Go Beyond

Dubai en route to Houston

Kingsland Students in Kolkata

I don’t often have the opportunity to travel with students. With the exception of our summer student missions initiatives, all of the teams I lead are made up of adult volunteers. However, the past two weeks with our students are among the most memorable I have enjoyed in recent years. Theirs was not an easy assignment. Our students worked twelve-hour days in very hot and humid conditions. And, they took it all in stride. They served in five of Mother Teresa’s homes in Kolkata, worked with children and teens in a slum area of the city, and built lasting relationships with young girls who have experienced some of the worst abuse that evil people can conceive. I especially enjoyed the evening worship and debriefing time with our students. We used this time to worship and to reflect on the events of each day. I offer the following observations about our students and their service in India.

First, our students talked about Jesus and how wonderful He is. It seems that at home we tend to talk about everything but Jesus. We talk about our church and all of the great things that we offer to the people of our community. We invite people to studies and events and gatherings of various kinds. It’s actually easier for most folks to talk about these things instead of about Jesus. However, in Kolkata our students could not talk about any of those things. They could only talk about Jesus and how wonderful He is and how He loves and cares about people. It was all very much like the first-century when the church talked about Jesus and not about the church. My prayer is that as our students return to their normal lives at home their default setting will be to talk about Jesus first and make Him the focus of their conversations.

Second, our students connected with people. They devoted long-hours every day to serving people in need. They lost sight of themselves and their own interests and placed the interests of others above their own. They embraced the privilege of serving others and of helping those who are unable to care for themselves. They learned to pronounce and remember difficult-sounding names. In many cases, it was not possible to know the names of those they served at Mother Teresa’s homes. So, they referred to these residents as “my friend in bed number x” or “the lady who suffered severe burns” or in some way that connected them with these individuals. It was great to see the faces of the residents at Mother Teresa’s light up when they saw our students approach. At our evening debriefing time our students talked about the people who had touched their hearts that day.

Third, our students wept. Every evening, when our students shared reflections about their day, someone would weep. Our kids faced some tough situations this week – such as people in pain, people near death, girls who have faced unimaginable trauma, people living and sleeping on the filthy streets of Kolkata, poor children begging in the flow of dangerous traffic, and more. Kolkata offers visitors a troubling smorgasbord of painful sights. By the end of each day, the weight of these sights and the demands of serving the least of these took an emotional toll. The pensive looks or agreeing nods of students listening to the reflections of their friends indicated that they all were processing the same thoughts. I could not help but wonder about what, if anything, had caused our students to weep in this way prior to coming to Kolkata.

Fourth, many of our students talked with me about how they can better prepare to serve God and His purposes for a lifetime. Some wanted to know how God can use them to champion the cause of the oppressed or to care for the least of these. I was encouraged by the number of students interested in making a life rather than merely making a living. We make a life by what we give. We make a living by what we get. These students seem to understand or are beginning to understand the difference between the two. God can use this generation to change the world if they will continue to demonstrate the kind of compassion, courage, and audacity of heart that they have demonstrated in India over the past two weeks.

I am very grateful for the opportunity I had to spend this time with these young men and women. They have blessed and encouraged me beyond measure. I believe that God is going to use them in significant ways because of what they experienced and learned in Kolkata. Parents, you have every reason to be proud of these students.

Kolkata, India | 10 July 2010 

I have often heard Christ-followers say that they want to see God do miraculous things but then do everything they can to avoid the context in which miracles happen. When we step across the line that defines the farthest we’ve ever been and the most we’ve ever done for God and His purposes, we place ourselves squarely in the context where miracles happen. Our boys witnessed a miracle today. For the past several days, they have worked with children at the New Hope School located in the village of Udayan Pally. The living conditions in this impoverished village are bad. The people have no electricity or running water. Little children run around with little or no clothing. Latrines are located dangerously close to the few tube wells in the village. And, the oppressive heat and humidity take a daily toll on the health of the people. 

Several of our boys decided to go on a prayer-walk through the village. Simply defined, prayer-walking is praying on-site with insight. While walking slowly through the narrow dirt paths, our guys saw an elderly man seated on the ground in front of his tiny shanty-home. When the man explained to our translator that his right arm had been paralyzed for years, our translator asked for permission to pray for him. He agreed. Our boys surrounded the man, laid their hands on his frail body, and began to pray for him. As soon as they had finished praying the man lifted his right arm, began to shout with joy, and asked in whose name he had been healed of his paralysis. Working through our translator, our boys told him about Jesus. As a result, this man, his household, and several of his neighbors placed their faith in Christ for salvation. 

It’s easy to dismiss or to try to explain away things like his. But, the fact of the matter is that it happened. Kelly, one of our adult sponsors received an e-mail from our friend Connie who is leading daily prayer initiatives for our trip. This is what Connie wrote in her e-mail: 

We have been praying Daniel 6:27 every day. “He delivers and he rescues, and he works signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, and he delivers them from the power of the lions” and for the students to have a spirit of prophecy that God promised to pour out over our sons and daughters! We prayed for God to use their giftings – like a concert where each gifted musician adds to the whole in oneness and together makes beautiful music for the Lord. Last night we prayed for the gift of healing to be given to them as well. We are witnesses of God’s mighty outpouring of His Spirit! 

Pastor Rudra, who is committed to reaching this village for Christ, said that he was not surprised by what happened. After all, he has been praying that God would show Himself as real to the people of Udayan Pally through practical expressions of kindness and in ways that defy imagination. The miracle that our guys witnessed was the fruit of lots of prayer for the humble people of the village and for our students who have embraced the privilege of serving God in India. 

Outside Kalighat

 Later that afternoon, our teams returned to their respective assignments at Mother Teresa’s homes and at the aftercare home we support for girls rescued from brothels. When my team arrived at Kalighat, we learned that the men in beds 11 and 12 had died in the night. Although saddened by the news, I was especially thankful that our boys were among the last people to tenderly touch and care for these men. Mother Teresa said that she wanted for “people who lived like animals to die like angels – loved and wanted.” God used our boys, and other volunteers, to clothe these men with dignity. Although they had indeed lived like animals on the filthy streets of Kolkata, enslaved there by an unforgiving caste system, they died like angels, just as Mother Teresa wanted. I am proud of our students for allowing God to use them to bring healing and dignity to the least of these.

Kolkata, India

One thing that I admire most about the Missionaries of Charity is their devotion to prayer. Mother Teresa continually stressed the importance of prayer. “My secret is a simple one,” she said. “I pray. To pray to Christ is to love Him.” This morning we joined the nuns who live at Mother House, the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity, for their prayer and worship time at 6:00 AM. Their beautiful symphony of prayer filled the room and spilled out through the windows onto the streets where it mixed with the cacophony of Kolkata’s early morning traffic. The Missionaries of Charity nuns understand that they are helpless to do anything apart from prayer and dependence on Christ. Unlike volunteers who come and go, these nuns face the overwhelming and never-ending needs of the poor day after day. They understand that divine work can only be accomplished in dependence upon divine strength.

Volunteers are also encouraged to start the day with prayer. Every morning volunteers meet for a simple breakfast of bread, bananas, and chai tea. And then, before leaving Mother House for their respective assignments, volunteers recite the following prayer together:

 Dear Lord, the great healer, I kneel before you, since every good and perfect gift must come from you. I pray, give skill to my hands, clear vision to my mind, kindness and meekness to my heart. Give me singleness of purpose, strength to lift up a part of the burden of my suffering fellow men and a true realization of the privilege that is mine. Take from my heart all guile and worldliness, that with the simple faith of a child I may rely on you. Amen.

My favorite part of this prayer is the request that God give me “a true realization of the privilege that is mine.” This month I am observing thirty-two years in full-time ministry. I can say without hesitation that the greatest disappointment over those years is the number of times I met people who refused to serve God. They looked at service as an inconvenience rather than a privilege. Can there be any greater arrogance than to say no to opportunities to serve God and to advance His purposes in the world? One antidote to that kind of arrogance is to remember that God uses us because He is good, not because we are good. What an amazing privilege it is to have the King of the universe entrust us with any opportunity to serve Him.

Today our students served at five of Mother Teresa’s homes. My group of guys served at Kalighat, a hospice-type home for the dying. These boys washed urine soaked clothing, dispensed meds, helped feed the bed-ridden residents, and then washed dishes. I was especially moved when every one of the boys embraced the privilege of rubbing lotion on the feet of men who have never owned shoes. Not a single one of our boys winced or turned away. Instead, they tenderly massaged the gnarled and tired feet of men from the lowest strata of India’s caste system — a system that believes people are not created equal. All of our students engaged in similar types of service in the homes where they served. Each of our adult sponsors reported that all of our students embraced the privilege of serving the poor.

This afternoon, our girls served at the aftercare home we support in West Bengal. They came face-to-face with young girls whose innocence was stolen from them by evil oppressors. But today, God used our girls to love and to bring smiles to the faces of young girls who have little reason to smile. Amy, my assistant, met some of the girls at the aftercare home when she was here with our team in January. When Amy returned to the aftercare home this afternoon, one of the girls recognized her, ran and embraced her, and wept with joy. That’s a beautiful thing and speaks to the importance of loving people without condition. The young lady remembered and embraced Amy because Amy had embraced the privilege of loving her earlier this year. When I met with our students for our evening debriefing and worship time, our girls were beaming with excitement about their experiences at the aftercare home. They can hardly wait to return to the home tomorrow.

So, today was another good day. All of our students embraced the privilege of serving the least of these at Mother Teresa’s homes and all that doing so entails. Our boys worked with children in one of Kolkata’s poorest areas. Our girls started to build friendships with young victims of sex trafficking. And, all the while, God was at work — quietly teaching our students to embrace the privilege of serving Him.

Kolkata, India

Travel can be tough, but it’s necessary in order to reach people in need. Whether that means walking across the room or flying across the planet, connecting with others ultimately requires that we take a first and then more steps in their direction. History illustrates what can happen when we fail to do that. When Marco Polo’s father and uncle met with Kublai Khan, this great Mongol leader asked them to bring one-hundred missionaries on their return trip so that his people could learn about God. Marco joined his father on the return journey, but the Pope sent only two priests instead of one-hundred. Within a short-time, these two missionaries turned back because the journey became too difficult for them. These two men decided to use their remaining strength to return home instead of continuing toward those in need. This sad episode stands as the greatest missed missiological opportunity in the history of Christianity.

Charlie sharing at airport.

I will be the first to admit that travel can take its toll on you. I have spent countless hours traveling to far-away places by planes, trains, automobiles, boats, horses, and camels. But, every time I reach my destination and look into the faces of those I meet, it makes every mile worth it all. Our Kingsland students can say the same. We left Houston on Monday and arrived in Kolkata on Wednesday with nothing more than cat-naps along the way. We arrived sweaty, tired, and a bit ripe. But the moment we collected our luggage and exited the airport, everything changed. The sights, sounds, and smells of India were like a shot of adrenaline. We loaded almost one-hundred bags into our waiting transportation and then dived into the fast-moving current of Kolkata’s traffic. When we arrived at our guesthouse, our boys off-loaded the luggage and carried it in through a gauntlet of beggars and curious onlookers.

After lunch, we walked from our guesthouse to Shishu Bhavan, the home Mother Teresa founded to care for destitute children. The Missionaries of Charity hold their orientation sessions for volunteers in the courtyard of this old facility. Our fifty volunteers were among at least fifty others who have come here to serve from various countries. I am inspired by the numbers of people, young and old, who have come here to serve over the past thirteen-years since Mother Teresa died. Because there is no pre-registration for volunteers, those who come here never know where they will be asked to serve. That’s why they must come with a heart willing to serve wherever asked. The decision for where volunteers serve is made based upon the current number of volunteers in each home and how many are still needed.

Our students have been assigned to serve at Kalighat (Home for the Dying), Prem Dan (Home for the Destitute), Daya Dan (Home for Disabled Orphans), Shanti Dan (Home for Mentally Challenged Adults and Children), and Shishu Bhavan (Home for Destitute Children). Over the coming days our students will come face-to-face with the people who live in these homes – all precious individuals made in the image of God and deserving of love and care. Mother Teresa said, “There are thousands – millions – of people who die for lack of bread. There are thousands – millions – of human beings who grow weak for lack of a little love because they would like to be recognized, even if just a little.” We will do our part over the next two weeks to show God’s love through our attention, touches, embraces, and care for those in need. Our students will undoubtedly face new challenges as they interact with the residents of these homes. But, I am confident that they will not turn away or run away, but instead take however many steps are necessary to care for Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poor.

Dubai en route to Kolkata | 05 July 2010

Kingsland Kolkata Team

Over the next two weeks more than three-hundred and fifty Kingsland students and adults will serve from Houston’s inner-city wards to the slums of Kolkata. And, one adult team will venture to the bush in southwestern Tanzania to continue our work among peoples in remote villages. I am privileged to lead our team of high school graduates from suburban Katy to bustling Kolkata. In the mornings, our team will serve the destitute and dying at Mother Teresa’s homes. In the afternoons our girls will serve at the aftercare home that we support for young girls rescued from brothels. Our boys will serve at a small school for boys located in the heart of Kolkata’s slums.

I first visited Mother Teresa’s homes in January of last year. This is my fourth trip to serve at the homes she founded but my first to do so with a team of students. Over the next two weeks our students will be exposed to the harsh realities of what life is like for the least of these and for victims of injustice. And, that’s not a bad thing. It’s too easy for us to enjoy the comforts of suburban life without ever considering the difficulties that the poor and vulnerable who live in places like Kolkata face every day. Survival for these individuals is a never-ending struggle. My hope is that the exposure to these realities will help our students to become more aware of and responsive to the needs of the suffering and oppressed everywhere. My prayer is that as our students become adults, they will continue to address God’s concern for the least and the lost.

While waiting to board our flight from Houston to Dubai, one student approached me and said, “Please pray for me because I’m scared.” She paused and then looked directly into my eyes and confessed, “I’m scared because of what I may have to face in Kolkata.” I affirmed this student for having the courage to leave everything familiar in order to love and serve others in an unfamiliar place like Kolkata. She continued, “I keep reminding myself of what you told us in our meetings — how Mother Teresa would look for Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poor.” And then she said, “I think I can do that. I think I can look for Jesus in the faces of the poor and then serve Him by doing for them what Jesus would do.” I think she can do it, too. In fact I know that she and each of the students on our team can do it.

Over the next couple of weeks these students will be stretched in ways they never thought possible by doing hard things. They will love and serve the poorest of the poor and those who have suffered unspeakable abuse at the hands of the strong. They will affirm the worth of those they meet by loving and serving them as Jesus would. They will wrestle with the disparity between the privileges they enjoy and the poverty that defines those they have come to serve. Many of them will weep at night as they reflect on what they experienced during the day. They will learn that, with God’s help, they can do more than they ever thought possible. I not only think that our students can do hard things, I know that they will do hard things and, as a result, make a difference and return home different.

I often tell others that, in each of our lives, there is a line that marks the farthest we’ve ever been and the most we’ve ever done for God and His purposes. Everything on our side of that line is familiar, comfortable, manageable, and predictable. We’re seldom scared on our side of that line. It’s only when we dare to go beyond — to take even a single step beyond that line — that we become a little frightened and wonder what we’ve gotten ourselves into. The other side of the line is where we wrestle with “I’m scared but I think I can do that” kind of thoughts. And, that’s a very good thing. So, I challenge you to follow the example of our students. Step across the line. Go a little farther. Wrestle with what you think you can do and discover the great things that God will actually do in and through your life when you are willing to go beyond.