SEND! magazine Second Quarter 2007: 'Let Me Die for Jesus'
'Let Me Die for Jesus'
Getting beaten up and driven from the meeting you're conducting isn't what most people would consider encouraging. But when it happened to five young men on a Gospel for Asia mobile team, they became more determined to keep going—although they were just as scared as anyone else would be.
Traveling from village to village each week to work with local pastors, mobile team members face a new situation in each place. They spend a week handing out Gospel tracts and showing a film on the life of Jesus in areas surrounding the pastor's village, thus giving him an open door to return and do follow-up work. The week a pastor spends with a mobile team expands his ministry in ways that would take much time otherwise. People come out in crowds to see the team play music, act out the Gospel in skits and tell of a film show later that night.
But the attention and crowds brought animosity to this team. The team members were distributing tracts with the pastor when they approached a group of young men. The men grew angry when they saw what the literature was.
“Did You Know?
Cost for a vehicle for a mobile team: $16,000
Cost for a fully equipped vehicle (includes a film on the life of Christ, an LCD projector, a bullhorn, Gospel tracts, Bibles and flip charts): $20,000.” "We have already seen these tracts," they told the team members. "Why do you want to talk about Jesus? He is not from our country! He is not our villager or brother. It is wrong what you are doing!"
The men tore the literature from the team members' hands and started beating them. It was the first time these young men had been beaten, and although gripped with fear, they knew that to fight back would be to destroy their message. No one else tried to stop the violence, but the gang finally let the team members leave the village with all their film equipment.
"We were afraid, but at the same time, we remembered the sacrifice Jesus made for us," shared a team member. "And we made a decision to go forward. Even though there are these problems, we want to reach villages."
Just two days later, still swollen and sore, the team members were in another village of hardened non-Christians, passing out tracts and telling people about the film show just as they were doing the night they were beaten. But while they were setting up the sound system to show the film, a group came and started throwing the equipment to the ground.
Several men grabbed the pastor they were working with and started beating him for bringing the team to their village. They also attacked the team members, but this time, other villagers gathered around to protect them.
Having faced violent opposition twice in three days, the exhausted team members retreated to the pastor's home. There, the emotions spilled out. They cried out to God, weeping—not for themselves, but for the people who didn't get to hear the Gospel.
"Their faces show they are without hope," one of the team members said, "and it is a heartbreaking feeling that we could not reach them with the Gospel. If they die, definitely they will go to hell, and I feel a burden to help them."
When the initial shock was past, the realization of just how hard a place it was started sinking in. At first, they were discouraged. Asking to be reassigned to minister in just one area seemed tempting . . . but the fruit they knew was being reaped through the mobile team ministry kept them going.
"One village where we screened the film was a completely Hindu village, and nearly 100 families came to see the film," a team member recalled. "Afterward, 10 people wanted prayer for their families to see a miracle through Jesus Christ. Because of stories like these, we don't want to quit. It challenges us to continue on."
And their dedication has grown even deeper. Each one declared his desire to serve the Lord, even if it meant giving up his life.
"Let them finish me, no problem," team leader Bishal emphasized. "I will die there. At least through my death, maybe some will wonder why I would be willing to die for Christ—and they will receive salvation."
"One day, we have to die on this earth," said the team musician, Ramesh. "Let me die for Jesus. I may be afraid at the time. But I pray that God's will be done in my life."
Furthermore, they know what happened to them isn't rare. Every month, reports of opposition from other mobile teams come to the Bible college where the teams are based. But these young men are determined to keep trusting in the faithfulness of the Lord.
"Even in a hard village," a team member shared, "God will do miracles, and He will use us continually in the days to come."
Learn more about Gospel for Asia's mobile team ministry at www.gfa.org/mobileteams
