How is it possible that you can live a lifetime in just 4 days… at least that is what it feels like as my body and mind reel from taking in each and every moment that God has blessed us to be a part of… So I will start from today as it is most fresh in my mind. As Dan and I stood in front of the television in our room waiting along with everyone else in India to see if riots were about to breakout after a supreme court decision on a case that had been going one between the Hindu’s and Muslims for 60 year and today was supposed to be a decision favoring one side or the other. As the day went on the military and police took to the streets to make their presence known to deture any violence that make occur. There were reports here in Mumbai that 7000 people were arrested and held in jail for conspiring to instill riots. Let me say that it was a very Anderson Cooper moment as I turned to Dan and commented that it seem like a scene from a movie. So much of what we have already experienced though holds elements of the perfectly crafted script for each scenario that you find yourself in. This is however, no movie, no well crafted script, but the reality of life here in Mumbai. It is truly a melting pot of cultures and classes. As I write this in the YMCA I listen to the call to Muslim prayer outside our window. Across the street is a Methodist office and down the street are crumbling homes and people who sleep each night on the sidewalk. This is not what we know of as homelessness. Here that is their home. They will not be moving somewhere else tomorrow. That piece of sidewalk or street is staked out and cared for as best they can. Right beside where our clinic was set up lived a family that would become extremely upset if you started to encroach upon their home. It would be like if someone just walked into your house when ever they wanted and didn’t even acknowledge that you live there.

I’m still trying to process all that has happened in the part 48 hours so I will attempt to express in words an experience that to describe it seems limiting to say the least. The initial horror of seeing the brothel district both drew us forward to desperately want to help and yet there was a part of me that wanted to close my eyes in the hopes that when I opened them back up it would somehow be different. This is a brief snapshot of Wednesday and Thursday. Anita our amazing pharmacist, had felt impressed by the Lord that morning that in our department that we were “to fish”. In that I mean we were to ask people if they wanted prayer and if they said yes we would pray for them. If not, simple we would not. Also as part of our team was our amazing interpreter Raul (His is a testimony in itself is another blog) and I have been working with Anita and Raul in the pharmacy portion of the tent – as she dispensed medicine and I helped package doses and label them Raul interpreted. What we thought would be simple would turn out to be one of the most incredible experiences of my life. The first person came in after seeing one of the doctors to receive the medicine prescribed. Anita filled the prescription and she asked them if we could pray for her and she said yes. The three of us just prayed for her as the Spirit led us. As we prayed there was such a peace as the presence of God filled the room. When we finished our prayer the three of us opened our eyes only to find the woman still with her eyes closed, not wanting to disturb her we all sat there for a few moments quietly waiting. We thought that was wonderful after she left the room, thinking the next person would either say no they did not want prayer or we would pray a short prayer for the request. What we soon realized was that was just not what God had in mind. Person after person as we prayed for them would be the same thing. The presence of God was so great that each person just did not want to leave – there was such peace. Anita described it beautifully when she said they sat there drinking in peace like they had not had any for a hundred years. I simply can not say it any better. Men that were pimps and women that were brothel owners along with the girls they sold all wept as they experienced the true presence of God. We knew something was happening. As we took a break for lunch I felt the Lord impress upon my heart that people were in need of further prayer, so we set up a space where I would be able (along with an interpreter) continue to pray if people wanted to do that. It was sort of funny as the clinic was saying we have got to get people out faster so more can be seen and we would say they just won’t move. People would fall over with their face on the desk while others would begin to fall over and we would catch them. So about the fifth time this exact same thing occurred we knew that something special was happening. It’s ironic we pray let your Spirit fall and when it truly does we are often surprised. I kept thinking that the large red tent made out of tarps, twine and sticks was the tabernacle of God. We felt so strongly that the Lord was working in the hearts of those asking for prayer. It was evident that each person wanted and needed more time. So after breaking for lunch another area was set it up with prayer partners from Bombay Teen Challenge. So now, after Anita and Rahul prayed for someone, they asked if they would like to continue to pray. Most said yes and by most I mean 90%. We were a few steps away as continued to pray for people. Like most time God calls you out of your comfort zone I felt totally unequipped, extremely humbled and a bit afraid. I rarely was using an interpreter, I just began to pray for each one as I felt led. This had nothing to do with whether the person being prayed for understood what I was saying, it was God Almighty, the one who had from them in their mother’s womb. It was God that spoke to their hearts to tell them what they needed to hear… no interperature needed. There were many times I had to ask people standing around up to catch someone as they wabbled around and I was afraid they were going to hit the ground. The word that kept coming to me all day was revival was breaking out. So for the next 4 hours our prayer team that started with Anita being obedient to the simple word just for us to fish and Rahul a mighty man of God grew. The Bombay Teen Challenge staff encouraged me all day as they brought on person after and other saying this person wants prayer. Telling me this is what they had prayed for. That people were giving testimony of being healed. I have not had the opportunity to hear what that entailed yet. The Word was starting to spread that more than just medicine for the body was being dispensed. I began to notice something each time I had finished praying the person they would open their eyes look around like they were not sure where they were. Then they would look at me with the same question in their eyes as if to say “What the heck was that?”. That would be the time for interpretation and I would tell them that was “ The Living God”. I would be writing for days and you would be reading forever to write everything.

Clinic

You have to excuse me as I write this if I rabbit track as recall the events. It is akin to watching popcorn pop as each kernel has a life of it’s own. What I can say is that God allowed me to hold each precious face in my hands and my arms wiping away their tears as they poured out their pain before God. At the end of the day the only way I can best describe it is I felt like I had just been in a war zone. I was beat up and drained and somewhat bewildered. Later that night I poured out my heart to Dan to tell him everything that had been going on where I was and he shared with me the incredible events of his day. Eventually though I had to go to Anita’s room just to talk and to tell me I guess that what had happened really did all just happen right… She laughed and this impish glint she gets when she smiles knowingly about some things filled her eyes as she said YES THAT JUST HAPPENED !!! I can say that like all great fighters at the end of the day we left everything on the mat.

Ok so here is a little rabbit track but it is important down the road for context. Since we have gotten to Mumbai I have been puffing up each day a little more like a blow fish. (Oh and this has nothing to do with what I am writing I just looked out the plane window and the Himalaya mountain loom before me like a beacon to the next part of the trip to Nepal) Anyway, back to the story; Blah Blah Blah blow fish you get the picture. So the next day when I woke up with the combination of retaining water and all the crying I had done I was a bit of a puffy sight. I was also completely spent and had no intentions of picking back up at the level where I where we had left off. Besides, there is no formula for a move of God like that only our desire to once again be filled. Besides, the leadership with our team had made it clear that we had to move things along today. Thursday was to be a short day for the clinic as this was the day all of India waited to see if riots would break out. All in charge wanted to make sure everyone was seen before we had to pack up, and everyone had made it back to their homes safely before the announcement. So I sat in the med room and we just shot off shot prayers like taking aim at a target. However no one had given this note to the Bombay Teen challenge staff and when people began to show up for prayer they came and got me.

One of the Pastors with Bombay is named Steve, Bombay Teen Challenge had set him up that day to be my prayer partner. He had been stricken with an infirmity as a child and is unable to walk. So when I walked out he was perched on a motor bike like a racer waiting for the green light. I was first in line. I told him I felt like I had nothing left and I desperately needed a touch from God. I needed to be filled again. When he finished I felt as if – ok let’s saddle up. We prayed for so many that came until noon. We prayed in the open so all those that live on that street of such darkness saw people filled with joy, hope and peace. This is just one story a woman come the day before and had asked me to pray for her because she had not slept in a week she was being tormented by terrible dreams. One of the staff brought her over to tell me she was not back to see the doctors but to ask for more prayer as that night she had peacefully slept through the night. I told her before I would pray that she had to know that I was not a healer. That it was Christ that was the great physician and she needed to give glory to Him.

I will end on one more story. Another time a staff came and got me because I had gone back into the tent for a moment. She said there was a young man who had come for help he was an alcoholic. So I went over and talked with him to tell him my testimony of my one struggle at his age and that God had taken the desire to drink from me and he could do the same for him. When Pastor Stephen finished interpreting my story he look at me like I had grown a third head….I told him today could be the last day that he ever picked up a drink . If he healed me I know He can do the same thing for you. He asked to accept Christ. When we finished praying, truly a new young man stood before me. He turned to me and said I feel such joy and peace. I also said to him he had to be a part of this himself. No more hanging out with the same people who encouraged you to drink with them or going to places he may be tempted. He smiled and said he would be at church today.

I began the morning at the shelter in Nepal getting ready to go and share with the church there and found out that they felt moved by God to begin fervently praying for hours for us on this prior Wednesday and Thursday! Don’t you just love it.[

Hello everyone …

Well we met everyone on the team in Newark before our plane left for Mumbai. As always it was interesting and just a teeny bit akward to meet people you have never met before on your way to a once-in-a-lifetime journey that you will all share together. Still, we have all shared a little bit about ourselves and we know before we begin that this is no ordinary team….

As we share, and ask questions of each other, I can only admire the 11 other individuals who have set out on this journey together with me. Individual after individual, we start to share one on one, and in small groups, the past journeys we have been on, and why each on of us chose to go on this particular medical outreach.

I hear from team member after team member who has been to multiple places all over the world. One has been to Africa twice, India one, another lived in India for a year and will be moving to Cambodia within a week after we return home to work there with an anti-trafficking non-profit. Australia, Nepal. Nicaragua, Thailand, Haiti, you name it someone has been there. As we also share our reasons to be on this trip I am thinking to myself, wow, this team is not only a group of incredibly seasoned travelers, but they are individuals who have had their collective hearts broken by the tragedy of sex slavery.

We have an amazing 15 hour flight to Mumbai, and wonder how it is going to go when we try to bring several hundred pounds of medicine and equipment through customs. They immediately flag our entire group one by one as our gear is scanned and we are placed in a separate holding area. I can see that they are asking Mike (our team leader) many questions, and finally there are phone calls being made. One of the guards comes over to Colette and I and asks where we are going, and what we are doing. I tell him we are a medical team going to work in Kamathipura. “The red light district?” he asks. Colette and I nod yes. He walks away and starts talking to a few of the other guards (as I remember there were at least 7). He wanders back over to us and says that he feels this is a good work that we are doing. He mingles with a few more of the other guards and appears to be telling them about our plans.  Some sort of unknown phone conversations are also going on. Suddenly we all get to pass through without having any of our baggage checked. We know that we are receiving favor!

We are happy to just get to our hotel and sleep. The first impressions of Mumbai at midnight for me are that it doesn’t seem quite as chaotic as I thought it was going to be.

The next morning up for breakfast, devotional, and off to the clinic to set up. We make the short trip from the YMCA to the Bombay Teen Challenge medical clinic in Kamathipura. Although I was a little surprised to find this clinic space to be quite small and rather modest, we were also very pleasantly surprised to see our “medical clinic”. It is a large temporary structure put together with rope and sticks, lined with red fabric, with fans in every room. This structure taking up a good bit of the street surrounded by absolute poverty. There is an odor, and nearly every corner and every space is taken up by a human being sleeping under a tarp, or perhaps in a cubbyhole, in run down buildings with concrete rooms no bigger than about 6 feet by 6 feet. And there there are the stray dogs, the goats, and …. the rats. Yep, rats feeding on anything they can find in the trash on the streets. Thankfully they are rather afraid of people, so the minute you move they disappear. The truth is that there are no words to describe what we are seeing, no pictures that can show the crazy, chaotic, and unbelievable sight before our eyes.

Our “medical clinic” actually consists of 5 single rooms under tent and two more two-room offices. We set up our ‘radiology department’ on one end of the tent structure (with ultrasound!), and the pharmacy on the other end. We have 3 examining rooms in the middle, and then the 2 room offices are set up with an OB/GYN and a dental clinic.  We set up “triage” on a table outside the tent entrance where 2 team members will be posted with an automatic blood pressure machine (battery operated).  We are set up in no-time. Dr. Mike starts calling our clinic ‘Mayo-Clinic Mumbai’, and it sort of feels that way when you contrast it to our surroundings! Our medical team consists of a radiologist, someone with a doctorate in pharmacy, a dentist, emergency medicine physician, family doctor, 3 physician assistants, a nurse, an electrician, and Colette who is there to shoot some of her amazing photography magic, pray, and help in any way she can.  Three of the members of our team are New Yorkers, the rest scattered throughout the country (and England).  We have a wonderful young female physicians assistant on our team who is a Jewish girl from New York!  We wonder what posessed her to choose to take this kind of a trip with a group of sold-out Christians!  Brave young lady ….  : – )

We will share more tomorrow.  Just suffice it to say that after 3 days of clinc and hundreds of patients, the Lord has been there through it all.  It’s hard to believe that it has only been 3 days!  This group that started out strangers have already become a tightly knit team who has shared more tears and more prayers than we can count.

Today we found out that the Supreme Court in India is going to hand down a decision on a 60 year-old conflict between the Hindu and Muslim people of India Thursday afternoon at 3:30 p.m.  I believe that that would roughly be 5:30 am in the USA.  It is a religious battle regarding a Muslim temple that was built on a sacred location for the Hindu people.  The police and military are telling everyone to remain calm in spite of what the decision is, and they say they will be out in force tomorrow in keys spots all over the country.  We are closing our clinic tomorrow at noon as a precaution, and we will spend the afternoon together in what we pray is a safe place, awaiting the reaction of the people.  Yes there has been civil unrest in the past in India when this type of thing has occured.  No, nobody knows what will go on, and we have made the choice to be reasonably cautious, without over-reacting.  Please pray for this amazing team as we move forward.

Tonight Mike called this “The Dream Team”.  After only 3 days with this incredible group of individuals I would have to agree.