Faith and India

The music is like steam to my pores, silk to my body, food for my soul. It bends in and around my mind that can be so fragile. I am strong, but my mind can still spin out of control. I can become afraid, seriously afraid of the world, of myself, of anything. This is why I need Faith. Several years ago I began to grasp this concept, and I now am beginning to see results in the patterns of my life. I can center my being on hope and love; I can pull myself out of fear, though I still need my partner at times.

“Listen to me carefully, you are making this up,” he said over and over. His voice raised, only kindness came pouring from his words, as they were all meant for me to help find a grasp on reality.

I am not afraid to travel to India this year. I haven’t been to another country besides Canada since I was nineteen, and I come from a family of professional travelers. There have been many opportunities. This is big. For years now we’ve discussed this trip. Due to the need for dental work it was brought up once again, and never before have I felt this confident in leaving my life here on Lopez. I can now allow the adventure and time for myself; the surging through customs, and traveling standby to the other side of the globe. And here I sit. I have applied for a VISA and I told work today of my plan to journey over a great ocean to a land I have heard and read much about.

I am about to finish reading Amy Carmichael’s biography. In India, I will visit the dentist and spend several weeks at the Sivananda Ashram in Kerala, and travel to the neighboring region of Tamil to visit Amy’s Dohnavur Fellowship. The Fellowship was founded by Amy in the late 1800’s to save children from the oppressive forces of caste and child prostitution. I very much look forward to this visit after having read much of the history of her life and mission, and of the place itself. I plan on reading her book “Gold Cord’ while I am there, perhaps among others. Amy was a prolific writer which has also been a great inspiration to me besides her devout service to the world and spreading the love of Jesus.

So yet again, I am thankful. I am most thankful for the fierce acceptance of the unknown that lay before me. I also trust that Steve and the dogs, and the life that I cherish so much, will be waiting for me upon return. God has promised this to me. I feel it all around me and in the affirmations of his love every day.