VIJAYAWADA, India — Radical obedience. That’s what Kristin Clifton’s life is all about these days.
For the next two years, as a Virginia Baptist Venturer, Clifton will be living in Vijayawada, India. There she will be assisting B.V.R. Rao and his team of volunteers at the Pearly Gates Child Development Center and the newly created Mother and Child Care Center in Vijayawada. In addition, she will spend a portion of her time working with Woman’s Missionary Union of India, which WMU of Virginia helped to form last year.
The child development center is an offshoot of the Precious Children’s International Village with which Virginia Baptists have a long partnership through Kunjamin Chacko and Rao.
Kristin Clifton
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The Virginia Baptist Mission Board’s Venturers program matches persons answering a six-month to two-year call to missions with a statewide, national or international ministry setting.
Growing up in a pastor’s home in the Washington, D.C., area, Clifton is no stranger to missions. Still, her call came in stages as she migrated from a project manager with IBM to employment in the religious realm as development officer with the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.
Sandwiched between, Clifton served as communications manager of Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church, Va., where she has been a member for more than 10 years.
While participating in a Spence Network leadership program called “Uptick” in 2009-2010, she sensed God calling her to a new level of mission service. In her words, God began “showing me my strengths and giftedness in a new light.”
Kristen Clifton uses name tags to learn the identities of about 80 boys and girls, who often quiz her as they are here.
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Being single, without children and without debt, she sensed that God “was calling me to make a radical change and make the most of this stage in my life.” At that point she began to think seriously about serving God in another country.
Knowing of her interest in other cultures and of her curiosity about religious faith across the globe, Jim Baucom, her pastor, challenged her to think about an opportunity to work in India as a part of Columbia’s “Spend Yourself” ministry.
As a result, Clifton worked with Laura McDaniel, executive director of Virginia WMU, and Jerry Jones, team leader of VBMB’s glocal missions team, to begin the process of application and appointment, which went smoothly and quickly.
As time passed, “I quit my job, got rid of a bunch of my stuff, sub-let my apartment, sold my car, got vaccinations, set up power of attorney for my bank accounts, basically spent two and a half months saying good-bye to friends, family and the U.S.A.,” she recalls.
Clifton mused in an e-mail, “Many aspects of my ‘previous life’ both personally and professionally have prepared me for this time in India. I had several opportunities to travel abroad (India, Egypt, Jordan, Dubai, Moldova) which gave me some perspective on life without certain comforts from home. As a single adult, I know the importance of creating family even in unconventional ways. I am prepared to reach out to other singles, couples and children to create a family for me here.”
Considering how her “past life” may have prepared her for what she is doing on the mission field, she paralleled the language barrier with what she encountered at IBM.
“There was a different kind of language barrier in that situation (IT geek-speak vs. regular English) but it still had to be managed.”
Her time at the BJC, too, will be helpful, she believes, for there she learned to communicate compelling stories that connect with people. She will be telling to her home church and to her Virginia Baptist family the stories of ministry to women and children in India.
“And nothing prepares you for the mission field like working on a church staff. I gained important insight about what it takes to really accomplish ministry by being a member of Columbia’s staff team (and from being a preacher’s kid). I learned a lot about working in God’s timing and understanding the difference between God’s estimation of success and our own,” says Clifton.
But moving from her home in Washington’s suburbs has not been easy. The culture clash has been enormous.
“To say everything is different just doesn’t do this place justice,” she wrote. “While some people speak English, the majority that I come in contact with (the poor) do not. Learning Telugu is a slow process. The heat and humidity with no air conditioning takes some getting used to. Thank goodness for ceiling fans in every room.
“We eat with our hands here (no utensils except for soup and even then you could just drink from the bowl). The food is spicy 95 per cent of the time and there is no such thing as being too full for a second (or third) helping. There are various bugs around all the time. I use bottled water for almost everything. I have to hand-wash and line-dry all my clothes. Drivers honk all the time. There is trash everywhere. Everywhere. Electricity will go out periodically without warning. There is often a strong smell of sewage in the air; and if not sewage, then burning trash.
“So many children and adults walk the city streets without any shoes. Cows, pigs, goats, chickens and mangy dogs roam the town. I’ve heard tell of monkeys but have yet to see one. So many of my neighbors and shop keepers are Hindu and as such I see a lot of ritual washing of front steps and chalk-drawn or painted symbols on door steps and sidewalk entries. I could go on.
“The good news is none of these adjustments are difficulties that seem insurmountable. It’s all in the attitude. Before I arrived I was preparing myself by acknowledging that, yes, this would be different, totally different. And it is. So even though I was not sure what to expect I am tempering my reaction. Yes, it is different; but in due time this will be home, for two years at least.”
Clifton arrived in India July 23, but in the brief time since, she has reached important conclusions.
“By far the most rewarding thing at this point has been the powerful realization of God’s guiding hand through this whole experience. From before the moment I sat down in Jim’s [Baucom’s] office and said I would like to go overseas until today I have seen God at work in me and in situations around me. He is protecting me, blessing me and providing for me at the exact moment of need. He has been faithful as I have tried to be faithful. I have little choice but to fully rely on him; I would be crazy to try this on my own. I feel like it’s me and God taking on India together.”
Clifton is being supported by Columbia and WMUV during her service as a Venturer.