Village ministry in India was intense! We would wake up and leave the ICM base by 10am to head for the first of three churches for the day. At each of the three churches we would participate and lead some of worship. The pastors would have us sit in the front of the church in plastic chairs while the congregation sat on the floor. This oddity became normal; the Indian people are just so hospitable and honored us more than we felt comfortable. Everyday I felt like it was turned around, because we came there to serve them, yet they served us constantly. After worship, with nothing but a microphone and a tambourine, one or two of us would give a sermon. Then we would pray one by one for members of the congregation. Indians LOVE prayer! We would usually each pray for 50 women and children every service! The third service was over by 10pm, when we were told to sit back down to eat dinner.
Our one overnight stay in a village was so special! The first service at a home church in the morning was in the house of a woman who was healed four years ago after the pastor prayed for her. The pastor came to the village 5 years earlier when no one knew the name of Jesus. After many trials and prayers, churches began to be planted and people were saved. Now over 80% of the village are Christians!
That afternoon we went to the Covenant Church, where we would sleep that night, for lunch and to rest. The second service of the day began at 3pm in a brand new house. We were served fruit and coconut milk straight from the coconut! I spoke about what I had read that morning in Galatians 4, about Abraham’s two children, Sarah and Hagar.
“The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of his promise.” verse 23
I talked about how we are slaves when we try by our own effort to fulfill God’s promises in our lives, but we live in FREEDOM when we wait on the Lord to fulfill His promises. I felt called to speak that day, but had no idea what I would use until I got up there. It was so amazing to feel the words of the Holy Spirit flow through me as I got to share with the village people what God was teaching me.
We then went straight to the last service of the day which was held in an empty lot of a village neighborhood. A huge tarp was laid out to sit on, while we were expected to sit in chairs on the side, and a microphone and light were strung from a nearby house.
Before the service began an older woman grabbed my arm and started leading me away. Our translator shared with me that she wanted us to follow her to visit a house. We were asked to sit down in chairs and on the edge of a bed while the family went to the kitchen to serve us cookies and cokes. We sat waiting for a long time feeling heavy and burdened for this family that we knew was unsaved. We felt strongholds of depression and sickness, and soon found out that the husband had been dealing with depression for sometime and the twenty-something son had battled cancer. They shared with us how they were tired of facing these trials, praying to their Hindu gods, feeling defeated and attacked. We shared Jesus with them, what He did, what He can do for them, and how only He brings complete fulfillment. The parents and their son came to salvation and as they prayed their demeanors and faces changed completely! The father stood up straighter and his face glowed. The son was proud and so thankful, while the mom smiled ear to ear. We encouraged them to take down their idols to other gods. The pastor had shared the Gospel with them months before, yet we got to be a part of reaping the harvest!
We invited the family to join us for the night service and they came! After the service Erin and I were asked to come pray for a husband who lost his wife 20 days ago. His adult son brought us into the living room and showed us his ten month-old sleeping son. We were told that he still did not have a name and they asked us to name him. We thought and said let’s pray. As we prayed over their son I asked that he would bring passionate joy and worship like David did. So we named him David and proclaimed that he would bring joy to the family in a desolate time. The widower came out and sat on the floor, tear streaks running down his face, clutching a framed portrait of his beautiful wife. The way he mourned the death of his wife was such evidence of the pure and passionate love he had for her. We felt his pain and grieved with him as we prayed for him.
Then we headed back to the church and ate by 10:15pm. I went to bed thinking ‘so this is how Jesus must have felt every day! Tired, exhausted, giving everything He had.’ We slept hard that night, from a busy day, in our tents in the church to keep mongrel blood-sucking mosquitoes away from our flesh. (The main thing I do NOT miss about India is mosquitoes!) The next day we did it all over again–3 services, praying for 150 people each, and house-to-house ministry.
We met a man who was miraculously raised from the dead a year ago after being dead for a day and a half. We saw and participated in the baptism of a 76 year-old-man that came to know the Lord 7 years ago. I got to give my tent away. (Don’t worry mom, Liz will share.) I had been praying for weeks about giving it away, so when the wife asked how much it cost, I responded with ‘you want it?’ and they responded with disbelief and immense gratitude.
I am so thankful for those two days, out in the-middle-of-nowhere India, where we got to see and be a part of the Spirit moving. He is all around us all the time. He has divine appointments for us to join with His Spirt every day, chances to glorify and spread His name; we just need to open our eyes and make ourselves available to all He is doing.
