A Man Named Sidappa

This report came in from one of our participants on our Real Life India Team.  You gotta read it.

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By: Don Barr, Participant

Don Barr here. I was a participant on the fall India team and have answered God’s call to continue my journey here in India. Last semester, in the leper colony that we frequented, I built a beautiful relationship with a man named Sidappa. My first encounter with him was the first time our team went to the colony last September. I walked into his home and discovered a leprosy stricken man trying poorly to feed himself with his fingerless hands. His face was a mess: covered in dirt, flies, a beard full of food from his current meal and meals from days past. I immediately found a rag and began to clean his face. Upon doing this, he began to weep. Consequently, so did I. We lay there that day simply weeping together. I visited him once a week after that. In that time, God allowed me to be literal hands and feet of Jesus to him. I cried with him, held him, wiped his tears, fed him, talked to him … and basically loved him. I accepted him with value when his society had done the opposite.
There was one instance when I was feeding him, when his wife, Sirinama, began calling me something in Hindi. I found out later that she had been calling me ‘Son.’ I did not know how serious she was about that until I returned to that leper colony with this team in January.

This team’s first visit to the leper colony was last Tuesday. As you can imagine, I was immensely excited about return to visit my friends Sidappa and Sirinama. Upon arriving, we were intensely greeted by a surge of children surrounding the vehicles. As I stepped out, they recognized me and started to shout my name and jump all over me. It was quite a warm greeting! They took me into the colony and started to take me toward Sidappa’s home, re-introducing me to all of their parents along the way. As we kept walking, Sidappa’s house came into view. I got about thirty feet away and there I saw him … lying there in his home. All of the children started shouting his name, telling him that I had returned. He rolled over, looked up and saw me walking towards him. It was like time hadstopped. All of the commotion and noise: the cloud of children around me and the honking of cars outside the walls … it all turned to silence and peace as our eyes locked. His emotion and expression was like one of the father in the story of the prodigal son. I rushed over to help him sit up, and was greeted with the most beautiful embrace as joyous tears filled our eyes. He motioned to a woman to come over. As she approached, she introduced herself (with surprisingly good English) as Sunita (Sidappa’s daughter-in-law). She continued to tell me that she had heard so much about me and that she was quite honored to finally meet me. Then, I noticed something in her arms, and I saw that it was the family photo album which I had looked through several times before. Even though I had seen the pictures inside many times before, I decided that it wouldn’t hurt to look just one more time. As I flipped through, Sunita excitedly told me who each of the people were. When I turned to the last page, Sidappa tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the picture that was at the end. I looked down and saw that it was a picture of me that I had given them last fall.
I made the family photo album!

Sunita had the biggest grin on her face as she said, “You’re part of the family now. You are my brother. Since you left, Sirinama (Sidappa’s wife and her mother-in-law) has told all persons about you. She tells them she has a son now in America … but is coming back soon.”

Well, I came back to them that day, and two more times since. Each time spending a peaceful afternoon being the hands, feet and love of Jesus to a family that has taken me in as their own.  The experiences God will lead us to in this journey is astounding.

If you are interested in having this same type of experience and going on a trip yourself, check out all the Real Life trips we offer at http://www.adventures.org/a/nextstep/sum_rl.asp