Prayer Walking, Learning, Eid Festival
The next couple of days we continued to go to the streets and prayer walk. I met many people and got to experience different aspects of South India. My team didn’t know that we were going to be there on the day of Eid. Eid is a festival where Muslims celebrate Abraham sacrificing his son, Ishmael. They celebrate by slaughtering goats in honor of God.
This was a dark day. I remember stepping out and feeling spiritually heavy in a way I hadn’t before. I knew we stood out as a group of people, but man I felt like a unicorn. The stares were intense that day! We spoke to people and asked what the day of Eid had meant to them. Many of them didn’t understand, others were excited to eat the goat. On the day of Eid, we began to grow somewhat worried for our safety, as people started to recognize us and understand what we were doing.
We ended the night a bit earlier that day and processed some of the darkness we felt. Throughout my conversations that day, I thought about two or three the most.
One was with a girl named Sayli. Man, she was awesome. She was definitely interested in talking to me because I was a white American female with blond hair, but it was easy to become friends. She was the first person I shared my testimony with and she was fully receptive to the transformation that Christ had in my life. She shared her faith with me, which I didn’t fully comprehend. She worships a Hindu deity that she says hasn’t saved her, but she enjoys going to the temple. I prayed for Sayli and she teared up. We have each other’s numbers and I hope to see her again soon.
Another man I talked to was named Shloak. He was awesome. He learned English by listening to Eminem, One Direction, and Tupac. We listened to the “Story of My Life” and sang the lyrics together. Pretty cool human to human moment. Shloak also worshipped a Hindu deity, but he was really interested in learning about more religions. The thing that stuck out to me the most about Shloak and I’s conversation was when I asked him if his god spoke back to him. Shloak said no and was very surprised at the fact that our God does speak back to us.
India is known for feeling like “one big family.” To be honest, I didn’t feel a part of the family, but here’s the thing… in a city of millions and millions of people, Sayli and Shloak made me feel known, heard, and loved. I found that I had the confidence to receive who both Sayli and Shloak were, and offer in return, who I am.
Pray for these children of God.
