Our team is partnering this month with an organization that is based in the state of Ankar Pradesh. The founder James gave us an orientation and the fruitfulness of the ministry has been amazing. The ministry has grown like wildfire since it began in 1997. They started with a vision to plant a church in every of the 1000 villages in Prakasam District, and ultimately planted 635 in the first 5 years. The vision expanded to the whole state of Andra Pradesh, a state with 84.6 million people with a vision of sending out 7000 missionaries to the 25,000 villages by 2020. Since then, they have sent 2400 missionaries who have planted 7000 churches.
Before arriving I asked the Lord to require much of us and to use us to destroy the works of the enemy. I sensed that I would have to lay aside my normal MO. Normally I want to be relational, to wait, build a rapport, and hear where someone is, gauging interest before sharing the gospel. With this ministry assignment, I can’t do that.
This month we are going from village to village, visiting homes and businesses, praying for the sick and the needy, preaching the gospel and sharing testimonies about our Lord. We head out every night, not knowing where we are going, who is listening and whether we will ever see these people ever again. Our host pastor Solomon, says that because of our foreignness the people are more receptive to what we have to say. We have preached under the stars, in the middle of a village road, and in small cement churches. Our first nights out, God gave our team understanding of what was going on in the spiritual through visions and prophetic insight. One woman said that God healed her eye, a few others have stood up when asked to come to faith, a man in a wheelchair regained some feeling in his legs, and cried when we left. Everyday is unpredictable, and we never know when we will be asked to put ourselves out there.
We pray for boldness, to overcome the inner reluctance that comes from feeling unprepared. We step out in ways we have never done before despite always feeling like we don’t know what we’re doing. We pray for endurance as India’s need cries out to us. Yesterday people lined up for prayer and crowded around us and we had to leave before we could get to everyone. I brought 20 copies of the Father’s Love letter in Telegu and ran out. A crowd of children formed around us and followed us from house to house. The people seem hungry to the gospel, for hope and it is often overwhelming. We pray for trust as we don’t know what becomes of the people, even the ones that are saved or healed, and to find our satisfaction from our obedience to Christ. But because we have but one moment with the people we encounter, we simply try to sow seed and trust that some of it is fertile ground, and that the local pastor will continue the work of discipling the people. All I can say, is God has been so good.
