Jai Masih! Praise the Lord!

My name is Sherine and I am a rising senior at UCLA. This past July, I returned to North India, where I served with STSM last year. I wanted to go again because I knew that this was a precious way to serve God. Although it was not the only way and path to serve Him, I felt peace in my heart when I imagined the beauty of the ministries we visited, and how we saw God working in each place. During the busy and heavy-laden spring quarter, God provided people to support and encourage me, and He grew my joy to prepare and serve.

The first blessing I received was the fruitfulness of prayer. The defining characteristic of North India STSM is 5 AM early morning prayer. As our missionary says, it is the lifebuoy of the ministry. A psalm closely describes this attitude of prayer, “But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness” (Psalm 69:13). Each new day, we thanked God and prayed over our neighbors, students, teachers, schedules, activities, and blessings, as well as the prayer warriors who were praying for our ministries. It was not only a reminder that prayer is lifted to a real, moving, powerful God, but there were also many fruits from prayer that I saw this year. The prayer requests that we heard last year, such as expanding the school to grade 8, finishing the new church auditorium, and soon fixing the unstable bridge that leads to the school, were all prayer requests that have been or will be visibly answered by the Lord. I believe God gave these beautiful things in His time, because of earnest prayers lifted up by the missionaries and staff for the purpose of serving Him. God does not owe us the visible evidence of fruit and growth in the ways we want to see it. But throughout my trip, I have been blessed to see that many sincere prayers that are lifted up are powerfully answered. God hears our prayers!

Another thing that struck me during this trip was that it is truly difficult for children to be followers of Christ in India. The youth team at our home base church, called “disciples,” consists of middle- and high-schoolers, with a handful of college students. Particularly in West Bengal, where the area predominantly has devout followers of Hinduism, it is difficult for children to seek Jesus while living under their parents. Baptism is forbidden even though they wish to receive it. Some are stopped from attending church by their parents. Children are expected to do idol worship at home. Yet God provides ways for them to follow Him still. The youth team continue to serve passionately on every instrument in the worship team on Sundays, go on weekly outreach visits to their neighbors, and travel every Saturday to do children’s ministry in different villages. You cannot be a lukewarm Christian in a place that requires much sacrifice to follow Jesus. I was so encouraged seeing their arms stretched out to lead the congregation in worship, wholeheartedly singing “Tera anugraha kaafi hai!” Your grace is enough! During one of our early morning sessions, our missionary asked the youth team to share one thing they were thankful for. One girl shared that her blessing was being different from other children her age because she knows God and chooses not to sin. In a place like India where there are more obstacles and sacrifices to choose faith, it is so precious that she and others can recognize the grace and gift of knowing God, and how sufficient it is. His grace is enough!

The last blessing I want to share is the prayer request of one of the pastors we visited. Although he had different burdens personally and for his church, his prayer request was over his neighbors. God had placed it in his heart to share the gospel with a family, but as they were very strong in a different religion, the pastor was afraid they would slap him and turn him away. But he shared that the burden he had was imagining that at the end of their lives, his neighbors would say that there was someone in close proximity to them who could have shared the good news, but never chose to. So he asked us to pray for him to have the courage. In this, I saw how mightily God was working, by giving this pastor a heart of obedience that would not have come solely out of his character, but how he knew what was right in God’s eyes. Through this, I learned of faithfulness in prayerfully seeking strength from God to do His work. How beautiful are the hearts of those whose lives are surrendered to Him! 

I want to continue seeking God at home, knowing He has the same sufficient love and grace for our neighbors here. Trusting in our God who hears and answers, I will continue to pray for the ministries we visited, as well as for the country of India, that God will strengthen His people who are showing the love of Jesus to those around them, and allow many more to come to know how great our Father is!