...but India was there to catch my fall!
It was our first day of ministry work in India. We were loaded onto a bus, which was to become a normal daily routine. We never knew quite how long our rides would be, but it never mattered much. The company, the view and the time to catch up on journaling always made the ride seem less than 5 minutes. I'm certain I could have rode around on the bus for two weeks and been content. The bus was where I did a lot of my thinking. It is where I came to a realization that I am not poor.
Prior to India, I threw the statement, "I'm poor" around frivolously. Any time I did not have the money to buy the latest fun thing, I'd think, "I wish I wasn't so dang poor." India taught me a lesson long overdue. A lesson that my soul had been yearning for.
India taught me that I am not poor.
I learned that there is a huge part of India where people do not have walls to protect them from the outside world. When they lay their heads down to sleep at night, it is the dirt ground that will comfort them. There is no running water for these people. The streams that flow through their villages provide the water they drink. This is the same body of water they bathe in, do their laundry in, pee in, and allow their oxen to cool off in. I never quite figured out how or what they ate, but I have a feeling it wasn't good. There were a few occasions that we handed out various foods to villages, and the desperation for a simple hard boiled egg or banana was enough to tell me exactly what the situation might have been.
Seeing the level of poverty in these villages was unfathomable. It's something that I can never explain entirely...it is something that until you see, you can never fully believe. It was the toughest thing I've ever had to deal with, but the best thing to happen to me. It taught me how truly blessed I am. It taught me how rich I am.
Just yesterday I was talking with a coworker. We had just finished marking prices down on merchandise and I told her that I wanted to get some of the newly priced merchandise, but I was poor.
India caught me...I had to correct myself. I am not poor.
