Imagine traveling to an exotic land full of adventure, excitement, and  palm trees ( I always like palm trees).

GO!  What is stopping you from going?  Money? Time? Fear? Diseases? Monkeys? Snakes? (Snakes stopped me from wanting to go anywhere for years…isn’t that silly?)

GO… GO.. GO!

Yes, this is what I am going to do in less than 2 weeks.  Go off to India into a village where I will be with a group of people to serve the children of Compassion.  My location?  Exotic India my friends.  I am going a little more remote… with train rides…India train rides to say the least, in a place where there is often religious strife and clashes.  However, safe enough for what we will do.  And because I don’t always know who reads my blog, I am choosing not to announce my location at this time, to protect the work that we want to accomplish.

Go…

Going to India isn’t like a small trip to the grocery store.  It’s not even like traveling to Middle America or South America.  Going to India is as far as you can GO with as much “foreign” as an American woman can find.  Uncomfortable?  Possibly.

20 hours of flight

Train rides in a place of mass population

Hotels with different standards

Foreign food

Foreign smells

Foreign religions

Foreign customs

Foreign clothing

Foreign beds

This will be my 3^rd trip to India and it’s always a big deal to get on that plane to travel so far.  I mean, it’s on the opposite side of this earth and when you are there, you feel it.  You feel a lot of things.  You feel the weight of poverty and the mass of population.

Beggars.

I can’t even describe the beggars.

But then you feel the beauty of an ancient culture with all it’s color and spice, customs and symbolism…and palm trees.  My feet were kissed in India in the most humble setting by an Indian woman.  I was royalty in her eyes and as I walked into her impoverished home, she insisted on kissing my feet, and as the tears poured from my eyes, I had to ask my God… “Why  me?  Why me?” I begged to understand.

You feel the absence of the faith you understand.

A little fact about India.  Each year, the amount of children born in India is the same population of all of Australia.

As I get ready to GO, I ask for your prayers!  God did not call us to be comfortable.  He called us to GO.  In fact, two of the people on my trip are in their 70’s.  It doesn’t matter the age, it doesn’t matter the time in life…God didn’t say only go if you have the money, the time, and you feel like it.  No…He called all of us to GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES.  I loved reading David Platt’s book, “Radical.” (I highly recommend it).  It got me excited about going…and encouraging this in my kids.  It has affected how we are spending and giving and saving. 

GO!

Julia is going to India with my husband in January.  She will be going back to Kiran’s project,  and to meeting her sponsored child…DOLL.  I am letting her GO because I believe it is right……I know this is right.

I have been thinking more and more about all of this.  About how we live in America and how easy it is to stay.  After all it’s quite comfortable.

People often tell me that they don’t want to go because they feel like their money is better spent if they just send it.  Again, David Platt addressed this so well.  Isn’t it always nice to have someone come to your home in time of need?  Do you just send money to your sisters or brothers if they are need?  Or do you go to their side to encourage them?

You know why all those Compassion children are smiling in my pictures?

Because, they love to have visitors come to encourage them.

There are so many opportunities and ways to GO.  I can name 1,000,000 reasons right here.  So I ask you this.

What keeps you from going?

Check out these Compassion tours. 

And consider bringing your teens too!