"It's Monsoon Season in South Asia" (September 2003)

This South Asia is about the size of the state of Arkansas and yet it is the most densely populated country on the planet with nearly 140,000,000 people living there. To make life there even more challenging, half of the country goes underwater during the monsoon season leaving literally tens of millions of people changing their physical location driven by the force of the fast rising tides.

With those thoughts in mind I had expected my time there last week to be quite oppressive, and yet I saw a tremendous reason for hope. 90% of the people in South Asian are muslim and another 9.5% are Hindu – leaving less than .5% as Christian . . . at least for now! I had the privilege of meeting some men and women however, that gave me reason to believe that all that is about to change. It’s monsoon season in South Asia – spiritual monsoon season!

In the early 1990’s a young prominent teenaged boy (name withheld for security reasons) was studying Islam in a local madrassa (Quranic school). In only a few years of study this young boy had memorized the entire Qur’an and could recite it from memory! However, Islamic education is traditionally done in Arabic, a language that is unfamiliar at best to most of the Mulsim world outside of the Middle East. As the young boy studied, he began to question the very Qur’an that he had memorized. After asking several questions of his teacher he was declared a “sinner” and was punished by becoming an untouchable for 3 years. This sentence meant that NOONE, not even his family, could speak with him or be around him until he could be “purged” of this desire to question their holy book. So the boy’s father built a one room shack in their back yard because he would shame the family if he stayed under the same roof! During that 3 year emotional imprisonment, the boy attempted suicide several times. After being hospitalized for drinking poison, the boy returned home only to find that the sentence remained.

One day as he was walking alone along a path a white man riding in a rickshaw asked if he needed a ride. Of course having not had anyone talk to him for months he jumped up into the rickshaw and enjoyed a conversation with the strange man that didn’t seem to be affected by the “curse” that had been placed upon him. The white man, a missionary, took the boy to his home and told him about another holy book – one that the Qur’an mentions on several occasions. It was called the Injil (Gospels). The missionary gave the boy a book and sent him home to read it. Intrigued by this holy book that seemed to be filled with love rather than condemnation, the young boy read the entire thing in a day. In fact, he started reading through and memorizing it like he had done with the Qur’an. It wasn’t long until he found the words of John 3:16-17 to become the foundation for his life: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” That was crucial – here was a boy that stood condemned by his own religion, but was now reading that God’s Son came to save him from condemnation! He made those words his prayer and in the days following knew that he had been changed by this Son of God. Soon he found his way back to the missionary’s home and learned of a church that he could attend to be around others that had found life in the words of the Injil.

But it wasn’t long until his father found out about his going to church and that meant trouble. The young man was warned once not to go, but he found the loving environment of church irresistible. His father and the other men of the family drug the young man into the yard and beat him severely and left him tied to a bamboo pole until he would recant his faith in Christ. Early the next morning his mother quietly slipped into the courtyard and untied her son, handed him about $10 and told him to go away and never to return for the men would surely kill him. Having never been far from home, the bruised young man found his way to the capital city and to a church there. When he approached the church for baptism, they told him that he must take a “Christian name” in order to be baptized. The boy refused because he felt like keeping his name would help other South Asian muslims to realize that they can be Christian without abandoning their culture. After the church initially refused, the young man told them that if they were scared of retaliation, that he would get into the water and baptize himself. Finally the pastor relented and baptized the boy welcoming him into the fellowship.

A few years passed and the young man got word that his father was very ill and about to die. Risking his life, he left and went to attend his father where he was surprised at the welcome that he received. Upon his arrival he learned that his mother had been killed several years earlier for releasing him. In spite of that, he laid hands on his father and prayed in Jesus Name that he be healed. Within a day his father was up walking around and asking questions about this Jesus that had healed him. An old friend of the young man showed up one day to greet him. As the young man shared with his friend all that Jesus had done for him, the friend indicated that he wanted to be baptized. So the two slipped out to the river and the young man baptized his first convert. Not long after that he had the privilege of baptizing his father as well.

That has been about six years ago. The two friends decided that they would go and share this message with others. The friend came back a week later with reports that he had baptized over a dozen muslims! Each time they went out and shared the message they found groups of muslims that were ready to receive Jesus so they began to form Jemats (house churches) in the villages where they had converts. They would appoint leaders to teach the Injil and most would then go and tell others. In a matter of six years they have gone from one lonely condemned boy to nearly 200,000 baptized believers with thousands of house churches covering the whole country!!! But this has not come without a price. Many have been persecuted severely . . . some have died. But this hasn’t slowed the number coming to faith at all.

Just last week there were four families in a village that asked to be baptized. The leader spoke with them about what it could cost them and asked them if they were sure. Their response, “How could we not (be baptized)? We may lose everything on earth, but for the first time, we know that we’ll be in heaven when we die!” So the four whole families were baptized – and within 2 days their houses were burned and the men were beaten and hospitalized.

As I spent time with the man that God is using to flood the nation with a gospel witness, I asked him about persecution and how it has affected the movement. He responded, “There are those that would like the joy of giving birth without pain. But is just cannot be. If we want the joy of seeing people come into God’s Kingdom, we must be willing to endure the temporary pain associated with that endeavor.” I’ll leave you with that thought. Do you want to see people born into God’s Kingdom throughout the world? If so, are you willing to endure the labor pains of financial sacrifice, potential sickness, and yes, even the possibility of persecution in order to make it happen?

It’s monsoon season in South Asia . . . Father, flood that nation with the good news of your Kingdom and help us to count the cost as we are your instruments in seeing many brought into your glory!

*** the preceding information should NOT be shared with others for security reasons – please don’t discuss with others the locations/countries/dates of my work in South Asia – failure to comply could result in the work there being hampered severely. *****