By Willy Ackley*

DELHI, India — The language barrier was really tough at first. But at the end of six weeks, it basically disappeared. This was just one of the many prayers God answered during my time in India

In the area where I served, a lot of people say they’re Christians, but they’re not. And, there’s a lot of people who are believers, but no one to teach them.

When we went into a community, the goal was to spend two days prayer walking, sharing testimonies and telling stories of Jesus. We started out just preaching a little bit — visiting house churches with the goal of discipleship work. The first time we led a small group for new believers. We gave them a little bit of Scripture, but mostly we taught them how to tell their testimonies and stories from the Bible. Then, we told them to go out into the streets and share their testimonies.

I didn’t see how it was going to work. During the first class, I asked them why they had come. They answered, “I came because I don’t know how to follow Jesus. I don’t know how to get closer to Jesus.” They were heartbroken because they just didn’t know how to serve God. Given this, I didn’t see how they would be able to share their testimonies with just two days of discipleship. So, I just prayed, “I think You can do it, God.”

Two days later, these same people shared their testimonies in the streets. They said, “We didn’t know that we could do that!”

Like these new believers, it was harder for me to share my faith before I came. Honestly, I didn’t know how to do it. I was really taught how to share my faith better here. The biggest thing that I learned here is just how powerful my testimony is. Before, I would get into discussions about the Bible, or about God, but I would never just share my testimony. And then I came here and I learned to share what God did in my life — not what I think about God, or what another person thinks about God, but what God has done in my life.

We saw 22 people come to know Christ. All we ever did was just share our testimonies. We shared what God had done in our lives and explained how they could have a relationship with Him. It was that simple.

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Willy Ackley is a student at the University of Alabama, Huntsville and a member of Thompson Chapel Baptist Church in Pulaski, Tenn. He recently spent six weeks in India as an SA101 volunteer. For more information on SA101, visit the website for South Asian peoples, http://southasianpeoples.imb.org/special-interest/sa101/

*Name changed.