I’m sitting here at the end of a day of ministry here in Mumbai after traveling in and around India for nearly five years. And all I can keep saying is: “These kind’s of things don’t happen to me…ordinarily.”

Our translator Rashid*  took my friend and I to a slum where he knew a woman was already telling folks about Jesus. When we arrived, we asked Rashid if there was a temple we could visit, and he took us straight there.

The small temple was locked. One child noticed us and yelled out in Hindi, “Key?” He retrieved the key for us and unlocked the door and we went inside after taking off our shoes. A dozen onlookers joined us. Rashid offered us some chairs, and I said I didn’t think we would stay that long.

“No, please sit. We’re going to tell the Gospel here,” he said.

My friend told three stories from the Bible and then told his testimony. The crowd of 20 was fixated and said they enjoyed the stories. They’d never heard them before. Never before had I thought that I’d be sharing the Gospel in the middle of a temple in India’s largest city.

These kinds of things don’t happen to me…ordinarily.

On we went to a visit a couple in their small hovel. The husband had lost his job because of health issues caused by a drinking problem. Though the believer in their neighborhood had been sharing with them for two years, they hadn’t believed yet. We told them a story or two from the Bible and asked them if they wanted to know Jesus. They nodded in the Indian way that means “yes,” and they repeated a prayer after me. So this afternoon in that house, I watched two baby followers of Jesus being born.

Again, these kinds of things don’t happen to me…ordinarily.

House after house, we told stories and prayed for people. We met a woman healed from cancer through her friend’s prayers in Jesus’ name. She had given up her gods. We met another woman raised in a Christian family who had married a man from another religion, and therefore joined that religion. Her husband had since died, but she gave her life back to Christ today. The streets, which on arrival looked so dark, now appeared full of light as we were leaving. God was in that place, and He was at work.

And these kinds of things don’t happen to me…ordinarily.

But when I’m willing to look a bit closer to see where God is working, the ordinary…becomes extraordinary.

*Names changed for security reasons.