When our team of ten Southeastern students set out for Mumbai a few weeks ago, we had little idea what to expect. We had scheduled a training conference on Church Multiplication for national pastors. In preparation, we had studied the book of Acts and the model of the apostle Paul.  We believed that what the Holy Spirit did then, He can do in our time.

Our band of Southeastern students arrived on the first day prepared to focus on establishing relationships with the pastors and setting the tempo through a 
focus on prayer.  As usual in non-western contexts, the training got underway several hours late, but our students didn’t allow that to unnerve them.  Instead, I watched as they encouraged and prayed with our Indian brothers in small groups.  Over the next several days we conducted training on God’s vision for church multiplication, praying to prepare the soil, sowing the seed of the Gospel, nurturing growth through making disciples who obey Jesus’ commands, gathering in the harvest through establishing new churches, developing Biblical servant leaders, and expanding harvest fields through multiplication. The learning environment was dynamic because as our students taught they also listened and learned.  Most importantly they went out with the pastors into their neighborhoods and modeled these simple Biblical concepts.

The fruitfulness of this partnership in the Gospel was nothing short of miraculous.  Over the course of the week we saw the Spirit of God draw nearly 75 people to repentance and faith, and many were growing in their understanding of this new life through discipleship.  One story in particular highlights this.

At the end of the first day, several of us were gathered on a sidewalk, when we noticed a young couple standing on an adjacent hillside watching us intently. They had a small child, so I approached them and began talking with them in my broken Hindi. Quickly, this Muslim couple invited us to their shanty home nearby. When we arrived and were seated, we continued our attempts at communication without a translator.  After a short time, I finally asked if I could just pray for them, and they agreed.

As we left the home, I saw one of our Indian pastors. I beckoned him over and explained the openness of our new Muslim friends. Together, we climbed back up the hillside and re-initiated the conversation, this time with our national pastor leading the way.

After about a half-hour of conversation, we sensed an openness that was truly divine.  I soon found myself on my knees beside this Muslim man. We lifted our hands to God as our pastor friend led this man in a prayer of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone. Just behind him sat his wife. Her head was covered, and one of our female professors was embracing her.

As the Muslim call to prayer rang out from the local mosque, I watched this family surrender their lives to Christ. I considered the spiritual irony – as a lie was being projected from the loudspeaker of the local mosque for all to hear, the Truth was being proclaimed to this family in a still small voice.

The next day, several of our Southeastern students returned to this couple’s home and spent time teaching them the “Basic Commands of Jesus” and what it means to be an obedient Christ-follower. After a few days of investment, the young husband became convinced of their need to follow Christ in believer’s baptism. The local pastor took this couple and another young man who had surrendered to Christ to the ocean. For their safety, he baptized them under cover of night.

Stories similar to this one were emerging throughout the city as our Southeastern team partnered with national pastors and simply followed what Jesus modeled for us in the New Testament. We arrived back in the United States a few days ago, but we are greatly encouraged because the LORD saw fit to allow us to be a part of His plan for multiplying disciples and churches in the great city called Mumbai.

Blessed to be a blessing,
George

Even though she had trusted Christ for only less than one week, Ranee had already been sharing the life-changing Gospel with her family. Her sister-in-law, *Divia joined us and wanted to know more about this Jesus who had changed Ranee’s life.

Ranee had called up her brother and Divia the day she trusted Christ. It was God’s perfect timing. Facing financial and emotional hardships, Divia and her husband were planning on committing suicide together.

David shared the beautiful story of salvation with Divia and immediately, she decided to become a follower of Jesus. It was an incredible sound, hearing Ranee lead her own sister-in-law in a prayer of repentance, trust and much needed hope in Jesus.

After Divia had trusted Christ as her Savior, David told the group of women about the need for obedience in baptism. From the look on Ranee’s face, I could tell she knew it was important, but lacked the exuberance to follow, which she had shown previously.

The pastor turned to me and told me to pray. With faces turned to the floor, I prayed in earnest that God would reveal Himself to these women, would solidify their relationships with Him in their hearts, and would make real their decisions to follow Him whole-heartedly. The pastor decided not to translate my prayer.

As I was praying, I was envisioning a series of everyday circumstances these women would face in the next few days, trusting that God would reaffirm their decisions in small, quiet moments. That’s when God blew the roof off my thinking.

Ranee stood after the prayer and faced me, speaking quickly in Marathi. Her large eyes looked past me and stared out the window behind me, as tablespoon-sized tears poured down her face. The Indian pastor was listening to what she was saying and simply saying, “Alleluia! Praise Christ!” We waited for what seemed like a few minutes to hear what she had been so passionate to share.

The pastor turned to me saying, “This woman saw a vision of Jesus as you were praying. Before you began, she thought she was too sinful to receive the baptism David spoke of earlier.” With Ranee still standing reverently, tears dripping from her chin, he continued, “But while you were praying, she had a vision of Jesus, dressed in white robes. Jesus told her, ‘No, Ranee. This baptism is also for you. I have forgiven all your sins.’”

Needless to say, everyone in the room was blown away. Through translation, Ranee confessed that she was the Samaritan woman at the well. Though she had been married before, her husband left her, and the man she was living with now was not her husband.

This woman stood there, pouring out her heart full of pain and accepting the cleansing love of Jesus Christ. She has no doubt in her mind; she is ready to be baptized. She couldn’t understand my prayers in English, but God answered them in a way she could.

Never again will I pray for the sake of praying. Never again will I try to fit God’s movement in an understandable box. When I was praying in that upstairs room yesterday, I did believe that God could do the things I asked of Him. I just wasn’t ready for the answer to be immediate.

*Names changed.