SEND! magazine First Quarter 2005: GFA Bridge of Hope: Extending God's Love
GFA Bridge of Hope: Extending God's Love
It seemed like an impossible situation to Peter. He was sure God had called him to this remote, mountainous region of Northeast India, but everything he'd done had been hindered. He had no idea how he was going to share the Gospel with the people here.
When he first arrived at his new mission field after graduating from a Gospel for Asia Bible college, he learned that the villagers of Lakos were intensely devoted to their religious beliefs—and extremely hostile toward Christianity. Anyone Peter talked to in the neighborhood would consider himself defiled. If the missionary even set foot on the soil of the village, the priest would be called to perform a cleansing ceremony for the entire community. One day, when Peter was visiting homes and sharing the Gospel, three men with swords and rods chased him out of the village. Peter hid in the hills for three days before the chief finally intervened and allowed him to live in the community—but on the condition that he would not witness to anyone.
The hardness of hearts in Lakos village was never more clearly displayed than when the Lord miraculously healed a villager through the prayers of a visiting Gospel team. When the man and his family all professed Christ as a result of His touch on their lives, the rest of the villagers threatened to cut them off from society. As a result, the family's joyful testimony was squelched, and they fearfully kept their newfound faith to themselves.
It was a discouraging time for Peter. But at that point the Lord brought another idea for outreach through a new believer: "Why can't we open a school in the village, and through that win the people's hearts?" Not long after, Peter was astonished to learn that GFA was in the process of beginning the very same program: schools for children of Dalit ("Untouchable") and other underprivileged families throughout Asia.
This was the turning point in Peter's ministry. He received enthusiastic permission from the leaders of Lakos, and the new GFA Bridge of Hope school opened its doors to 65 students in the fall of 2002. Not a single child had ever heard of Jesus before.
The change in the villagers' attitude toward him—and toward the Gospel—was incredible. "Because of the school and the love we showed toward the children, we were able to visit every corner of the village," Peter shares. By the end of the school year, 17 villagers—four families—had come to Christ and were regularly attending worship services the native missionary was conducting. That number grew to 41 by the time the second school year finished.
The school is now in its third year, with more than 75 children in attendance. "It is helping extend God's love to each home through the children," says Peter. And in a region in which hearts were once so hardened to His love, Peter is grateful for how the Lord moved on his behalf. "This," he says, "is how we found an easy way to approach the people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
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