I was asked to write up a blip for the Jubilee Life Magazine about my trip to India. Here is the text I sent them:
Last year my daughter and I started saving coins in a little cardboard "house" to send to Hyderabad, India. It was to help fund the building project of a girls' orphanage there. I dreamed of being able to travel to the very location we were helping to finance with our change. A year later that dream is realized and a new one takes its place.
The smell of smoke from small fires greeted us as we set foot on Indian soil. I swatted at a few mosquitoes. They seemed kinda puny.
The days surged by like Indians on motorbikes! They were full from rise to rest. We had the privilege of meeting Lee's incredible staff and spending time on the purchased land and in the girls' home. We also had opportunity to shower the children there and outside the city with the love of the Father.
One morning we headed to a "village" nestled against mountains of burning garbage. This familiar song began to rise, Who am I that You are mindful of me? ... Is it true that You are thinking of me? How You love me... It was amazing, to see the love of God poured out not only onto the beautiful unsuspecting natives but also onto us.
One particular afternoon truly changed my life. Forever. I found myself sitting on the ground in a company of women who are lepers. Showers of kisses and blessings poured fourth from my lips onto their hands (that held no fingers) and their faces (incomplete). I held them and kissed them. And they held and kissed me right back. We shared smiles and laughter. They were missing their daughters. And there I sat like I was one of their daughters. May I never forget that soft, wrinkled, brown skin or the tears that trickled then streamed forth from their eyes. Romans 5:5 "Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hears by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."
I gues we'll see if they use it! ~ Mrs. Mitchell
