Prospering in Tough Times

Millions of day laborers have left the big cities and returned to their villages during the lockdown, walking hundreds of miles in 90° to 100° temperatures. Even today, hundreds are still fleeing every day from major cities as COVID-19 continues to spread. As India is fighting hard to control the pandemic, every day 15,000 new people are infected, according to government reports. As COVID claims people’s livelihoods and peace, people are looking for hope. In India, God is moving during this crisis, opening the doors for the Gospel in the hardest parts of the country. We are seeing God moving among the unreached people groups in special ways, and touching thousands of lives, even during this difficult time.

But God is a God of hope, and He is using our native believers, house church leaders, and missionaries to share not only food but also the Gospel during this lockdown. During R’s last trip to the USA, he brought back around 200 CDs of the Jesus film in different languages. As they started the summer outreach program in March, he gave them to the teams to distribute to the people. During the Lockdown, one of our outreach teams gave out the CDs in some villages for people to watch. In one village, where they had never heard the Gospel, a family came together to watch the Jesus film on their TV. Many of their neighbors came to watch with them, about 25 people in all. As the movie progressed, there was a scene where Jesus was healing the sick. One village woman began to cry out “Jesus have mercy on us” as they were saying in the movie. Several other women joined her in crying out for healing. At that moment, one woman claimed that she saw a man walking in the sky, wearing a “long dress” (as Jesus was dressed in the movie). He came close to them and blessed them. While she was saying this, she was healed from abnormal spinal curvature, and instantly she was able to stand up straight. Several other people, including some children, experienced instant healing from different sicknesses, including a woman with a visible tumor on her neck, which instantly vanished. The testimony of this event spread to several other villages, and over the last two and half months thousands of people have seen the Jesus movie in the homes. Hundreds of them have accepted Christ into their lives.

Our brothers have reported that hundreds more people have already believed in Christ during the lockdown days. One of our outreach teams who started the summer outreach at the beginning of March (before the lockdown) was beaten up by the Hindu fanatics in their outreach village. They humiliated our six-member outreach team in front of the villagers, accusing them of many charges, including displeasing the village god and goddess. They burned the team’s literature and Bibles in front of them. Our outreach team endured all this humiliation and sadly left the village. During the next two weeks, in this same village, two people tested positive for COVID-19 and the village was immediately and totally locked down. No one was allowed to leave the village, and because of the fear of catching the coronavirus, no one was willing to go into the village either. After one week of lockdown, the villagers complained of starvation in the village, but no one wanted to enter. Our summer outreach team volunteered to go in and distribute food packets. They visited 348 families in the village, distributing food bags and medicine, serving them for over six weeks. When the villagers realized that the same brothers whom they have beaten up and publicly humiliated were now serving them, it was their turn to be humbled.

By distributing food packets in their home every three days, God has provided a way for hundreds of hungry people to hear the Gospel of Jesus, perhaps for the first time. Today as the villages are beginning to open, we are seeing more and more people. Small weekly meetings are taking place in the villages and villagers are begging for Bibles, all because they have seen the love and passion of the young brothers. It has drawn many people to them and they have led them to the Lord.

Sewing Center Testimony

In another testimony coming from a village, a group of poor women and widows were being trained in our sewing center. Over the past 10 months, during the training, most of them have heard the Gospel, experienced the power of prayer in their life and their family, and have given their life to the Lord. When the lockdown started, masks were required, but they were impossible to buy in the village market. Our trainees decided they would make masks for their families and friends. With their own money, they bought materials and made around 400 masks, distributing them to their own extended families and friends in the villages.

The masks became a hit, and more people started asking for them. They even received orders from different institutions and schools! Over the past three months, 19 women stitched more than 34,000 masks, and also generated a decent profit to take care of their families. Today these 19 are beaming with confidence, testifying how our Lord took care of them and their families during the hard time. They have become an inspiration for hundreds of other women.

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,