We are amazed by the way our Lord is using young believers in the villages for His Glory. They don’t have any theological background; they have simply experienced the power of the Gospel. Because they have experienced transformation in their lives, they gladly share their experiences with others, with passion and boldness, without thinking of any negative effect or what people might think. Here are some of their stories.
Hindu Drug Addict Now A Preacher
Vijay is a 38-year-old man born into a Hindu priestly family. His family wanted him to be the next priest in the family-owned temple, where thousands of people come to worship every day. He was sent to a prestigious Hindu university to study all the Hindu religious books, and to be trained. While doing his research there, he moved in with some Hindu monks and there he became a drug addict. After his research ended he came back from the university, but now he was a full-blown drug addict who was completely out of control. He wandered homeless for 11 years, and just like the prodigal son in the Bible, he lost everything.
Finally, someone found him dying in a railway station, and he ended up in a hospital, still without any hope, no one to care for him. His family and friends rejected him. It was in this hospital bed last April, during our Easter outreach, when some young people shared the Gospel with him and prayed with him. He was given a New Testament and introduced to the Gospel. He was touched by this message of hope, and wanted to know more about Jesus. The Holy Spirit began to move in his life. Our brothers regularly visited him, prayed with him, and shared the Gospel with him. Within two months he was delivered and transformed by the power of the Gospel.
During our last Christmas outreach Vijay joined the outreach team in the state of Rajasthan. He and his team were sent to an unreached people group called “Dhakad.” They are a population of 700,000 people without a single known Christian among them. In their society, drug addiction, alcoholism, gambling, and abuse are all very normal. Vijay, along with 78 other men and women, reached the tribal villages of the Dhakad community and shared the Gospel. During the outreach, Regi attended 2 public meetings, where 350-400 people attended each meeting. Since we were the first people to reach those tribal villages with the Gospel, this was the first time in their lives they had ever come to a Christian meeting.
In one of the meetings, most of the men in attendance were drunk, but God still moved in this meeting. Last week Regi was in these villages, attending some meetings arranged by our brothers among the Dhakad community. He said he could clearly see the light of the Gospel shining there. He attended three different meetings. According to our minister in charge of the outreach, they have started regular prayer groups in over 31 villages. Brother Vijay has been ministering among the young people who are addicted, and God is using him in a powerful way, delivering and healing people. One thing Regi noticed is that lots of young people attended last week’s meetings and responded to the Gospel call.
Young Women Minister Freedom
During the Christmas outreach three of our young women who attended the outreach were sharing and distributing the literature in the village. During this time, some women came and, very politely, invited them to pray for a young girl who was ill. Without knowing the full situation, our sisters followed them to a large house. They were led into a dark room where, suddenly, the women attacked them and began to abuse them. They forcefully took their literature bags and other belongings, and the sisters were locked in that room. Our sisters were pleading with them to let them go but the other women were members of the women’s wing of a Hindu radical group.
After the initial shock, the three young women knelt down and started to pray. While they were praying in the dark room, they heard a growling from the nearby room. Groping for the light switch and turning it on, they saw a young woman in terrible condition, laying chained to her bed. By her appearance they realized she was mentally ill and had been locked in the room for a long time. They were afraid and didn’t know what to do. They tried to talk to her, but all she did was beg them for food. In tears, our sisters knelt down, crying out to the Lord to save them from that room.
After some time, one of them started to sing a song, and one by one the others started singing with her. While they were singing, the woman in chains sat up in her bed, and began to shout and curse. The young women just continued singing and praying in the spirit.
In their own words, “while we were praying and worshiping the Lord, the woman who was mentally ill stopped shouting and cursing us, and began to cry. At the same time, we felt great boldness and comfort. As our fear turned to great comfort, we went to her bedside and stood around her worshiping the Lord. How long? We don’t know. The woman who was chained was calm and peaceful, smiling at us. Outside the room we heard shouting, and after some time two men came looking for us and opened the door to our room. We were in the other room where they had locked the young woman. To their amazement, they found us sitting with her and she sitting peacefully. She was delivered – completely healed. Later we came to know she had been chained up in that room for seven years, and to preserve her family’s honor, they had never taken her to any doctors.”
The young woman’s name is Anita. The other women in her family were trying to teach our sisters a lesson for daring to come and share the Gospel in their village, but our Lord had other plans! The One who saw the tears and heard the cry of the people wanted to save Anita from her sufferings. In the second week of February, we had a public meeting in that village. Anita was there, and she is now completely normal. In her home we started a regular prayer meeting. Our God is an amazing God who does amazing things through His children!
Help Us Share the Gospel
We want to thank you for every one of your prayers. Without your prayers we would not be able to harvest this harvest. 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!
Proclaiming the Gospel…
…until He comes