On the road in South Asia

We’d been on the road in South Asia for three weeks. We’d covered thousands of kilometers and met hundreds of people. The purpose was to hear their stories and experience the life of a movement of God.

We had a ten hour drive to get back to base so I hit record and used the time to interview my hosts Gary and DJ. Here are some reflections on what I learned from the trip and our discussion.

I kept hearing the same story over and over

So many times we'd be sitting in a courtyard or in a room where there was a fan going as it was hot outside. Someone came to us and told us their story of meeting Jesus and offered to pray for us.

We kept hearing the same story over and over again. It went something like this, My husband was a drunkard and lazy, always angry and oppressed by demons. We were miserable. Someone visited offering prayer and he was set free. Now we are learning to follow Jesus and there is peace in our home. My husband listens to me, takes an interest in the family and even helps with jobs around the house! Now he’s motivated to work and our lives are much better.

I got to know some of these angry, drunkard, demon possessed men and despite the language barrier, I could see they were now godly men full of the life of Christ.

Another recurring theme was healing, Our child was desperately ill. We had lost all hope that she would live. Then there was a knock at the door and the offer of prayer. God healed our daughter and now we follow Jesus. Many of our relatives and neighbors follow him too.

Typically there was a problem with alcohol, demonic oppression, sickness and family conflict. People were miserable and found no consolation in Hinduism. Then someone arrives at door, a relative, a neighbor or someone they’d never met before sharing their story and offering prayer.

They experience the power of God and turn to Christ.

I met an elderly woman whose husband died. She had no children to support her and her husband’s family abandoned her by the side of the road to die. The disciples found her and took her in. They fed her, brought her back to health and found her a place to live. She heard the gospel through them and is now following Christ and going out in pairs to tell others about him.

Reaching households

The movement doesn’t target individuals but whole family networks in their homes. Even if the head of the house isn’t responsive they still want to meet in the home so he gets to hear and give at least passive approval to the whole household hearing.

Often you’d look around the room and there’d be three generations present. An extended family household could include more than a dozen people living under the one roof. Other relatives were living nearby.

The entry method is simple — go in pairs, knock on a door, share your story, offer prayer — any believer can do it. The purpose of the visit is not to gain a convert but to invite the household to read stories from the Bible together.

Technology as a multiplier

What happens next is unlike anything I’ve seen before. The messengers come with inexpensive micro-SD cards with an audio version of the Bible and the studies in the local language. There’s also the Jesus film in the local language. Even if the messengers are illiterate, which some are, they can still listen to the Bible stories and do the studies together.

Most families have a least one basic phone that will take the SD cards and play them.

The messengers will load the SD card and show how they work and set a time when they can return and go through the first study. Having the resources in audio format means any believer can help a household through the studies that are designed not just to provide content, but lead to obedient discipleship.

There are 35 studies that begin with creation and end with Christ. They could be spread over 35 weeks, but many households move through them much faster. Even if the messengers can’t be there for every study, the family reports in and discuss what they are learning either over the phone or when they meet.

Why so many studies? There is a deeply entrenched Hindu (or Muslim) way of seeing the world that needs to bow to the One True God revealed in the Scriptures and that takes time. The studies don’t target other religions but present the Biblical story in a positive way and allow participants to make their own decisions about the implications.

Typically, it’s one household at a time going through the studies as multiple households at once get out of sync with each other.

Sixty percent of households that begin the studies don’t complete them on the first attempt — but 40% do.

Discipling to conversion

Surprisingly the call to repent, believe and be baptized does not come until after the 35 studies are completed. That call is the first study in a series on discipleship. Sometimes not every member of the household is ready for repentance and baptism, but they have been involved in the process has led to some members following Christ. Their involvement means that the gospel is far less likely to divide families.

Immediately they are baptized, new disciples are trained and commissioned to go to other households to tell their story, offer prayer, an SD card and opportunity to read the Bible together. When they are baptized, new disciples learn that Jesus’ baptism marked the launch of his mission.

Until now things have moved slowly. One household has completed 35 studies from Creation to Christ. Then following their baptism, begun a new series in discipleship. Typically the messengers journey with a family for six months to get them established in their faith. They stay with the new disciples until they are confident, competent, and independently able to share what they have learned. If it takes longer, they stay longer.

Going slow to go fast

The assumption is, that not everyone is a gifted evangelist, yet every disciple is called to make disciples. That includes elderly, illiterate widows, and one young woman who began visiting with her father when she was twelve. In her early twenties now, she’s bold as a lion.

They’ve been sharing what they are learning as they go through the studies. Now they are commissioned to go to their relatives and neighbors as missionaries. An assessment of the movement revealed that a staggering 79% of disciples do just that. The movement goes slow in order to go fast. In the first year 200 people took baptism, the next year it was 700, then 2,000, 9,000, 20,000 and 40,000.

The SD cards are a simple, biblical and effective method that multiplies the movement’s breadth and depth. But this is not a movement of the SD card. This movement is fueled by the joy of the Lord in the hears of ordinary people who have been set free from demons, death, sin and the devil. I saw the love of Christ in them. They’re growing as disciples because they are making disciples.

I met a number of disciples that were going into six, ten and twenty villages. In each village they had started multiple new churches. As we drove into some of these villages my host would say, “We have a church in that house. We have a church there. We have a Bible-study just beginning in that house …” as they waved to the faces they recognized along the way.

Near and far

The disciples have a vision to take the gospel to “near and far.” Near means their neighborhood or the next village. Far can mean to villages hundreds of kilometers away.

I met an extended family of farmers made up of grandparents and the families of three brothers. The brothers decided one of them would go to a far way location where there were not disciples or churches. One left his family behind to go for three months. During the day he worked as a farmer, at night he shared the gospel and made disciples and planted churches. While the families back home supported him and wife and children back home.

No outsider told them to do this, there was no external funding, just a determination to obey Christ’s call to take the gospel to every people and every place. This story was the norm rather than the exception. That’s why over 95,000 churches meeting in homes have been started and hundreds of thousands of disciples made who are making disciples.

Find out more: southasiansands.wixsite.com/ekrasta