Posted in
Missions by Seth Barnes on 1/8/2011
From India:
Grace came to me unexpectedly today.
We'd been accosted by beggars everywhere we went in Hyderabad. You
want to help the needy ones, but giving to beggars can be complicated.
Anyone who saw
Slumdog Millionaire understands how it can be a racket.
And so, you pray for discernment and you pray for grace.
But your spirit can feel bruised by it all. Today was a long day
and we were ready for a safe place on the eve of our departure from
India. And then, walking to our last meeting, I heard behind me, "Sir,
sir!"
I recoiled inside, guard up, seeing a small woman beckoning me and wondering how to fend her off.
"Sir, I have cancer. Mommy, daddy dead. I need to catch train. Help me."
"Right," I thought. There was no grace in me.
But I listened as she shared more details of her plight. And I
asked her to come to where we could talk inside our building. I promised
to help somehow. She agreed to walk with us.
Once inside, I got Raju to translate so she could speak in Hindi.
She was skin and bones. She showed us a big lump on her neck - an
enlarged thyroid. She showed us her deformed arm. She showed us her
medical records.
"I think she is telling you the truth," said Raju.
"What is your name?" I asked.
"It is Grace," she answered.
We gathered some of the nearby racers and Noe prayed a powerful
prayer. He declared, "Grace, God says you are beautiful! You are
beautiful." She was crying. You could feel God's presence. And a wave of
emotion hit me.
We sent her away with money for the train and for medicines and
with hugs. And if she found grace through us in that short interaction,
after a day of searching for it, we found that grace has a pronoun. I've thought and even blogged before about grace - but about grace as an
abstraction.
Tonight, she took on human form and kissed our spirits. She
walked away in the night, but her spirit lingered with us.
Seth is the executive
director of Adventures In Missions, an organization that sends people on short-term mission
trips around the world. He lives in Gainesville, GA with his
wife Karen. You can visit his blog "Radical Living in a Comfortable
World" at sethbarnes.com.
Just as we were about to get up from the table and grab a tuk tuk home, I heard a small voice ask, "Buy my book?"
I had the opportunity to represent 
Down muddy, potholed streets, behind a high wall is the Son of God
orphanage.
From the first day I got there to the minute I was getting in the car to
leave, parents were coming up to me and handing me their kids. Not just
to hold and to love - but to take, to have. I didn't say
anything. I didn't do anything. I was just there. Loving. Being Jesus to
them. In the midst of it all, children were being given to me to take
care of. Not only temporarily while I was in Haiti, but to bring home.
