The heart of a servant

For some reason, God has been drilling the word serve into me for several months. Go. Serve. That's what I keep hearing him tell me. I haven't quite figured out what is the key point He is trying to make to me that I know of. I haven't always led my life to serve others. Just ask superstar. But I would say that I have continued to grow in this area personally, professionally, etc. But thinking back to what I have been writing in my journal, serve is a word that I continue to write down. I knew that a big part of this trip to India was about serving 'the least of these'. That is what Jesus commanded us to do - widows and orphans. Here at CEM, I am having opportunities to serve both of these groups of people. Orphans live here - and we are able to spend time with them, play, walk them to school, share in chapel, and whatever else comes our way. There is also an elderly home here, and there are 12 people that live ther. I have to tell you, I have spent much of my time with the elderly. These are people that I have learned this week that have been ostrasized by their families, left to their own on the street, or kicked out because of relationship issues or because these people happen to believe in the one God. The stories are hard to hear, and these people have lived hard lives = as I have said, life in India is hard. So I will share with you that I love these people. I mean love them. That is not necessarily easy since we can't communicate much, although my friend Chimirucheri does speak quite a bit of English, and quite well for Dowlaiswarum and being 80. But more story tonight is not about him. It is about my friend Amanopu. This afternoon, we took some ice cream over to my new friends, and I loved every minute of watching them enjoy the cool treat. All of them. The joy they have in just being together and enjoying each others company is fantastic. Even if you don't speak any Telegoo. I swear I almost know what they are saying at this point in the week when they try to tell me something. So we enjoyed our icecream, and listened to a couple songs with their beautiful voices. I got a bit of ice cream on my hand, and I was picking up the papers and the cups, hence more ice cream on my hands. I went to throw them away and Amanopu -

who is hunched over and has trouble walking - starts saying something to me and comes toward me. She takes the cups and papers from me, and won't let me go throw them away - she does. Then I think to myself, oh my God this woman is sweet to the core. So I go to the bucket where the water is, and there isn't any water left. No biggee. I'll wait to rinse my hands off. Amanopu is at it again, she starts saying something to me, and like I said, no Telegoo. She picks up a can, goes to a different bucket, fills it up and comes back to me - using her walking stick the whole time mind you. She points to my hands and I realize what she is doing. She is serving me. She pours the water over my hands. This woman is serving me as I have come to serve them this week by stopping by with candy, pictures, and sitting with them, praying with them. She is serving me. So I am looking at her in amazement while she pours water on my hands. Not done yet. Get a kleenex if you haven't gotten one out yet. Then she takes her sari and starts patting my hands - she wants me to dry my hands on her dress. I am standing there in the spirit of God being served by this woman. And I felt as if God was blessing me with this water, blessing me with my time I have spent with my elderly friends, felt as if He was trying to tell me that if I choose to serve the least of these, He will bless me in amazing ways that I have never even dreamed might happen to me. After it was all over, I wanted to take her picture, so I did, and the one you see attached is actually the second one I took of her - she made me retake it - she wanted to fix her hair first, I could tell she was fussing like - hey, I didn't even fix my hair take it again. For real.

And we sat with our friends. Alli and I sat with Amanopu for quite a while. She just wanted to touch you. To be touched. She had her hand on Cdog - another guy on our team - and I took a picture of her hand on his leg. I watched that unfold and he wasn't even looking at him when she did it. It was her natural instinct to touch those she was sitting next to. So Alli and I held her hand. Put our arms around her while we sat. And she put her hand on my knee. And I put mine on hers. Without any ability to say a word in each others language we served each other. With joy in our hearts. And I could sit with her each day for the rest of my life, never be able to speak a word to each other that we understood, and that my friends would be a full live with the heart of a servant.