While we were waiting for our meal to arrive, Amos showed me photographs of the trip he had taken last year to one of these forgotten villages. It was as if they were lifted from a slideshow from Mercy Ships. Grotesque faces obscured by massive tumors that had never received care. But there was also beauty: I saw a picture of Amos there, holding the first baby he had ever delivered.
It became clear that Amos is remarkably aware of Global culture, and in this way his life resembled many of his young countrymen. I invited him, if his studies ever brought him to Boston to come and stay with us. I began to describe the many different excellent hospitals and medical schols in the city of Boston. He knew them all but interrupted me, saying, “The USA is the Holy Grail among medical students: to study in Boston or at the Mayo Clinic. But I believe I am intended to go and help bring quality medical care to the people of the hidden tribes of North India.”
I came away humbled by the extraordinary degree of integrity with which many Indian Christians pursue the life in Jesus Christ. Even though I had a dinner to host that night, it was required that I come to Amos’ house, for a “snack”. Their snack was like an FCCH coffee hour! And then it was back to the school to share a meal with the students.
Friday we traveled into the interior by overnight train.
Where we had been in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, we were now in Karnataka, which meant a new language, one that Prem himself did not preach. He assisted in the teaching, and took care of other business, while we stayed in the same hotel, and he kept me from ordering food that would have torn out my insides with their spice.
At the Karnataka Seminary, I altered the class according to Prem’s suggestions and found that there was much greater involvement by the students and that there was excellent rapport with them. Indeed, at times it felt like I was leading a camp ministry again.
One of the faculty members is named Steven. That was not the name he was born with. He was born into a Muslim family. When he became a Christian he changed his name.
Stephen described the process by which he became a believer. Two different times missions groups came and showed the Jesus film. Then he came to church and while he was interested in the message, he was not convinced that he should become a believer at that point. Then the fourth time an acquaintance told Stephen the different that following Jesus had made in his life, and Steven was convinced. He went to church and gave his life to the Lord.
When Stephen had been very young, he contracted polio. He is 36 years old now, so clearly the disease remained a problem in India longer than it has in the United States. Steven still walks with a limp, but testifies that since becoming a believer he ha become stronger and more healthy. Steven has a wife and a six-year-old child.
All in all, there was more joy at the Karnataka Seminary. I felt God had used me in a very positive way, in spite of myself. The dinner you sponsored there provided the students with opportunities to present dances, skits and songs. The local bishop attended and spent a special appreciation to you as a congregation for enabling me to come and be with them. And then a week ago Friday it was time to travel again. Prem and I took another train, this time to the central city of Hyderabad.
We parted ways there. I had planned to include in my trip a weekend at the southern tip of India, where an Indian couple I had worked with in Thomaston had returned. Vijay and Neela Grace Solomon had worked together with Church of South India mission agencies. Neela had taught Physics, and Solomon (men often go by their last names in India) had been the director an agency that over saw dozens of children’s home. We visited two of them.
But the treasure came as we sat in their apartment. They had both been required to take early retirement (she is 62 he is 64) in order to do their studies in the U.S. In 2014. But they were looking for ways to be of service. They had bought land and built their house. They live on the first floor, and have 2 apartments n the 2nd floor that they rent out. The third floor is mostly the roof terrace, but there is also a small office that they built to be Solomon’s private place for study and prayer.
Then Neela had an idea. She could hold small classes there and teach basic computer skills to women and mothers whose husbands have poor paying jobs, so that she might be able to contribute to the family economy.
After returning from Connecticut and building their home, Solomon obtained a fellowship for further studies, this time in Scotland Neela became involved in a Presbyterian church there, and told some of the people about her idea. It was January. In February, the pastor of the Scottish church announced to the congregation that the Lenten offerings of that year would be used to purchase computer equipment.
Neela teaches two classes in the room with 5 laptops. As they come to trust her, they open up about their situations and allow her to become a second mother to them. She also prays for them and witnnes of Jesus to them. The promise shared is both spiritual and practical.
I told them how impressed I was that they saw the potential for such a little space. 9 students means 9 families, each one of them with their future opportunities enhanced! Not only economically, but they are open to Jesus in a way they have never been before.
Monday Morning I awoke early to get to the airport to begin the series of 5 flights it would take to get home. But God wanted me to learn a little more about Sharing His Promise. In the Hyderabad airport (between my second and third flight of the day), I was able to make my scheduled meeting with Philip Malakar. He is the leader of the India Community Fellowship, a NACCC supported mission. Their primary goal is church planting, using Tutoring and other Community development activities to help gain the trust of people in the northern states of India.
As in many places in India, there is positive momentum for the Gospel. Philip had just completed some evangelistic meetings and had baptized 9 people. We spoke of 14 Christian believers who have faced ostracism from their communities because of their decisions to follow Jesus Christ. The children are no longer allowed Schooling, and any businesses the adults run (Mom & Pop stores are the meet and potatoes of India local commerce)are closed by the municipal government.
Still, the believers say, “It does not matter what you to do to us, we will not go back to our former way of ignorance. We have found Jesus Christ. We have found forgiveness for our sins. We have found a new way of living.” They respond tot he hostility of the community with humble love. Someone shared God’s promise with them, and having begun to enjoy that grace, now their new way of living proclaims God’s promise to still others.
God’ wants us to share His Promise with the world. Publishing the Glad tidings of what God has done and will do in us through Jesus Christ brings a joyful freedom to the Ashanti’s and Stevens of this world as well as those ministered to by the Amos’s and Neela’s.
Let us remember that God invites us to be involved in blessing all peoples on earth as we share His Promise.