The following reflection was written by a Servants missionary who serves on one of our teams in India.  If you’d like to learn more about Servants’ two teams in India, you can learn about them here.

We’re getting into hot season now, with temperatures daily climbing above 100, frequent power outages (due to the city’s limited capacity to deal with air conditioners used by the upper-class), and little-to-no rainfall.

But, with hot season also comes mango season, and we have three mango trees in our courtyard.  As my neighbors and I daily watch the progress I am reminded that with hard things, also comes sweet rewards.  Without the heat, there would be no mangoes.  Without moving to the slum in our city, we would not receive the sweetness of entering into relationship with the poor, who over and over again remind us of their blessedness in the eyes of Jesus.

One of the sweet things that has happened recently is my relationship with my language tutor, C.  C had been another teammate’s language tutor, and when that teammate transitioned off the team, I asked C if she would teach me.  C and her family are different than most people we come into contact with.  Her marriage was arranged for her in her late twenties, rather than late teens, and when asked about her arranged marriage, instead of talking about her dowry, C says “My husband is a very, very good man.”  Because of her late marriage, while many women her age are mothering children in their late teens, C’s daughter, K, is just 5 years old.  While many women here long for a son, and often have children until a son comes along, C and her husband are happy with their only daughter, and value her in a way that most daughters are not valued.  K is also leading a very different life than most children her age.  Instead of being called “stupid” in an effort to make her want to do better in school, K is called “smart”.  While most parents call their children “naughty”, K is called “good”.  While most parents beat and threaten their children, K is asked to go outside when she is hyper, and is reasoned with if she doesn’t understand what she has done wrong.

In March, C received from a friend a New Testament in her language, and since then she has not been able to stop reading it.  She asked me if we could read it together during my tutoring sessions, and she has begun to not only ask me questions, but explain things to me that I sometimes tell her are confusing when I think she’s asking me a question (like Jesus cursing the fig tree, for example).  As we read and talk, it is amazing to me to see the ways that Jesus has been at work in her life long before me or my teammates arrived.  The Kingdom was growing in her life, and in their home, long before she had a name for it.  Now, as she reads about the way that Jesus values the poor and the outcast, she not only sees that the value they give each other as a family is beautiful, but she can also see that she is valued by God as well.

It is so encouraging to me to see glimpses of the Kingdom and places where God has been at work for a long time.  God is not limited to the boundaries that I put on Him or the names that I give Him, He is at work always, in the midst of poverty and sadness (some would argue especially so), with or without my help, and it is a beautiful thing.

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