They were not saying, "I'm willing to go," but rather "I am going."
They made the choice to leave home, village and family, business or career and go where they would be hated and feared. Meanwhile, another 600 pastors pledged to return to their congregations and raise up more missionaries who would leave South India, and go to the North. I stood silently in the holy hush, praying for the earnest pastors crowded around the altar. I was humbled by the presence of God.
# 2 > As I prayed, my heart ached for thesemen. How many would be beaten and go hungry or be cold and lonely in the years ahead? How many would sit in jails for their faith? I prayed for the blessing and protection of God on them__and for more sponsors across the seas to stand with them. They were leaving material comforts, family ties and personal ambitions. Ahead lay a new life among strangers. But I also knew they would witness spiritual victory as many thousands turned to Christ and helped from new congregations in the unreached villages of North India.
# 3 > With me in the meeting was U.S. Christian radio broadcaster David Mains, a serious student of revival. He had joined us un Cochin as one of the conference speakers. He later testified how the Lord had taken over the meeting in a most unusual way. "It would hardly have been different," he wrote later, "had Jesus Himself been bodily among us. The spirit of worship filled the hall. The singing was electrifying. The power of the Holy Spirit came upon the audience. Men actually groaned aloud. I have read of such conviction in early American history during times like the two Great Awakenings, but I had never anticipated experiencing it firsthand." But the Lord is not simply calling out huge numbers of native workers. God is at work saving people in numbers we never before dreamed possible. People are coming to Christ all across Asia at an accelerated rate wherever salvation is being proclaimed. In some areas__like India, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand__it is not uncommon now for the Christian community to grow as much in only one month as it formerly did in a whole year.
# 4 > Reports of mass conversion and church growth are being underplayed in the Western press. The exciting truth about God's working in Asia has yet to be told, partly because the press has limited access. Except in a few countries, like Korea and the Philippines, the real story is not getting out. Typical of the many native missionary movements that have sprung up overnight is the work of a brother from South India__a former military officer who gave up a commission and army career to help start a Gospel team in North India. He now leads more than 400 full-time missionaries. Like other native mission leaders, he has discipled 10 "Timothys" who are directing the work in almost military precision. Each of them in turn will be able to lead dozens of additional workers who will have their own disciples.
# 5 > With his wife he set an apostolic pattern for their workers similar to that of the apostle Paul. On one evangelistic tour that lasted 53 days, he and his family traveled by bullock cart and foot into some of the most backward areas of the tribal districts of Orissa state. There, working in the intense heat among people whose lifestyle is so primitive that it can be described only as animalistic, he saw hundreds converted. Throughtout the journey, demons were cast out and miraculous physical healings took place daily. Thousands of the tribals__who were enslaved to idols and spirit-worship__heard the Gospel eagerly.
# 6 > In just one month, he formed 15 groups of converts into new churches and assigned native missionaries to stay behind and build them up in the faith. Similar miraculous movements are starting in almost every state of India and throughout other nations of Asia. Native missionary Jesu Das was horrified when he first visited one village and found no believers there. The people were all worshipping hundreds of different gods, and four priests controlled them through their witchcraft.
# 7 > Stories were told of how these priests could kill people's cattle with witchcraftand destroy their crops. People were suddenly taken ill and died without explanation. The destruction and bondage the villagers were living in are hard to imagine. Scars, decay and death marked their faces, because they were totally controlled by the powers of darkness. When Jesu Das told them about Christ, it was the first time they ever heard of a God who did not require sacrifices and offerings to appease His anger. As Jesu Das continued to preach in the marketplace, many people came to know the Lord.
# 8 > But the priests were outraged. They warned Jesu Das that if he did not leave the village, they would call on the gods to kill him, his wife and their children. Jesu Das did not leave. He continued to preach, and villagers continued to be saved. Finally, after a few weeks, the witch dorctors came to Jesu Das and asked him the secret of his power.
"This is the first time our power did not work," they told him. "After doing the pujas, we asked the spirits to go and kill your family. But the spirits came back and told us they could not approach you or your family because you were always surrounded by fire. Then we called more powerful spirits to come after you__but they too returned, saying not only were you surrounded by fire, but angels were also around you all the time."
# 9 > Jesu Das told them about Christ. The Holy Spirit convicted each of them of their sin of following demons and of the judgment to come. With tears, they repented and received Jesus Christ as Lord. As a result, hundreds of other villagers were set free from sin and bondage. Through an indigenous organization in Thailand, were more than 200 native missionaries are doing pioneer village evangelism, one group personally shared their faith with 10,463 people in two months. Of these, 171 gave their lives to Christ, and six new churches were formed. More than 1,000 came to Christ in the same reporting period. Remember, this great harvest is happening in a Buddhist nation that never has seen such results.
# 10 > Docmented reports like these come to us daily from native teams in almost every Asian nation. But I am convinced these are only the first few drops of revival rain. In order to make the necessary impact, we must send out hundreds of thousands more workers. We are no longer praying for the proverbial "showers of blessings." Instead I am believing God for virtual thunderstorms of blessngs in the days ahead. How I became a part of this astonishing spiritual renewal in Asia is what this book is all about. And it all began with the prayers of a simple village mother.
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