An Indian Boy Currently Known As Prince – College Team

An Indian boy stole my heart.

His name is Prince and he is 2 and a half years old.

After lots of crazy travel and becoming very acquainted with the bus system, we arrived in a small village with a perfect view of snow-capped mountains. What we saw this past week is not at all how I pictured India in my mind. The weather was chilly and beautiful, and the mountains were close enough that it felt like you could reach out and touch them. The Himalayas were so clear! Rushing water, clean, unpolluted rivers! Trees as tall as buildings.The Father’s presence was so abundant here, and so clear in His creation.

Our first day in village K, we set out with our ever trusty guide and friend, Uncle. As usual, we had no idea where we were going, just going, and trusting the Spirit and Uncle. We walked for more than an hour up the mountain. Eventually, we came to a small village in the upper part of the mountain, and met two women waiting outside of a house. We had prayed for people of peace, and God delivered. They ushered us inside, and we all sat around a small room. The team, Uncle, these two women, and a precious little boy name Prince. The encountered started with lots of smiles on our part, and rapid Hindi on the other side. We kept smiling. Prince sat shyly in his grandmother’s lap, making eyes at all the girls. We smiled and made faces. His grandmother tried to let us hold him, but he always burrowed back in her lap. What a tease.

Eventually, we were clued in. These women were believers, and had some sort of connection to Uncle. Uncle knew a man, and knew that this man’s brother lived somewhere in this village. This man was away doing good work, but his wife, mother and son remained.

We had some ice cold water from the river (after much hesitation and prayer that it would not make us sick), and chai, and heard these women’s hearts. They host a gathering of believers occasionally in their house, but other than that felt very alone in these mountains. The Lord has made is so clear to our team that we are not here to see the fruits of our labor. We are not here to see tons and tons of new believers come to Christ. Instead, it is our mission to encourage our brothers and sisters in India and to pray over the nation. To meet these women, so alone and discouraged in the mountains, was only confirming of that.

We shared some stories with them, explained our practice of henna storying, and prayed over them. We encouraged them from the Word with passages liked Romans 8:38-39, which describes how nothing can every separate us from God’s love.

We asked how we could specifically pray for them, and learned that the grandmother had been suffering from pain in her leg, and the mother from pain in her hand. Uncle read James 5:13-18. He then told them to bring oil. We prayed over it, and rubbed their hands and feet as we prayed. It was a new experience for a lot of us, as healing is not such a common thing in the States. This pushed us to examine our hearts, and our faith in an all powerful God, a God who can raise people from the dead. We will not know if those women were healed. But we know we serve a God who has the power to heal.

This was an exhausting, thrilling week. We love you all, and thank you for being diligent in checking in on us when we don’t have a lot of access to internet. Hear our stories and pray for our hearts.

Julia