A Debrief of our Trip to India
The people of India were very inviting to us. Their hospitality was expressed in so many ways. We will never forget the happy moments we made together. In Delhi on our first day, we met a Hindu-Temple goer with fresh red paint on his forehead, his friend the Tuk-Tuk driver, and multiple salesmen of statues/idols and fabric, and they received The Seed of The Gospel happily. I’m not sure I’m called to do more than that, but I pray that through our conversations they will understand the nature of their idols and influences they impose to this day. Our Creator is a jealous God, and He commanded that we worship Him alone, as Father, Word, and Holy Spirit are One ( 1 John 5:7). This is the great mystery which the world seeks to know, understanding not where to find Truth but tirelessly searching for it regardless.
Now is near the time of the fulfillment of the dispersement of The Gospel to all people groups. That means Judgment follows soon. The Most High will have mercy on all who trust in Him. He is Love, and we are made for Love, to bring Him pleasure by our Love for Him which we express in the world through acts of charity and kindness.
Upon our arrival to Manipur we were met with a week to spend with the children of Spring of Hope Orphanage before going to Kachai Village to visit the Naga family who owns and runs the orphanage’s hometown where water runs through bamboo pipes and there exists no internet, with only one telephone, a landline which the villagers crowded around during the busy marriage season that sees huge amounts of taxi-fares and slaughtered pigs.
The Baptist/Protestant Christians of the town of Ukhrul, where our home base was, kept Christmas, and while I try to worship every day through every season equally, I understand some people have inherited tradition of celebratory times that, though they have pagan roots, are times of joy and happiness intertwined with fellowship and Worship of The Messiah, our Creator. Wherefore, I enjoyed the time anyways, even participating in a Christmas celebration at the orphanage with all the children. I did not decorate the trees or make crafts, but I did have the opportunity to address many of the adults and children who are involved with the orphanage. They gave me ten minutes to speak at the party, and I prayed over what to speak. It seemed a good time to share on the nature of The Messiah, so I shared a few scriptures and spoke about Who The Messiah truly is: born of a virgin and called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), Healer of our separation from God and The Holy Spirit, Passover Lamb, and Conqueror of sin (Isaiah 53), from Bethlehem which presently sits in Islamic territory, occupied by Jews.
Afterwards we went to Kachai. This small village in the middle of the mountains was surprising every day. Our first morning there, we celebrated a wedding. I wanted to take as many photos as possible, so I did, along with video of the bride entering the village for the first time, accompanied by a few dozen of her own villagers who were all greeted at the one road that leads into Kachai. They met with hymns; the two families met and the two hymns of the forty-or-more voices rang a beautiful melody in my heart. They continued until the pastor of the one local church and village elder greeted the parents, and everyone agreed to bow their heads for prayer. After the harmonious amen, we walked into town. At the wedding it was estimated 1,500 people would attend, mostly dressed in traditional Naga clothing of bright and intricate scarves. The ceremony was identical to a western church wedding.
The pastor, Rev Sobrang, invited me to speak on Sunday where I was led to share an end-times message of the antichrist deception, coming persecution of the church, and return of our Savior as LORD of lords and KING of kings as the dead in Christ rise and we are caught up into The Spirit to live and reign for The Millennium.
The kindness they shared by allowing me to deliver a message from The Bible was unwarranted. I have no degree or credentials, but they accepted me as well-versed because the education system in the West, coupled with technology absent in their own town, present us with unique opportunity to study The Scriptures in a way no other person in any other generation has. The only problem was the lack of English comprehension. Thankfully I didn’t have to speak much on my own and was able to translate the many verses I’d read from with their Thang Khul Language Bible, which used Roman letters as well due to the absence of a written language amongst the Nagas before the arrival of English missionaries, who worked with the village chiefs to develop a written language, learned the spoken language of the Naga, and then preached to them in their own language, leading to a currently-estimated 99% self-proclaimed Christian society. I shared the following verses which made for a dramatic introduction to eschatology for many of the church members at the evening service:
2 Timothy 4:7-8 (KJV) 7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished [my] course, I have kept the faith: 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
Matthew 7:21-23 (KJV) 21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Matthew 24:45-51 (KJV) 45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? 46 Blessed [is] that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. 48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; 49 And shall begin to smite [his] fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; 50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for [him], and in an hour that he is not aware of, 51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint [him] his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
2 Peter 3:3-7 (KJV) 3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as [they were] from the beginning of the creation. 5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
Luke 17:26-30 (KJV) 26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed [them] all. 30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 (KJV) 1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and [by] our gathering together unto him, 2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [will let], until he be taken out of the way. 8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9 [Even him], whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Revelation 13:6-8 (KJV) 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. 7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. 8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Daniel 8:24-25 (KJV) 24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. 25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify [himself] in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-10 (KJV) 1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. 2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as [do] others; but let us watch and be sober. 7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
Ephesians 6:10-13 (KJV) 10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]. 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Amen. After the wedding it began raining and didn’t stop for over four days. They called it a cyclone, and I remember the effects it had on the road. The one busy-due-to-weddings road to Kachai was a skinny dirt path winding through the jungle of the northeast Indian mountains and were strewn with mudslides, huge puddles, and fallen boulders. It was quite a frightful drive back to Ukhrul, where we spent a couple more weeks with the kids who stayed behind from traveling to their own villagers to stay with aunts or uncles or grandparents or other family members for the holiday season.
We got to share The Gospel and a Hindi Language Bible with three youngsters who were running booths and shops in the downtown marketplace of the city. A few of the girls were with us and they did all the translating. We showed the seed, and pray for Amod, Alisha, and Shivalak to grow up aware of The Way, Truth, and Life.
The food was the same every day: rice and daal (turmeric power and a mushed bean with salt) and watercress twice daily. The kids bathed in cold, almost frozen water. They offered always to heat some water in a bucket for us to use for bathing, but truthfully I only took a handful of showers the entire month we spent in India because the water chills super fast from the open-aired shower rooms. At 6,000 feet above sea-level, we just wore the same clothes for a week straight, unless our own smell started peaking through. Then we took baby-wipe baths which I used while deployed and in basic training. They are very helpful, but nothing compares to having hot water pounding on your muscles from a western shower-head. The kids have never experienced that though. Some were so happy to have rice every meal that they couldn’t care less about whether or not they’ll ever know the taste of Thai curry, Vietnamese pho, or Korean kimchi, French fries, or American burgers. Although those things did come into my mind quite a few times, I learned to keep my gratitude for the simple things in life. We did have a couple delicious meals from different new friends: fried chicken and ginger-chicken soup. We are certainly thankful for the many meals our loving sisters and brothers in Christ invited us to.
Sickness followed us the whole trip. Even before the trip it was coming for us. The family we travelled with took all their recommended vaccines: Malaria, Typhoid, etc. Wherefore their children became sick. They coughed and had their headaches continually through the trip, but it took until our last week there for it to reach me. I enjoyed a harsh fever for a couple days followed by an extreme amount of mucus continually building up in my sinus cavity and lack of strength. What was most interesting is that it came after I found out about a boy in the orphanage who has undiagnosed epilepsy. I saw him a previous night in a episode with his eyes wide open and rolled back, head arched back, and saliva foaming into puddles on the bed. After praying for him and getting olive oil to follow James chapter five’s advice to anoint the sick with oil and pray for them, I was hit with my own symptoms.
The epilepsy started occurring frequently, as well. At first they said it happened once-a-month, but it began happening repeatedly, even twice as we were just sitting by a fire after eating dinner to keep warm. Then our last night in Ukhrul came. We watched Korean drama on the warden’s laptop with all the children, and everyone fell asleep very fast, exhausted from the eventful day and send-off service they did for us. As we began leaving to go to sleep in our own room, one was not asleep yet. Chingang, who was horrified of the devils that visit him when he goes into his episodes, was staring at us with tears in his eyes. He didn’t want to be alone at night and didn’t want us to leave the next day, so we gladly brought him to our room to sleep in the extra bed. By eleven I had fallen asleep, but I quickly woke up to Joy screaming and running to Chingang’s bed. “I think he’s having it!” She was very freaked out, but he quickly arose from the sleep paralysis and she came back to bed. Then, as I was dozing back off, I heard the blankets whip off of Chingang, and he sprinted to our bed, coming to a quick pose of a statue beside us. We laid him down and he started shaking. His saliva poured onto the bed as we moved him to a safe position and prayed. After holding him for about fifteen minutes he had calmed down and was resting again, having kicked Joy to the other bed. Then he said, “mister Justin, thank you.” He slept on my arm until about six when we began having another episode. We prayed and held him, and he finally woke up to the cold morning and decided not to sleep again. It was hard to leave that day, but with the help of our non-profit supporters, we were able to forward funds to his caretakers to visit a hospital.
After the teary-eyed farewell we made our way to Imphal where we spent one day with Pastor Silvana, owner of Peidingha Bible School. We were able to share study and meal, and he showed us some of the historical sites of the city. The kindness of him and his family will always be remembered, and we will prayerfully partner to help sponsor some local Hindu kids to attend his school and learn about The True Savior.
We flew to Delhi for our last visit before heading back to the states. My health was improving as Joy’s began declining. Thankfully we were housed by a kind woman we met in Kachai, one of the relatives of the family we travelled with. Her husband was my age, and she was Joy’s age. I felt The Spirit urging me to share The Gospel with her Hindu husband, and God made a way for me to share with both him and his dad. We spoke on the end times and world events and Bible prophecy and the root of the polytheistic religions (fallen angels who rebelled against God and now seek to take worship away from Him). The mom was Catholic and they had a feast on Christmas Day which they invited us to. I remember being recorded as I said Grace over the food for the family, and I prayed silently while I was praying vocally a separate prayer that the recorded message would be convicting and Truth-filled. We ended our days in Delhi with Soso and her family giving us a trip to many small markets and an 800 year old Ottoman Temple ruin.
I believe The Spirit did move while we were there, and I feel as though our batteries have been depleted after the one-month visit to India. Yet, I look forward to recharging my health and returning to see every person we became family with while there.
For now, we are in production phase of many videos concerning various causes we learned about while in India. Look forward to them!