Marshall woman recounts experiences from mission trip to India

Naomi Campbell displays the words of a song she learned on her mission trip to India last summer and which she sang during her presentation at the Marshall Public Library Tuesday, Nov. 11. "Mili juli gam ame alleluia!" translates to, "Together we sing hallelujah!"
(Jacob Hatfield/Democrat-News)

[Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

"This is a true story from God's word …"

Those were the words Naomi Campbell used to begin the stories she told to the people of India during her mission trip there from July 22 to Aug. 3, 2008.

Campbell demonstrates the Indian-style of drinking bottled water. She explained because of the heat -- and because the well water could hardly be trusted -- everyone carried a supply of bottled water. And since bottles were passed among numerous people, the Indian people have a certain way they drink bottled water, which includes pouring it into your mouth without letting the bottle touch your lips.
(Jacob Hatfield/Democrat-News)

[Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Campbell was with a group of three members of First Baptist Church of Marshall and her father, Dan Wilford, pastor of First Baptist Church in Milan, on a mission to spread the "good news" in areas of India.

This was not the first mission trip she had been on, she said. She had been on missions to Nebraska and Iowa and other states, but never overseas.

"I never dreamed I'd be going to India," Campbell said.

The sign-up sheet had been posted at First Baptist, and Campbell had seen it, but wasn't sure she was called to go. But she described her "calling" as one of those moments "you ask yourself, 'Why am I crying?'" and she "just knew."

After enduring a 22-hour flight, a seven-hour train ride and a taxi ride lasting almost three hours, Campbell, her father and the rest of the group arrived at one of the places in India where they would be "storying."

"Storying," as described by Campbell, is when the missionaries tell stories from the Bible and a translator converts them into the language and style the people will understand.

"The reason we tell the stories like that," Campbell said, "in story format instead of (the people) reading the scriptures directly, is because so many of the people don't have the education to know how to read."

She said the missionaries had to practice the stories a lot to make sure they did not "leave anything out or add anything to it, because it is God's Word."

Some of the New Testament stories included "The Demon-Possessed Man," "The Paralyzed Man," "The Bleeding Woman" and "The Feeding of 5,000."

The missionaries would then ask questions, like, "What was something you liked about the story?" "What did the story tell you about people, Jesus or God?" and "Who can you tell this story to?"

Campbell said the missionaries would try to find a "person of peace" -- those who "want to find out about this Jesus guy."

During a prayer walk through one of the Indian villages, she said they prayed someone would invite them into their house, and, as it turned, out three people extended their hospitality.

What is a prayer walk? Campbell explained, "It's just what it sounds like. You walk somewhere and you pray. For what? You pray for the people who live there, who will come there, who will just be passing through. You pray for peace for the people who live there or who will be traveling through. Prayers that people will understand and come to realize the answer to what they're seeking is Jesus Christ, that He is the salvation they need."

When they left the first house, a woman in the crowd, a Muslim, invited them into her house across the street. And almost everyone from the first house followed them.

"Mostly the people we worked with were Muslim," said Campbell.

Once in the house, more people came from her side of the street, neighbors and family members.

Campbell explained it was customary to take off your shoes before entering a house, and recalled, "There were ... a bazillion sandals outside."

There were many people in that house, speaking maybe four separate languages, and as the storyteller's interpreter would tell the story in one language, someone in the crowd would tell it in a second and so on.

The Muslim woman was so interested in the stories, she would be telling them in another language before the translator could even finish, Campbell remembered.

When they finally had to leave, Campbell said the woman had tears in her eyes. Whether they were tears of sadness, tears of longing or tears of joy, she said they didn't know. But Campbell said the woman was definitely a "person of peace."

One of the listeners in that crowd was a Muslim women dressed in a full burkha, covering even her eyes.

"She was not to be seen," she stressed.

Before they left the house a dozen women or so gathered around to have their picture taken, including the woman in the burkha.

After the picture was taken, they saw the woman in the burkha had taken off the face-covering for the photo.

"That woman, who was just beautiful," said Campbell, "felt comfortable enough with us 'strangers' to reveal herself to us, and that meant a lot and gave me a really humbled but special feeling."

Campbell shared some of her experiences with the culture and food of India.

"The food was very spicy and hot," she said. Campbell described it as the kind of spicy where you break out in a sweat.

She said there was a lot of rice with a sauce called "dal." Most meals included meat, okra and "some sort of green-bean-wannabe" that was mixed together with the rice with your hand and eaten with your hand -- and only the right hand.

Campbell said the missionaries were told never to eat with or offer something to someone with the left hand, as it was considered offensive.

This was a small problem for Campbell, who is left-handed. She said it wasn't too hard to eat with her right hand; she just couldn't let anyone see her brush her teeth or anything like that.

Another food encounter was with the jackfruit. Campbell told the library audience it tasted like a "taffy -- banana taffy -- but soggy."

Carole Schaefer, a member of the audience, asked what the weather and temperature were like in the region of India Campbell was staying. She said it was roughly "105 or 106 (degrees) and humid."

Jane Huff, another participant in the audience, mentioned the recent bombings in India, which have killed upward of 80 people. The bombings are mostly attributed to strife between militant minority Muslims and majority Hindus.

Campbell said the missionaries were blessed to have no such occurrences in their immediate area.

Campbell said even though it was hot, and she was anxious about her story-telling and she got sick with tonsillitis and a parasitic illness, the people and experiences were amazing, something she would never forget.

As a sum-up of her desire to spread her faith, Campbell quoted Jesus' words in John 14:6, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Contact Jacob Hatfield at marshallpeople@socket.net