Tears for India: The Village Life: I’ve left my heart with the children of Zodawn..the Zou Indian People!

11/25-28/2013, The Village Life of the Zou Indians
The Manipur India Missions Team went to India as a vision trip in partnership with Kehn Tombing to see how Global Missions can help more in East India, but also as a time to bring nurses to run health camps in the different villages around Lamka (Enpum, Tuivel, Singngat, Munhoih, Thajaba). The days at the villages were incredible! Okay..minus the 4 hours of driving on a bumpy road in the back of a tap-tap truck at 15mph. But when we finally got to the villages they were beautiful. Zodawn literally means the hilly region where the Zou people live which primarily comprise of the indigenous folks in these hills. The Zou’s spread across the southern part of Manipur and Mizoram in India, and down the Chin Hills in Myanmar and parts of Bangladesh.

Villages of Enpum, Tuivel, Singngat and Munhoih

Some quick statistics I’ve learned here…yeah, I’m a geek, I like stats…It shows progression and areas for planned growth. Did you know that one-sixth of the world lives in India? Over the last six decades, India has made enormous progress in industrial growth, economic development, science and technology. Yet India is falling behind in the human development index. The education scenario is alarmingly dismal with only 30% able to read and write. 11 million street children scavenge for food in the garbage. Many do not go home in the evenings, either from fear of alcoholic fathers or because they have no homes to go to. They survive by petty thievery or get pulled into drug cartels. Countless women are abandoned by their husbands and must turn to begging. Millions of lives are spent fighting to survive. However, I see that India is being transformed to change these stats by good folks like Kehn Tombing and his visionary love for the people in India and for our savior. It all boils down to Love…Love from a savior…Love to a neighbor in need. Kehn has done just that by putting programs together to serve street children at the Rayburn Youth Hostel…to serve orphans and the Abandoned Babies Ministry at the compound…to serve widows and destitute women ministry…and started planting churches. India is being transformed by God’s goodness and by those that are spreading his love!

Village Children of the Zou People around Manipur

The ladies on the team did the program teaching about health and wellness, while us men got to tour the villages and talk to the other men from the village and invite families to the medical camps. I connected well with these folks because the village tribes came from some of the indigenous descendants of the Zou people. As many of you know, I named my daughter Zoë which means “Abundant Life” and boy did these villagers have life in their smile. Zodawn literally means the hilly region where the Zou (or Zo) people live. My daughter will get a kick out of this part since I sometime affectionately call her my Zo-Zo.

Medical Checkups in the Village Medical Building that was Unpopulated

The amazing thing is as we did these camps the people didn’t really seem to be there for the medicine or the speeches or the skits, these people wanted love. You might be thinking well Love doesn’t heal you from a sickness if they had one?! Well that’s where we could be wrong; Jesus’ love is what these people needed. It could heal them from their broken identities and struggles they have. The team from Global wasn’t just trying to help the physical needs the villagers had, but the most important thing I think the team helped with was DAILY sharing Jesus' love to people that needed it most…more than anything else. The GMT women showed Jesus’ love by listening to the women’s and children’s hurts and pains, while giving meaningful support. And the men gave Jesus’ love by talking to the village men and trying to find out what needs they had and why. God was doing much more than just meeting physical needs by this trip, He was meeting a need of love and relationship, which we were more than happy to give since Christ has loved us so much as well! God knew what these people needed, He knew the unexpected. It’s amazing to be a part of His unexpected plans.

The children were moved to tears receiving their own toothbrushes and soap

Visiting these remote villages has been awesome. One village in particular stood out for me called Tuivel (pronounced Two-E-Ville). It’s name kind of sounds like a town in a Dr.Suess book. The village has about 200 households and is located about two and a half hours down the same long bumpy road from Lamka I described before. Realistically the village is only about 50 miles away but when you are going 15-20 mph over the bumps it makes for a long slow journey. I’m not a person to get car sick, but let’s just say that by the time we arrived at Tuivel my stomach was ready to sit still for a bit.

Pastor Lam from Tuivel Village, Gather at the River

The reason for being at the village beside the medical camp we were bringing was they were hosting an annual conference for the women of their 8 neighboring churches where they would be hearing sermons from Pastor Lam of the Rayburn Orphanage. Pastor Lam was the perfect guide for the trip since he grew up in this Tuivel Village. The services here were awesome times to worship and share the drama skit/testimonies with the people and see how all the people from different churches got to gather in one place. It was a neat experience! But some of the greatest moments were when Pastor Lam and some friends decided to show me the fun things to do when you are growing up in a village. This included fishing with DYNAMITE (Ha!), jumping from trees, removing leeches, cooking and drying our own fish supper, getting a view from the top of the mountain, bathing in the river with board shorts on off course and getting searched by the Indian Army. I could go on and on, but this box is too small to contain them.

Village Stream

To be honest I loved the village life. It reminded me a lot of the small villages I’ve been too in, Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Herradura, Nicaragua, Panama, etc… I mean a lot like it…people are people no matter how far away! All the villages seem to be moving slower, they feel more relaxed, the air feels cleaner, the life seems simpler, and nature is more a way of life. Take away my American toilet, AC, clean water and a shower, and I think that makes everything more of an adventure. The simple things in life make things nice but I find it fun to rough it, live off the land and slow down sometimes. It is why I do things like backpacking the Appalachian Trail, skydive the coast, motocross/rock climb waterfalls through Costa Rica with just a backpack and hammock to sleep on during my summer or go camping with scorpions on the Cayapas River in Ecuador for spring break or take a bath in a muddy river or Stand Up Paddle a dugout canoe in Pichiyacu. My point being I love the adventure and the simplicity that the village life is like in Central/South America and is like in these villages of the Zou Indians here in Manipur. Maybe it’s part of the Cherokee heritage in my blood or maybe it is God telling me that the village is where He wants me…in places where some missionaries are too “uncomfortable” to go to? Needless to say living in a village for a few days here or there is easier than a few years, but I’m just thinking about what God has for me in the future and my heart is in love with the poor/simple village life.

Gospel to India in relational love, personal testimony, creative arts, and evangelistic dramas

These folks love to worship, worship, worship. Which is really how every day should be spent! We went to three church services throughout the village days. The FIRST was Bethel church which is a church that was plant last year so it was nice to visit there and see how they have tripled in numbers! So awesome! SECOND we got to visit a Hindu area an hour from Lamka where Global just recently helped plant a church. Christians couldn’t even go here a couple years ago and today we got to sit there and open a church right in the middle of this predominately Hindu area. God is moving mightily! THIRD the team returned to Rayburn and visited Khen’s main church service. It was a great time of worship and sermons. The Field are White for the Harvest...Literally!

I want to thank those people that made this week so amazing. First, thank you Global Missions for letting me come on this journey and challenging me so much this week in keeping my eyes open to global and cultural realities! You guys have been such a blessing to be around. The things we have seen with God’s handy work really make me excited for Manipur's future and solidified how much I love this place. You have really opened my eyes to some needs here but also agreed with lots of the reasons I love Lamka! God bless this team!

Secondly, thank you Indian brothers and sisters in Christ that may never read this but thank you for letting me take part in your worshiping today and for being so welcoming and loving.

Third, you guys may not realize but everyone that is reading this post has been such a blessing to me. The support and prayers are so very much appreciated. You guys Rock...Thank You! I am blessed because you are here!

And most importantly thank you to the Big Man… thank you God for giving me two weeks that I can worship with American and Indian brothers and sisters in three services, two different languages, worlds and cultures apart. I thank you for a God that no matter the cultural or language barrier, you reign forever and are more powerful than anything. Thank you Abba Father!