On our last day, our host shared a story with us.
It was a testimony of delayed fruit.
Seeds planted and not seen into fruition.
In our team debrief of our month in India, some of us expressed frustration because we felt that we hadn’t had much of an impact and we didn’t see much fruit from our work.
In our discussion, I was reminded of a note that my friend Stacey wrote me before I left. She reminded me that “sometimes we don’t see the fruit of our work.”
After our team voiced these frustrations, our host—knowing nothing of our conversation—spoke directly into how we were feeling.
Our host’s story started with a twelve year old girl who stood in a village crowd ogling at a white missionary eighty years ago.
The village was just one stop on this man’s route and it was the first time the twelve year old girl heard stories of Jesus.
The girl returned home to her mother excited to share what she heard only to be scolded by her mother.
You see, this twelve year old girl was the breadwinner of her family.
Her father had died and her mother was forced to hide her face in shame, for widows were not respected by the culture she lived in. It was a punishment for wrongs done in a former life. For her children’s sake she chose life closed indoors over death in the wake of her husband’s passing.
This girl and her family were members of the Dalit. The Untouchable caste in Indian society.
So, when the girl returned home empty handed, she was reprimanded.
Yet, these stories the girl heard that day stuck with her throughout the years and when she heard of a church 25 kilometers over, she walked all the way there.
To give some perspective, I ran a 25k this spring and it took me almost 3 hours.
As she soaked in the stories of Jesus’ life, they leaked out of her. She carried them with her always.
As she grew up, she faced many challenges and, when her husband contracted tuberculosis, she had to move away from her husband and her family to find work to provide for them.
She worked as a maid for a government official for a few years before taking on a job cooking at a government run children’s home. At this home she stayed with the children all night and told them stories and sang songs of Jesus as they fell asleep. She did this for thirty five years as children came in and out of the home never realizing the impact that she was having.
Until years later.
When the children grew up, they began showing up at her doorstep with their families sharing testimony after testimony of how she brought them to Christ. Many of whom had become pastors in the local communities.
Many of those children grew up to be pastors and in all the surrounding villages as missionaries came in, they consistently heard her name come up as the source of their knowledge of Jesus.
Despite her low caste, her children, by the grace of God, received quality education and were able to gain their masters degrees and some became professors. One of her sons was the man who hosted us this past month who has carried on in her legacy to minister in the regions around his hometown and bring more people into the work that God is doing in India.
Two years ago at her funeral, people told testimony after testimony of how she brought them to Christ—so many that they had to start turning people away.
I left feeling encouraged. And reminded that simply being obedient to our calling and acting in faith that what we do—from cleaning floors, to peeling carrots, to tutoring, to just sitting and listening—can make a difference as God works to change hearts.
Sometimes we get to see the fruit of our work, but often times we end up being the ones to plant the seeds that will later bear fruit. The missionary that shared in that village all those years ago never knew the impact his words had on that twelve year old girl and the ripple effect that flowed out of it.
We just have to step out in faith and trust that God will continue to tend to what we have planted.
Yesterday was a our first full day in Nepal. As we popped in and out of shops we were able to engage in conversations with many of the locals. One particular shop owner asked us if we were Christians. We said yes, and my teammate, Kamiren, offered to pray over him. As she laid a hand on his shoulder, he later told us that he experienced a “good feeling” in his chest. We told him that this was the Holy Spirit. It is evident that the Lord is pursuing this man, and it is my prayer that this experience will become another seed in this man’s life.
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” – Galatians 6:9
Also check out this amazing video of our time in India made by my squadmate, MC.
