By Korie Kelver

Day 4 here in India started out with breakfast and a devotional led by Vicki, she did a wonderful job reading passages from the Bible about serving God and what serving God is supposed to look like. Her focus was not serving Him out of obligation because we are “supposed” to, but instead to serve Him out of love, a way to show our love for Christ. We then prayed for our day, which included prayers for healing as a few of us have developed cold like symptoms and haven’t been feeling the greatest. 

We traveled by car in the infamous India traffic (packed streets of cars, motorcycles, people, honking, and bumper to bumper driving) to reach our destination which was the National Science Centre. We met the same children we got to know on Tuesday from the Pavarish Center here. With the funds raised by Vineyard Kids (yeah, VK!), we were able to take these children on this outing.  The children had a good time. There were plenty of smiles to go around and they had fun trying out all the different activities. This group of children are very appreciative of what they get to do, as well as, being very respectful to their adult mentors/teachers and the 4 of us often stating “yes ma’am, thank you sir.” It made my heart happy to see the kids just being kids, taking pictures of each other in front of backdrops they found interesting as well as taking selfies, which they wanted a lot of!

(Sound like kids you know!?) So many of these precious children of God (and some adults!) would come up and ask, “Can I take a picture” and then proceed holding up their phone to snap a pic. Despite the language barrier and culture differences, at the end of the day, we really are all the same – down to the last selfie!

After we finished at the museum, we went to the India Gate with the children. The four of us and Ranjit arrived first, and while we waited for the children to arrive, we were bombarded with people trying to sell us everything under the sun (including the opportunity to get our ears cleaned out!!). Once the children arrived, we found a grassy area to have just enough time to play one game before the sprinkling system turned on and ended that quickly! So, we sat down and had a picnic snack together (also provided by Vineyard Kids funds!). 

Once we were done eating, it became very evident that onlookers were paying a bit too much attention to us and the group. It became obvious to Ranjit that we needed to leave in effort to reduce the amount of attention that was being drawn towards our group. We took a quick picture in front of the India Gate and left. On the car ride back to the hotel we spoke with Ranjit about the persecution in India, the culture, and how even something very innocent such as hanging out in a park could quickly turn into an unsafe situation. Today’s event definitely put on my heart the need to pray more for people in India and all over the world who cannot freely practice Christianity without needing to constantly be observant and on the lookout. 

We closed out our night with the team having dinner with Pastor Abraham’s wife, Joyce. It was very special, as she personally wanted to spend more time with the four of us. She is a strong woman of God with amazing faith and gifts of encouragement. I am certain tomorrow will make an imprint on our hearts, like every day has so far here in India. 

Korie 

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