Darkness to Light

Last night we experienced the major contrasts of our country. Here in the capitol city alone we went from traveling dirt roads on an auto rickshaw with children begging at our doors at every traffic light and walked straight into a five-story mall nicer than any I've been to in America. This stark contrast is one thing that makes this country so peculiar.

As we rode through town in our auto rickshaw we saw sights that broke our hearts. Entire families laying on the sidewalk together. Homeless. Tired. And hungry. Upon spotting a group of Americans, one father nudged his son, not much older than Kiley, and made him come beg from us. We later spotted two little girls probably our girls' ages, maybe younger, sitting on the sidewalk scraping bricks for a living. I held my girls a little tighter and thanked God that they had the freedom to enjoy their childhood. Our hearts broke for those precious little girls. We then had a man who appeared blind approach our auto carrying a baby boy whose hand was wrapped and oozing with infection. It broke our hearts that we couldn't help each person but we were able to give some snack bags to as many as we had enough for. I had brought along a big package of Oreos for the girls to snack on when they got hungry, but when we ran out of snack bags the girls agreed to open the Oreos and give them out to people we passed along the way. They each had one cookie and offered the rest to the hungry. We've been encouraged not to give literal money because of where it goes, so we've tried to make it a practice to carry some food with us wherever we go.

Today I had the opportunity to hear the testimony of a man who became a Jesus follower after years as a Sikh. What an awesome story he had. He suffered emotional persecution from his family and has been completely denied by them. Yet he radiates with joy!!!

I also got to visit a Sikh temple. Though there weren't many people at the time of day that we went, we were able to experience some reading from their book and see the area where they "put it to bed" each night. They believe that the gurus live on in this book and so it is treated with great care and reverence.

The darkness here can be overwhelming at times if you let it, but thankfully God gave me Psalm 139:11-12 "If I say, 'Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night' even the darkness is not dark to You. The night shines like the day;
darkness and light are alike to You."