By Chelsea Novak*

DELHI, India — This summer I was in northern India. Although we were based in a city, my team of four young women spent most of our time out in the villages.

If we found a core group of people to story with in the village, we would visit the home each week and set up a model for a house fellowship to start. We told stories from the Bible, asked questions from the story, sang songs in Hindi and prayed.

Two times a week, I went into a village. I went out with my partner and our national translator. Our first visit into the village was overwhelming. We were there to do follow-up. We sat out on the rocky road into the village trying to find the location where a previous medical clinic was held.

We turned corner after corner around slab brick homes and walked the streets covered with dirt and trash just trying to find the person of peace. Our search was no good. We ended up in a dirt area filled with bulls — which turned out to be somebody’s home.

We turned around, but we didn’t give up. I made up my mind that we would stay in the village and invite ourselves into somebody’s home since nobody was inviting us in. I asked one lady if we could come into her home to sit down. By this time, we had about 40 people following us!

To my surprise, all 40 people came into her home and others joined them. So with about 60-70 people there, we took the opportunity to story with them. When we were finished, I did not feel that our time in that home was beneficial. But, not every place we visited was ready for the Gospel.

We left the home and began to make our way on the rough dirt road back to the main road. As we were leaving, a young man followed us out of the village. Typically, I would have been alarmed for a man to be following us. For some reason, I was not alarmed.

As we stopped on the main road, waiting to take the bus back to the city, the man talked to our translator. His name was Bala.* Our translator looked at me and said, “This man was at the house and heard the story. He wants to know how he can know Jesus!”

Right there, we shared with Bala and I led him in prayer. He prayed and asked God to be Lord of his life. What I saw as a purpose-less visit, God had a purpose: to reveal himself to His child, Bala.

Bala continued to come to the house fellowship that started and grew in his faith. He was even able to retell some of the stories that we shared with him. He received a Bible and read the book of John. He is inquisitive about baptism. I am confident that one day I will get to worship the one true God alongside Bala in heaven.

—30—

*Name changed.

Chelsea Novak is a student at North Greenville University, SC. and a member of First Baptist Chesney, SC. She 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/.