Living the gospel in India—and in Virginia

Vishakhapatnam, India >> Last November, Bethany Emerson of KingsWay Community Church (Richmond, VA) traveled to southeast India to spend nine weeks serving in Love-N-Care Ministries’ children’s home. Bethany talks about prayer, faith, and what it means to have a heart for missions…

A year ago, India was probably the furthest thing from my mind or even imaginations of the near future. I had just worked through a period of seeking the Lord’s will and was confident that God was calling me away from school for that season of my life. Yet, obedience to this call from God meant that 2005 met me with much uncertainty of my calling. With this in mind, I attended a Passion conference led by Louie Giglio the first week of January. Throughout the conference, I was aware that God was unexpectedly placing India on my heart. So following the conference, my parents encouraged me to contact a pastor from the Sovereign Grace church in Charlotte, North Carolina [CrossWay Community Church]. This pastor frequently travels to India. That contact led to an invitation to spend two months at Love-N-Care Ministries in Vishakhapatnam, India. Almost immediately, a strong surety filled my heart that this was God’s calling for me.

As I prepared to be away for nine weeks, I had little idea all that I’d experience or how God would so deeply answer my specific prayer to learn to trust him more. Since I hadn’t traveled internationally before, it was quite a shock to find myself in Indian dress, eating plates of rice and curry with my hand, and sharing my testimony with more than 200 children. I found myself living in a foreign place but surrounded by people whose lives breathed contentedness, joy, and selfless service.

As I settled into my new routine of teaching classes at Love-N-Care’s school, tutoring, speaking, and serving meals to the children, I knew that I was among heroes, who lived in constant humility because of the gospel, people who treasured a life of servanthood. I began to learn so much and grow in faith as I drew out the ministry staff, the pastors, and their families about their testimonies and stories of God’s faithfulness. Straining to understand their English, which was spoken with strong Telugu accent, I was provoked by the faith they so humbly shared of God’s work in their lives. It seemed that every person had personally experienced God work in a miraculous way, including one pastor who was used by God to raise people from the dead! These friendships not only blessed me, but provided concrete examples of encountering God and living by faith through prayer in a way that an American lifestyle doesn’t easily recreate. Their passion for God and the words they shared penetrated my heart and reminded me of God’s grace and the way I want to live.

Likewise, my time with the children filled me with a new understanding of contentment and true joy. Beginning each day at 5 a.m., these children’s lives are structured, disciplined, and filled with little excess. One of the greatest privileges was daily tutoring a group of 15 fourth and fifth graders. These boys and girls would come into the study room, gray backpacks slung over their shoulders, and sit in little rows. I had the daily joy of sharing with and praying for each by name. The transition from being a “foreign visitor” to a personal friend with this class meant so much. I learned from watching them selflessly care for each other—tiny girls hand-feeding sick friends, older children looking out for younger ones, wiping tears from the eyes of discouraged playmates. These moments gave me windows into their hearts, just as peeking over the roof in the afternoons opened my eyes to their sweet contentment. After many hours of studying, they’d joyfully run into the courtyard and with a ball or a few pebbles and be content for several hours.

My sweetest memory of these precious children was the day we left to return home. After their morning chapel, the children gathered and prayed for us as we departed. Feeling their little hands on my arms, I opened my eyes and saw their little faces scrunched in deep and focused prayer, all their voices speaking to the Lord at once in Telugu. It reminded me of all the mornings I’d seen them praying with their hands raised and of their joyful contentment in the Lord. I’ll never forget the lessons they taught me.

God also answered my specific prayer to learn to trust him more. Being separated from everything familiar, I was pressed into a place where I could only find my rest and strength in the Lord. After the first few weeks, I began battling fear and an unrest that I couldn’t shake. Though I faithfully prayed and meditated on truth and Scripture, I realized that I had nothing to hold onto but God. He showed me that I had to choose to believe that nothing else—not even being at home or with others I loved—would bring my heart rest. God alone can and would bring my heart peace! So day by day, God helped me to persevere despite my emotions.

In one of my first devotions in India, God reminded me of Philippians 4:19: “My God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” I realized that my real battle was not with emotions or God’s calling to India, but with unbelief—believing that God IS sufficient to meet all my needs! While I thought I needed someone to care for me, God showed me that HE WOULD meet all my needs. He promised to! I wrote the Scripture verse on a card and put it next to my bed so I could continually meditate on that truth. I had never felt so utterly dependent on God… for grace to eat and sleep and rest in my heart at every moment. I had never before felt such an intense need of him and never had to pray and struggle consistently for peace and strength. I saw that I did not trust God as much as I thought I did.

But as time went by, I began to see God’s grace at work in my life! Day by day, these Scriptures and truths became clearer and I began to cry out to learn more of God rather than just looking for peace. As I began to experience him in India, as his Word became more alive to me, I saw just how personal he is, and he did fill me with peace and faith for where I was. I suddenly realized that I was sleeping and eating well. This was such a victory because I saw that God was faithful to his Word in my life. He did understand, he did meet me, and he did supply all my needs! So he answered my specific prayer from home weeks before that I would learn to trust him and to live by truth.

During my last week in India, I had the joy of working with an outreach team from CrossWay Community Church. On our first outreach, our group of seven college students and an Indian pastor walked down a steep bank into a rural village of little red-roofed huts. As we sang “Jesus, Thank You,” the people stopped their work and gathered to listen. Looking around at the valley with no civilization in sight, I observed these people, crowded together with such hopeless looks on their faces, and sensed God’s presence in such a real and personal way. As the gospel was shared, God made my own salvation so clear to me, that I wasn’t saved because I was American, a good person, or born into a Christian family, but it was by pure mercy and grace that God saved my life.

I also caught a glimpse of God’s heart for the nations. Even as the song “High Above All Things” says, “Your heart, Your passion, to give all nations gladness and joy in Jesus Christ,” I had personally experienced seeing God bring truth to a different people and seeing their joy in his Word. I realized that a heart for true missions is not a desire to serve in a foreign culture, but a passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ, which begins with personally valuing the gospel with gratitude for the mercy you have received. I was encouraged that true missions is not something I had to stay in India to apply. I knew that when I returned home, I would live with a passion for missions, making much of God and his gospel wherever God calls me to serve.

I am extremely grateful for the privilege of serving and living in India for nine weeks. Not only did I experience the Lord’s strength and grow to trust him more, but the lessons he taught me of living out the gospel, humility, joy, and faith through the Indian people are lessons I will carry with me for years to come. My prayer is that the God who pursued me with his grace would enable me to continually put into practice true missions, by sharing the gospel right here in Midlothian, Virginia. I do not regret a moment I spent in India and hope to continually tell of his grace and faithfulness to me in this season of my life.