It October 1, 2010

I’ve been anticipating this.  I’ve experienced it before in my travels and although I was expecting it, when I actually experienced it – I was amazed.  “It” is a feeling of meeting someone and ‘knowing’ them even though you’ve just met. It’s a human connection that is deepened through a shared spiritual foundation.  We can live in completely different cultures and have unique life experiences that are dissimilar, yet we can connect through our faith.  It’s unity through Christ; the common source of strength and love that we tap into that allows us to connect with a level of intimacy that is profound.

Before I had left Canada, I had shared with a group of friends that one of the things I love about traveling is these amazing connections that are created with other Christ followers.  I describe it as the Holy Spirit in me recognizing and connecting with the Holy Spirit in them.

This afternoon we met for lunch with a couple that is doing a similar work in India that Will and I are doing in Canada.  They were sharing about some of the hard things that they had gone through in the past year.  I asked her who she went to for support.  She smiled, looked me straight in the eye and then pointed up. “God” she stated.  It was a simple testimony of God’s grace and strength through tough times.  And I understand what she means.  We both know what it means to “taste and see that the Lord is good”.

This same connection was expressed during our farewell supper.  An Indian family had spent the entire day preparing a ‘western meal’ for us. Although it was very tasty to our palette everyone else said it was very ‘bland’… and there was no rice! We had a great meal together followed by a mini worship service.  Her son played the guitar and we sang worship songs that were familiar to all the families. Our host read a Psalm from the scriptures and then she asked how they could pray for us.  We shared and prayed together.

During her prayer of blessing for us, she prayed exactly what I had felt. She described “it”. She thanked God that our paths had crossed and she expressed praise for how quickly and deeply we could bond because of our shared place in the family of God.  She acknowledged that despite the brevity of our visit there was a sense of connectedness that we shared that couldn’t be experienced even with people that she interacted with every day.

I experienced “it” with a beautiful older woman the week before.  Her and her husband had travelled for hours to attend the training session.  Wrapped majestically in her Indian sari, she grasped my hand and looked through my eyes into my soul.  The Holy Spirit in her poured out of her very being and although her English was limited we conversed praising God for the message that marriages and lives could be transformed through the message of Jesus.

So as we leave India, I am again amazed.  I’m awed by the presence of God in people’s lives and how this can be reflected in relationships.  We are literally from the other side of the world and from vastly different cultures and life experiences yet we aren’t that different.  These women, whose names I couldn’t even pronounce, all came from very different lives yet… we connected.  Intensely and deeply.  It was a supernatural connection and a testimony of the living presence of God… all around the world.  This is ‘it’.

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