THURSDAY, April 21

The group met this morning for the hotel’s buffet breakfast on our last full workday.  I was up early this morning pondering the things we had experienced on Wednesday and wondering where JMI might plug in as a partner with Bombay Teen Challenge.  Dr. Gunter voiced a suggestion that actually matched mine, and Kiara and Bailley expressed excitement about it.  I won’t comment on it publically at this until I’ve had time to consult BTC founder K. K. Devaraj and others.

Today we spent about 4 hours entertaining the kids at the Shelter again.  I was able to share the Good Samaritan story with them.  After the story and my comments on how the religious leaders passed by the beaten man on the road, I asked the children what they had learned.  Several hands went up from some of the younger girls.  One girl in particular had a precocious comment:  “Don’t pretend to not see what you see.”  Loved that, and it was as profound as anything I came up with!

While we were enjoying the kids, Craig helped out with the afternoon soup distribution.  Normally they have a serving bus that takes the soup to a destination where the homeless, impoverished and drug addicts gather to get something to eat.  However, the bus is in need of repairs, so the soup must be carried a distance of about 7 kilometers.

In his own words, “We walked to the site while the stew was prepared.  En route we encountered numerous homeless people and engaged several whom Raul (a staff member who, himself, came from the street) knew.  The first was a young man whose drug injection was interrupted by Raul’s invitation to the meal distribution.  The next friend was a Muslim with severe TB.  We encouraged him and prayed with and for him.  Finally, Raul directed us to Ishmael who sat near the entrance of Victoria Station.  Ishmael had a congenital neurological deficit which left him unable to walk and had arrived in Mumbai at the urging of his parents for medical care.  Unfortunately, several years later, Ishmael has never left the train station for treatment nor has he had any further contact with his parents.

As we visited with him, Raul opened a package of cookies for him to eat.  Watching the struggle he had just to get a cookie to his mouth was staggering.  As we remained there on the street with him, a passerby loudly asked Raul why we would bother helping someone in Ishmael’s condition.  Raul replied with a question, “Are you going to help him then?” and followed with, “because you will not, that is why we will.”  Ishmael was also curious why we would help him and we explained that God’s love was too great to contain in ourselves and spilled over from our hearts to his. With this he was satisfied and we prayed for him and moved to the jeep to distribute the food.   Many arrived and were fed.  As I handed out the stew and bread I could hear the Lord’s desire to feed the hungry and was thrilled to know that by feeding the least of these we had in fact fed the Master Himself.  A humbling adventure of servant love!”

Over tea time today we were told the staggering statistics that there are 3,000 brothels in Mumbai’s red light district with an average of 20-25 women living in each.  Our host estimated that each prostitute saw, on average, about 10-15 “customers” per night.  Those with HIV never reveal it to the men.  Clearly, greater things are still to be done in this city.

This evening we treated ourselves to a nice Italian restaurant with an amazing young man who sang mellow songs with an equally mellow voice.  It was a nice moment to relax and soak in the work accomplished, both by us and in us.

P.S.  This morning I posted a Facebook comment that went something like this:  Last full day in Mumbai, India ministering to orphans, to women from the red light district and to their children.  Never appreciated it more that Jesus was known as a friend to prostitutes and that his love for orphans was so insistent.  If you don’t intimately know an orphan…if you’ve never held the hand of a prostitute and blessed her…can you really know the heart of the Man?

Does that seem like an overstatement, or worse, self-aggrandizement?  I assure you it’s not.  I feel remorse that I have spent so many years avoiding getting personally involved in the issue of prostitution because it has been so taboo.  I hope I can make up for the time and the wisdom and all the blessings I have lost.  And I hope that those younger than me will more boldly, joyfully and intentionally discover their Lord’s heart by moving in different circles of need, until discomfort becomes comfort, exclusion becomes inclusion and disdain is overcome by love.

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WEDNESDAY, April 20

If you’re one of those persons who was intrigued by the India trip at all, today was the day that would have made it all worthwhile!

After breakfast we drove into downtown Mumbai, across a long bridge that spanned a portion of the Indian Ocean.  On the way our driver stopped, allowing us to get out of the car and witness a huge area where clothes and linens were being “laundered” by men.  The zone was at least as large as a football field and multi-tiered, with channels of water running through it that clothes were being washed and wrung out by hand.  Of course, as we stood watching, local vendors were doing their persuasive best to interest us in the jewelry, purses and maps they had to sell.

Back in our car, we drove to Bombay Teen Challenge’s Children’s Shelter to meet and play with about 45 of around 70 kids that live and go to school there.  As with Ashagram and the Jubilee homes, these children were amazingly beautiful, attentive and respectful.  All of them were school age kids.  Most of them were children of prostitutes or runaways from abusive families.  Some had been addicted to sniffing glue or other inexpensive drugs at one time and a few of the older boys testified to their journeys in that regard.

With the prospect of each new visit, I find myself almost not wanting to meet another group of children.  When we were at Ashagram, I felt there were enough young (and old) people there that would have been easily worthy of a week’s investment to get to know.  Then we went to the Jubilee homes and interacted more with teenagers, which I really enjoy and would have been completely content to spend all my time with.  The idea of connecting with even more lovable kids threatened to overload my compassion threshold, but once done, was another experience to treasure.  (For you Moldova people, you’ll be interested to know that I introduced “Double-Double” to the kids at the Shelter….expect there will be a whole new crop of “contenders” to my throne there by next year)!  ☺

Following the Shelter, we had the truly profound opportunity to visit the red light district of Mumbai.  The “district” is a single street that might be envisioned as a city slum.  On one side of the street stands a nondescript building undergoing renovation and with no street-facing portals that I could see.  On the other side are two and three story brothels, intermixed with a few very small business fronts.

BTC has a small clinic right in the center of the street, from which our doctor, Craig Gunter, was able to see about 14 regular patients.  Most of the ladies were prostitutes from the district who come to the clinic twice a week to be monitored and treated.  They are all HIV positive and many were originally brought to the clinic emaciated and deathly ill before treatment began.  They are now doing well enough that their regular doctor is encouraging controls to their diet.

While Craig saw patients, Kiara, Bailley and I had the rare privilege of talking to the ladies who sat on the floor patiently waiting their turns.  They ranged in age from about 60 to 26, the 60 year old, Bhimabei, drawing some good-natured rebuke from the others for being overly chatty and petulant over not being able to be seen sooner than some of the others who arrived there before her.  Bhimabei, no longer “able to earn,” lives on the streets; one of what the Bombay newspaper refers to as “pavement sleepers.”

Without knowing we would have this opportunity ahead of time, there was an uneasy moment early on in which we were all wondering what and how to relate to these women from a radically different culture and life experience.  My own pondering on the situation led me to the conclusion that Jesus would be very at ease with them and make that slice of time as fun and meaningful as possible.

With that in mind, we introduced ourselves and went around the room asking them about their prayers and dreams for themselves.  Rekha, a 30 year old, dreamed of owning a little home of her own someday where she could raise her son who, we were to discover, was living in one of the Jubilee facilities.  Mamta, a 38 year old, dreams of being healed and reunited with her husband and son.  Bropabhi, a 40 year old, asked us to pray that God would take care of her four daughters, Banita, Suchita, Suhata and Manisha, and bless them with a good future.  27 year old Suman Luis was infected by her husband who she did not know was a carrier and is now deceased…she wants to live for Christ and has been baptized.  And there are others I’ll mention later when we have time to post their pictures.

The one young lady that I will remember longest…the one whose face and situation has rolled around in my mind the most, is Asha.  Asha was the youngest lady in the group (26 years old) and the one with the brightest smile.  I didn’t expect to see smiles from these women and you would not have guessed that Asha, or any of these ladies for that matter, were prostitutes by their demeanor.  But Asha’s smile flashed wide and often in a kind of innocent manner that belied her profession.

I commented to Asha that I saw such hope in her face and would pray that her life would find a quick way out of this place.  One of the BTC staff commented that she felt that was a word from God because they had been trying to convince her to leave the district and go to Ashagram.  But some man has convinced her that he will one day marry her (even though he is already married himself), and she clings to that deceptive notion of love.

I was able to share with the women how much Jesus loved them and noted to them that Jesus himself was identified as a friend to prostitutes (something I was never more proud of Him for than today)!  Through our interpreter, I retold the story of the prostitute who came into the home of the Pharisee who was hosting Jesus one day and did for Him what the host failed to do…wash His feet, which she did with grateful tears, drying them with her hair.

After we met and spoke with all the women, we all reached our hands into the center of the room to join them in prayer.  I thanked God for them and prayed that He would redeem their lives, healing them and granting them freedom for a better life.

With time left to spare, Bailley and Kiara jumped in, teaching the ladies how to make friendship bracelets.  They absolutely loved this activity.

As we completed our time in the clinic and walked back into the street, I saw Asha come out behind me and make an immediate right turn to climb the steps back up into the brothel where she lives.  That was a jarring moment of reality for me.  While we were engaged in friendly discussion within the walls of the clinic, thoughts of their prostitution seemed more conceptual than real.  Seeing her walk back to her life of slavery was a kick in the gut.  Tonight, this wide-eyed, seemingly naively innocent girl would be ravaged by a string of uncaring men.

“Asha”, as it turns out, means “hope” in Hindi.  “Asha” has already become the meaning of “hope” for me.

I’d ask you to pray for these poor in spirit with me.  I would also ask you to pray for yourselves.  There is a harvest here and God is calling you to the work.  If not here, then perhaps South Africa.  If not South Africa, then perhaps Moldova.  If not Moldova, then perhaps Haiti or the Amazon.

P.S.  We often praise the Father as being the God of second chances.  I feel strongly that He is all of that and more for those who are stumbling and have lost their way.  But He is also the God who, in parable, offered no second chance for the guests who declined His invitation to attend His party and, instead, extended the invitation to others!

God’s work is something that is not to be missed!  I look forward to serving Him with you!

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TUESDAY, APRIL 19

This morning before breakfast, Craig and I attended a morning devotional group that lured us with the sound of a deep drumbeat. One of the girls – Anu – was beating the Congo-like drums and the girls joined her in a chanting, meditational style song of praise. Following the music I was asked to bring the morning devotion. I spoke to the girls about my perception of how God revealed Himself to us through both good and bad circumstances, illustrating it with a story of a trafficked Romanian girl I met.  In an effort to find absolution from her past, she sought forgiveness from an orthodox priest who told her she could never be forgiven. Using this story, I encouraged the girls to understand the difference between victimization and sin and believe that no trespass was beyond the redemptive love of God. I pray it meant something to someone who needed to hear it.

Dr. Craig Gunter spent the day seeing patients in all of BTC’s programs in the area while the rest of us took a tour of the boy’s program facilities. Within their part of the total 75 acres, the boys have a unit for drug and alcohol addiction, a detox unit and general population dormitories. The gentleman who supervises their area was, himself, a child addict who was turned around by the program long ago.

This week was designated as a spiritual emphasis week and I was asked to speak again at their 5:30 service. At the conclusion of my discourse on the Prodigal Son, 6 boys hung around before dinner was served to tell me their personal stories. All of them were tales of tragedies with endings that were evolving into happier times…stories of parents dying, beatings, days without shelter or food, etc. It was easy to imagine Slum Dog Millionaire type beginnings for these kids who, through God’s grace alone, happened to find their way into the care and security of the BTC people who dragnet the cities in search of the least, the last and the lost. I’m not sure what it was that they were responding to this night, but my sense was that they had received some assurance that their stories were sacred and that we were safe to share them with.

To me, there are no greater honors in life than to be a receptacle…a witness, for a person’s life story. I pray that God will continue to shape their young lives into testaments of His grace and saving power.

After another wonderful dinner served by the humble and ever-attentive Beta, we loaded up and returned to the snarled streets of Mumbai, sad to leave the kids but grateful for rooms with air-conditioning!

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MONDAY, APRIL 18

After a warm night of rest, morning comes early for the residents of Ashagram. They get up at 6 a.m. every morning to get dressed and clean their rooms, awakened by the sound of long ringing blasts. The boys have morning devotionals at 6:30…the girls at 7.  We opted to join the girls!

The girls take turns leading their devotionals. Today, Nasleen, a tall, thin young lady of about 17, led from Romans 9, speaking in Hindi. Although we couldn’t understand her words, the fervency of her speech was unmistakeable and I worshipped the God who can inspire such devotion.

After breakfast we were taken on a tour of the vocational building and campus store where visitors can buy purses, bracelets and clothes made by the residents.  Following that, we headed for the Jubilee houses about 15 minutes back up the road we had traveled down to Ashagram. These kids are younger than their Ashagram counterparts and have generally had less devastating lives, though about 17 are HIV positive.  These kids, to our understanding, had not been prostituted, though some of their mothers were. We were told that Bombay Teen Challenge wanted to keep these children separated from the Ashagram population.

We were surprised, but pleased, to hear that Hard Rock Cafe supports BTC financially. Several of the children were wearing the familiar promotional shirts.

After introductions, we led them in crafts and games.  Craig and I led an interesting question and answer time with the girls who were 14 and up while Bailley and Kiara did a craft with the younger ones. There was lots of enthusiasm for both and, with one break for lunch, we spent about 6 hours exhausting our selection of games and concluded our time with them by playing a revised version of Crickett (similar to a “work up” game of baseball).

During the Q and A, I asked the girls what they liked most about their country. The most popular response seemed to be the cultural diversity. One of their more thoughtful questions to us was would we know each other in heaven.

During the lunch break we had the opportunity to really hear the hearts of some of the kids. One girl of 16 told me about her aspirations to start a program for street children in China. She felt this was what God was telling her to do but seemed to wonder if she should be hearing God’s audible voice to confirm that. She mentioned that she had worries about stories she had heard of missionaries being killed and asked me to pray for her. Another girl of about 20 spoke of her desire to work as a fashion designer and also asked to be remembered in prayer and wondered at how someone received confirmation of that kind of calling.

The time with the Jubilee kids was an awesome experience for our team. Kiara told us that one of the girls had asked her if she could adopt her. The kids also encouraged us to come back and celebrate Christmas with them when the weather was cooler. That would appear to be a good idea. I asked how they celebrate Christmas. The response was that they put up a tree and are given money to shop for themselves from “Uncle” (Devaraj, the founder of the organization). There is no exchange of gifts.

We drove back to Ashagram for dinner and awarded a prize of Sprite and a bag of chips to two of the boys who has been winners in one of our previous day’s games. They were thrilled to receive them and held a little party at their table.

In the evening we have been hanging out outside to see what kinds of conversations we might become involved with. On this evening, the girls were out walking around individually in the courtyard praying or quietly singing. Once the whistle blew signaling the completion of that activity, some retreated to their rooms to study for exams, some began to practice an interpretive dance to a praise song and a few came by to chat with us.

One of the, to us, disappointing parts of BTC’s attempts to teach respect for their guests is the insistence that our team sit together at meals so we can be served. We had much rather spread out among them and use that time to deepen relationships that we could follow up on during the evening prayer time, but we defer to the expectations of our hosts. Conducting individual interviews with identifiable pictures as we do in Moldova, we’ve gathered, is an unlikely possibility.

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SUNDAY, APRIL 17

In the morning we enjoyed a great breakfast of typical Indian selections, but a chef was also there to fix wonderful omelets.

After our 7 a.m. breakfast we caught our ride to Ashagram, Bombay Teen Challenge’s home for boys and girls, most of whom have come off the streets, are social orphans, or who have been prostituted. The ages seem to run from about 10 to perhaps 50 or 60. The drive, on a Sunday morning, took about an hour and 45 minutes. The architecture along the way ranged from historic to the more prevalent old apartments, with slums stretching for miles. Our driver pointed out a location where Slum Dog Millionaire was filmed. As you drive the streets, it is common to see people sleeping on sidewalks and urinating or bathing themselves in public.

Ashagram is located in the country and has some impressive facilities. We weren’t able to get a wireless or 3G signal.

The boys and girls are scrupulously segregated when worshipping, eating and by the location of their dormitories. We were dropped at the girls’ complex and shown to our rooms on the second floor. Our rooms are about 20′ x 20′ with 5 or 6 beds and one shower and toilet in each, and there are 3 such rooms available for teams. The rooms have no air conditioning, but do have ceiling fans which, even at night, provide minimal comfort from the heat. One of the rooms comes with a refrigerator and both with resident geckos (fortunately they neither speak nor attempt to sell us insurance)!  The beds have boards with 2″ mattresses…. austere but not that uncomfortable, particularly to sleep-starved travelers. We had about an hour to freshen up before 11 p.m. worship.

Worship was led by an American named Michael who is 31 but looks 25. He came to Ashagram about 6 years ago supported by his church. His initial experience was not what he had hoped and he returned to the States shortly after some persistent illness. However, God had other plans for him and he was compelled to return, which he did, eventually marrying a client living in the facility.

Ashagram has a praise and worship band made up of some of the residents. Worship was held in the facility’s covered, open air pavilion where they also eat meals, about 200 yards from the dorm.

I was asked to preach and introduce our little team, which is an amazing one. Dr. Craig Gunter has been all over the world doing medical mission trips. Today he is a hospice doc in Tyler, Texas. Kiara Ebinger Filson is a Ph.D specializing in monitoring brain and spinal cord surgeries. Bailley Wooten is an MSW with Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Together, this has been an excellent team, both for the nature of an exploratory mission and the “take everything as it comes” attitude.

After lunch we prepared games and crafts that were designed to last from 3-4 p.m. but went on until about 6:00 p.m.  One of the older girls – Anu – helped us with translating the rules of Anatomy Can Be Fun and our crafts.

At mealtimes we aren’t being allowed to stand in line and serve ourselves as the others do. A young lady by the name of Beta brings us our food and meticulously waits on us. Her humility is touching and the food, though nothing like what we’re used to, is wonderful. (We were to find out that the fare for lunch and dinner is virtually the same day after day).

Later that evening after dinner, the team spent a few hours talking to a 26 year old girl named Babita. Babita has family but doesn’t maintain contact with them. Her heart’s desire is to go to the Bible College, work in a children’s ministry and help girls out of prostitution. She speaks with a “whisky voice” she acquired after a tonsillectomy 3 years ago and has a delightful sense of humor.

Babita was raised a Hindu in a first level Brahmin caste. She talked of dressing in costume for worship and holding incense. “I now have God as my savior and no longer need to be a god myself in the future,” she now says. When confronted with an arranged marriage she didn’t want, she ran away, ending up in the BTC program.

P.S.  One of the more delightful little things about the Indian mannerisms is the commonly observed, side-to-side “head wobble” you see as a part of most conversations. We’ve been told it represents many things, including “yes”, “no”, and “maybe”.  But it also seems to be a way to express attentiveness. It’s something, I confess, I used to find goofy, but now it’s become an endearing quality I would miss otherwise. An example, I suppose, of what occurs when anonymous differences among cultures give way to friendship and appreciation. Personally, the head wobble meaning was made for ambivalent personalities like mine and I’m working on mastering the technique!  Just love the diversity of God’s creation and seeing Him teach me to enjoy it rather than fear it!

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FRIDAY & SATURDAY APRIL 15 & 16, 2011

On April 15th, our India team flew Continental Airlines to Newark ( about a 2 hour flight) and met up with Dr. Craig Gunter and a 5 hour layover. We used the time to get acquainted before again taking Continental direct to Mumbai, an 8100 mile trip that takes 15 hours.

Landing, clearing Customs, claiming baggage and finding our transportation outside the terminal was all relatively easy. A buffer zone between maybe 30 drivers looking for their specific passengers and people exiting the terminal prevented the expected onslaught of cabbies we experienced in Haiti. It was already dark around 10:00 p.m. when we came out and at an announced 90 degrees. We spotted our driver who loaded our things in the parking garage and we were off into traffic that seemed to get more congested as we distanced ourselves from the airport. “Tuk Tuks (motorized rickshaws”) and black and white cabs both fill and line the roads by the thousands, along with other cars and motorcycles jockeying for position.

Mumbai (otherwise known as Bombay) is one of the most populated cities in Asia. Though it wasn’t very far to our hotel – Executive Enclave – it was midnight by the time we presented our passports to check in and opened the door to our rooms. Executive Enclave conjures up a more luxurious image of our accommodations than the reality, but our rooms were more than adequate. Air-conditioning felt great…only one electrical outlet per room.

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