Bracelets and Believers
India was heavy. The first couple of days I struggled to see the Lord’s presence amidst so much suffering. I kept asking God where He was in all this. I’d felt hopeless at points. Heavy and dark. With constant noise and chaos, I was exhausted. The Lord shut me down quick because GOD IS GOOD! AMEN? I felt God really say, “now how could you doubt me daughter?” He demonstrated His love for this country through redemptive children of Christ.
We shared the Gospel through bracelets that had images resembling the story of Christ. They allowed you to connect with people through the language barrier.
There was a plethora of moments that I walked away thinking, “God! You blow me away.” But there’s two that really stick out to me. Let me set the setting, millions and millions of people. The percentage of Christians in South India is around 24%. In Western culture, Christianity is prominent, in India its Hinduism or Islam. So, you understand why these two following stories made me feel like God was shouting, “LOOK ELLE I AM HERE! I AM ALL AROUND!”
We’re on the boardwalk near the sea meeting people. We were speaking to two women and began sharing the Gospel. The women were not interested in what we had to say, but there was a guy who walked by us with a skeptical face. Later into our conversation with the women, I looked over and he was sitting nearby listening in. After our conversation ended with the women, we got up, but he stopped us and said, “I overheard what you all were talking about. Here’s a church service you can attend on Sunday.” We were overjoyed at this man’s boldness to come up to us, but little did we know that was only the beginning. He shared his testimony with us. He’d been in a few life-threatening car accidents, causing him to be disabled and have many ongoing injuries. He said the only thing that had gotten him through these adversaries was finding Christ. We prayed with him and gave him a couple of Gospel bands. This man loved Christ in a way that both convicted me of my hopelessness and encouraged me tremendously.
Another day we were walking along the boardwalk again (it became our favorite spot) and we began sharing with different people. As we were sharing the Gospel, a young kid about my age came up and started listening. Toward the end of the conversation, he goes “you guys have Gospel bands” with a smile on his face. He then went to share that two missionaries had shared the Gospel with him a couple months ago and began to mentor him. He said, with an even bigger smile on his face, “want to hear something cool? I am getting baptized soon.” He was full of energy and was a light to those around him, especially to us. The funny part is, he said the reason he came up to us because he was going to “troll us.” The chances of this story blow me away. We encountered him in the same city of a huge country, in a huge world… on the same night, in the same place… HOW!? God, that’s how.
