Monday, January 10, 2011

An Article Written by My Friend

This article that really hit me when I read it. The writer is a friend who has lived off and on in India for many years. I just thought my bloggers would like to know what some people give up to teach the gospel to those in foreign countries. So here goes::

                                Not for All the Money in the World......

Many times I have been asked why we chose to live and work in India. People ask, "How do you stand the filth, the idolatry, the tropical climate or the primitive living arrangements?"

If I were to tell just how primitive the contitions really have been for us over the years, I might tell how I washed our family's clothes by hand in a bucket, and that daily washing ritual included diapers for two babies a year apart. Or I might tell them that during the years when our family numbered six members, my cook "stove" was a one burner kerosene hot plate, and there was no oven. I could even tell them that we had no proper brooms or mops, but had to use clumps of grass for sweeping and a rag to mop our cement floors every day.

I could tell them that floors had to be mopped daily because dust from feet tracked in the dried feces where people relieved themselves out in the open day in and day out. They never considered covering their dirt like the OT law taught the Israelites to do in Deut. 23:13.

I could tell them about the diseases our family has endured--diseases like typhoid fever, pneumonia, tuberculosis, amoebic dysentery, bacillary dysentery, food poisoning (multiple times), and even cholera. Most people have never endured these diseases at all, much less more than one at a time.

I could talk about lack of decent water for bathing or washing clothes or electricity cuts or unfair taxaton. I could tell about land grabbers who wrested property owned by the church. I could tell about the early years of having to pasteurize our own milk or boil our own drinking water on a daily basis.

I could tell them about the times when our postal delivery person sold our mailing addresses and even our actual mail to charlatans who wanted to make contacts in the US. I might tell about the times we were "reported to the government: for doing mission work, or about the times we have actually been evicted from the country because we did not give some "undesirable" a job.

Some would disdainfully say, "Why, I wouldn't endure that for all the money in the world!"

"Neither would I."

"And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And evey man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown: but we an incorruptible" (1 Cor 9:23-25)

"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this the law and the prophets" (Matt 7:12)

"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like until it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" Matt 22:37-39

Fortunately we have passed through those early gray days and perhaps become wise for our experiences. We have somewhat better faciities now than we had several years ago and better supplies and amenities. Roads have become safer and bottled water is now available in most shops. More of our good people at home are aware of our needs and have been most gracious to help as they could. God not only blesses those who are sent, but He also blesses the ones who do the sending.

May God bless you as you serve Him wherever you are.

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