Chilakallu Village, India

Monday June 30, 2008
House of Hope
By: Gloria Gault Geary

We left the hotel at 5:00 am to travel to the village. We were a convoy of three SUVs, the last one was carrying all the luggage. It was a 4 hour plus drive and we slept a good portion of the way. The Indian countryside was a mixture of beautiful sights and fascinating people. Watching individuals live their daily lives of walking their oxen to get water or move their lambs and goats to market provides great entertainment for new visitors.
We passed many shrines, temples and too many idols to count. Seeing the locals drive is a whole different story. In order to get a driver’s license in India, one simply buys it at the store. Traffic was heavy and there is a mixture of buses, large trucks, auto rickshaws, motorcycles, oxen, goats, bikes, and pedestrians, not to mention the occasional Mother Hen and her family.

In order to pass the slower traffic one must get in the lane of oncoming traffic. The traffic going in the other direction is also passing the slower traffic. There were many moments I spent in prayer for our safety as we would narrowly miss a head on collision going about 60-70 miles per hour. I noticed the locals were not the least bit fazed by it. This is normal travel for them. I felt like God had sent out an extra army of guardian angels for us this morning and they were going before us making the roads safe. My guess is the guardian angels who take care of India must do a lot of overtime on the road.

We stopped at one point and watched a local woman prepare a fresh coconut for us to drink. It was delicious. Suddenly our cars stopped and there seemed to be a parade in front of us. Isaac put the car in park and said, “It is a welcoming party!” We all jumped out and there filling the street were about 100 kids and adults. There were 5 men with drums beating them wildly and as we walked up each of us were greeted with a lay of fresh flowers. Harrison got two. They were shooting off fireworks and paper poppers everywhere. I was handed several small flowers from different girls and women and everyone was saying welcome to us. It was an overwhelming and humbling welcome. The boys were being welcomed too and everyone was trying to get close to shake hands or touch us and the girls who were a part of our team.

The welcoming party began walking down the street and locals were standing on the side watching and observing these missionaries who were visiting their village. We walked a couple of hundred feet and then entered the House of Hope compound. I looked up to notice large signs welcoming us by name. The fireworks and drums continued. We were all covered with colorful confetti. As we came near the main house, they brought our team up to the porch and the others stood on the lawn. Jaipaul spoke briefly in their native language and made some introductions. He then asked me to pray. I was so humbled by their warm welcome I wept as I prayed for God to bless these people and our time with them.

"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me." Mark 9:37

Please pray for us as we minister, that God would guide us and would touch those here.