India Testimony – Transformed Village

My name is Jamal and I was healed from a lung disease and gave my life to Jesus. Since the day I was saved, I began actively witnessing the power of the gospel to hundreds of people. I would share the gospel at home, on the streets, in the marketplaces and wherever I was led to share.

As I served the Lord, the passion for the lost continued to increase and the burden was heavy on my heart. The only thing I knew to do was fast and pray regularly when I felt such deep brokenness in my heart.

One day, I had a vision about a village and I heard the name of the village very clearly in my heart. Since I am unschooled, I couldn’t figure out the direction to this village from where I was. As I fasted and prayed again, the Lord told me, in one of the fine mornings, to walk towards the unreached village in a particular direction.

I began to walk about 3 hours and found the village. At the entrance, I saw the name of the village I heard during prayer and the village looked exactly like I saw in the vision I had. I said, “Yes Lord, this is the village you showed me and I am right here, thank you for bringing me here!”

I began to praise and thank the Lord and surrender the village into the hands of God. The very first day, by faith I laid my hands on a man who was suffering from a fever and he was instantly healed and there was also a paralyzed man and he was healed!

It was a great surprise for the village people and for the family of the paralyzed man. They told me to explain how I learned to heal people. I told them, “I am just a man, but it is Jesus who heals and brings people into His kingdom.”

I praised God and was filled with great excitement and hope that the whole village would come to know Christ. The people were very accepting of me and were curious to know more about the Jesus I talked about and they were drawn to experience Christ in their lives.

The prince of this world ruled this village in social, economic and political ways. They had different types of worship systems to multiple deities to appease the gods and prosper.

When there was a drought in the village, people conducted a special worship time to seek the favor of the rain god. They would bow down to a curved stone with a picture of a deity and would perform a special marriage ceremony for frogs, expecting the rain god to have mercy and visit the village. They paid homage to fire, wind, water and all of creation.

The whole village was addicted to wine and when they got back from work they would get drunk and fight with each other.

Children and youth lived in a very unhealthy atmosphere and were not cared for by their parents, which had a severe affect on their daily lives and character. Since there was no care from the parents, the children right from their childhood were forced into child labor. Many children became self centered and finally migrated to the cities and craved the urban lifestyle. Many of them never came back to their parents again; some got involved in notorious crime and ended up in prison. The number of children and youth decreased since they didn’t want to stay in the village with their parents.

Idol worship and Hindu festivals were a very integral part of their lives, however now in this village only a minority perform idol worship. The village temple is lacking devotees.

As the gospel entered into this village, the Lord has restored family life! The Christ-filled life of the parents has transformed the lives of the children and youth. Now the whole family sits together in their homes for family time, singing, discussing Bible stories and having a sweet time of prayer.

Instead of quarrelling, the family has been filled with sweet love, harmony, deeper relationships and rejoicing in the Lord. Now families are united and not divided. Instead of the youth migrating to the urban cities, the children and youth are now learning to live with their parents and as a result of prayers many children and youth have come back to their parents and given their lives to Jesus. Many youth have turned away from crime, quarreling and alcohol abuse.

Instead of participating in false temple celebrations, they are celebrating their lives each day with Jesus. There is a vibrant and dynamic church meeting going on in this village several times a week.

Also, the Lord has blessed them with the work of their hands and they are free from the slave labor. Families have discovered that the labor ties them to a lifelong debt, bondage and ultimately slavery to their landlords, but the gospel has opened the eyes of the village people and many are free from that bondage. They no longer borrow money from the landlords, instead each one tries to live with their own income they get each day and live by faith. This gets the attention of the landlords because they are loosing the cheap laborers, therefore, they persecute and harass them, but joyfully the believers live their lives with Jesus. Some of the village people are blessed to have their own small home-based businesses, providing various services to the community and making their living.

The gospel has changed their way of life and God has blessed their faithfulness.