Meet Prakesh

(g.r.)
One of the things I enjoyed so much about China was meeting another family from China and getting to know them and the culture much better through them. I was hoping to have a sort of similar experience this trip. Today, I got the start of it.

Carl, the kids, and I were getting ready to go exploring for the day. Carl and I were outside talking when a man walked up and began to speak to us. We recognized him as someone from the hotel. He began by asking questions about the cricket match and if we had watched. As we talked, he used words that are catch phrases of sorts within the Christian culture but would not really arouse any sort of attention if the listener was not Christian. We began to sprinkle our responses back with similar sorts of things. Very soon, we were all talking openly about Christ, his role in the world, and his role within India.

We learned that Prakesh was an orphan himself. His mother committed suicide when he was four years old by jumping into a river. She did this because of the poverty they lived in. His father tried for awhile to raise him but could not, also due to the circumstances of poverty. Soon, his father turned him over to an orphanage where he resided for the next 17 years. It was a Christian orphanage, but he did not accept Christ while living there. After leaving the orphanage, he felt privileged to be able to serve in the army. After getting out of the army, he heard a message somewhere given by a Christian. After listening to that message, he turned his life over to Christ. He now is the manager of the housekeeping crew here and feels glad to be able to do it.

He had first thought that we were Europeans who would not want to have anything to do with the help staff. Then, while attending to our room, he happened across one of our Bibles. When he saw that, he said he immediately knew that we would not want to keep our distance from him but would be willing to draw close to him. He was right!

It was interesting beginning to learn about Christianity in India. He is very active in his church and even has the opportunity to speak at other churches from time to time. He shared that his own church gives away 80% of their donations to the missions field. I had to stop him and specifically clarify that he said 8-0. He said that I heard him correctly and that they only use 20% of what the take in to help their own church function.

When he found out that we were adopting, he mentioned that other families have been to the hotel doing the same thing. He felt as if the Jayamahal Palace was being used by God. I had to agree with him. Hopefully, we will be able to spend some more time together.