India scared me. Everywhere I looked I saw germs. (Well, I didn’t actually see them, but I knew they were there, lurking about and ready to pounce on me in a moment of carelessness.) For 3 months I was living in a church guest room, teaching in a Bible school, and having my meals with amazing people — the pastor and his family. But, oh the germs!
On one hand it’s customary in India to use your fingers and a bit of water from a tiny bowl instead of toilet paper. On the other hand, they use their other hand like a fork and give new meaning to the phrase, “finger licking good.” I never knew which hand to shake when I met new people.
The streets in the big city where I was, were often populated with cows and pigs wandering about and doing their business on the roads and dusty walking lanes. Once I walked into the church kitchen and the cook was chopping vegetables on the kitchen floor that would soon be served to me. At meals my hosts would frequently pick up some food with their hands and put it on my plate. Hands down, that was scary to a germophobe like me.
My stomach was messed up for the entire three months, so I know that at least a few germs found a way to my gut. (I was losing weight the entire time and literally thought that I might die there.) But that experience changed my life.
The young adults in the Bible school were some of the most passionate and committed Christ-followers I have ever met. They all prayed three times every day for an hour each time. Those three hours always filled me with awe and amazement as people cried out to Jesus to bring a Christ-centered awakening to their families, their cities, and their country.
After graduation the students were sent to a town or village in India that had never had a Christian church. There they would start a church and a school and demonstrate the love of Jesus to the community. Often, they were rejected, even violently. One of my students was stoned to death by hostile residents at the well in his new community. He laid down his life in love. His story put my fear of germs in perspective.
Free Gas For Your Think Tank (A blog to jog your mind and unclog your heart . . .) 