcoholic and is addicted to a strong local drug. Every day Maria begs him to stop drinking, and he always says that he will. But every night he goes out drinking again, and has even recently started to bring home alcohol and drugs into the house. Maria is worried about her children. What is their future?
As we visited her, I started to wonder how Jesus 'applies' here? I realised that it is not enough to just say, 'Jesus loves you'. What she needs is for the Kingdom of God to come near her and her family. She needs a miracle.
India is a heart changing place. It's difficult to come here and not be effected.
As much as we try to bring about change here, we ourselves are changed through interacting with the locals. My religion comes really close. Tough questions must be answered. Shallow faith will not survive.
