Mehndi Stories!

One of the things that I love about this culture is that you can share the gospel in just about every way possible. One of my favorite ways is through "Mehndi," (Mah-hen-di) . In America we are familiar with Henna, it's an orange/brown substance that comes from plants, you draw different designs and it looks like a tattoo but it only stays on for several weeks. We have shared twice through Mehndi and it is so much fun!

You can find women from all ages with Mehndi on, in fact they put it on their finger nails and it looks like orange polish, they put it on their feet, hands and for their weddings they put it on from their fingers all the way up their arms! Little girls to elderly women have it. Some men actually even wear it.. which always looks a little strange. I think the most interesting place that I've seen it is in the mens hair. It looks like a hair dying session went WAY wrong. I have heard muslim men do this after they have trekked to Meca, or because they don't like their gray hair showing... needless to say I am still trying to figure out why they die their hair bright orange.

The first picture below is the story of Joseph and his dream. The 11 starlike shapes represent Joseph's brothers. The designs on the right and left represent Joseph's parents. Joseph had a dream that the sun, moon and 11 stars would bow down it him. His brothers despised him even more because he was already the favorite son. In the picture, the stars, sun and moon are bowing down to him, with Joseph in the middle. His brothers then sold him into slavery, the swirls below Josephs representation are the blood that was shed when he was sold to the Ishmaelites into Egypt. If you know this story you know that their is a happy ending. God used this to bring Him glory, Joseph trusted God even though his brothers had betrayed him. We shared this knowing that the people here go through difficult times. Things that you could never even dream of going through. Hunger, abuse, being neglected by family and friends and many other terrible things. We told them that there is a God who is near to the broken hearted, and even though it seems dark and there's not a way out, there is a God that loves them and adores them, and wants these people to place their trust in Him.

The second Mehndi design is the story of creation. When we shared this one last week we went to 2 houses, the first house we told the story and then drew it on about 10 or so girls. At the second house we walked through a village like neighborhood, as we walked through, people dropped what they were doing and followed us. We had so many people that we couldn't even finish drawing this story on the women and children. It was a blessing though because so many muslim families heard the story of how God created the world. He created land, water and the mountains, He created the plants (on my fingers) and He made the stars (fingertips). He made the sun and the moon, that is shown on the right side of my palm. He made all the animals and the creatures in the sea. But His favorite thing that He made was people, you and me. The people are the design that falls onto my wrist. He made man first out of the dirt from the group, He then breathed life into him. Then He made women out of the man's rib. This Man and woman lived with no shame, no guilt. Sinless. He did all this in 6 days, and on the 7th day He rested.

They loved the stories and really listened. I am excited to share more stories from creation to Christ. We will be going to the same homes so that we can build relationships and tell more. Again, thank you for all of your prayers. Keep them coming!

One and done.

'Cause Jesus, you came to us

And You did what had to be done

You put on our skin, you took on our sin

Your body broken, the work finished, finished

Sometimes I don't really think we understand the greatness of what Christ did for us, yes we know that He came and died for our sins and He made a way for us to live with Him eternally if we choose to put our faith in Him. For me personally, I believe that growing up in a christian family and going to church every sunday was and is a huge blessing. But I have heard these stories a million times, and honestly, I just kind of grew numb to them. They usually don't have a huge impact on my life, and even though of course I believe these stories, I have to question myself.. how are they allowing me to learn more about who God says He is and what He has done.

Being here has definitely opened my eyes to so much, I had an amazing experience the past couple of days that really made me understand the beauty of the cross and what Jesus did for you, me and everyone else. Me and my teammate spent the past 3 days at a national friends house, this was to help us better understand culture, language and to really live it for a few days. During our stay their, a hindu festival was going to be help, we were told that on Saturday many goats were going to be slaughtered on the streets as a sacrifice to their gods. They would skin the goat, take out the organs and then eat the meat. Because Hindus believe in many gods, and they want their gods to be happy with them, the goat must be skinned perfectly. Nothing goes to waste. 

The night before the festival we visited 2 hindu families. At one home, we were able to share what we believe and the story of the cross. We went on to tell the story and the history of the passover. Like many of you may know, when God's people were trying to leave Egypt, the pharaoh would not let them leave until the death angel came and visited his home. Pharaoh did not listen to Moses when he told him to kill the best lamb, eat all of its parts and put the blood of the lamb on your door post. The next morning all who did not follow as Moses had told them found their first born son dead. This became known as the passover, it lasted for 1400 years. I can't even begin to imagine the amount of blood that was shed after 1400 years. And it wasn't just the passover, there were also sin offerings. If I lived back then.. I wouldn't have enough animals to sacrifice to God because I sin so much. 

After we talked about the passover, we shared the Good News. Jesus came as a man and lived with His people. His purpose on this earth was ultimately to die for us, even though we are so unworthy. He was nailed to a cross, my sins and your sins were put on His perfect and spotless body. After being in the grave for three days , He rose again! He is alive today, no other religion can say that their gods, or idols are alive today... neither can they say that one put down his own life for a sinful people. Because God sacrificed his own son, the work is DONE. No longer do I have to go get the animal without any defect and kill it as a sacrifice. Jesus did it once and for all.

The day of the festival we went out to visit some more families and share with them. As we walked down different alley ways, the streets were filled with blood, goats from every corner and side were hung upside. Unfortunately we missed the actual slaughtering, sad day. People were working on skinning them, as organs were piling up right next to the dead body. Some people had blood on them from head to toe. These goats that I had seen yesterday were now just vain sacrifices to godless statues and idols. But as I was walking through this, I could not help but praise God for giving us the ultimate sacrifice. The one and only. My prayer is that these people would turn away from their idols and see that there has already been a sacrifice. Jesus Christ came to die for them and their sins. I am so thankful that I was able to witness this, and to better understand the magnificence of the cross and Jesus' crucifixion. 

P.S. I decided to leave the pictures out of this blog, but if for any reason you would like to see what it looked like, feel free to let me know and I can personally send them to you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyh1Feh9lyY

The Village

Last week me and a few of my teammates were able to go to a little village about an hour away from the town we were living in, I was not really looking forward to it that much only because we had not really settled in our city of assignment and I had no idea what to expect, but I can't thank God enough for allowing me to visit, even with my unwilling heart.

We visited about 3 villages, basically a village is just a community of homes, but they are all fairly close to each other. These people surpass the idea of "southern hospitality." We visited about 20 homes in 2 days, and visited about 40 families. It was amazing. We went in at first not knowing what to say, none of us had been inside a village home in this area so it was all new. In EVERY single house they welcomed us in and insisted we all sit on their bed, despite our muddy feet. The owner of the home would then leave and come back with a surplus amount of snacks- things such as crackers, puffed rice and other things. They would also go out and buy Sprite or make a juice... the juice was made from their water so we all decided not to think about cholera and that He would protect our stomachs... we're all alive and our stomachs are doing just great.

After we got the hang of it we started to share stories from the Word, and they listened and seemed really interested. We talked about how powerful our Father is, and His love for His people. Most of them were either Hindu or Muslim and most of them had never even heard of who it is we talked about... and all of them had never heard these powerful stories. It started pouring outside, but we kept on trekking.. it was so National Geographic, mud all over your shoes, wet hair, sweat and everything else you can imagine. But it was perfect! We used the weather to tell the story about Him calming the storm and how His followers were afraid, but He said "where is your faith?" We really emphasized on what it means to have faith in Him.

He taught me a lot though during those two days. I was really convicted, He reminded me of how generous these people were, they don't have two dimes to rub together but yet they go and buy snacks to feed random strangers and make them sit down on their bed. I don't even wanna share my American Oreos with my friends. I call myself a follower though... they are living in darkness and sin, but the way they loved us made me realize that I have a lot more work to do when it comes to putting other people above myself. I am beyond thankful for this opportunity and I can't wait to spend more time with these amazing people!