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Exciting story of Conversion from Summit Team in South Asia
Jan 19 | Pastor J.D. | 8 Comments |
“I received this incredible story from our team in South Asia that I thought would encourage you. God is working through our Summit Church planters around the world. Believe God for great things on behalf of them…
“ ‘Linus’ was one of the first guys that I met here. He came highly recommended as an auto driver, and we struck up a quick friendship. We talked about our religious beliefs from day one—Linus, like most of the people in this city, was Hindu. One day in the chai (tea) shop, I began asking Linus if he could remember any stories that he had been told from the Bible. He vaguely fumbled through the creation story. I had him tell the whole story and I prompted him for aspects he had forgotten, or helped him out when was wrong. Then I retold the story to him and asked him what he thought. He said he liked the story a lot.
Now, the whole time I was talking with Linus, I noticed there was another man next to him listening to my every word. When I was finished with the story the other man, ‘Usha’, asked me if I was a missionary. After being caught off-guard, Usha and I talked for a few minutes and I learned that he was a believer, but he felt like he wasn’t following the Lord “very good.” I encouraged him for a minute and then we both left the chai shop. We will come back to Usha in a minute.
From that point on, each conversation I had with Linus got better and better. He began to believe more and more of the good news from the Bible that I was sharing with Him. I asked him one night if he would read a Bible if I got one for him in his language. He promised that he would. For three days he reminded me—multiple times!—about my promise to get him, as he called it, “Da Book.” A few days later, when I was finally able to find one, I called Linus to arrange a time to drop it off. While I was on the phone with him, a 17-year-old boy was in his car and overhearing the conversation, asked, “Why do you want a Bible? You aren’t going to convert, are you?” Linus responded, “No, I didn’t say anything about converting, but Jesus died so that we could be forgiven of our sins. None of our gods has done anything like this. Don’t you want to know more about Jesus?” What I love about this is that Linus was witnessing even before he ever believed!
As soon as Linus got the book, he began reading. I soon discovered that his wife ‘Anita’ was reading “Da Book” too. A few days later he approached me and said, “This book tells me about Jesus. But I want to know why Jesus had to die.” You can imagine my mixture of excitement and hesitancy to approach such a deep subject with my limited Hindi and his limited English. I took him back to the creation story and reminded him of man’s biggest problem—sin. I then took him through the promise of one who would remedy our sin problem coming through the lineage of David (Family heritage is everything here). Once he resolved that all men are sinful and rightfully deserved death and eternal separation from God, I asked him, “Who is the only man on earth that has never sinned?” He said, “Jesus.” I then asked him who Jesus was. He said, “God.” After this I explained to him that God was so kind to send his Son Jesus, who is God, in the form of man, who would live a sinless life and would die for the sins of the whole world so we could be reunited with God. I used the imagery of God restoring us back to our position in the Garden of Eden before the fall—and this is where he really got it. It all clicked for him. After we talked that night, he told me he believed that Jesus was the true God, and that the Hindu gods were not true gods. He said he did not believe he was a follower of Jesus, but that he wanted to be.
It was a few days later that Linus professed faith that Jesus is the only way for his sins to be covered and expressed genuine desire to follow Him. A few nights after he believed, Linus and Anita came to our home for dinner. We were talking about Jesus and church when Usha, the Christian guy from the chai shop, came up in our conversation. Linus said, “You are telling me that I should go to the same church that Usha goes to? I know Usha. Many times Usha and I have had conversations in the chai shop. Never once has he told me about Jesus. I don’t think Usha knows what I know about Jesus. If he does, how could he have never once brought Jesus up in our conversations?” Linus spoke this with a little bit of anger. I couldn’t help but grin in excitement that he has tasted something so good about Jesus that he couldn’t imagine not sharing this news with others. But my heart was also broken for Usha. I know many times I have had multiple conversations with people and never once brought up Jesus. How many more “Linuses” would there be in my life if I was more bold to share about Jesus? Here is a guy that has known Jesus for less than a week and can’t imagine NOT bringing up the Good News he now knows about Jesus.
Since then, Linus has been sharing everything he learns about Jesus with his wife and his in-laws. On Christmas day he called me. I had shared with him a few days earlier the story of the prodigal son from Luke 15. We discussed the story and I challenged him to tell it to 10 people. When he called me he was with his wife’s cousins and in-laws. He said, “Sir, can you tell me where the story about the two sons is again in Da Book? I am with my wife’s family and I want to share it with them.” I told him and he quickly got off the phone. Love it!”
8 Responses to “Exciting story of Conversion from Summit Team in South Asia”
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What a blessing today! And…what a challenge too! Thanks for sharing.
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” ( Romans 10:14-15 )
//Psalm 67:3-4 “Let the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth.” //
My heart and mind kept playing these verses on instant replay as I read this testimony. What happy, happy news!
As the pop-christian song goes, “…our God, IS and Awesome God…” This story gives me goose bumps.
This story gives me goose bumps. As the pop-christian song goes, “…our God IS an Awesome God…” Thanks for sharing this…
Wow! Praise the Lord for this incredible work in South Asia. Excited to hear how God is moving in the World. Thanks for sharing JD.
Praise God!
Wow thanks for sharing!