WOW! today was one of the most exhausting, challenging, and down right AWESOME days of my life. I knew India would be challenging. I knew India would be moving. I knew India would be AMAZING! but let me tell you... It has blown my expectations out of the water! During our 29 hour travel to India, I made the comment to Greg that "this is not what I had expected". He responded with "that is going to be the saying for the whole trip!" After traveling for a whole day (literally over 24 hours) I thought all I would want would be a bed and pillow... but I was more alive than I have ever been in my life! The sounds and sights and, yes, even the smells of India are invigorating! Also, driving in India is not necessarily like a Sunday afternoon drive through the country. I was literally bouncing in my seat on the bus in anticipation of all this trip is going to hold.
After freshening up and getting some food we were off! First, we spent some time roaming around a museum here in Chennai. It was very interesting to see some of the ancient artifacts of India dating all the way back to 3 B.C. Talk about dusty! We then loaded up the van from the museum and drove to St Thomas Mount. The mount is the highest point in the very interesting about Chennai is that it stretches FOREVER! haha but really... I couldn't see where the city ended in all directions! It was awesome!
Our day was definitely not over yet... Next, we went to the place where St. Thomas, aka "Doubting Thomas" went into hiding many times to flee from his persecutors. He hid in a cave for 2-3 weeks at a time with no food or water just to stay alive. We saw the places his arms had worn into the rock where he knelled to pray for protection and strength. To say the least, I was rocked to my core. I mean we were standing on the same ground that a man who touched and learned from Jesus had spent countless hours begging God for grace and protection. Our team spent about 5 to 10 minutes taking it all in. To close our evening, still in the cave, we sang and Raj prayed over us and our trip. It was quite possibly the greatest send off onto our mission we could ever experience. Upon exiting the cave, we read about St. Thomas. Through the same hands that stilled his doubting mind by touching the wounds of our savior, God healed hundreds of Indians, brought them back from the dead and gave hope to a group of people that had never been given the time of day by any Christian before. This is our mission friends. To love these people the way that Christ loves us. To serve where no one has ever served before. Because it is when we stand on the edge of the sword of God, battling back the gates of hell that God uses us to bring his kingdom "up there, down here". WE'RE doing it friends! We are fighting for all we're worth!!! Let's show them who Christ is by the way we love!!
God Bless you all and keep praying for us!!
Allison Zandarski
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