India STM 2017 - Transformed through Christ
Time has been going by so fast...to the point where I'm not sure how long I've been here. Our team met at 7 am, doing QTs together and sharing about the experience so far. We naturally shifted into breakfast. Random and yet, fun fact: People in India eat their cereal with warm milk. Let me tell you...it was quite good.
After wrapping up our preparations, our team set off to evangelize to rural villages approximately two hours from our hotel. We went through the usual routine, moving from village to village, sharing the gospel to every person we met. Having been to Hanumangahr twice, I recognized a few faces as I entered homes and prayed for people.
Above: Encouraging faithful sisters who have accepted Christ within the past year
Although our goal for India Mission is to reach as many unreached people as we can, a part of our ministry, and a joy in it, is seeing familiar faces become more like Christ. One sister in particular truly uplifted my spirit today. As we entered perhaps the second or third village, a lady came before us to seek prayer. Many people we pray for in India tend to have at least a little doubt in the power of God and His ability to answer prayers. This sister, however, had a visually apparent assurance in the Lord and her faith. She looked powerful and strong, to the point where I did not recognize that I had met her the previous year. She shared with us that last year, she sought prayer from us because of a critical heart condition that could have potentially risked her life. Although her prayers were not answered at the moment of our meeting, a couple months later, she woke up one day completely healed. This miracle became her testimony and also the testimony for all those who witnessed the power of God in her. As we blessed her through prayer, I could not help but praise God for his mercy and grace that was shown through this woman.
There are, of course, many other moments of gratefulness and praise in the mission field. Growing up in San Diego, I never imagined what it would be like to live in the most prevalent and yet, diminishing of God's creation: nature.
One of the final houses we visited today was by far the most excluded, but with that the most peaceful homes I have ever witnessed with my eyes and ears. Almost left untouched, a sister brought us to her house stranded in the middle of a rice field, with only one narrow path to lead to it. As I carefully walked towards her home, I saw myself falling in love with God's hand crafted fields and trees. If only I could put to words how tranquil and beautiful this moment was. I wonder if my team never came to this village and met this sister who lived in the center of a rice field, then who would have delivered the gospel to her and all those around her?
As Christians, but more so, as members of God's family, we are called to find every lost brother and sister before Christ returns. It's easy to assume that someone out there will share the Gospel to the unreached people group, but to have assurance takes action. I pray that this is the heart my team and I have for the rest of the week. Before I sign off, I want to share a verse that God has placed in my heart for the entire day. I hope that this verse can be the needed spark to all the curious and hopeful evangelists out there. "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?" - Romans 10:14 ESV
Until the Next Blog,
Mary Kim