Today is Sunday. I was asked to be the youth speaker at the church for Asha Gram and Bombay Teen Challenge. I have not met any of the girls or boys from BTC yet so I had no idea where they were in their spiritual walk or what they were going through. I prayed for a while for God to just speak to me and tell me what message to tell the people on Sunday, but I didnt really hear anything. So I had prepared some message about Glorifying God through everything that we do, but it just didnt sit right with me. So as we walked to the chapel in the morning- I started to pray and just believed that God would just speak to me and take over when I got there. Let me tell you- He is so faithful.
As soon as we entered the chapel- YOU COULD FEEL GOD IN THAT PLACE. It was impossible to enter that place and not be taken back, it was... so... I am at a loss for words to describe how it felt. Once you entered that place, they had already started to worship and you were just brought to your knees in AWE of God and his work and his love... I have never ever felt God like that before. We began to worship with all our hearts and even though we didnt know most of the songs, it was just a time of complete surrender, time to let go of anything we were holding on to- fear, anxiety, hesitation, weariness; giving our entire lives to God and just WORSHIPPING the Creator of the Universe. If you were there, you would know that God's presence was so strong, so tangible. It was as if Heaven and Earth had united to give praise to God, giving him all the Glory and Honor he Had deserved. My friend had said that He knows that we will Feel God so strong that we will walk away saying we were with God.. and that Day We all walked away saying We have been with God =)
They called our team up and prayed for us. Children and youth came running towards us, extending their hands and crying out to God so that He would use us in such a mighty way this week. MAN... such FAITH THESE children and youth have. It was incredible- so clear to see that they are sold out for Christ. I remember hearing some prayers of the young children crying out to God that we would just be used in every way we can for the rest of our lives. Their prayers were so genuine and deep.
Michael spoke before me and he spoke about how God can use anything and everything to bring Glory to his name so that people would know who He is. Matthew 21- Jesus rode on a donkey. God had used a donkey which seems so small and insignificant but it was used to glorify God and through that Jesus was able to be heard and people were able to know who He was. He asked us what is our "donkey" and will we use it to bless others and glorify God?
Well God had spoke to me and I changed my message completely. I talked about the day I realized That God Chose me, and once I realized that the God and King of Kings was for me- no one would be against me. I talked about my testimony of how When I first rededicated my life to God I was so passionate and felt totally in love with God. I was and still am completely in love with Him but I didnt let go of everything in my life that was holding me back. I was holding on to this new found love and my old life at the same time. Eventually it was as if parts of my life was spilling over and I couldn't control it all, or hold it all together. I realized that I couldn't have my old life and this new life. There is just no way that I could be used by God, or see His Glory if I continued that way, no matter how I tried to rationalize it. When I tried to hold on to those things my passion started to dwindle, and I began to forget... forget the feelings of unconditional love, forget how complete God had made me... forget the comfort, encouragement and joy He has filled my life with. I began to forget all of this all because I was still holding on to a few things in my life that seemed so insignificant at the time but made the biggest difference once I had let go. I talked about Passion for God and His Glory. I honestly don't remember everything I had said- I just let God speak through me and for the first time I was obedient and He came through =) It was the first time I had a translator as well and that was kind of fun =!
Everyday they have Chai and snack time at around 5pm. When I went for it, I met a bunch of girls. One girl that really stuck out on the first day there was Nasreen. She is 16 years old and totally sold out for God. She shared some of the promises that she made to God and it really touched my heart. She knows how to play the guitar, make jewelry and she wants to go to College for psychiatry. She had told me a part of her story how her mother had left her and she had to stay with her father and brother and that was when she was sold into the brothel. She must have been so young at the time. She gave praise to God that she is not there anymore. She said she feels so bad for the girls who are still there and hopes they can get out and find God.
I talked to some other girls about what dances they knew and what they wanted to learn. The dorms are separated by age. It is younger girls, older girls, Aunties and the guest house dorm. They all have a TV room and one dorm has the room where they do their devotionals or meetings between the women only. There are a few girls that know english fluently, otherwise it was hard to communicate with the rest of them without having someone translate.
I am supposed to teach my dances tomorrow and they were a mix of secular indian songs and it was all indian dance moves. While I was praying the Spirit had just told me to change my dances. I had to change the songs and the entire dances in less than 12 hours so i began to pray and pray and God just showed me so much favor and the dance steps came easily. The first dance is to the song My Romance. It is sign language, garba and Bhangra all together. They were simple steps, but I just prayed that God would be glorified through this. It made me feel SO much better to have a Christian Worship song and then add indian dance moves to it to show the girls that you can glorify God through dancing.
