When asked to describe my first trip to India, two words come to mind, Awful and Awesome. The awful part is the extreme poverty and the conditions in which the people live. Their cities and towns do not have the infrastructure that we have in the United States. There is garbage everywhere. The air and water pollution is horrible. The streets and roads have a lot of dirt on them even though they are paved causing dust and dirt everywhere.
There are also awful spiritual conditions. There are 330 million different gods worshiped in India. Everywhere we went we saw idols. They were on the dashboards of taxis, in small structures on the side of the roads in the towns and on the paths that led to small villages. They were also worshiped in the temples that were everywhere we went. We visited one of the largest temples in Kolkata, the Temple of Kali. Being in this temple literally made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. It was one of the darkest spiritual experiences of my life.
Even though the physical and spiritual conditions are very difficult, I found the people of India to be very friendly and helpful. This trip was filled with so many awesome experiences there are to many to count. In several villages, we were the first white people that they had ever seen. That was a weird feeling. However, the Lord used that experience to draw the people in so that we could play games with them and share the gospel. The first of these experiences was in the South 24th Paraganas where we met Asansol and his wife Sunita. They are regional directors with Big Life, our partner in India. This couple is doing an amazing job in advancing the name of Jesus. Sunita makes amazing tea and her hospitality was wonderful as they welcomed us into their home.
We also met a young man named Saiful. He is a converted Muslim who started serving in a region not to far from Kolkata. His evangelistic focus is to reach Muslims with the message of Jesus Christ. Over a several year period, he has started over 200 churches. While we were there, we found out that he has given those churches over to his brother to oversee and to continue to grow the work. Saiful and his brother are the only Christians in their family. Saiful told us through an interpreter that he will move some 30 kilometers away to start over with just himself to try and reproduce the previous fruit.
We also met a young woman named Tapashi. Tapashi was made to be a prostitute by her husband. When one of our church planters came into her village for the first time and shared the gospel with her she accepted Christ as her Savior and she knew that she could not go back to that lifestyle. So she and some of the other church planters began to pray that her husband would become a Christian. The Lord answered their prayers. Now Tapashi and her husband are church planters that have planted 15 churches in 15 different villages. As I stood next to Tapashi, I was amazed at God's amazing love and plan. It is just like God to use a former prostitute and pimp to advance the kingdom.
Well, I could go on and on about all that the Lord is doing in India. It was an awful and yet awesome experience. Please pray with me as these brave men and women put their lives on the line to spread the gospel.
