Dreaming About Mumbai

Why should Mumbai matter to you? Why do I hope you start dreaming about—and praying for Mumbai—like I do?

First, it’s possible that families from every unreached people group in India live in Mumbai.

Second, with about 22 million* residents, the fourth largest city in the world is home to decades-old slums and some of the wealthiest, most influential personalities in the world.

With a majority Hindu and Muslim population, this economic and entertainment hub of India is one of the most spiritually strategic places on this earth with least access to the good news of the Kingdom of God.

I traveled to Mumbai last year with a couple of willing souls planning a purposeful long-term move there—a husband whose international company decided to open a branch there; and his wife with her masters in community development.

Click, then scroll down and start the Photo Essay from the bottom up.

I thought I’d bring you with me on this survey so YOU could get a taste of Mumbai for yourself.

I created a series on Instagram of Photo Essays, with thoughtful posts and reflections like a mini-blog, including a walk through the largest slum, the red light district, and the money belt. Scroll down and I included the best ones here, plus extra video clips or check it out at #MumbaiPhotoEssay2019.

Pray.

Dream with me about what God is doing in Mumbai already.

Advocate for more followers of Jesus to consider changing their address to a flat around the corner from Dhavari—or a high-rise in the middle of the Queen’s Necklace, and join my friends now living and loving there.

Fun Instagram Stories Highlight Reel

You might also enjoy my Instagram Stories Highlight reel where I posted fun, quick slices of Mumbai life, including videos of travel by bus, train, and rickshaw—and the bubbling welcome by a gaggle of energetic children. Here’s a couple:

The Best Photo Essays

Mumbai Photo essay #1:

An endearing welcome

The welcome is endearing. Everywhere we go, people seem open to strange foreigners walking around saying hello. We are not going where most westerners might tour, so it feels refreshing that most people don't seem jaded towards tourists or trying to take advantage. In fact, we are experiencing the opposite. Invited to talk, to come see, to take selfies, to welcome.

Of course, on a quick trip, we can't see the pain or struggle that most humans hide behind a smile. But on first encounter, we find people in Mumbai happy to have us visit, and drawing us into peek at their daily life, as we just put our feet in places most westerners don't venture.

Photo Essay #2

Angels in the Red Light District

I’ve never walked the daytime streets of a Red Light District. I did this week. It disturbed me to look into their faces and see the injustice dealt in their lives. I went to sleep early that night and didn’t want to talk about it. 1,000 ladies, mostly trafficked years ago from West Bengal and Bangladesh, live in these separated, legal blocks of the city, of which there are six. It’s a business.

In mid-afternoon, just waking from sleeping in the late morning hours, each woman lounged outside their own little room in this rundown block, playing cards, talking, still painted and jeweled but relaxed. Their children are learning at a special faith-based after-school, designed to get the kids on par educationally with other children. At night, around 7pm, they say the place changes atmosphere. The children go to a shelter to sleep for the night while the women work.

But Sonita, Veronica and Asha, local faith-based development workers (in the photos), are dishing out hope and healing everyday from their little one-room community center in the heart of the district. They offer sewing, cooking, literacy, and English classes. They do monthly vaccinations and medical check-ups. They even plan fun days to the water park and a local artist comes to teach card-making.

These angels of mercy gently “seed dreams of possibility” into the women’s lives, helping those who wish to eventually leave open bank accounts, get ID cards, and start to save. Then they help them get part-time jobs. They convince the women to place their girl daughters in special children’s homes to keep them safe. They facilitate prayer groups, helping them cry out to a God who sees them, teaching lessons of value, honor and rescue, like the story of Queen Esther, who spoke up for herself and her people.

Most women are addicted to drugs, both by force to make them stay and then choice. So when some women finally believe they can leave, the staff of this amazing NGO, make a way for the woman to enter rehab, and then “disappear quietly” into another city to start a new life with a new job, and renewed hope.

Fifty-one women gained freedom last year.

Mumbai Photo Essay #3

Meeting Titus, a Man of Peace

Titus. This is what we called this welcoming elder of the community. As we walked through an urban settlement area, of maybe several hundred thousand residents, this man greeted us warmly and pulled us into his home for tea. He's lived here twenty years and has four daughters, two of which he introduced with proud smiles. Refreshing because actually he has great responsibility and cost to marry them off.

We sat with sadness as he told us their mother is "no more". He kept saying, when you come, my home is yours, we welcome you. His daughter served us chai in communion-like cups, us sitting in a circle on the floor.

We believe he is a man of God and a person of peace. They lifted their hands palms up with us, as our fluent Hindi/Urdu speaker traveling with us prayed for blessings on his home and family, that angels would guard his home and protect him from scheme's of Satan, and continue to give him honor.

I'm traveling with a couple from whose international company is opening a branch in Mumbai, so they are moving here with their work. Also, the wife has her Master's in Community Development so she hopes to partner with elders such as Titus to bless their communities in ways they wish. His big prayer for his society? More work.

Mumbai Photo Essay #4:

The Urban Poor

700,000 people living on about a mile and a half of land. (That's more than twice the population of the city of Mesa, Arizona!). We walked through the well known Dhavari slum, and discovered an established settlement, a well run system of community living. Every dwelling housed a small business behind a curtain door, colorful sleeping mats on the floor, hanging pots, and a simple kitchen area.

A checkerboard of same-community blocks of Hindus living together, then the two minority religions Muslims and a sprinkling of Christians sharing the same community squares, where all the futbal, games and tea times happened, each with their own worship houses, and vegetable stalls.

See the center square in a slum where community happens, and possibly where young people could intern to learn about Urban Poor.

Alive, communal, welcoming, in the middle of all their requested selfies with us, some people told us they've lived there twenty years, living day to day, saving up for marriages and hoping to get at least one child educated. . Urban poor living is complicated. On a first walk through, all the smiles, activity, color, and well-organized government sponsored cleanliness and concrete paths, almost led to a romanticized view of urban poor life.

But read The Beautiful Forevers and The City of Joy books, and you'll see a different story. We're dreaming of starting an urban poor cultural internship program where college students could come live in the slum for a summer, learning language, culture, and to shed oneself to love another.

Mumbai Photo essay #5:

empowerment and integrity

We’re hanging out with a smart guy who lived in a slum with his family for twelve years in Africa. He’s helping us think through how someone might enter the infamous urban poor areas of Mumbai long-term. We walked with him through a settlement and saw a bustling society, working hard, full of creativity, community, but struggling to make ends meet, to educate their children, to get adequate healthcare.

We ask God for political stability and safety, a valid system of just law, people having a voice, accountability, and lack of corruption. But it has to come from a transformed worldview. One that says we’re made in the image of God, that every person has value, that there is not a limited amount of good available from God, and so much more.

As you listen to the Call to Prayer while we walk through a slum, pray for God’s Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.

Underlying beliefs result in outward behavior and it affects what is called social integrity. High social integrity usually equals high productivity, meaning people have jobs, freedom, and the ability to own land and to trade. The single best way to reduce suffering is to get people to have integrity. And integrity, character, the power to do good to others, comes from following God’s ways and will. I’m just learning about all this, and it’s fascinating.

Mumbai Photo Essay #6:

Mumbai Money

A city of extreme contrasts, Mumbai also reigns as a city of wealth and modernity. Bollywood is here, and so are branches of countless international businesses, high rises, modern malls, and lots of money.

One successful businessman lives at the top of a high rise, with a pool on the veranda, an exercise gym, tennis courts, and a spa. The international airport runs 1,000 flights a day to all parts of the world.

Walk through a mall to see the modernity and wealth.

What about strategically placing yourself working for an international business in Mumbai? Business people could apply to work overseas, offer to open a branch of the business, or even volunteer do to do the next company training that happens to be in India. Barely any cross cultural workers are reaching the upper class Hindus and Muslims of Mumbai and especially western foreigners have a perception of equal economic status. Be a Daniel and influence the influencers.

Photo Essay #7:

Praying on the ground

We gathered with people living here that wish to bless Mumbai, asking for God's favor, and his kingdom to come on earth, as it is in heaven.

From the prophet Isaiah: “No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help…

“Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. Then when you call, the Lord will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.”

*The 2011 Census in India shows about 12 million residents, but population experts estimate that it has doubled since then, so numbers show between 20 and 22 million now. For those who received my recent e-news where I wrote 22 BILLION, that was an error. Maybe I accidentally wrote billion because in Mumbai it FEELS like 22 billion.