Raju is seeing his relatives turning to Christ
November 03, 2006
When we were visiting Andra Pradesh a few days ago I had a wonderful time with Raju. I have met him before but only briefly. This time we were able to have some good time of fellowship. He also took us to the two house churches he is leading. Normally there will be 6 to 9 families in a house church, while a cell-group here consists of 3 families.
Raju is so excited: “God is doing great things in our town! Some time ago I went to Rada, a relative of mine, to share the gospel message with him and his family. I left my telephone number with them, in case they wanted to learn more about Jesus. These people were idol worshippers. They even had their own room for the idols.”
A full year passed by and Raju did not hear anything from them. Then Rada, the husband in nthe family, turned crazy. He became absolutely mad and created many problems for his family. He was taken to a Hindu healing centre, but he didn’t get well. They had to bind him with strong ropes to prevent him to hurt himself and others. When they had tried so many things, and nothing helped, they sent for Raju to come and see them. He took his friend Elajah with him and went home to the troubled family.
“Again we shared the good news of the Kingdom of God with the entire family and Rada, the mad husband. Then he said: I will come with you! He was still doing so many strange things, but he wanted to come with us. We were praying all the time while we were observing all the strange tings he did. As we were praying the Spirit of God came upon him and set him free! He came to his own senses. He became totally normal in just a few seconds! It was awesome. When the wife saw what happened to her husband, she too wanted to receive Jesus. They threw out the idols. They emptied the entire room. All the family believed in Jesus and were baptised to Christ.”
“As a result we started a cell-group in their house. Many people came to Christ because of the miracle that happened to Rada. They knew of his terrible condition and were amazed to see him totally normal by the power of Jesus. The group of believers has kept on growing and has now become a house church. Last Sunday we saw a new family accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. They threw out the idols and were baptised to Christ.”
Raju and his friends are using a very simple method. They visit their relatives and share the good news for them and heal the sick. The new believers share their testimony with their friends and relatives and in this way the numbers of believers keep on growing. Their strategy is to multiply disciples that multiply disciples, and to start new cell-groups that will multiply in to house churches that will multiply house churches by repeating the same process.
Solveig and I had the joy to share our testimonies with the two house churches. In the first place two people that came for the first time received Christ. In the next house church they had turned the entire street into a meeting place. 100 to 200 people were gathered that evening to hear the good news. Rada gave his testimony and several other new believers told what the Lord had done for them. At the end the entire congregation lifted their hand to signify that they wanted to receive forgiveness and new life through Jesus Christ. Many of them were already believers, but many new people also wanted to receive. We spent at least one hour in praying for people at the end and we saw many healings take place.