The day before had been her final day with the Southeastern team that had come to Mumbai; now it was her turn to share with others. She had gone with her mentors into homes, shared her testimony, and told the stories from creation to Jesus. At the completion of that time, Uma and her friends tearfully promised to use what they had learned and to continue to share the stories with the lost.

Now, with one of the Southeastern students sitting next to her, Uma was leading this rooftop session.

An elderly woman, who earlier was brought to tears listening to the story of the demon-possessed man, was slowly sharing her testimony.

“Did you understand that?” Uma asked me after every phrase. She knew I did not fully understand what the woman was expressing, but Uma was patient with me as I tried.

Uma’s goal wasn’t to test my knowledge of the Hindi language; she was simply taking to heart what she had learned the past two days. She wanted to give everyone in the circle an opportunity to learn and grow in their storytelling — just like the model the Southeastern team had showed her.

These women left their housework undone so that they could become stronger disciples of the Word and could learn how to tell the stories of the Bible to others. In only a few days, they witnessed people they had just met hear the stories and then make decisions to follow Christ.

As we sat on that rooftop, I noticed that Uma didn’t need a lot of prompting or guidance from her mentors. Uma knew the importance of these stories in her life. During the workshop, she had seen others’ lives transformed by the simple telling of the same story that had changed her life.

Now it was her turn to teach other Christian women and help them capture a vision of what sharing the stories of the Bible can do for someone’s heart.

*Name changed.

*Vama wanted to know why her pain had returned. God healed her once before. Now, the pain was back.

“She was still praising God,” Bekah said. “She still loves Him and trusts Him. She just couldn’t understand why the pain had returned.”

Bekah had come with the Southeastern team to teach piano lessons in a Mumbai village. While she was teaching, Vama came in and sat down. She didn’t say a word, Bekah remembered. She just sat and watched for a long time.

After a few minutes, Bekah asked if she had come to study piano. “No,” the woman said. Just to be safe, Bekah repeated her question several more times, phrasing it differently each time to make sure the woman understood. Each time, the woman said, “No.”

Finally, Vama said to Bekah, “I used to have a terrible pain in my arm. I prayed and prayed to God and He took that pain away, and I praised His name.”

“About a month ago the pain came back,” continued Vama, who had recently been hospitalized for the problem. “I still praise God. I still trust Him. I still love Him, and I still have faith in Him. But the pain is back, and I can’t move my arm … I want to know why He let it come back.”

Moved by Vama’s story, Bekah left the keyboard and sat down beside her. With the help of her students, Bekah and Vama talked for some time. The woman asked for prayer. Bekah thought the woman might need to understand that God doesn’t always answer our prayers exactly the way we expect Him to.  She told Vama that God is powerful, that He healed her before and that He had the power and ability to heal her again.

“Maybe, though,” Bekah said, “there is a reason that your pain has returned.”

Bekah talked more about God’s faithfulness and shared Scripture from Deuteronomy 8.

“Maybe,” Bekah said, “this is a time that you can show your faithfulness to God.”

Vama agreed and said that she would continue to praise God.

Then Bekah, her students, and other members of the Southeastern team gathered around Vama to pray. They prayed for God’s will to be done, and they prayed for healing and for peace.

As the prayer ended and the students returned to their lessons, Vama raised her afflicted hand, shouting “Praise the Lord!”

Vama could move her arm again, when moments before she was unable to do so.

“I have the best picture of her giving us all a high-five,” Bekah marveled.

*Names changed

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