This month we share a testimony of how powerfully the Holy Spirit moves in the darkest and most remote villages of India, using simple people to reveal His Glory. This event happened during the second week of December 2020.
Riku, our missionary, and his wife were riding on their way to a village which is 45 miles away from their home town. It is a poor village where most of the people are outcasts or “untouchables.” As far as we know, Christ had never been preached and no one had ever heard the Gospel in that village. During three days of fasting and prayer, the Lord had given Riku and his wife a burden in their hearts to pray for that village, which he had heard of but had never visited. The three days had just ended, and now they were on their way to that village, to visit and pray over the village.
Until then, all they knew about the village was what they read in the newspaper. Every year there were accusations that human sacrifices were being performed in the village. Also, every family is expected to perform a yearly animal sacrifice to the village god and goddess. In general there were lots of witchcraft practices and killings reported in the village.
As Riku and his wife rode around the village on their motorbike, the townspeople were very unfriendly. It was hard to talk with them.
Lunch time came, and they sat under a banyan tree just outside the village, praying and asking for the Lord’s guidance. Riku and his wife were really burdened, so they prayed for some time. As they were praying they heard some movements in the banyan tree. When they looked up, they saw a young man in his late twenties sitting up in the tree with a rope around his neck. Riku and his wife realized that this young man was about to commit suicide. They pleaded with him to come down, and after much effort, Riku and his wife were able to coax him down.
They comforted him, gave him water and shared their lunch with him. As they sat there he shared his story. He was fed up with his life and had been planning to end it by hanging himself. When he was 8 years old his father died of tuberculosis because no one in the village allowed him to go to the hospital. Instead they did all kinds of witchcraft and offered animal sacrifices to the village god and goddess. To pay for this, his mother took a high-interest loan from the local landlord, pledging their farmland as collateral. She was unable to repay the loan, so the landlord took their farm. For the past 20 years he and his mother have worked on that farm. He said his mother endured years of suffering and pain at the hands of various people. She often told him she endured it all for him, to try to give him a better life. Now for the last three months she had been very sick, so he took her to the nearby government hospital. They ran many tests, but they could not find anything wrong with her. Finally the chief witch doctor of the village, a lady, and her disciples, came and told them the village god and goddess were very unhappy with the young man and his mother because they have not offered any animal sacrifices for the last 4 years. They said that was the reason she was sick. In order for her to be healed, they claimed, the man and his mother would have to please the god and goddess by each of them sacrificing seven goats! The young man was in shock; he didn’t have any money and no one was willing to lend him any money, since he still owed his landlord a huge sum.
He was quite desperate and wanted to find treatment for his mother, but this pushed him to the brink. It was beyond his endurance—he had no hope for the future, no purpose in his life, and he had come to the tree to commit suicide. He was sharing this in tears with Riku and his wife. They too felt the pain and agony of this young man who loved his mother so much.
Riku and his wife comforted the young man and shared the gospel with him. They told him how much Jesus loved him and his mother. The young man listened to them and Riku said to him that because of this same Jesus they were here at this time to stop him from taking his life. The young man gave his life to the Lord under that tree and pleaded with them to come and see his sick mother and bless her too. He had a renewed hope that she would be all right.
As Riku and his wife reached the young man’s small, one-room mud brick house, they saw that the witch doctor and five of her disciples were sitting outside the house. As Riku and his wife walked in they were very uncomfortable, but they continued into the house, where they found his mother in the bed, very tired and thin. They felt very sorry for her, and wanted to spend some time with her, share the Gospel with her and pray for her, but the presence of the witch doctor and her disciples, along with the way they were questioning the young man for bringing them to his house, made them very uneasy.
As the only mature believers in the house, Riku and his wife felt a responsibility to pray for the man’s mother, so Riku asked permission. The witch doctor started questioning Riku and his wife, and they politely answered her. By then, a lot of other villagers had gathered outside the house, and some came inside. Riku and his wife felt fear slowly gripping them, and they called out to God in their hearts. The witch doctor started shouting at them as she learned that Riku and his wife were there to pray for the mother.
The witch doctor and her disciples, with the support of the villagers, challenged Riku and his wife to prove that their power was stronger than hers. Riku and his wife felt it would be better to just leave, but the witch doctor and her disciples forcefully stopped them.
They were afraid, and didn’t know what to do in this situation. As time went by, more and more people gathered around the house, while the witch doctor continued shouting and entertained the crowd. She mocked and ridiculed Riku and his wife, as they sat quietly, praying in the Spirit. As they prayed the Holy Spirit came upon them and they began to speak in tongues. The presence of the Lord came down in that place, and the witch doctor and her disciples, who moments before were shouting and mocking Riku and his wife, now fell to the floor, crying out in pain and agony. Hundreds of people were watching it—they too were afraid, not knowing what was happening. Among the crowd, people in demonic torment began to cry out. After a few minutes, Riku and his wife, led by the Holy Spirit, prayed for the young man’s mother at her bedside. She was instantly healed! She sat up on her own in her bed, the first time in six weeks, according to her son! As Riku and his wife came out of the house, the witch doctor and her disciples lay on the ground, still unable to stand! They pleaded with Riku and his wife to help them. Riku and His wife laid their hands on them, prayed for them, and commanded the evil, tormenting spirit to leave. Then, from the crowd, many afflicted people were brought forward for prayer. They prayed for them and they were all delivered. A young man was brought forward, his hands tied with a towel. He was the son of the witch doctor, and he had lost his speech and gone mad 14 years ago. Since then he had wandered around the village. When Riku and his wife prayed for him he was instantly delivered. In front of the crowd, he began to speak! He recognized his mother for the first time in 14 years. They embraced one another and cried. Riku and his wife told the people it was not their power, but it was the power of Jesus, who died on the cross, who heals and delivers.
Today most of the villagers believe in Jesus. Riku and his church people freely share the Gospel to anyone who will listen. Their influence has already caused six families to stop operating illegal stills, which were selling alcohol to the villagers. As a result, many people have been delivered from alcohol.
Help Us Share the Gospel
Will you help us continue sharing the Gospel in the darkest places of India? Psalm 119:105 says ‘Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.’ You can share in the blessings! To find out how to contact us, and to read more inspiring and exciting testimonies of what God is doing among the unreached people groups of India, click the links on the right, and keep reading!
With your help, the Gospel will be proclaimed, and you will be blessed, along with thousands of others!
Proclaiming the Gospel…
…until He comes,