ABIDE MISSIONAL LIVING MAGAZINE

By Lily Field

How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! – Romans 10:15

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The story you are about to read is 100% true, however the names have been changed to protect the identities of the people mentioned. Be blessed!

The feet of Pastor R had led him away from the evil that divides his culture, not racism, as in the US, but the caste system, which declares some people literally untouchable. On one of my previous trips, Pastor R participated in a prayer summit we hosted to raise up intercession for this nation; which contains the largest number of unreached people groups in the world! Pastors R’s team was assigned to a prayer walk in a slum for untouchables, which was built next to the largest river running through the city.

Pastor R was not from an untouchable caste, and custom dictated that he not only avoid all contact with untouchables, but that he avoids contact with anything they had touched. For example, I was told that if an untouchable person drank out of a glass at a restaurant, the restaurant staff would break the glass afterward to show other patrons that the glass would never touch their lips. During the prayer walk, Pastor R and his team walked into the house of untouchables who welcomed them and then he asked for water. He drank the water offered out of their glass. Everyone was shocked, the family told their neighbors, and there was now an audience for the gospel, all because of the radical, cultureclashing, loving feet of Pastor R.

On this trip, I followed Pastor R’s feet back into another slum. Where we ministered to a children’s church- a tarp laid on the ground for the children to sit on. *Teenagers and adults gathered around on every side to listen. Some children held back at first. And then came closer once they realized they were safe. Some called to others in their houses, so the audience was vast.

Earlier that day, we had spoken at a Christmas program for national evangelists and that service was also conducted in the street. Over 100 chairs were set into a cul de sac in front of a believer’s home, and the message and worship and prayer was heard by those on their balconies, doorsteps and up and down the street.

On the drive to the slum I asked Pastor R what percentage of his ministry was to the unreached (defined as less than 2% evangelical believers) and he told me, emphatically, one hundred percent!

*One of the amazing things about ministering in this most populated of countries is that unless you are indoors with the windows and doors closed, you are always in an open-air outreach situation.

The Feet of Pastor A Sister Virginia and I flew to another city in the north and stayed with Pastor A and his family. On the last day of our visit we followed him into the forty villages where he ministers, villages without a single church building or meeting place, but temples to idols everywhere. It was raining and freezing cold, and all of our feet were covered with mud as we tramped through the muddy dirt roads.

I was touched by his heart, a true disciple makers heart, going from home to home to encourage his flock of first-generation believers from Hindu backgrounds. I was particularly overjoyed because I had been able to minister and worship with this group of believers a year ago. During that visit, Sister Joy and Sister Tia and I all prayed for each woman. Now a year later, I was able to see them again and hear the testimonies of answers to those prayers.

One woman was rejoicing to be married to a believer. Many of the women were grieved because their marriage was arranged and if their parents were unbelievers or unable to find a believer, they would marry them to an unbeliever. However, Pastor A had told his disciples that he would not attend weddings between believers and non-believers, because discipleship is about obeying the commands of Christ, not just knowing them. But after this announcement, the very next marriage in the group was between two believers!

Another woman had received prayer about her infertility, and she presented us with her beautiful healthy baby!

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One leader, whose husband had left her, was living with her son in a space only five feet by five feet. Yet this tiny space did not stop her being hospitable and she welcomed us in and served us chai and biscuits.

Afterwards, we went with the believers who had gathered in a stable for a worship service. We sat in the straw, shivering, but Pastor A explained that if we covered ourselves with straw, it would keep us warm. I thought all the feet in that stable were unspeakably beautiful, they were the feet of saints who serve God in hardship, not for gain. For following Jesus, they have received not material blessings but hardship and persecution, and yet their feet still ran to proclaim the good news!

There were so many more testimonies from the believers I followed and served alongside in South Asia. During my trip I reflected on how so many of our presentations about missions look: western, wealthy, white person is hugging or serving a poor person of color. But we don’t see this imagery in the Scripture. Missions are the call of the body of Christ to share Jesus with anyone who is lost and often the lost are the wealthy (remember the verse about it being harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than a camel to go through the eye of a needle?).

Being a leader in my missions agency, I’m always asked how many missionaries we have on the field and when people hear of, for example, South Asians ministering to South Asians, they respond along the lines of, “Oh, so not missionaries of the field, workers on the field.” However, as I walked through the slums and villages of South Asia, I knew I was following behind missionaries in the truest sense of the word and I am honored to present a new image of missions. This is an image that I believe will be relatable to many more in the body of Christ.

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