The difference made by the gospel

Reuben Pauls

"You do not go to India to see it; you go to experience it," our tour leader had said. It was an amazingly accurate statement.

There was another statement offered prior to our departure: "I hope you and Martha are able to enjoy a bit of vacation alongside your responsibilities." It was certainly well-intentioned, but reality struck closer to the former comment.

Our tour, led by Vidya Narimalla, an MB church planter from Toronto, was constantly reminded, "Things in India are not wrong; they are different!" The struggle to judge by Western standards was ever present.

Participating in Assembly Gathered for the first week and then in Assembly Scattered for the second week allowed us to observe firsthand the difference Christ makes in the people of a land as diverse as India.

"Everything that is said about India is true." This also describes our India experience. Crowded cities, narrow streets, millions of people--all are reality. So are bustling shopping areas, aggressive vendors, beggars, honking taxis, warm and gracious hosts, vibrant churches, waiting in line, passionate evangelism, curry and more curry. Statements from total strangers such as "You are wealthy; take me with you to America," were commonplace.

Two vivid pictures

Perhaps the most striking picture, which haunts me still, is that of a crippled woman, one leg removed at the knee, sliding on the ground near our point of departure for a Ghat ride on the Hoogley River. The despair, the pain and the hopelessness of her situation were so gripping that I could not have taken a picture had the opportunity presented itself. The tears were spilling over from deep within me, and tears were still visible among other members of our group minutes later.

A second picture, only a few metres up river at a bathing spot, was of a young boy splashing in the same polluted river. He would soap his body, rinse off by dunking himself under the water, then clasp his hands together in cup fashion and drink from the river. He stopped his actions for a brief moment to watch a dead dog float by. Then he calmly continued drinking the water.

Neither of them deserve the situation into which they were born, but, then, do you or I?

What does the good news of Jesus Christ look like in this context?

A different picture After the showpiece events of Assembly Gathered, our group entered several villages south of Hyderabad. The pace of life slowed considerably, and we encountered vibrant, passionate Christian witness and love. In some villages, we were told, "You can leave everything on the bus"--we could be sure that our things would not be stolen.

At Deverakonda we were welcomed, and informed that some of our hosts for the night would be a little late. They were distributing tracts in 17 villages previously unreached with the gospel.

Another village welcomed us for tea, and a story of faithfulness unfolded which left not a dry eye among the visitors. An older woman was kissing the ground as we approached a recently constructed church. We later learned that she, now in her early 70s, had built it herself, and had provided the land by giving up her life savings and selling her only goat. This was after "the living God" had healed her from "incurable canker sores". Her life mission, now, was to provide a church from which everyone in her village could hear about the living God.

An offering was taken from the tour group, "because God had revealed to her that He would supply funds for electricity and a microphone". The funds received were sufficient, but what kind of microphone? The church was barely 25-by-30-feet, if that.

"Oh, no! Not for people in church to hear, but a microphone to be mounted on the building so that when the gospel is preached, everyone in the village will hear."

As we left, the older woman knelt down to thank God for His provision. "Now God can let me die," the translation went, "because my task to witness to my village is complete."

What the good news of Jesus Christ looks like in this context is more easily seen.

Experiencing the contrast

The simple joy of Christ and the visible passion for those less privileged than themselves were evident within the village churches we visited. We were continually thanked for having provided missionaries so that Jesus could be experienced by our Indian brothers and sisters.

Perhaps it is time for us to re-learn, from them, how powerful the gospel of Jesus Christ is to influence our society with an overflowing compassion for those who do not yet know "the living God".

How will you and I translate the good news of Jesus Christ into the world in which we live?

Executive minister Reuben Pauls went to the Mennonite World Conference in India as the official representative of the Canadian MB Conference.

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