The following story is written by an East-West short-term mission trip participant. Click here to learn more about our overseas trips.
By the third day of visiting unreached villages in South Asia, I was drained.
Despite sharing the gospel with more than 50 people, only a few received Christ. I was at a low point and did not think I was doing God’s story justice. To top it off, I wasn’t relating well to the culture around me.
I’m from the upper-middle class bubble of North Dallas and God had sent me to minister to poverty stricken villages. Obedience to share the gospel to those who’d never heard the Name of Jesus was the only thing keeping me going.
In the middle of this pit, we came across a small hut where three older women and a blind teenage boy were sitting. I asked if I could come in and get to know them, and they graciously accepted me into their home. After basic introductions, I began talking about the brokenness in our world.
I tried to connect with them by sharing that my grandfather had passed away at a young age from cancer and that I have a sister who doesn’t want anything to do with my family. The women stopped me to share two things. First, that one of the women has cancer. Second, that one of the women has three sons who abandoned her.
I was stunned.
After days of feeling like I wasn’t able to relate to the people at all, God showed me that He had been reforming the way I shared my story so that I was able to connect with the people sitting in front of me.
Continuing on with my gospel presentation, I talked about Jesus and what He was like on Earth. I thought about His many miracles, and God nudged me to tell the story of Jesus healing the blind. So I shared this story with the blind teenager sitting across from me.
“As Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' 'Neither this man nor his parents sinned,' said Jesus, 'but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.' After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 'Go,' he told him, 'wash in the Pool of Siloam.' So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.” -John 9:1-7
In that moment, I told the blind boy that if he believed in Jesus, God would restore His sight in Heaven.
Through sharing my story and stories from the Bible, these women and teenage boy recognized both their physical and spiritual brokenness and repented before the Lord. The women and blind boy all confessed Jesus Christ as their Lord.