Goa Outreach

Music track went to Goa for outreach. It was such a fun, relaxing, and challenging time. It’s a place about 13 hours (by train) away from Lonavala. We packed up our things, instruments and all, and took an overnight train (we had sleeper class, woot!) to this beautiful state. I think it’s the smallest state in India and most of the people are part Portuguese. There are banana, coconut and palm trees all over the place. If I had been to Hawaii then I’d say that it’s very much like Goa. It’s such a paradise place! (but very very hot too!). So many tourists go there for the beautiful beaches, parties, and cheap drugs and alcohol. 

…but we were there for a different type of party. We were there to show the glory of God. To bring HIS joy and life to a place where people are needing purpose, belonging and satisfaction. We came to use music and anything else we had to offer, to give a different message. 

The first day of our ministry we spent at a beach just prayer walking, asking God take over this place. Asking God what his heart for Goa is. During this time, I felt that God was just reminding me of how much He longs for these people to see him when he shows himself to them. All around, it’s like he is shouting that He is there. He made soooo much beauty. The powerful waves, the lush plants, the white beaches…. The peace of the place… all because he wanted to show his goodness and his beauty to his people. He’s screaming out his love. But it’s so easy to ignore it. To turn our backs on him, and look to other things to give us life. To ignore everything He has done and say it’s not good enough all because of a hurt we might have inside. This breaks his heart!!! He pours out his goodness all around us, but we are too hurt and broken to see it. To see that only he can heal us…

Anyways, that’s sort of what I felt with this place. There is so much beauty and life and joy that God offers, yet so many hurt people turn to the alcohol and drugs instead… I can’t even imagine how much Papa weeps when he sees this. 

This pray walking time was so good just to hear from God before we did anything. A bunch of us had words that gave direction for how we should go about our ministry. But for me I needed it because I felt that the first few days I just needed to focus on getting close to God before I could truly share Him with others. I had a bunch of things I had to get straight with God. Actually, for me personally, I had to do that the whole time. I felt like the more I wanted to share Jesus with others, the more I had to get close to him. I realized how much garbage I had inside that I needed to clean up before I could make any positive impact. The first few days I felt very paralyzed and distant from God. I felt like I had NOTHING to give and it was driving me nuts. That was the spiritual warfare that we were learning about in the teachings just before outreach. I had to keep on pursuing Jesus all the more because I was doing something that the Enemy didn’t like. Once I started having even way more quiet time (personal time alone with Jesus) then I started getting more filled… but the biggest part of that for me, involved playing music. Pouring out my heart through song… only then, did I have something to contribute. But let me tell you, it really is a battle.

Normally what we did for ministry, was hop on the (extremely) crowded buses with our instruments (even my cello! Which was so fun because there was like NO room for passengers, yet we managed to get on WITH a huuuuge giant instrument. Got so many weird looks, but it was awesome…), and get off at a beach where we would sit down and just start playing music. It would sometimes be praise/worship songs, or songs that indirectly spoke of Jesus, or even love songs. People would ALWAYS come around and listen. It was always fun singing, clapping, and dancing to songs singing praise to Jesus, and then getting other random people coming around and joining in the party – whether they knew Jesus or not! We would also do a few skits and dances that we prepared. They were so much fun. Funny yet gave the message of Jesus’ love.

When people would gather around, then those of us who weren’t playing, would talking with them, sharing about Jesus. We had many opportunities for such things. But since Goa is considered a ‘Catholic State’, then most people already know the gospel story and it’s harder for them to have much interest in hearing it again. What they need is something new and that can take them farther. Not only the gospel, but something more. There are so many people who know in their head what the gospel of Jesus is, but still don’t have that relationship with Him because perhaps don’t know it enough in their hearts… We really believed that God wanted to do something new with the people of that place… a sort of spiritual revival. When we were praying and fasting before we came, one of the guys in the team had this picture of a spiritual tsunami. That God’s presence was going to come in a mighty way. We don’t know when or how or what exactly it’ll look like, but I think that’s something really on God’s heart. 

One time we were chatting with some foreigners from Kazakhstan who were there for a few hours because of a flight layover. They totally initiated the conversation, showing interest in what we were doing and asking lots of questions about who we were and what we were all about. I just tried to be completely real and honest with them. I just said that we were just visiting Goa and playing music to share Jesus’ love. We love Jesus so much that we want to share Him with others. They weren’t completely closed or completely open to what we were about. They seemed like they were open just to anything and everything… I ended up playing one of my songs for them - one girl in particular. It was one I wrote during one of our creative weeks. It was an assignment where we had to write a song that indirectly spoke of Jesus. That was ‘Christian’, but not ‘Christian-ese’ or religious or anything. My song was about the search for joy and happiness. We call it ‘The Joy Song’. So I played it, and Avika (our track leader) said that the girl’s expression just totally changed. That she seemed pretty impacted by it. It’s so beautiful to see the fruits of one’s efforts! I wrote this song praying that it would impact people and so far it has done just that in so many ways! My dreams are coming true…

Another time we were just sitting around playing music, and some young people came up so us asking if we were believers. We said yes, and they were thrilled. They said they heard us playing songs about God came over, curious. They invited us to come to their small group meeting just down the road, ‘cause it was starting pretty soon. We didn’t think we could come because we were waiting to meet up with someone who’s restaurant we were possibly going to play at. Turned out that man never showed up, so we went to the small group thing. They asked us to lead them in worship. It was awesome to be able to be a blessing for them. To encourage and uplift them wherever we could.  I loved being able to encourage the young people. We told them about our upcoming Arts Gathering we were hosting at base and a bunch of them were really interested. They were also just really interested in YWAM in general which was fabulous. I was so happy to be a part of inspiring other young people like myself.

So that was all great and everything, but then a few days later, those same people phoned us up and asked if we want to play worship with them on the beach as an ‘open air’ kind of thing. So we brought our instruments to the beach again, and just played worships songs for hours. It was so much fun! And talking with people who came around was a ton of fun too… And again, we were able to encourage and inspire those young people. I really believe that’s another thing that God wants to do in Goa – renewal and revival to the youth.

Some other ministry we did was visit and help out at some preschools, and lead worship for various churches and gatherings.

At one preschool we went to, we did some action songs with the kids, and played with them a little. I love it. Those kids were SO BEAUTIFUL! (inside and out) It was one of those moments where I wondered why God didn’t call me to children’s ministry – I would love it! …but who knows maybe it will play a role in my future… Afterwards we talked with the leader of the school and he shared how they really really need teachers and people to come work with the kids. But he said it’s hard enough to find teachers, but they don’t want just anyone. They don’t care how much qualifications the people have, they just need people who will love the children. And mentor and disciple them out of a heart of love. Most of these kids hardly get it at home, so they need from someone. So if any of you have a heart for kids, and just want to love on them, while mentoring them in various way, then consider a preschool in India. There are so many in need of people like you…

One church we went to lead worship and share from the Bible, we had a lot of fun. Then they took up their offering, and then after that the pastor handed it to us saying that it was for our team… the entire church offering! They didn’t even do a special offering or anything, but gave us what was meant for them. And it was 6,000 rupees!! There was only about a hundred people, and they weren’t even that wealthy. This was such a miracle because we had been asking God to provide our financial needs. We needed to pay for food, transportation, and a little for staying at the YWAM base there. We really didn’t have that much money because we had to pay a lot for the train ride there and back. We were literally having to live by faith... and God totally did his part. 

All in all, this mini outreach was such a learning experience for everyone. And we really bonded and grew well as a team. I think everyone became a lot closer and we learned how to work in unity. I think this is so important for musicians because we need to work as a team in order to play together. It really helps to know each other well and how we work and everything. I loved being able to play music with the others so much. I learned so much from the others and had a TON of fun. I love this team!! And this outreach!! :D