"He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And if anyone give even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."
- Matthew 10:40 - 42
If our mission trip had a theme phrase or verse to wrap up what our purpose was or what we did, it would be Matthew 10:42.
"And if anyone give even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."
This theme kept coming up throughout the entire trip. The theme of serventhood was both amazing and humbling. When we first arrived at the India Gospel League's missions compound at Sharon Gardens, I was able to walk around. I found a well and in front of the well there was a stone sign that was engraved with a quote from a Canadian missionary.
"A cup of cold water given in Jesus' name."
At first, I thought that it was a very cool quote and I had heard it before. However, the quote and the verse in Matthew because more real in my understanding as the trip progressed. I think that the most humbling act of serventhood was witnessed on Saturday, May 17. It was on that date that we gathered together almost or a little over 100 lepers from the surrounding area and served them lunch.
Let me break to talk about leprosy for a second. Leprosy is a very deforming and debilitating disease. I saw all ages of people with it. Some had some of the beginning stages of it, but others were evident in how far the disease has wreaked both their body and life. I saw both the very old men and two young girls that were affected by it. Some people had no fingers or toes... some people's hands were just the small amount of palm that they had left on the end of their arm. There was one man that his legs were smaller than his arms and they would not work properly for him. Dave had to help walk over to the shade were we served them.
We gathered them first on a small porch so that they could sit in the shade. We did a short, five - ten minute service in which we told them that: a) God loves them very much, b) we love them very much, and c) they are beautiful in both God's eyes and ours. It was amazing to see their faces light up to hear that.
After the service they all sat in the shade and we brought them a banana leaf (a large leaf that everyone uses to eat off of... saves on dish soap) and served them curry chicken fried rice, some vegetable mix that was the equivalent to cole slaw, water, and mints. I got to hand out banana leaves and serve rice. It was so humbling just to bend down and feed them in Jesus' name. When I saw Josh and Joel pouring water into people's cups or mouths, the only thing I could think was:
"A cup of cold water given in Jesus' name."
At the end of it all we stood at the gates and give them each a 10 Rupee bill. That is worth about 25 cents in American dollars, but it will buy them at least one meal. Because of the language barrier, we couldn't say much with our words, but we communicated with our love and the small phrase to sum up why we were their. We were there because:
Yesu unai nasicara.... ...... Jesus loves you.
