The community I had the honor of living with in India shines heavens light from rooftops so that the whole world will know the hope of the King. These people embody what it means to be the church. Not the modern meaning of the word that sadly has become redundant, but the true meaning. The early church. The church that opened doors and welcomed all into their homes. The church that was fired up about salvation and had a sense of urgency with the gospel. The church that was physically persecuted for following the King. The church that pursued sisters and brothers who were living in the dark.
Now let me tell you an amazing story, buckle in. The tribe that we stayed with used to be head hunters. A hundred years ago this tribe didn’t know the name of Jesus. A missionary traveled far into the jungles of India to share the hope of the gospel with these people. A few became believers, but without a bible translated in their language people began to twist truth and fall even further away from the Lord. One man encouraged his young son to go on an expedition of a lifetime, to journey and find school so that he may give his people a Bible. A young boy ventured out at his fathers request and found schooling in a neighboring village. He studied hard and went through times of loosing focus on his mission. Eventually he made it on scholarship to travel to the United States to study. He studied at Wheaton College and worked vigorously to translate the Bible. It took him so many years to make up at written language for his people and then copy the Bible, but eventually the deed was done. Bibles began to be printed and he traveled back to his home tribe. Because of this mans dedication, today his tribe is 100% evangelized. Head hunters turned to heart hunters. Not surprisingly, I’m not the only one who thinks this story is quite incredible. A movie was made about this tribes journey to the Lord called, Beyond the Next Mountain. I highly recommend it.
During our time in India we stayed in a dorm building at a seminary college. The students that we had the privilege of interacting with were focused and passionate. Some came from nearby villages, others traveled further to study the Bible. Different tribes that used to have conflict were now congregated together in fellowship under the name of brother. These are men and women with fires in their hearts. They all desire to lead others to the Lord and further the kingdom. Our dormitory was next to an older dormitory that had been abandoned, left in one of the rooms was these words, words of such truth;
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My family needs to know Jesus
My neighbor needs to know Jesus
My neighbor village needs to know Jesus
My country needs to know Jesus
And I need to wake up
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Let’s take this as a wake up call. Hearts are hurting out there! Let’s hunt them down and turn them in the direction of true healing!
