“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5
This month, my team’s ministry is to preach at house churches every evening. These house churches are led by national missionaries and in an area of India that is about three hours away from the closest city and farming is the most common job occupation. We were told before coming to our ministry that there may be people we encounter during the month that had never heard the name of Jesus. Whether you believe in Jesus or not, coming from America, it’s hard to imagine there being people who have never heard the name, never seen a bible, never understood the meaning of a cross. This got our team fired up, and we were so ready to make sure these people had the opportunity to respond to the gospel.
We went out for ministry in the evenings because most people worked during the day and because it attracts less attention for seven Americans to be in a very rural area of the country in which tourists would have no reason to come to. Evangelism and being a missionary is illegal here, so discretion and safety became our priority while remaining bold in the Spirit. We were told that as foreigners, we had nothing to fear regarding persecution or physical harm. The worst that would happen to us would be to be kicked out of the country. However, our local ministry hosts could face strong persecution for hosting us and with these hosts having families, it could be very dangerous to bring a lot of attention to us being here.
This means that we did a lot of preaching in the dark. We would travel to and from ministry in the dark in a van where two rows of seats face each other and every pothole and groove of the dirt roads was felt on your tailbone as you drove passed Hindu temples garnished with detailed carvings and colorful idols, flooded fields of rice, and herds of cows and buffaloes. Sometimes we traveled as long as two hours to reach the rural villages where the churches were. The rides were beautiful and fun bonding experiences for my team and I. We’d blare worship music on the way there to let the Spirit minister to us as we prepared our hearts for the night. On the way home we’d blare dance music and let the joy of the Lord fill us as we our bellies were full of Chai, spicy curry and rice.
One night on the way home, I sat in the front of our van and admired the star filled sky as God revealed something to me: We were bringing light to the darkness. The seven of us, clothed in our kurtas and head scarfs with bibles in hand and lips eager and ready to profess the name of Jesus to whoever sits in front of us, are following the verse in Matthew 5:14 where it says “you are the light of the world” and not that we create this light out of our own strength, but God’s spirit within us is light that we have the honor to carry with us and shine for all the world to see. He chooses to dwell within us, as his temple (1 Cor. 3:16) so that when people approach us, they are approaching him. As we speak, he is speaking through us.
My first sermon, I ever preached, was at the first house church we visited. My sermon ended up being an hour long because messages almost triple in length when a translator is involved. I preached on how God is the light that shines through us best after we’ve been broken mirroring the verse in 2 Corinthians 12:9, that declares that his power is made perfect in our weakness.
Our team was split in half between those who had preached before for previous month’s ministry, and those who hadn’t yet. But I saw how God’s power and strength was made perfect in our weakness as each of us got up and testified bout God. When you give God a willing a heart and surrender yourself to be used as a vessel for his Kingdom, he will bring the light, there is no doubt, because he’s promised it (Isaiah 55:11).
Preaching was only one way we brought God’s light to India this month. I believe we’ve brought God’s love through our smiles, our songs, our testimonies, our attempts at greeting fellow believers with the phrase “Wandaanalu” and complementing the food prepared by our host’s by saying “Chala Bagundi”, and it’s also our many prayers for healing, hope, provision and education. God’s using us in ways we’ll never understand.
We may never see the fruits of our labors here in India, but as it says in 1 Corinthians 3:8-9, some laborers water seeds already planted and some to plant new seeds, but God does the growing in his own timing. We are only asked to carry out the mission laid out for us each day and trust God with the rest. This month, I was asked to engage in the mission of bringing the light to small, rural villages in India each evening, and it was amazing.
**Stay tuned for blog posts including most of my messages I preached on this month! Preaching was something very out of my comfort zone, but God equipped me by his spirit and preaching quickly became something I enjoyed doing and was eager to do.
