So this morning, our
team had 2 hours of prayer, worship and intercession in which we asked God to
reveal different pictures, words or verses to us concerning the next few hours
in which we would be doing a prayer walk around where we live (in the suburbs
of Kolkata.) In other words, its similar to a treasure hunt because we ask God
in prayer to reveal things to us. As we all began praying as a team, we all
started to receive pictures or words from the Lord. I felt God was giving me a
picture of a little boy near the big stairs on the train station. I felt God
was saying the name, Raju to me but I wasn’t completely sure. I also felt as if
God was saying that as we went about our prayer walk that we should meet
practical needs in the ways of feeding the hungry and bandaging wounds although
I had no idea to how that would be fulfilled. Our team split into 3 groups and
Macy, Christy and I were together. We were walking in faith!
We walked out of
our apartment/flat and began walking. First, we saw Christy’s picture come to life which encompassed a woman bending
over who had stomach rolls. She was fetching water from a water pump and
letting the water pour into a metal bucket. As we rounded the corner of our
apartment, we immediately saw her and knew it was the lady from Christy’s
vision. Even though we couldn’t speak in Bengali to her, we asked her if we
could pray (Pratna in Bengali) over her and she was open to it. Christy prayed
over her and felt as if God was telling her also to pray over her son which we didn’t
see there. After praying over her, we continued walking and went through the
small tunnel to go to the train station. As we start walking along the water
bank, we were looking for a woman in a blue sari because God had shown Laura a
picture of this. All of a sudden, we hear the words, “Auntie, Auntie!” The
three of us spin around and see 2 little boys with raggedy hair, tussled and
unwashed hair and torn up clothes make their way to us. In Indian culture,
little children are to call their elders either auntie or uncle. One of the
boys came to me and lifted his pant leg to reveal a cut on his knee. IT was
infected and there wasn’t much I could do for it. I bent down to his level and
took out my first aid kit, rubbed an alcohol swab on it and then put a band aid
on it to cover the cut. We started trying to communicate with the boys and
found out one of their names was Raju and I forgot the other boy’s name. At
that moment, I was so surprised because God had told both Laura and I earlier
that morning that we would find a boy named Raju. Both the boys were around the
same age and they were brothers. They grabbed our hands as we started walking
towards the train station. When we neared it, they pointed across the way
because they wanted to get some food on the other side of the train tracks.
Once I realized what they were saying, I remembered what God had told me
earlier about meeting practical needs of people (whether it be bandaging wounds
or feeding the hungry.) We motioned with our hands that we wanted to buy them
food, so they grabbed our hands once again as we led them over to a food cart
on the side of the busy street where a couple was cooking some roti and
lentils. Roti is like a mini tortilla that is fried, so we purchased 3 plates
of roti and lentils. (one for each of the boys and one for the 3 of us girls to
share) It was quite delicious and the boys thoroughly enjoyed their meal. The
boys wolfed down the food with the water bottles that we purchased for them.
As soon as I was
about to take a bite of the roti and lentils, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I
turned around and to my amazement, I saw
an older man standing there. His eyes met mine for a brief second before
bending over and rolling up his left pant leg to reveal a freckled/spotted leg.
(God had also revealed a picture of a spotted/freckled area of skin earlier in
intercession) As I peered closer, it looked like he had been burned badly years
back. In the middle of the massive burn
covering his leg, I noticed an area of skin that had a cut in it that was
bleeding. He pointed down at it and I knew that I didn’t have gloves to
properly dress his wound. I put down my
roti that was in my hand and began to dig in my purse for my handy first aid
kit. I pulled out an alcohol pad and bent down on my knees to look up into the
man’s discoloured eyes. I motioned for
him to rub the alcohol pad on his bloody cut and he did so. After the wound was
disinfected, I unwrapped a large bandage and secured it on his leg. As I stood
up, I noticed that a large crowd had gathered around the man and I.
As foreigners, we
tend to obviously stand out but it sure is interesting getting used to being
stared at so much and indian men will just stop what they are doing and walk
over so they are right next to you. They are very curious. Anyways, when the
man saw that his wound was bandaged, he bent down and touched my teet as a sign
of gratitude, honor and respect. He then stood up and showed me a sign of
gratitude with his hands. I was quite taken back because in Indian culture,
feet are basically looked on as dirty and disrespectful. When sitting in a
house, you always sit with your feet in criss cross applesauce so that your
feet do not show, But this man chose to bend down and touch my feet-he humbled
himself enough to touch a stranger’s foot. After giving thanks, he made his way
out of the crowd as so did we. We gave thanks to God with prayers because God
had directed us every step of the way and He brought people to us that we didn’t
know and directed us also to people (complete strangers). God revealed to us
mostly all our visions and pictures that He had revealed to us earlier this
morning in intercession. I thank God because He brought so many people to us in
which we could just administer practical needs and pray over them. God
orchestrated everything and it was amazing because that older man walked up to
me and tapped on my shoulder. It’s quite ironic because I am the only member of
our team who ever carries a first aid kit in my purse. This all occurred within
1 ½ hrs! Also, the other girl’s visions and words came alive to during that
time. Everyone on our team came back with stories to how we all went treasure
hunting for the Kingdom of God.
Well that is what
happened this morning and it was such a blessing to be used by God in that way.
Im thankful that we have the weekend free to relax and get caught up on sleep.
We are going to a huge market in Kolkata tomorrow called New Market! On Sunday,
we might be speaking in a church to believers and sharing with them. On Monday,
we work with Life Connection again for the next two weeks until we leave
Kolkata! Three times a week we also go to Howrah and I have so many stories to
how God is revealing himself and what He is doing in our team and in Kolkata! God
is Good!