No matter how many times you visit India, the overcrowded cities, hazy air and animal-people-vehicle-jammed streets of this country with more than 1.3 billion people are an assault to your physical senses and inner spirit.
The contrast between light and darkness is evident in India. The crushing poverty, desperation and hopelessness speak of the struggle between the domain of Satan and the kingdom of God. Unbridled idol worship and pagan practices are a regular part of life.
However, in the middle of this intense darkness, there is a light. This light is the gospel that reveals the one true God to a broken and lost population: the God who loves the sinner, the God who redeems.
Like in the Book of Acts, regions throughout India are experiencing the presence of Jesus through miracles of healing and release from spiritual bondage.
Thousands of Indian people are placing their faith and trust in Jesus and being baptized daily. In some of the most spiritually dark regions of the world, new house churches are forming and replicating disciples, leaders and churches in places where the gospel has never been present.
The gateway to discipleship is the presentation of the gospel. This is at the heart of the Great Commission.
Gilgal Mission Trust church planters are mastering and utilizing simple tools to abundantly sow the seeds of the gospel. They go to the villages two or three times a week in groups of 20 to evangelize. The Trust has targeted 200 villages with 1.3 million people since 2014; they now serve around 60 villages.
Church planters use a tool called generational mapping to visualize first-generation believers, spiritual grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This helps document the church multiplication process that is occurring.
The goal is to model and empower others to use them to maximize the harvest.
A Mennonite World Conference release by Paul Phinehas, president of Gilgal Mission Trust; adapted from a newsletter.
Thousands of Indian people are placing their faith and trust in Jesus and being baptized daily, including Muthulakshmi, Selvi and Evangeline. (Photo courtesy of Paul Phinehas)
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