Worship in a High Rise

Hello Loves. Sorry I have not been as communicative as I normally am when I am away. South Africa was utterly amazing, and terribly exhausting. It has also thus far been largely indescribable. I have tried to put in words what happened there, but the right words will not come. In the weeks and months to come, after I have had more time to process and think, I hope to share more stories with you about my time in prison ministry, and the country of South Africa in general. For now, let me tell you about India.

We just got in two nights ago, but I am already falling for the people and the place. Last night we went to a prayer meeting in an apartment tower. We started out at half past seven, driving through congested streets that had dark shadows and endless headlights at the same time. I have never before in all my travels heard so many car, rickshaw, bus, truck, and motor scooters honking at the same time. India is sensory overload on steroids. Their stop and go traffic is going from zero to thirty miles an hour in six seconds and them back to a dead stop less than a minute later repeated over and over.

On the far right you can see a little of the colorful outfits of the women here.

After thirty or so minutes, we wound and jerked and u-turned our way to a potholed brick road and after leaving the car, entered the ground floor of a high rise. In India, the ground floor is not synonymous with the first, the first must be attained by climbing stairs or riding in an elevator. The floor you enter without stairs is the ground floor and is designated on elevator buttons as 0. From floor 0 we rode the elevator up to the twelfth floor where we had a cup of delicious tea with the church treasurer, his wife, and their two daughters. After chatting for a bit and finishing our tea, we went back down to the seventh floor for the most beautiful prayer meeting I have ever been a part of.

The meeting started with people entering in ones and two, with each new attender going around shaking everyone’s hand while giving the greeting “Praise the Lord!” Then the worship started. It began with the most beautiful and touching singing I have ever heard. The whole setting was so intimate and lovely. We were thirteen people in a room so small that even though more than half sat cross legged on the floor two still spilled out into the hallway. Each one of the older women wore a vibrantly colored dress, mostly saris with scarves wound round their heads. My favorite was a magenta sari with a mustard yellow scarf wrapped round a new believer, the first in her family.

The tan in India only serves to highlight how bright the rest of the place is.

Once the singing was finished, I gave the short message/encouragement/teaching on prayer that I had been asked to give. I worked off Luke 11:1-13 and the story of Job. In the Charles Spurgeon book on prayer that I am reading right now, Spurgeon praised the beauty and argued the importance of praying for others. He noted that when Jesus taught His disciples to pray, it was a communal prayer that starts with “Our Father” and continues with “give us our daily bread, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us...” Prayer was never meant to be self centered. From later in the chapter where it talks about asking, I encouraged them to invite God into every part of their lives as He will not go where He is not welcome. Finally, I told them to trust God in suffering. As a good father, He does not let us needlessly or pointlessly suffer. I told them of Job and how he said, “though He slay me, yet would I trust Him.” Just as a good teacher must correct their students, and a good parent must discipline their child, our loving heavenly father lets us go through painful and/or challenging times without rescuing us. It is always for our benefit to teach us a lesson, convict us of sin, grow us stronger, or to bring Him praise.

All the pictures I have so far. More will come.

After my short message, we went into the time of prayer which was finished with the pastor anointing with oil the woman of the house, a young widow, followed by anointing her son, her main door and living room, her bedroom, her bathroom, and finally her kitchen. This has motivated me to study anointing from the Bible sometime soon. There are over 180 versus that contain the word anoint, so it might take a little while to study them all thoroughly, but I am looking forward to it!

We finished the night with a meal of fresh dosas and chapatti. The widow sells them to provide for her and her son, and she should do fine with how good they tasted.

That night alone felt worth the travel here.

I hope you all are well!

Love,

Yana

Prayer Requests:

• For inspiration from God, and the help of the Holy Spirit for all the messages we are being asked to give.
• For health and safety.
• For protection from spiritual attack.
• For good rest and recovery from jet lag.
• For no offense to be unintentionally given because we are unaware of the culture.