Humbling!

I want you to read the following email from Don Barr. Don is a young man just out of high school on a six month mission to India. He is working with an orphanage and a leper colony. Please pray for him and his team of twelve amazing young people.

Dear Friends and Family,

It is great to get to finally e-mail you all. Its only been about a week and a half here, but so much has been going on.. many ups and downs. I've experienced a multitude of things from simply playing cricket and having chai tea with the slightly upper/mid class at our appartment to playing and loving orphans to holding and crying with a leper to buying some food and eating it with the beggers on a sidewalk. The ministry and serving never stops.

The orphanage (our main reason for being here) is great, its such an escape just to drop life and pour into these children. Its a blessing to be with them whether we are rolling in the dirt and laughing with them, teaching them English, Art, Science, Social Studies etc. , playing various games and sports with them, teaching them about life and following Jesus, or simply holding their hands and walking around with them.

We are being a parents, mentors, teachers, children, and friends with and to them. These kids have such a passion for life and following Jesus (more so than I).. such a gentleness, love, and respect for this broken world that surrounds them and all of us. It is bitter-sweet though to see all of this surrounded by the "lot" that they have been given. These kids deserve so much more than what they have. All they have are basically the clothes on their backs, the shoes on their feet, a bible, and a bug ridden bed to sleep in... they don't know if they are going to have food from month to month. Yet they have our Jesus, they have our God.. and in that they are content. We all could and are learning very much from them, as they are learning what seemingly little we have to give.

The other day we went to the leper colony for the first time. I barely have an idea of what to tell you about that. All I could bare to write in my journal went something along the lines of "I held a man with leprosy today. I prayed for him.. I cryed with him... I wiped his tears with my hand... I whiped food and drool from his mouth and beard with a rag... I brokenly sang Amazing Grace and whispered Jesus loves you.. God loves you.. I love you... into his ear. He did not understand me. The contrast of his fingerless hands in mine broke both him and me. We wept together." I am trying to hold back tears now just writing that again. I will never forget him or the feeling of his hands in mine and the sorrow that it brought.

My computer time is running out but know there is so much more to tell. I could write for hours. Those are just two aspects of many in this rollercoaster of a trip so far. It certainly has been and will continue to be a time of growth and enlightenment. I have felt compassion on people like I have never felt before and I have also felt discouragement and doubts more than ever before. Its a war here of good and evil. Its very much a challenge and a struggle, but through it all I am slowly learning more and more what it means to follow Jesus. Please, keep myself, the team, and this opportunity in India in your prayers. I thank everyone of you for playing a part in making this journey possible. You are truly with the team and myself as we brokenly are trying to be the arms and feet of Jesus. Continue to follow the truth wherever you are. Whether it is holding a leper or holding a door. Be Jesus to people in this broken world.

With
Love,

Don Barr