Non-Fiction
This past January I had the opportunity to travel to India for 3 weeks. It was an experience that changed my outlook on life and impacted me in so many ways. My journey to India was a time in which I was stretched out of my comfort zone and into the realities of the world beyond the boarders of home. Below is a non-fiction piece that gives a bit of history about India as well as some of my personal experiences.
This past January I had the opportunity to travel to India for 3 weeks. It was an experience that changed my outlook on life and impacted me in so many ways. My journey to India was a time in which I was stretched out of my comfort zone and into the realities of the world beyond the boarders of home. Below is a non-fiction piece that gives a bit of history about India as well as some of my personal experiences.
India
by: Ashley Horsfall
India is a culture rich in history with a heritage that spans over the last 5,000 years. It is a country whose culture is hard to understand unless you have been immersed in it. India is a land that some of the poorest of the poor, and richest of the rich call home; it is a place where education is a gift, and a place where people with extremely different religious views live together. India is also a country where within many facets, men are seen superior to women. I recently had the opportunity to travel to India for three weeks and it was an experience that I will never forget.
When I arrived I was reminded that even though India’s heritage spans over 5,000 years, it has only been a free country since 1947. The city of Mumbai, located on India’s Western coast, is one of the largest cities in the world and has an estimated population of 13 million people. With so many living in such a concentrated area the people of India have been forced to create a job for everything. At the YMCA we stayed at, for meal time there was someone to fill up water containers, someone to set out glasses, and yet another someone to pour the water from the container into the glass. Things in America that we have one person complete, are completed by 3 different people in India, and even with that amount of job opportunity India is still a country plagued with the problem of unemployment. This is evident in the fact that the estimated population of India is 1.2 billion with a large percentage, about one third of the world’s poor, living within the countries boarders. The drastic poverty not only shows the lack of employment available but the power of the countries cast system.
As you soak in what you just heard, one can begin to see that India is a land that often time contradicts itself. It is a land with advanced technology on the rise, helping the economy become stronger and some people richer, yet it is also a land where many still make a living as modest farmers of rice or sugar cane, and many live on the streets having only the cloths on their back as they beg for something as simple as hope to keep on living. Something else to understand about India is that being a Christian in India is a lot different than being a Christian in America. Just four short years ago, within certain villages in India Christians were being so badly persecuted that many were killed and families were forced to find refuge in the jungle for long periods of time. One particular Business student that we met on our journey lived through this persecution and told of how he and his father had to protect his mother and sister by finding refuge in the jungle by day, only returning to home at night to prepare food for the coming days they would spend in the jungle. The courage, strength, perseverance, and faith that it took for that young man and his family to stay alive was incredible. Although persecution is not a foreign concept to the people of India, amongst the Hindu and Buddhist temples you will find churches with Christians whose faith, much like the young man and his family, is incredibly strong. There are around 27 million Christians living in India, however that number does not even make up 3% of India’s total population. That statistic can be quite shocking to Christians living comfortably like we do here in America.
From my journey I found it to be so true that you cannot even begin to fully grasp the country of India until you have to walked the streets the natives call home, and even then you might only come to understand a small fraction of the only way of life they know. The concern of the upcoming elections in India was brought to my group’s attention as we joined in fellowship with the Free Methodist bishop for that region of the country. The gravity of what a new party entering into power meant for the Christians in India was evident in his tone and body language.
Even though some of what I saw in India gives me a heavy heart as I sense the darkness of idol worshiping, and saw first hand the conditions that people living on the street are in, I was also overwhelmed by moments of great joy and thankfulness. The opportunity to work with some of the poorest of the poor at Mother Theresa’s Missionaries of charity, as well as met fellow brothers and sisters in Christ living halfway around the world, whose hearts are on fire for the Lord, shows the hope that is still within India. The simple act of my group joining our voices together with people from varying nations and tongues to sing “How Great is Our God” gave me a feeling I will not soon forget.
India is a country full of so much history. It is a land with 3,000 different languages and 22,000 different dialects, 4,635 different ethnic groups, and 500 religions yet the people of India find pride in remaining together as 1 nation. India is a place that once you visit will make you stop and reexamine your own life. It is a country that will make you think twice before you complain about anything we face in the United States. India puts you out of your comfort zone and into the realities of the world beyond the boarders of home, and it is a place that has impacted me in ways that will be revealed in how I live my life for years to come.
Resources:
History Learning Site. (2013). 1900-1947. Retrieved from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/india_1900_to_1947.htm
Third World Planet. (2007). The Indian Economy. Retrieved from http://www.thirdworldplanet.com/indian-economy.php
(1996). Christianity in India, M. B. Herald, 35. Retrieved from http://old.mbconf.ca/mb/mbh3509/christin.htm
by: Ashley Horsfall
India is a culture rich in history with a heritage that spans over the last 5,000 years. It is a country whose culture is hard to understand unless you have been immersed in it. India is a land that some of the poorest of the poor, and richest of the rich call home; it is a place where education is a gift, and a place where people with extremely different religious views live together. India is also a country where within many facets, men are seen superior to women. I recently had the opportunity to travel to India for three weeks and it was an experience that I will never forget.
When I arrived I was reminded that even though India’s heritage spans over 5,000 years, it has only been a free country since 1947. The city of Mumbai, located on India’s Western coast, is one of the largest cities in the world and has an estimated population of 13 million people. With so many living in such a concentrated area the people of India have been forced to create a job for everything. At the YMCA we stayed at, for meal time there was someone to fill up water containers, someone to set out glasses, and yet another someone to pour the water from the container into the glass. Things in America that we have one person complete, are completed by 3 different people in India, and even with that amount of job opportunity India is still a country plagued with the problem of unemployment. This is evident in the fact that the estimated population of India is 1.2 billion with a large percentage, about one third of the world’s poor, living within the countries boarders. The drastic poverty not only shows the lack of employment available but the power of the countries cast system.
As you soak in what you just heard, one can begin to see that India is a land that often time contradicts itself. It is a land with advanced technology on the rise, helping the economy become stronger and some people richer, yet it is also a land where many still make a living as modest farmers of rice or sugar cane, and many live on the streets having only the cloths on their back as they beg for something as simple as hope to keep on living. Something else to understand about India is that being a Christian in India is a lot different than being a Christian in America. Just four short years ago, within certain villages in India Christians were being so badly persecuted that many were killed and families were forced to find refuge in the jungle for long periods of time. One particular Business student that we met on our journey lived through this persecution and told of how he and his father had to protect his mother and sister by finding refuge in the jungle by day, only returning to home at night to prepare food for the coming days they would spend in the jungle. The courage, strength, perseverance, and faith that it took for that young man and his family to stay alive was incredible. Although persecution is not a foreign concept to the people of India, amongst the Hindu and Buddhist temples you will find churches with Christians whose faith, much like the young man and his family, is incredibly strong. There are around 27 million Christians living in India, however that number does not even make up 3% of India’s total population. That statistic can be quite shocking to Christians living comfortably like we do here in America.
From my journey I found it to be so true that you cannot even begin to fully grasp the country of India until you have to walked the streets the natives call home, and even then you might only come to understand a small fraction of the only way of life they know. The concern of the upcoming elections in India was brought to my group’s attention as we joined in fellowship with the Free Methodist bishop for that region of the country. The gravity of what a new party entering into power meant for the Christians in India was evident in his tone and body language.
Even though some of what I saw in India gives me a heavy heart as I sense the darkness of idol worshiping, and saw first hand the conditions that people living on the street are in, I was also overwhelmed by moments of great joy and thankfulness. The opportunity to work with some of the poorest of the poor at Mother Theresa’s Missionaries of charity, as well as met fellow brothers and sisters in Christ living halfway around the world, whose hearts are on fire for the Lord, shows the hope that is still within India. The simple act of my group joining our voices together with people from varying nations and tongues to sing “How Great is Our God” gave me a feeling I will not soon forget.
India is a country full of so much history. It is a land with 3,000 different languages and 22,000 different dialects, 4,635 different ethnic groups, and 500 religions yet the people of India find pride in remaining together as 1 nation. India is a place that once you visit will make you stop and reexamine your own life. It is a country that will make you think twice before you complain about anything we face in the United States. India puts you out of your comfort zone and into the realities of the world beyond the boarders of home, and it is a place that has impacted me in ways that will be revealed in how I live my life for years to come.
Resources:
History Learning Site. (2013). 1900-1947. Retrieved from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/india_1900_to_1947.htm
Third World Planet. (2007). The Indian Economy. Retrieved from http://www.thirdworldplanet.com/indian-economy.php
(1996). Christianity in India, M. B. Herald, 35. Retrieved from http://old.mbconf.ca/mb/mbh3509/christin.htm
Non-Fiction Media Piece
Watch the youtube video below to hear me reading my non-fiction piece called India as you see pictures from my journey
Watch the youtube video below to hear me reading my non-fiction piece called India as you see pictures from my journey