Washing feet...

"Five minutes, that's all, very close" I was assured that the hotel I was looking for was just walking distance down the road. I suppose I could just walk there then. If it's just down the road and it's on this side of the street. "Five minutes?" I asked. "Yes, very close", the front desk guy says.

I guess by now I should know that words like five and minutes are subjective terms, meaning they can change depending on the person you're talking to and the subjects being spoken of.

As I left the comfort of the air conditioned lobby, I nimbly dodged the construction work going on directly outside the hotel. It looks like a new sidewalk is being made, but not knowing anything about road work I guess it's necessary to remove most of the street as well.

Smells and sights and sounds, lots of sounds explode my senses, it's like the entire community is out today on this road at this exact time with a place to go and people to push out of the way. I didn't feel threatened or anything, the situation just takes your emotional world up a few notches. About thirty minutes into the walk I come to the conclusion that I've missed the place and turn around to head back. Then up in the distance I see the sign, I don't remember if he told me that you could only see it from the back, no, now that I think about it, he didn't. I guess he was honest when he said five minutes, but it seemed like a really long, hot, dusty, loud, smelly five minutes for sure.

It's amazing to me the contrasts that you can see here. Huge buildings rise up in front of you, people in shirts and ties running into them and then right next door, literally, directly next to the building you see children playing in the garbage piles, their parents sifting through looking for something valuable.

And yet here I am in the midst of it all, trying in vain to figure out some way to help, some way to begin to understand how to reach these people. I've been sent to serve. I've been sent to try and show people who Jesus is and how much he loves them. I've been sent to wash their feet and show them that I too am a person in need of Christ, no more or less important than them. Our lives and languages and citizenship may be different, but we're all the same the same price was paid for each of us. So I've been given a message and a command, to take this story to the children. Tell them there is a friend, a father, a future for each of them sitting near the King of all Kings. Being held by the Father who will never leave them and will always love them. This is the message I've been sent to give.

India is an incredible place, nothing can prepare you for coming here, and it will leave marks on your heart that will never go away.