We left our hostel in the morning having a few spots we wanted to visit and we were excited to see what we would encounter! Which by the way is my favorite way of “ministry”. Doing life, exploring, and seeing who God highlights!
As we set out we stopped at different places. Our first encounter was with an elderly man who was waiting for his grand daughter to meet him. Some of us wrote a few words of encouragement for the grand daughter, who we never met, but you never know what seeds get planted! We left the note with her grandpa and kept going. We stopped for some street food.
We stopped at a temple where the atmosphere was so heavy my stomach twisted. We saw priests burning incense in front of the different gods. People would lay flat on the floor as they entered worshipping the different gods and no one was joyful. I walked out of there feeling such sadness.
We continued on our way, eventually getting to the India Gate. We were able to share Jesus with an old man selling incense. He didn’t want us to pray for him, but that was ok, the important thing was he heard the name of Jesus!
After India Gate we bartered with a Tuk Tuk driver to take us to Old Delhi Market. We stopped by the ‘White House’ of India, took pics, bought a few souvenirs at a bizarre, then on to the market. We prayed over the taxi driver and sent him on his way.
As we were walking through the market, I had this feeling of, “something is missing, there’s more to be had in this day.” Kailey had the same feeling and also prayed for God to send us a believer.
We continue walking and then it happened!
A man is running as fast as he can down the street and people are yelling at him. My immediate reaction is, “we need to get away from here; we don’t want to get mixed up in this.” I call Ashley and Kailey and say “let’s go,” but they are both hesitant and are captivated by what is happening. I don’t want to react in fear so we stay. All of a sudden the mob of people is moving towards us, having caught the man. Someone comes up to us and shows us a watch and asks if it is ours. We shake our heads no. The mob is now right in front of us and we see the young man getting kicked around and beat up.
Tears are streaming down Kailey’s face as she moves toward the middle and says, “Stop! Stop beating him!” I take her by the arm and pull her away, and the mob moves down the street. We stand speechless and unsure of what to do, Kailey still weeping so we start praying for her and as we pray she weeps even harder.
You see she had asked the Father that morning to break our hearts for what breaks His.
He answered.
And then… All of a sudden there’s a man in front of us along with a whole crowd of men asking, “what is wrong? Do you need money? Are you hurt? Did he steal something from you? What do you need?”
We put our hands up to stop him and say nothing is wrong, we are fine; he did not steal from us.
“Well then what is it?” he asked.
Kailey, between sobs, says, “they were beating the man!”
“But he stole something, he deserved it,” the man interrupted.
“No, wait,” Kailey replies, “I believe in Jesus and Jesus would not do that!”
The man gets a big grin on his face and exclaims, “You believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Praise God! So do I! I am your brother!”
We start laughing! The crowd was so bewildered at these weird people, and ask our new friend what was going on!
He turns to the onlookers and explains to them that the reason for the tears were because of the hurt Kailey felt for the man who got beat and that’s not what Jesus would do!
Way to get the name of Jesus out to even more people!
Kailey then looks at our new friend and says “Only a few minutes ago I prayed for God to send us a Christian!” We are all in shock of what is happening!
So he tells us to follow him so he can get us some juice. He buys us some lemon water with salt, (it quenches your thirst). We are still surrounded by onlookers, and it’s crazy busy in the market place even without crazy things happening!
We want to talk with this believer more and hear his story. He is out with his friend who is trying to find a new camera. His friend is Hindu and just that very morning found out that our friend is a Christian! And now he runs into three more believers! He invites us to follow him through the market while they shop for a camera, he orders chai for us and doesn’t stop talking about the Bible! At one shop we were able to pray for two deaf young men! Eventually, he gets done and asks if we want dinner. We say yes, so we have dinner at a local place in the market, super yummy!
We got to spend the evening with them and talk about Jesus and also be a reference for their businesses. One of them is a casting director, the other one a web designer. All the while the Hindu friend got an overload of Jesus! Four believers in one day!
Our new Christian friend was tremendously encouraged to meet other believers willing to come to India to talk to people about Jesus! Likewise we were also encouraged!
He became a believer at 13 because Jesus appeared to him in a dream! His father is against him, and there are sacrifices that he has made to follow Jesus, but he knows the truth and is not willing to let anyone or anything stop him from his pursuit of Jesus!
Friends, God is amazing and he answers prayers. If we truly seek Him we will find Him! He will give us as much as we want!
I have only a few days before I will move on to the next thing. Not exactly sure what that is yet! So I would appreciate your prayers! I also am still around $2000 short of the finances I needed for these past 4 months. If you feel led to partner in that way please click the donate button on my blog!
Thank you friends!
Elva
