Homesick for India #EverydayMay

The best part of my day today was serving an Indian customer that came through the doors. He was wanting to order Chai (a staple beverage in India), but anyone that has traveled to India and tasted Indian chai, it is NOTHING like Starbucks chai. Same name, different tastes. So I really enjoyed loving on a customer today that most people would probably never give him the time of day because his accent was hard to understand or they thought he was crazy. But I loved it.

I have been thinking about India a lot in the past few weeks. Mostly because I have come to the unfortunate reality that I will not be traveling internationally this summer. This is the first time since I graduated college in 2005 that I am US bound in the summer. So for the past 5 years, I have spent 3 of them in India.

Today I was wildly homesick for India. So much so that I found myself tearing up at the thought of her. I actually wanted to sweat in my Salwar Kameez while feeling the polluted dirty air on my face as I drove through the bustling city of Delhi. I wanted to visit Deepa's one bedroom house in the slums and drink chai, talk about Bollywood movies, and catch up on life. I wanted to hear her tell me what God was doing in her life, her family, and her village. I wanted visit my best friend Mona and eat her delicious food that she made for me because she rocks at hospitality. I wanted to see how big her daughter Erica has gotten. I wanted to feel the sense of adventure that comes with getting in a rickshaw and riding across town, and wondering if my rickshaw driver really understood my Hindi. I wanted to bargain for a cute new pair of earrings, and get lost in the thousands of people in an Indian market. I wanted to deck my hands in henna and dance on a rooftop. I wanted to get lost in the colors, the hospitality, the people, the chaos, and places that have made India a second home. I wanted so badly be on Indian soil today and just exist. I love that life just slows down there and that life is what it is. I longed for the simplicity.

But most importantly I wanted to feel the weight of lostness. I wanted to experience the reality of lostness and see the faces of people who will go to hell unless someone tells them of Christ. Because the truth is I forget. I forget about my persecuted brothers, the faithful laborers, and the hopelessness. In my comfortableness in the US, I forget the over 1 billion people in South Asia that do not know Christ. I forget to pray and I forget the urgency of lostness.

So today, I long for a place that I cannot physically go. But I pray that God would burden me with that country again in my absence this summer. I pray that God would never let me forget my love for that place and the overwhelming need for the gospel...

Other Fun Posts with pics of India:

http://aliciadivers.blogspot.com/2007/03/happy-happy-holithe-colors-are-here.html

http://aliciadivers.blogspot.com/2007/05/modes-of-transportation-traffic.html

http://aliciadivers.blogspot.com/2007/03/day-in-my-city.html