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Global Urban Trek 2007
Good-bye, Not ForeverAugust 1, 2007
"Katie, we made it," I said as I started crying in the taxi on our way back to our apartment on Elliot Road. We had just said good-bye to the children we ministered to all summer. They didn't say good-bye once, they said good-bye five times. Even the eleven-year old boy I tutored had the hardest time to say "Thank you." His heart was broken that I was leaving the next day. So was mine…
During the days before we left Kolkata, I would look out the window and watch the people on the streets; the Indian people I have come to love and admire and who have forever changed my life. Lord, do I really have to leave?
Now that we are back to Bangkok, Thailand with my team and the other Asian treks for a time of debriefing, we have been preparing mentally, physically, and spiritually for our return home. Preparing to return to our usual life, whether it means continuing college, going to grad school, or working. To be back with our family and friends, even if there have been conflicts left unresolved before we left for India.
We have been warned that we will go through a mourning period coming back, apart from a second round of culture shock. I feel this warning came a bit late. On our second night, I found myself unable to contain my tears for the families I met in the slums while listening to Joel's story and heart for the poor family he and his wife tried to help for the past few years. These are tears I find I will be unable to control, but be able to taste God's compassionate and broken heart for the world's poor.
As I have finally been able to think, breathe peacefully in an open space, and let my summer experience sink into my heart, I found many things I have cherished and will never forget. As I look forward to the next chapter of my life, I will choose to look back to this summer, however intense it was for all of us, however painful, confusing, helpless, weak we felt, we tasted God and saw Him at work, saw Him change us, restore us, and we have been transformed.
I will choose to consider this summer as a great blessing from God, because He had taken us far away from the comfort of our homes to one of the darkest cities in the world to see His light shine stronger. He protected us from death while He opened our hearts and minds to meet with the poor face-to-face and to witness few of the many worst realities of this world: intractable poverty, spiritual bondages, oppression, diseases, etc.
We have been overwhelmed by the environment these people live in and questioning the ways and attitudes of the Indians have humbled us. We faced many different kinds of fears and even though we have not been alone, because we had each other, we have been challenged to have a greater faith and see that there is no fear in His Love.
Even though I am not sure what will become of my life or those of my brothers and sisters I have met on this trip, one thing I will take back is the message that in this race, our life, our end goal is Jesus Christ. So whether we become lawyers, doctors, nurses, social workers, pastors, or counselors, God does desire for us to use our skills, talents, and God-given supernatural gifts so that He can further His kingdom through us. For me, this summer has taught me how to love better, how to be in solidarity with the poor, encouraged me to minister to the poor, and live a life full of love, mercy, and grace. It will be amazing to see where He takes each one of us as we will continue, on a daily basis, deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow Jesus and through us see Him comfort, rescue, and save those who suffer injustice.
I hope to go back to India again in the near future, inhale more of what Kolkata has been to me, and be with the poorest of the poor. I will probably not see the same people again, maybe not in this life, but certainly in the next. This is why it is good-bye, not forever.
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