His Hands and Feet

His Hands and Feet

By Stephanie H.

 ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:40 (NIV)

A mission trip to India!  Where do I begin?

In the beginning:  The company my husband works for hires contractors from India and one of the contractors and my husband became great friends.  He was such a sweet guy.  He became like family.  Our kids called him Uncle John.  He ate with us, we took him to his first professional hockey and baseball game, we took him to church…  While he was taking in our culture I began to become very interested in his culture.  I found myself wanting to go to India.  Not too long after, we had a couple come to our Sunday School class that had just moved back from India!  That Christmas our women’s ministry had a luncheon and the speaker was from a ministry called Rahab’s Rope and they go to….. you guessed it… India!  During this luncheon God moved in my heart.  After the speaker finished speaking I looked around the table and I was the only one in tears.  I was completely broken for these ladies in India and wanted to go.  I would love to say I signed up right then and went, but it took a few years to get there.  I know God’s timing is perfect and I can’t imagine a better time.  God worked out every detail, every stumbling block, EVERYTHING!  I had no anxieties about going.  I couldn’t get there fast enough.

After a full 24 hours of travel, I had finally arrived in India.

While I was there God showed me over and over again that we just need to be an obedient, willing body and He will use us and He will be glorified!  There were times that I wondered how we would be received by the ladies and children we met that spoke a different language, but it never mattered.  They loved us and we fell in love with them.  Hugs, smiles, laughter, joy, love, photography, food are all universal languages.  It does not take a public speaker to reach hearts and share God’s love.  It takes us being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.  My prayer for the trip from the time I knew I was going was that we would be the Hands and feet of Jesus.

If we are to truly become Jesus' hands and feet, we must share His love for "the least of these."  He touched lepers – we touched women and children with HIV/Aids, He welcomed women and children – we did also, He dined with criminals – we shared cookies and tea with women that have been sold into a life of crime, He championed the poor – we gave gifts and encouraged the poor, He defended the powerless – He gave the woman and children power through us.  Jesus spent His time on earth with the hated and the outcasts and claimed that He had come to "preach good news to the poor."  We spent our time in India with society’s hated and outcast, but they are so loved by Him!!!

India is a physically, emotionally, and spiritually hard place, but when God stretches us, He is with us.  I live such a clean comfortable life in America and I am often thinking of ways to make it cleaner and more comfortable instead of thinking of ways to get out of my comfort and let God stretch me.  We might not see immediate fruits from our labor, but if God can take this slightly OCD, germaphobe to India then I know He will take what we planted and grow something beautiful.

Challenge:  How can we be stretched?  How can God use us in our neighborhoods?  How can we be the hands and feet of Jesus to the people around us?

 

Everytime I hear this song I picture the precious children we met in India.  I picture Jesus placing crowns on their heads.