I want to share a couple of excerpts from my personal journal with you.
Feb. 8th
"Today was confusing . . . We woke up and did some evangelism with our supervisor to kill some time. Our anticipation was geared towards the promised reunion with the 6 boys from the slum who want to know Jesus. We went home and waited to go to the slum. We never went. This was our shot! Our sign from God had come in the form of these 6 guys, right? Surely God isn't closing that door. Why would He have has us meet them? What was the purpose? If there is some lesson we are supposed to be learning from this, I don't see it. This is too important to concede just to teach me. Am I too selfish? Is my focus wrong? Was it my fault? I could be. Any percentage, no matter how small it may be, leaves a door open that has me believing that to be the reason. I need to hear God on this. Holy Spirit speak to me now and block out and lies or condemnation. Give me patience."
Feb. 11th
" . . . As I read on (in Genesis), I see Abram in Egypt during a famine. God has sent him to Negeb and his aim is to get there. Why stop and go to Egypt? I first thought this to be disobedience. He also lies to Pharaoh and calls Sarai his sister. Why hide the truth? Is this God's will? Is Abram a coward? God answers me. No. Abram is wise. He received two promises: 1) He will be blessed. 2) He will have numerous offspring. Neither of those had seen fruition yet. He was not wealthy and Sarai was barren. A famine came which meant death for anyone in the Bethel hill country. He had to go to Egypt survive and Pariah would had he known of his marriage to Sarai. This decision to leave and lie not only saved his life (and his line) but it fulfills God's promise to bless him. Abram, having curried favor with Pharaoh in lying, receives livestock and possessions. He then leaves with his wife a wealthy man still able to birth a nation. What foresight! God give me eyes to preserve myself in wisdom that I too may reproduce Christ. I am barren in India and must be cautious so that I can procreate Jesus in another before I leave. Do not let me leave India without spiritual offspring!"
The first entry comes one week after we met the slum guys who wanted Jesus. This was the night they stood us up and the last time we'd be in a setting with them where we could share with a translator. God opened that door with those 6 guys on January 31st like I said in the last post. I believe God opened it for a reason. There had been no action from the family or from our pastor since that last post that would indicate the two parties would ever work together. At one point, I painted a negative picture of the family to you. That was wrong of me. They stood in the way of that purpose. The purpose being: reaching the youth of Bangalore for Christ. This was not limited to the educated youth of Bangalore. We desired for those guys to know Jesus too! Back then, I read in my journals that they were the people God brought me here for.
The second entry is just as important. It came days later and you'll see me analyzing what appears to be Genesis 12. God was speaking to me through it. He wanted me to know that His desire is for me to have Christ reproduced in others as Abram was promised offspring and blessing. I hit a point on this trip where I didn't believe either of those entries would see happy endings. I accepted that God wanted to teach me something about moral victories and learning ambiguous, cliche lessons from seemingly disappointing ministry circumstances. What a fool I am for thinking God wanted to settle for less!
The faithful readers of this blog have followed the story through all the highs and lows. We've had difficulty finding people who want Jesus. Then there was the ongoing struggle of having slum guys thrown in our path only to have them ripped away. We've had aimless trips to a village that sidelined us from evangelism in the city. We've had confusion concerning our purpose here and the church we will work and associate with. And, most recently, we've had fruitless labor in the evangelism aspect of our ministry. We fought so stubbornly for the right to share with youth and ironically enough, no one was interested. We've felt powerless and hopeless more times than I care to admit here in India. What else could we do? We've had the parable of the sower beaten to death for us. People constantly encouraged us that sometimes the seed falls on bad soil but you never know when that good soil is just around the corner. In either case, God is pleased that we are working. It is helpful! But I know God had more in store than a pat on the back for being bold enough to share. Like I've said before, that isn't hard for me. Apparently trusting Him is. He taught me that instead. The lessons are not as opaque as they were a month ago.
Since last Wednesday, God has answered our prayers and gave us that coffee shop worker and the Buddhist monk's brother. You know this because I posted it the other day. We met again with the worker again and will do so twice a week to search the scriptures deeply. He is understanding his purpose, Jesus' commission and the joy of salvation. He is different. I don't see the same guy at all. He is no longer drinking or smoking either. God is working tirelessly in his life! This is pleasing to me and is a clear sign from Hid that He is blessing this city. I could come home satisfied. God provided the offspring as promised. He keeps His promises! But what about those slum guys? What happened to them?
We have the translator now! We just have no opportunities to meet with them. It just so happened that Sunday, March 17th, God orchestrated a masterpiece right before us. We had left church in a great mood. The study with our new disciple went well and he understands our work with him will end soon and the pastor will take over. We were going to call it a day and rest. God had a different plan. The father of the house called us down and said he wanted us to meet with the slum guys in the old church. We asked who would translate and he offered his fifteen year old son. We accepted the invitation and began thinking about how we would handle this meeting. This was our big chance. These are the guys we were ready to go all in for! We called our pastor.
One thing lead to another, and after a series of nerve-racking events, we were in a room with 16 guys from the slum who have not accepted Jesus but were curious. The pastor was on his way. They started to get antsy. I couldn't say anything to them because they didn't understand me. Boredom and confusion set in and it was obvious that everyone in that room was uncomfortable. I just started praying. Jesus needed to work and provide us with something. Why answer our prayers to get us with these guys and have us blow this opportunity? Just then our pastor walked through the door and a silence fell over the room. All eyes on him. Everyone leaned in with grins eagerly anticipating his first words. He sat down and proceeded to usher in the Spirit in a way I hadn't seen in a long time. For an hour and a half, he spoke and prayed. He got to know them and joked with them for a bit to break the tension. He made them laugh. He then made them think. Most of them don't think critically. They haven't examined their lives or worldview. He challenged them and shed new light on Jesus. He shared what Christ has done in his life and the radical change he experienced. They were touched by it and completely zoned in. They hung on his every word. We laid hands on every one of them and he began prophesying and declaring the peace and salvation in their lives that only Jesus can provide. They surrendered to Jesus their idols and their lives. We have the pile of idols that they gave up sitting in our room now. I didn't understand a single word that was spoken in that room. It was all in Tamil. We sat there speechless. God used us to put those 16 guys in a room with our pastor.
14 guys came to accept Jesus as their Savior that night. You math geniuses out there see that two of them did not. One of them left. He had an evil spirit in him and he refused to give up his idols. He wasn't willing to go all the way to the cross. This actually comforted me all the more about the others. It showed their sincerity. He walked out of the room. My heart broke. But the others stood strong. Another one stayed and received prayer but wasn't ready to accept yet. That's fine! I respect that. But I will pray that he thinks on that night this week. I say that because we are meeting them again next Sunday. They can't wait to come back. They all talked amongst themselves about how they will tell everyone they know about what Jesus has done. It's not our pastor they worshiped either. They understand that his power comes from Jesus. They left changed and wanting to follow up. God moved in a powerful way. For those who have seen Father of Lights, Furious Love, and Finger of God, it was kind of like that. We couldn't believe it. We asked and God provided and came through in ways we didn't think possible. Our plan back when I wrote that journal entry up top was pretty shoddy. We couldn't envision what God was seeing. We didn't have any of this in mind. His timing and work is greater than ours.
So we have no loose ends. There are no stones left unturned. God brought us the guys. God brought us hard times in the village. He made us desperate and dependent on that mountain. He made us wait. He made us pray and fail for a season. Then He brought a terrestrial downpour of blessing that was completely out of our control. At no point on this trip could we take credit for anything. God brought us all the people and gave us all the tools to glorify Him. I've learned that much this semester. He'll get His glory. One way or another, He'll get it.
