Send! Web Extras - Third Quarter 2007

A Restful Place

Through the faithful outreach of a GFA women’s ministry team serving the Lord in Goa, widowed Shrea came to Christ and found peace.

After her husband passed away, it was left to Shrea to carry on the family business in Goa, India, running his liquor shop. She did the best she could but struggled financially, especially as some of her customers were in debt already and were not paying her.

Adding to the grief she already felt over her husband’s death, the economic strain of the failing business weighed heavily on Shrea. How she longed for peace . . . but she had never really found it in her gods. Like a number of Goa’s population, her husband was Roman Catholic. So when she married, she would go with him to the Catholic church. They recited the prayers that were taught to them there, but never really understood or searched the Scriptures. So Shrea found herself without an anchor when it came to coping with her husband’s death and her desperate financial situation.

But then one day, Shrea noticed some young women from a Gospel for Asia women’s ministry team in her village. They told her they were looking for a location to screen a film on the life of Jesus.

Shrea offered her property for the showing. Just feet away from Shrea’s liquor shop, the women showed a film that evening on the life of Jesus. They took time as well to listen to Shrea share her struggles and pray for her—and the widowed woman began to be encouraged as she saw firsthand God’s watchful provision in her life.

In a room that was once Shrea’s liquor shop—a family business carried on after her husband’s death—a cross stands today.

That night marked the start of a friendship between Shrea and these women missionaries. They began to meet regularly in Shrea’s home for prayer and Bible study, drawing a crowd from the surrounding area.

Shrea noticed that even though the missionaries were young, they taught with tenderness and wisdom beyond their years, like a parent would lovingly guide a child. As she continued to hear from the Scriptures, Shrea was increasingly drawn to the Savior whose sacrifice so deeply moved her. She began to truly grasp the Gospel and received Jesus into her heart.

As she continued to hear from the Scriptures, Shrea was increasingly drawn to the Savior whose sacrifice so deeply moved her.

Shrea stopped selling liquor after she came to Christ. A cross now stands in the room that was once her family’s liquor shop. To make up for the lost income, Shrea rents out part of her property. Although Shrea has a physical infirmity that makes it hard to sit, she worships the Lord with great enthusiasm at a local GFA-affiliated church.

Today, knowing the God who lifted her despair and comforted her, Shrea has resolved to follow Him with all her heart.

“Even if somebody persecutes me, whatever pain they give me,” she says, “I will never leave the Lord.”

Lives are being touched daily through GFA’s women’s ministry. Read some of their stories.

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