A warm welcome in Rajahmundry

We are powering through jet lag and are so grateful to be here in Rajahmundry! 

arrival at the airport yesterday morning 

Taylor with Ratnakar's father 

Anna, Taylor and Emily with Ratnakar's parents 

our team with Ratnakar and Saroja Thota 

with Karri Samson and Rajkumar, two of the boys who have come through the Children of the Kingdom program 

 

amazing Indian food 

with Mrudula (Ratnakar's sister) hugging Tigger we brought for her

fellowship with kids last night 

The following liturgy was sent with us from our dear friend Kendra Allen, 

and they have been so encouraging and challenging to me. 

O Christ Who made Himself 

the Servant of All, 

I would set my heart 

and my affections upon you- 

and upon you alone, for I can only 

serve others rightly when such service 

is undertaken from first to last as 

an act of devotion offered to you. 

In serving you, I am freed from my 

need for the praise of others. So that

even if my kindnesses are shed from 

scarred hearts as rain from a sloped 

tin roof, my joy will not be dimmed, 

for I will know that you have received

and remembered each act of sacrifice, 

and reckoned it as love rendered to you. 

So let my love be sincere, 

and let my service be fearless, O Lord. 

I would serve in imitation of you, who 

poured out your life for me. I would serve 

knowing that your Spirit is ever at work in the 

lives of those I serve, ever calling, ever drawing, 

ever seeking to soften hearts encased in fear and 

disappointment and anger and idolatry. So let 

my kindness and sacrifice fall like warm shafts

of sunlight on icy ground. 

I cannot know the end of another person's story. 

Our lives so often briefly intersect. 

So let me be content to minister regardless of the visible 

outcomes, trusting that the small mercies I 

extend will be woven into the larger theme of 

redemption at work in the lives of others 

as you woo them to yourself, drawing their hearts

by graces offered, and shaping my own heart too

in this process of learning to serve well, and 

by learning to serve well, learning to love well.