Tuesday, June 28, 2011

The Joy of Service







India has been quite an adventure! The past 10 days have flown by and we have completely lost ourselves in the work here. This country is definitely overwhelming at times. There is an overwhelming amount of poverty, filth, people, and culture. We spent a week at Rising Star Outreach where we lived at the school for the children of the leprosy affected. We spent the majority of our time with these beautiful children who we came to love and cherish. These kids are incredible and have seen more grief and sadness in their lives than we can imagine but remain so happy and have such a bright light in their eyes. Each day we either tutored the kids at the school, or served in the leprosy colonies. In the colonies we did a medical day and a construction day. We gave medical services to the leprosy-affected people where we actually washed their wounds, took their blood, wrapped their ulcers, and gave them medicine. This experience alone changed my life forever. These people who have been such outcasts in their society and have been deemed as untouchables but they are so grateful for our simple services. They remained so happy even though they have been dealt such a heavy load to bear. We have met so many amazing people here, felt so much love, been so exhausted yet happy all at once, felt helpless and sad wishing there was more we could do to help, and have been overwhelmed with such a great amount of joy that only can come from service alone. Our time here has left a life long impression on us. I wish that there was more we could do to help these people, and hope that we can keep these feelings with us forever and stay focused on the important things in life.













































3 comments:

  1. Kim I am loving all these pictures!! It looks like such an amazing experience! I'm so glad you guys are having a good time! Miss you guys!
    P.s. Look at what a great nurse you would make!! :)

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  2. Kim this looks awesome! Levi and I are wanting to do something like this. When I went the Rising Star website it looked like the shortest time you could volunteer was like 3 weeks. Will you please tell me how you got to do just 1 week? Is this only done in the summer?

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