South Asia: God had a plan

I have reached the halfway point of my time in South Asia. Since the day we arrived in our city, God placed learning the language on the hearts of my teammate and me.

We followed his instructions and found ourselves learning the national language two times a week for two hours each day. We met our national partner and fell in love with the way she desires to help people with language. Her sweet spirit is absolutely contagious.

After about a month of language instruction, our supervisor sent us to another city for a different cultural learning experience. We were able to shadow two girls who are serving two-year missions assignments. We saw in action some training approaches we had learned about in orientation.

Sitting in a lecture and actually seeing the training in action were two different things. My teammate and I really wanted to see this training come to our city and had no idea how God would ordain this. Everything in South Asia takes much more time than you think it is going to. In America, we could have had this planned and set up in a week, but a month later, after many hours of prayer and working every detail out, we finally set up the training.

Multiple doors opened

Our Father opened a door for this training and opened multiple doors for ministry in the same village. We were on our way to the village to receive sarees for a wedding later that week. On our way to the sari shop, we noticed a school. Two schoolgirls started following us and accompanied us in browsing for sarees. We were on our way back and passing the same school, but this time, the headmaster invited us in to teach English.

By the end of our time in the tiny school, we were able to share the Good News with about 30 to 40 kids from the village. We sang songs of worship, taught a story of how much Jesus loves them, and got to love on them for a few hours. It was one of the most humbling and memorable moments since my time here. We were invited back to teach for the rest of our semester. Our national partner set this up and was given an opportunity to teach in two schools, one public and one private.

At this time, we have completed our first meeting with women in discipleship training and have had our first day of teaching in the schools. The women’s discipleship went great, and God provided three more girls to our study. Now we have 10 girls who have been praying for someone to come teach them more about God’s word.

They have called us angels, and we are beyond honored to be able to share, challenge and teach them about the Great Commission. This has become my new community of believers and where our Father has given me fellowship. I am forever grateful.

A different plan

Our first day at the school, we thought would be to bring the Good News to the kids and see a movement of God begin within the homes. Our Father had a much different plan. We learned that because of safety issues, we were unable to teach the gospel until we gained their trust, which could take weeks. Before we left, we met with the headmaster. He invited us into his home for lunch the following week, and then another teacher wanted us to come to their home. We have been asking God to provide a way into the homes of the nonbelievers since the day we got here.

God most definitely provided, and I am ashamed to say that when he first commanded us to invest in the language of the people, I had a bad attitude. Through weeks of class, I felt discouraged, because the language was not sticking. Now, I can look back and see the Lord was giving us a national partner to be able to reach this village. She was our connection to the village and to ultimately let Christ’s name be known in the homes of these teachers and students.

We finally showed up

This connection has also led us to encourage our sisters and to give them tools to further God’s work. So many times we say God showed up. Hasn’t he been here all along? Weren’t we the ones to show up? After months of wondering, we finally showed up. It was an honor to show up for our Father, and I am beyond overwhelmed with his sovereignty.

God opened this door to enter into this village. It seemed like three weeks ago, but we are now noticing this has been in his plan since the day we got here.

Lauren, a student at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, is serving as a semester missionary in South Asia with Go Now Missions. Her last name is withheld for security reasons.