In some ways India feels like a lifetime ago as my team and I have been in Thailand now for 3 weeks already. But there is a certain week in India that I don’t think I will ever forget and it is one that tells an incredible story that I want to share with you about. I haven’t been able to shake the feeling that I need to help tell this story and so I am going to try and give you the best descriptions of what I witnessed and experienced that week in India in hopes that you too can be a witness to the amazing miracles that God is still doing in our world today.
It all began on August 21st. The day began in the same way as every other day in India, but it ended much differently. After a typical morning routine in the ICM building where we were staying, my team and I piled into a TATA (auto) and headed to pick up Pastor K (our translator) and go to visit a brand new village as we did every day in India. After arriving and taking some time to rest we split into two groups to walk around the village and pray for the families and people who welcomed us into their homes and requested our prayers. As my teammates and I walked from door to door we were followed around and held hands with 10+ children (which was common during our prayer walks) as well as 5+ adults from the village (this was not as common). A couple of us made comments to each other about how much we felt like Jesus or one of His 12 disciples as we walked around with a small crowd forming to follow us as we went from door to door praying. There were many days of ministry in India where if felt as though I was living out of a chapter from the New Testament. But this day was about to feel even more like walking in Jesus’s footsteps than we would have ever expected.
That night we had our evening church service as we did in every village and after the service had ended we began praying for the church members or anyone else who wanted prayer. We finished praying and began to say our goodbyes to the people we had met there when we saw a woman who was being brought into the church by her family to be prayed for. She stared at the ground and wouldn’t make eye contact or lift her head to see us. Her whole body shook uncontrollably as her family led her closer to us. Our translator explained to us that the woman was demon possessed and had been refusing to eat or drink for the past 2 weeks. He told us that her family had tried everything but nothing was helping and they wanted us to pray for her.
We took only a moment to come together as a team, put our scarves over our heads as a covering (this is what women in India do as a sign of respect during prayer), lay our hands on the woman and begin to pray. Only a few minutes into our prayer I felt the woman’s body go weak beneath our hands as she passed out and her body collapsed. We gently guided her to the floor and continued to pray for her. We prayed for some time before she opened her eyes and then eventually came to a place where her body shakes and thrashes began to slow. This time I felt her whole body relax beneath our hands and she lifted up her head and looked up at us for the first time. As we ended our prayers I saw a slight smile began to form on her face. We tried asking her how she was feeling/ what she was experiencing, but because of the language barrier confusion we weren’t able to understand much of her response. She stood to her feet and a few of us embraced her in a hug. I couldn’t have told you what was happening in her because I had no idea, but it was evident to me that something had most definitely happened. Her trembling body was completely calm and her face just looked like one of relief and a sort of peace was in her eyes as we finally got to look into them. Our translator informed us it was time to leave so we said one last “Wandenalou”, meaning God Bless/Praise God and headed on our way home for the night.
Every day India was a new village full of new wonderful people, more prayer requests, and new experiences and daily events. So after I left the village that night I didn’t really spend too much time thinking about the events that had happened. That was, until 4 days later on August 24th we got the news. Sunday morning when we woke up we found out from a phone call with one of the leaders in the ICM ministry that the local pastor from the same village as the woman we had prayed for had contacted him. The local pastor informed him that not after that night when we prayed over the demon possessed woman, not only had she been delivered from the evil oppression on her, but she has accepted Christ and wanted to be baptized! And she wasn’t the only one; because of the change that her friends and family saw occur in her after our prayers, 8 others accepted Christ for the first time and also wanted to be baptized (one of which included the woman’s husband). The pastor told ICM that the people wanted us to return to their village and be the ones who performed their baptism. As if that all isn’t enough to stand in complete amazement of God’s power there was more. Because of seeing the events that had happened and the village people who decided to follow Christ, one of the village people decided to donate a plot of their land in that village to be used for building and planting a new church in that village because they did not yet have one. I remember how all I could think was “Praise God….He is way too cool”.
3 days later, I had one of the best days of my life and one of my favorite days of the race so far. On August 27th I woke up to find out that after breakfast we would be leaving to go back to the village so that we could baptize the 9 new believers. As we pulled up to the village in our TATA, we saw nothing but excited, smiling faces as we slowly began to drive through. People are usually excited to see us when we arrive at a village, but this time was different. For starters, they already had met us. But more than that, you could just sense the extreme joy that these people had within the amazement of what God had done in their village. From the moment we stepped out of our auto we were surrounded by a group of smiling faces welcoming us to their village. It didn’t take long before I saw her face among the crowd, the woman who just a week ago I had been an eye witness to the strong evil oppression that held her captive. But this time when I looked at her, I saw her bright smile and a face of joy and excitement as she looked back at all of us. I hardly recognized her because of the pure joy I saw when I looked at her, she was a changed person. She was living proof of the miraculous and amazing power that God has and the miraculous signs that he still performs in our world today.
We went inside a small clay house with the woman and all of the other new believers. My team and I along with the local pastor, our translator and the 9 new believers sat in a small crowded room and had a small sermon on baptism led by one of my fellow teammates as well as a time of prayer together. After that we traveled by foot through what almost appeared to be the desert of India to a small water hole area. As we were walking, I could hardly contain the joy and excitement I was feeling as I literally stood in awe of what God had done that past week and what He was about to do. We performed the baptisms along with our translator, Pastor K and the local village Pastor. My team and I each stepped forward and baptized one of the new believers as they came in one by one. I had the incredible honor of laying my hands on and baptizing the woman who just 6 days before I had laid my hands on in deep prayer that Jesus would break the chains of her evil and demonic oppression. The way I felt In that moment is one that is hard for me to describe in words. All I can say is that God continues to blow me away with His power, His sovereignty, and His incredible love for us.
After we finished the baptism we traveled by foot to a piece of land a little ways outside of the village where we helped take part in a ground breaking service along with the newly baptized believers for the new church that was to be built there due to the miraculous signs that God had done in that village. After that we returned to the village to share in a special Indian deliciously of Rabbit meal for lunch which the men in the village had spent the night before catching for us. After lunch we prayed over each of the homes and families in the village and we said our goodbyes. Driving away from the village and seeing the beaming, smiling faces waving us goodbye was a moment I’ll never forget.
That day was one of the most incredible days I’ve ever experienced. I saw God show up in a brand new way I had never seen before. I saw lives that were completely changed by His grace and love. I truly felt as though I had spent the day walking beside Jesus on a day of his ministry in the New Testament. God blessed me with such an amazing blessing of seeing His miracles be performed and getting to be a part of it all. I would repeat that day in a heart beat and I cannot wait to see God continue to work in these countries, these villages and these people of the world. He is alive and moving in powerful ways.
