BY CARROL GRADY
et’s go to India and hold evangelistic meetings!”
Garwin McNeilus was visiting Bangladesh in April 1999 when he turned to Bob
Paulsen with that challenge.
“OK. When?” Bob immediately answered, willing to do almost
anything to advance the mission of the gospel.
“You don’t say ‘OK’ to Garwin unless you mean it,” grins
Bob. “He spent the next couple of months working out the details with Elder
Ron Watts, Southern Asia Division president, and we all spent many hours in
prayer for the blessing of the Holy Spirit. On December 26, along with Bill
Nixon, a Bible worker from Minnesota who gave the health talks and ran the computer,
we embarked for India.”
McNeilus, a cement truck manufacturer from Minnesota, and
Paulsen, who owns an awning company in Washington, have had the privilege of
visiting several areas of the world at a time when the Holy Spirit was opening
the way and preparing hearts to receive the gospel—places like Russia, Bulgaria,
and Cuba. But what happened this past January in Tenali, Andhra Pradesh, India,
constitutes the highlight of their lives so far.
To Those Who’ve Never Heard
Although Christian tradition says that the disciple Thomas
brought the gospel to India after Christ’s return to heaven, Christianity has
been very slow to make inroads into the Hindu and Buddhist population since
the advent of modern missions. Only in the very recent past, perhaps in the
past year or two, have we recognized the dramatic opening up of the country
of India to the message of God’s love. Church membership in the Southern Asia
Division has grown from 170,969 in 1990 to 310,475 in 1998,* and baptisms of
200-300 are not uncommon.
Before the meetings began, a team of 15 pastors from the
South Andhra Section of the Central India Union Section, under the direction
of section president N. D. Samson and union president K. Christopher, spent
several weeks visiting and giving Bible studies to people in Tenali and other
villages in the area.
ALMOST THERE: Workers, under the direction of Maranatha International, labor frantically
to ready this church to house the new congregation of believers. |
Not knowing just what to expect among these people who had
never before heard of Jesus, the team decided to express their faith by hiring
a hall that would seat 2,500. During the next few days they visited in Tenali
and the surrounding villages, inviting people to attend the meetings. More than
1,000 came out on opening night to listen to Paulsen (who was preaching his
first evangelistic series) present the simple gospel story of Jesus’ love. A
band composed of local musicians provided music each night, and Pastor Samson’s
wife sang.
The next night about 3,000 people crammed the hall. So before
the third meeting, the chairs were removed and mats were spread on the floor
to accommodate the nearly 5,000 who showed up. Even so, some had to stand outside
the open windows to listen to the message. As attendance continued to grow each
night, the team had to build a large screen next to the hall, allowing hundreds
sitting on rugs spread out on the ground to follow the meeting by means of a
video projector. Adding to the reach of the services, the local television station
began broadcasting the meetings to a potential viewing audience of 90,000.
The evangelistic team put in 18-hour days as they visited
in surrounding villages and met with those who were interested. Learning that
many more wanted to come but didn’t have transportation, the team hired trucks
and buses to pick up the people each evening. The line of trucks grew longer
each night, and by the final night, attendance topped 10,000.
Paulsen, McNeilus, and Nixon hugged the people left and
right, putting their arms around them as they prayed, not realizing that it
was against local custom. But the people responded with appreciation. (They
hugged the children, too, and in one of the villages, as Paulsen was waiting
to speak, an 18-year-old mother gave him her baby to hold.)
I’ll bet these people have never seen a baby dedication,
he thought as he looked down at the sleeping infant. So when he stood to speak
he asked the young mother, who was to be baptized that afternoon, to come forward,
proceeding thereupon to dedicate her baby to God. After that, in almost every
village there was someone who wanted him to dedicate their baby.
“If I Be Lifted”
Paulsen’s message and altar calls were translated into the
Telugu language by a national pastor. And as he lifted up the Saviour, hundreds
pressed forward to give their lives to Jesus. One evening, feeling a tug on
his trousers, Paulsen looked down to see the radiant smile of a 15-year-old
crippled girl who, with extreme effort, had dragged herself through a forest
of legs to ask for prayer and give her heart to God.
IMPROVISING: A farm tractor and trailer were pressed
into service to transport baptismal candidates from the
village to the river. In many villages 10 or 12 trips by
the tractor and wagon were necessary to bring all the
candidates. |
As the meetings progressed, local pastors baptized several
hundred people in the river each morning at dawn, while Paulsen stood at the
water’s edge to welcome each precious soul into the family of God. On the last
Friday morning Paulsen had the thrill of joining the pastor and a number of
young people who had requested him to baptize them in the river. One of these
was the crippled girl, whom McNeilus carried out to Paulsen for her baptism.
As Paulsen handed her, dripping wet, back to McNeilus, they both had tears in
their eyes.
The Spirit of God moved mightily in the Tenali area, resulting
(as of this writing) in 3,382 baptisms, perhaps the largest ever seen in India.
About 500 have since been baptized, and another 1,000 are studying the Bible.
While the meetings were going on, a Maranatha team, under
the direction of Doug Clark, was building a church in Tenali. The church, originally
designed to seat 200, was enlarged to seat 400 as the builders witnessed the
mighty response to the meetings. The church was completed by the time the meetings
ended, and was dedicated on the final Sabbath.
The Effort Continues
In the end, thousands came to bid farewell and to regale the
Americans with garlands for the love and friendship they had demonstrated. As
the lay evangelists returned home they marveled and rejoiced at the way God’s
power had worked through weak human vessels.
Maranatha has since built a school in Tenali and 13 more churches
in the villages surrounding it. They have also built a Global Mission training
center at the union office. Two Global Mission volunteers are now stationed
in each village to shepherd the new converts.
As we have seen the power of God’s Spirit poured out so
mightily in India and elsewhere, may we see this as evidence of a divine restlessness
for Jesus to come and take us home.
*The Southern Asia Division includes Bhutan, India, Maldives, and Nepal.
_________________________
Carrol Grady writes from Snohomish, Washington.
