Sent: Rachel L'Antigua
The Paradox supported Rachel L'Antigua, a partner of The Paradox, as she traveled to Pune, India for six weeks for international missions. Below are several stories from her trip.
Ephesians 3:20-21 says, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” My summer in India was exceedingly abundantly above all that I could have asked or imagined. Not only did I get to learn how to share the Gospel in a foreign country to people who had never heard the name of Jesus before, but I also grew abundantly in my knowledge of God’s sovereignty.I now have a deeper understanding of how little a part I play in proclaiming the Good News. God is the one who prepares people’s hearts, who stirs their desire to know him, who opens their minds to grasp truth, and who saves them. All I can do is speak the Gospel, and even that is only accomplished through the POWER of the Holy Spirit living within me. So, praise God that he chose to use a glory-robbing, sinful creature such as myself to share the TRUTH about Jesus Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection with Hindu college-aged students.From the street shops to the grandmothers’ saris, India is a land of color. India is also a land where there is a temple on every corner- sometimes even more; a land where people discuss and debate their ‘favorite idols’ much like Americans bicker over their favorite sports team. Romans 1:25 reads, “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.” In India I saw this scripture come to life in the form of idols with elephant heads, snake scepters, and blue skin. In a culture with over 3 million gods, the students I came in contact with often worshipped a different idol than their friends or neighbors did.My team and I spent our mornings studying the word, listening to sermons, and praying. Around noon everyday we would go out in pairs and either “sow” or make “appointments”. Sowing consisted of going to the college-aged hang out spots, meeting students, and getting their phone numbers. We would then plan a time to hang out, which we called “appointments”. So, from 12pm-6pm (or later) we would be either meeting students or hanging out with them and sharing the Gospel.1st Corinthians 9:22-23 reads, “…I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the Gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” The vision of the long-term missions team that we partnered with this summer was to share the Gospel in a culturally relevant way with Hindus. We studied the Hindu culture for months prior to our arrival in hopes that we would be as culturally relevant as possible.As a team we were able to share the Gospel over a hundred and twenty times with students. Over thirty of those times were 2nd, 3rd, and 4th touches. Indians learn well through hearing parables and stories from the Bible. Some of the stories we shared with our friends consisted of: The Demonized Man, The Prodigal Son, The Woman at the Well, Jesus Calms the Storm, The Rich Young Ruler, and the Story of Creation. We also shared an illustration developed by the Navigators called “the bridge”- an illustration based on Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The bridge emphasizes man’s sinfulness and separation from a Holy God.In closing I want to share two stories of three different students that my team and I were able to share the Good News with this summer. Be encouraged, I know I was.Ajay and Pushkar are two Brahmin (high-caste, very influential) college students who met some of the guys on the summer team last summer. The American students were able to meet up with Ajay and Pushkar several times and share the Gospel with them. The first few times Ajay and Pushkar said that they could not follow Jesus as their only god because it would be too difficult within their culture. The American guys left after two months but were able to give Ajay and Pushkar’s phone numbers to the long term team that lived in the same city. One of the long-term missionaries named Johnny began to meet up with Ajay and Pushkar on a regular basis- sharing stories and having poojas with them. (Poojas are an Indian form of having a quiet time, the consist of sitting on the ground, reading scripture, and singing.) Each time they would meet up, Johnny would ask the guys if they wanted to follow Jesus as their only god, and each time they would say they were thinking about it but that the answer was still no. Ajay and Pushkar both began reading the Bible and searching the Scripture for truth. This process continued over the span of a year. When our short-term team arrived Johnny took of our guys named T.J, with him to have a pooja with Ajay and Pushkar. After T.J shared the story of the Prodigal Son, he asked Ajay and Pushkar, once again, if they would want to follow Jesus as their only god. They both looked at T.J and Johnny and said, “We have thought about this for a long time, we have studied the Bible, we have heard many stories, we have counted the cost, and we are ready to follow Jesus and give him all of our true devotion.” They then went on to ask questions about baptism and what it would look like. It was incredible to see that God used a short-term team to plant seeds last summer, a long term missionary to continue to plant seeds, and then for God to bring it all to fruition for our short term team to witness two young men put their full devotion in Christ this summer. Praise God!One day this summer while we were at the mall my friend Emily, another girl on my short-term team, met a Brahmin college student named Shreya. Emily and Shreya immediately hit it off and Emily met up with her soon after and was able to share the bridge illustration with her. Shreya loved that Jesus was the “bridge” between man and God and she proceeded to tell Emily that she did not believe in idol worship and wanted to know more about Jesus. The next time Emily met up with Shreya she brought me along. We were able to spend a whole day with Shreya, and the Holy Spirit lead the conversation in such a way that barely a minute went by where the conversation was not focused on Christ. During our time that day we were able to have a pooja with Shreya in which she told us that she wanted to follow Jesus as her only god but that she “had trouble surrendering control of her life” and that she “knew she must put all of her trust into Jesus”. She asked us for a copy of the Bible so that she could start reading it and praying to Jesus. The next time we were able to see Shreya she was bursting with excitement to tell us of a prayer that Jesus had answered. “Rachel and Emily! You will never believe it. I know that Jesus is real!” Shreya continued, “A few nights ago around 2am I prayed an impossible prayer to see if Jesus was real. I asked him to have a friend that I hadn’t talked to in a long time call me at that moment. And my phone rang! It was that friend. I asked him why he had called and he said he had been asleep and woke up and immediately knew he had to call me. I know Jesus is real and powerful.” Shreya went on to tell us how thankful she was that we had come to India and that we had told her about Jesus. She is continuing in reading the Bible and praying to Jesus and she is also going to be meeting up with a long-term girl to be discipled!These are only two stories of all that we saw God accomplish this summer- only two stories from one short-term team. God is yearning for us to GO, for us to SPEAK. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. We serve the LIVING God who longs for all people, everywhere to repent.