India in Review

It’s been several weeks now since I have returned from Calcutta, India.  I first want to extend my gratitude and appreciation for all of your prayers not only during the time of my trip but for the many months that lead up to it.  I would appreciate your continued prayers as God is still doing a work in my heart as to what this whole mission trip plus Christy will equal out to be. 

 

If I had a special bottle that I could capture all the sights, smells, sounds and stimulation overload constantly happening in Calcutta, I would have captured it especially for you all to fully grasp just exactly what life is like in this very large and busy place.  My very first experience in India was the driving!  Let me tell you something, I so did NOT understand their method of driving of no rules, no speed limit, not stop signs/lights, no specified lanes and the constant horn honking.  That was just the vehicles—cars, trucks, cabs, and many buses.  Motorbikes, bicycles, makeshift wheeled-things, other transporting things (no words for what they used!), pedestrians and yes, cows and goats in the midst of all the shuffling and hustle and bustle of traffic.  An experience in itself!!

 

Surprisingly, each day got easier and quite comfortable since we had the most excellent drivers.  When daylight shone upon this city and we were driving to our many destinations, we got to witness something that my eyes had never seen and my mind as well as my heart could not comprehend.  No defined curbs separated the road from the walkway and there were so many people…people that would be selling their many items on top of tarps just strewn upon the ground.  Next would be a make shift café of sorts made from scraps (wood, rocks, bricks, tarp, boxes, whatever could be found and could be used.) A fire would be the heat source and the food, tea would be prepared there as patrons would gather around.  Just a ways down from that would be a mother with her children bundled up in whatever linens she had found trying to lay as comfortably as possible to get rest.  Next to her were several children with what appeared to be a grandfather bathing one of his grandsons in the gutter with runoff water that must have streamed down from the café. The little guy lathered up with soapy suds and being rinsed off with gutter water using a small metal bowl.  Just around the corner from them were two large cows grazing through the pile of garbage that is just thrown into a pile only to be burned later.  Make-shift housing all around, laundry from the homeless strewn about wherever you looked, living wherever possible.  People coming and going.  Scurrying here and there.  We come to a stop –traffic cop trying to direct traffic and all of a sudden on my window a hand appears tapping three times onto my window.  Not knowing where the hand came from I looked out my window only to find a young adult male that looked very deformed and disabled just sitting literally in the midst of all this traffic only inches away from vehicles on either side of him.  His eyes met mine and I saw such despair and helplessness.  I have to admit I was very startled and not sure what to do.  Not having anything that I could give him, I leaned back brokenhearted and began weeping.  He then gently placed his entire hand flat upon the window and rested it there for the rest of the time we waited—which ended up being close to 10 minutes.  I began praying for him, feeling such sadness and a horrible pain in my heart.  We finally began to drive off and slowly his hand slipped off the window.  I had heard about the homeless and beggars but I had not personally experienced something so heartbreaking.  I felt like he was invisible.  Cars, people just passed him by as if he didn’t exist.  He was right in the middle of the busy street and people deliberately avoided him like he was an obstacle.  I didn’t get it.  I had a whole host of emotions that I offered up to God. 

 

God was wonderful in dealing with me.  Not giving me answers to my “Why?” but to remind me that PEOPLE MATTER! Every single person…PEOPLE MATTER!  I, too in my everyday life, had gotten in a visual perspective of only seeing things that I only wanted to see and if that meant turning a blind eye to people on the street corners with signs asking for help then I did only choosing when I wanted to “see” them and then I would continue doing my own thing.  God sees everyone and loves each one the same.  Seeing doesn’t always have to be done with my eyes…sometimes it is very important to see with the eyes of my heart.  I had asked God to break my heart for what breaks His and I believe He did just that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the PEACE Centers, where I spoke and worked with various women (some men, too!) was a most amazing experience like no other.  There were several places that we went to, but it was the PEACE Center in Bauria that I had the opportunity to connect with the women who were tailoring students there.  I first spoke Sunday morning at church which was awesome. It was a packed house.  Sitting on the floor…down the hall—both directions, and people standing outside listening through the windows.  Amazing!!  The next day, I had the pleasure of speaking to the students directly.  Their faces were so precious.  They all had looks of desperation and much eagerness to soak up whatever I had to share. 

 

I started off by asking them where their fabric scraps would be.  With a bit of confusion they went to look for some and gathered some from the trash.  I took the material that they brought to me telling them that the world would just toss this aside…discarding it, not seeing any purpose or use for it.  They may even step on it, make it feel useless and treat it as if it were nothing worthy.  We, like the material, can very much feel the same way.  Believing what others say about us, how they treat us, the situations that we go through tossing us here and there—we begin to believe that we are unworthy, useless, unhopeful, and no purpose to fulfil.  But our Heavenly Father does not waste anything…He does not discard or throw away.  He takes things that the world meant for this and turns them into something quite beautiful through life’s journies.  I took that piece of fabric scrap, roughly cut out four pieces (because life can be quite rough on us) and I began demonstrating the process of the Rosette.  How God holds each petal which represents our season in His Hand.  Nothing can snatch us out of His Hand.  Even when we are put to the flame of life to be shaped, molded, contained in everyday living as well as those times of extreme heat of walking in the flame…we are still in His Hands.  I continued this process four times.  I explained to them that God loved each of us so much that He sent His only son, Jesus, to die on the Cross so that we may have eternal life.  We must keep God the center of lives, which the button in the Rosette represents.  I held that Rosette up pointing out the singe marks that represents our dark times, times of struggles, times that we want to hide or are shameful about, but it is when the layers of the petals that God puts together those very spots that we try to hide create the uniqueness and beauty of the Rosette.  It is a Materpiece…one of a kind!  Their faces spoke very loudly…AMAZING!! I explained to these wonderful ladies that they were not an accident, that they were created on purpose and for a purpose!  God has a life story that He is writing specifically for each of their lives and they are living it.  They got it!!

 

I wasn’t finished yet.  I explained that God does not waste anything.  The lefteover fabric scrap that I had used I took and made strips and began making fabric twine  which can be made into a basket, bowl, bag, mat, etc…the possiblities are endless!!  I explained that like the material as it is being twisted and turned and pulled together it is becoming very strong and united, unable to come apart.  It is strengthened by this process.  God does this with us as well.  The process is not always pleasant and comfortable, we question and wonder why we must go through things, but in the end a beautiful creation is displayed.  God’s Masterpiece!  I told them that they are His treasure…that He delights in and sings over them…they are precious to them.  By now, they are visibly happy, faces smiling from ear to ear and very eager to begin making these Rosettes and fabric twine.  They took to it quickly.  Understood it wonderfully. 

 

 

 

The next day I returned to women sitting and working on Rosette making and fabric twine making.  I had this day slotted to work more with them to help them master this skill but God had better plans.  He allowed me the privilege to hear each of their testimony.  One by one, each woman stood and spoke in their native language, Bengali, and shared their story.  Just about each and every one of them were very thankful for the PEACE Center and the help of learning tailoring.  Many thanked me for coming and teaching them this new skill.  Some shared what they hoped  their future would hold.  But there was one lovely woman who when I first met her held her head low, would not look at me in the eyes, and just had a sad, sad look upon her.  She stood and spoke for quite some time.  Through the interpretor she shared that she was a Muslim women with four children.  Her husband tortures her (emotional abuse and withholds food.)  She was sent to this tailoring school to help provide for her family but she stated that she has a hard time learning and understanding things…this included the tailoring.  It was when I was speaking about the Rosette and fabric twine that something within her clicked.  She understood…the making of the items but more importantly the story behind them.  She said that this is something that she could do.  She then came up to me and gave me a miniature version of a fabric twine basket with a Rosette on it plus she gave me a beautiful flower that she herself created all her own out of the fabric scraps.  She presented it to me with a giant smile and looked me in the eye embracing me!  Such joy!  I was later told that she had gone home the night before and made many more Rosettes and had already got  many in their village wearing them!  God is so GOOD!

 

These are just some of the lovely Rosettes that the tailoring students blessed upon my head!

I really wish that I could take the time to sit down with each and every one of you.  There was so much that I experienced and had the privilege of witnessing that I would quite possibly have to write a book.  Just know that God did a beautiful work in and through me.  I was blessed by wonderful, amazing, obedient Christians who inspired me and helped me put things in proper perspective.   There is beautiful and amazing things happening in India, however, there is very, very much more work to be done there.  Your prayers for India and the people of India is greatly needed.  There are very few Christians in India doing amazing work for God.  God is blessing them and guiding them, but honestly I don’t know how they don’t allow discouragement keep them from moving forward.  There are many obstacles and hindrances that prevent even speaking the Name of Jesus.  But God is good and His people are faithful!  My prayers will include India and those who live there doing God’s work as well as what direction God is leading me now that He had me see with my heart and not my eyes. 

 

May you be blessed!!

 

Thank you again for your faithful prayers!

 

Christy Krezman

 

“The Lord your God wins victory after victory and is always with you.  He celebrates and sings because of you, and He will refresh your life with His love.”  Zephaniah 3:17 CEV