Insane Love

The month of October has been pretty quiet. I am loving my schedule and  the ministry is going well. I am getting to spend so much time with the college boys, it is great. GOD is continuing to change and teach me. 

However, now that October is over, things are about to change. I currently have two more weeks here in India. It seems like everything I do is a last time for something. I am very excited for the team from Wichita to arrive in a couple of days. I will get some much needed guy time. There is a huge pastors conference here in Salem from the 5th to the 7th. We will host over 800 pastors from around Southern India. I am so excited to be a part of it and to learn from everybody there. Yesterday was my last time at the Pallipatty School.

Every Thursday for the last 3 months, Hanah, my fellow intern, and I have traveled to teach at a school in a village called Pallipatty. This experience has been amazing. The children are the most energetic kids I have ever seen. The cuteness of these kids is off the charts. They know little english, but they make up for it by communicating with their big brown eyes and their tiny little hands.

  
    The second we arrive we are attacked by many many hugs! The whole day, they just want to be around us. They call me "Sir" or "Nathan Sir", so that is what I hear them chirp all day long. They love to cling to any part of my body they can get a hold of. They showed me a new form of love that I thought I knew, but I don't think I really understood until my last day with them yesterday. It is a love that I don't even think I can put into words.However, I will try. They love in a way that can even become irritating by the end of the day. It is a complete undeserved and unconditional love. It is undeserved because, to be honest, I have never done anything to earn these kids' love. I am just a teacher for them, yet they clearly see me as so much more. They see me as a hero to them, though I have done nothing to deserve that title. Their love in unconditional, because I don't think it ever would have mattered to them how I treated them, they loved me so much anyways. If I ever had to show discipline, they loved me anyways. If I ever arrived to school in a bad mood, they loved me anyways. If I ever got irritated with them clinging to me all day, they loved me anyways. They loved me not because of who I was, but simply because I was. Needless-to-say, I will miss these children. I had the privilege of teaching them once a week about English, songs, and Jesus. And I got the privilege of learning from them how to love someone with an insane love. A love that I hope will carry these children into eternity.

 

There is one more story that I must share. The woman to the left is namedKavitha. She is a teacher at this school. She is the only christian teacher that is there. Her and I shared this same insane love. Since day one, she has been a joy to work with. She enjoys laughing, and I enjoy making her laugh. I will miss her dearly. Everyday she prays with her students. She said that usually the students want to pray for Hanah and I. Well, I want you to pray for her. Although she is a follower of Christ, she does not believe she will make it to heaven, since there are so many people in the world that more "righteous" than her.Please pray that she can understand the grace of Jesus Christ. And that she can continue to teach it to these children.


Praise and Prayer Points:

• Praise the Lord that the month of October went well, and that there was much change through hardship in myself, as well as the country of India.
• Praise Him for the team that is arriving on the 3rd. I, along with many others, will be blessed by there presence
• Please pray for the Pallipatty school. That all the beautiful children will trust in Jesus despite there Hindu upbringing.
• Please Pray for Kavitha, that she may know the grace of Christ and that she will be empowered my the Spirit to bring that truth to the kids.
• Please pray for the pastors conferences here in November. There is a big one here in Salem, as well as one in North India and Sri Lanka.

Fruit

Hello, Everybody
"Stotrum" (Praise the LORD)

I am sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I have been quite busy. By GOD's grace I have been doing well here in India. Just so you know, the huge cyclone that is hitting India is far North of me. Nothing to be worried about. Though we do have many pastors over there right now.

The LORD has been teaching me so much here. There has definitely been the rough patches. It's interesting actually. I have been praying for the LORD to change me while I was here, and then things got very difficult. With the loss of my Grandfather, being the only male around here, and having no teams here to talk with, I was in a stage of loneliness. I had to be reminded that often times change is very painful and difficult. Through the difficulties I have drawn so much closer to the Spirit of GOD. I have had a lot of solitude and spiritual disciplines. I wouldn't say that I am done with this rough patch, but I would definitely say that I am glad I am in it.

Last week, I reached half way through my trip here. I started to get a little discouraged because I am been praying for and ministering to these college boys in the hostel everyday for 6 weeks now, yet I hadn't seen much fruit from my labor at all. I desperately want them to receive Christ into their hearts. Although, sometimes we see the seeds we planted grow and sometimes we don't. This week the Holy Spirit gave me just a little assurance that helped a lot. One of the boys came and asked me if he could talk to me alone. He has many questions about Jesus and I have been able to answer his doubt using scripture. He is really hungry for the truth. I can tell he is so close to putting his trust in Jesus. Just seeing this gave me so much more hope for the other guys. The Holy Spirit is moving in these boys and I am more than blessed to witness it.

This is a photo of almost all the boys. I bet you can't find me!
A few people have requested their names as well, to pray over.
The names are to the left. I enjoy taking one name a day and
praying for him throughout the day.

From left to right
Sankar
Pragash
Ajikh Kumar (David)
Yuvaraj
Asaph Singh (He is their mentor, works for IGL

Vasanth (Jerry)

Chitam Baram

Sadhu

Senthil Kumar (John)

Anan

Prasanna (The boy mentioned above)

Sinivasan

Mohan

Silamberasan

Praise and Prayer Points:

• Praise GOD for showing me some fruits of my labor
• Praise GOD for the blessings we have here in India
• Praise GOD for how he changes our hearts and souls.
• Pray for Prasanna, that he will ask Jesus into his heart
• Pray for Asaph, the full-time mentor to the boys
• Pray for the victims of the cyclone in the state of Orissa, as 500,000 have evacuated.

Comfort

Hello Everyone!

I am long over due  for a blog update, so buckle up! The last couple weeks have been exciting and challenging. Last week, we had a medical team from Ohio come, so we helped them with medical camps . We got the privilege of going to a different village every day. By the grace of GOD, we got to serve hundreds of people's physical needs. For many of the people in this village, this would be the only chance to receive medical care for a very long time. 

I would like to share a quick story from last Wednesday  with you.

 "So we were at a medical camp and I was helping the Optometrist who had come to serve. After lunch, we got back to our eye glasses-distribution table, when about 60 people crowded the table. We couldn't get them to form a line and they were all crowding the table yelling. Mostly, they were yelling at each other because they all wanted to be first to get glasses. It reminded me of my 1st grade class fighting to be the first in line for lunch, except these were grown adults and they were much angrier. A few men started to get physical with one another. It turned into a mini riot, and we could not gain control. 

In the midst of all the craziness, I noticed a younger man right in the middle of the crowd. He was not yelling like everybody around him. He was holding a little baby girl in his arms, who, by some miracle, was sleeping. I looked into his eyes and saw that they were rolled to the back of his head. He had some kind of birth deficiency  that left his eyes out of place. After the crowd was controlled (which took about 15 minutes) the line got moving again. The man finally got his turn to see the eye doctor after waiting very patiently. When he got to the doctor, the doctor explained to him that no glasses could fix his eyesight and that there was nothing that could be done for him. He walked away slowly and my heart immediately broke for him. He had so much hope to be healed and then it was crushed.

I could not keep my eyes off of him as he walked back into the streets of the village. I had one of those moment of hesitation, where the Holy Spirit was clearly telling me to go and pray for him, but I ignored it. Finally, the man turned a corner and I had no idea where he went. But I still heard that still voice in my head saying "GO". So I started running down the village street, hoping to somehow catch the man. I turned a corner and it was as if he was waiting for me. He hadn't gone far at all. I approached him and asked if I could pray for him. I got to pray for him and his daughter. I prayed that he could receive physical healing, but more importantly, spiritual healing." Our GOD is faithful and I believe this man will be healed.

This weekend was good as always, I preached at an english service, So for once I didn't have a translator. I spoke about my favorite passage Matthew 25:31-45 and the importance of loving the least. My favorite thing to talk about!

This week has been very difficult for me. I received news on Monday that my Grandfather had passed away. I am so incredibly thankful for the 18 years I had with him. Although, I am finding it very difficult to  be away from my family during this time, but GOD is good and he is the Ultimate Comforter! He is changing and growing me through it all. Glory to GOD.

Praise and Points:

• Praise the Lord for the physical needs that were met last week by the medical team!
• Praise the Lord for pushing me to do things that often seem uncomfortable!
• Pray that GOD would change the lives of the college boys we are witnessing to.
• Pray for that man in the village, that he will be healed physically and spiritually
• Pray for my family back at home as they are mourning and organizing a funeral.
• Pray that the Comforter will help me continue my work to honor my Him and my grandfather as well.

 

Day by Day

Hello everyone!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. There hasn't been a whole of new things to tell you. I am loving each day here. With each day, I grow more and more in love with the people here and with the work that I am doing. 

Last week I got sick for about four days so that was difficult. As you can imagine I wanted to be in the comfort of my own home, as we all do when we are sick. So, it was difficult for me to want to be here. Thankfully, GOD brought me out of that and I feel great now. I am so glad that I am here.

Something that has been on my mind a lot since I have been here is what I will do when I get back. Specifically long term goals like what I will be doing with my life, where will I work, and how do I get there. Just long-term life decisions that I have been letting consume, and I am afraid I will miss out on things here if I am constantly thinking about when I get back to America. So, as of last night, I am trying my hardest to take in this whole experience one day at a time. Not focusing on the future. 

I am growing a lot here. I can see how this experience is going to change me. That is a scary, but exciting, thing to think about. Now that I am little more comfortable here, I am trying to be more outspoken and confident in my approach of sharing the Gospel. Also, I have noticed GOD giving me a very deep love for these college boys that I am getting to minister to every single day! I want SO BADLY for them to become disciples of Jesus. After this experience, I truly want to see them in heaven.

Praise and Prayer Points:

• Praise GOD for restoring my health.
• Praise GOD for the work that IGL is doing.
• Praise GOD for the wonderful family that takes care us interns.
• Pray that these college boys would come to know Jesus as their ONLY GOD
• Pray that I can be more dangerous in sharing the Good News.

India Time

Hello everyone!

So, I haven't posted in awhile because I have been very busy. I started my schedule last week and have been moving pretty fast ever since. I am loving every minute of it though! I am getting to do such a variety of things.

One of the things I had to get used to was India time. I am not talking about the clock. Rather just the sense of timing that they have here in India. They don't live by their clock like we do in the west. So, if they say we are leaving at  9:30 for something, we will leave by about 9:45, or the entire plan will change and we will go somewhere different than we had planned. It is very interesting to get used to that, yet I love the way they are laid back about everything.

So, I got a good taste of this India timing this weekend, when I was told on Saturday afternoon that I would be preaching Saturday night for a bunch of girls from the college, most of whom are Hindu. Luckily, the Holy Spirit works very well with India timing, He gave me words to speak to these students when I preached to them.

I was also given the privilege to preach at a village church on Sunday. I spoke about the story of Elijah challenging the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18. I was very blessed by the people at the church. After the message, many people came to the front and asked for prayer from our intern team (4 of us). Many came up for physical and emotional healing. Glory to GOD.

I am loving getting to know the team here on the IGL campus as well. There are three other interns here: 2 girls from Germany and 1 girl from Ohio. So, yes, I am the only boy! Although I do get my fix of male bonding time when I go to the college boys' hostel twice a day, once for devotions and once for sports! We do get some short-term teams coming in as well. We are about to say goodbye to a team from Australia. I will very much miss my their accents.

GOD Bless

Praise and Prayer Points:

• Praise GOD for allowing me to preach His Word twice this weekend.
• Praise GOD for all the work IGL is accomplishing for His Kingdom
• Pray for the IGL Staff and their families.
• Pray for the college boys, that we may show them Jesus.
• Pray for that village church to grow in numbers.

CHURCH

Well, I had the privilege to go to my first village church yesterday. I honestly have no words to describe how amazing it was! I experienced the Holy Spirit like I never had before! They do church very much differently in than in the U.S. For example: They separate men on one side of the room and women on the other. There were about three times as many women by the way. Also, they don't care about time. I don't remember how long we were there, but I do know that they were not checking there watches and awaiting freedom like so many of us do in America. We worshipped GOD and we could've done it all day! The last difference I would like to point out is that there was very little order. We did praise songs for awhile, the pastor gave his testimony, we did some more praise songs, a women who works for IGL  talked a little bit, then some of us Americans talked awhile, then some more praise songs, and a lot of prayer mixed into all that.

Needless to say I loved it so much. I am excited to more learn about the power of the Holy Spirit while I am here! Thank you so much for your prayers and support back home!

Blessing upon Blessings,
Nathan Hansen

8/24 - Blessed

Well, I am definitely not in Kansas anymore!
(that was a dumb joke)

I had to name this post "blessed" because that is overwhelming feeling I have right now. I still remember a year ago praying about the possibility of going to India to do some mission work and to learn from them. It is just incredibly surreal to actually be here now! This was my first day here in India, and so many times today I found my self just whispering "Wow, Thank You GOD". This place is just incredible and the people are even more incredible. Everything from waking up to a dog trying to kill a couple monkeys to a five hour drive to get from one side of town to the other side. I just feel amazingly blessed!

That is what this blog will be about. I m simply sharing my blessings from india. Whether it's a funny story, a word of encouragement, or something GOD is teaching me. Shame on me if I come here and learn great things from GOD, if I don't share it with my friends and family back home who are also doing great things. Sorry, this is my first blog so I really don't know what I am doing, but I pray anything that I share on here will be encouraging, helpful, or relatable to you.

Blessing
Mark1:17
Nathan Hansen