life changing journey

Chinese Christian Stephen and his wife’s short-term missionary response to India

Interview/Yu Guoliang

Translation/Lin Zhangjili

▲Compared with Hindus who find it difficult to accept the one true God, the rescued girls have a particularly open heart to the gospel after experiencing what God has done for them through Christians.

According to official estimates, there are 1.2 million child prostitutes in India and about 100 million people are involved in illegal activities related to human trafficking. In Bombay, a nine-year-old girl can be bought for two thousand dollars. Many people heard their cries of wailing and gnashing of teeth, and risked their lives to go deep into the tiger's den to rescue them. The hearts of the Chinese Christians Stephen and his wife were also stirred, and they went to India twice for short-term missions with the message of the gospel - the great love of Christ. This article first writes about Stephen’s first-hand short-term missionary experience, followed by a briefing on missionary work in India, hoping to call on more Chinese Christians to engage in service or support intercessory prayers.

[Stephen’s short-term missionary experience]

They are also the Lord’s treasures—face to face with the Indian prostitutes

Time flies, and years fly by, but this is the most unforgettable week for me...

We finally ended the driver's "unbridled" driving and drove through steep and winding mountain roads to Ooty, a beautiful mountain town in Tamil Province in southern India.

After placing my luggage in the hotel room, I waited with excitement and nervousness to meet Molly Markham. She is the initiator of this ministry; tall, with brown hair and a slight smile, she gives people the impression of being smart and capable. After meeting and chatting, she gave us the "Camp Instructions", which mentioned: The girls from Kundan Home will also attend this camp. They are the most important group, there are five of them, all of them have just been rescued. The young girl has been severely damaged physically, mentally and spiritually. Being able to participate in such a camp is a miracle!

Kundan House? Kundan was originally one of the oldest jewelry crafts in India. After Molly's explanation, she found out: it is an official Indian organization, and the upper management has stated that if any girl who applies to go out escapes midway, the supervisor will be fully responsible. . This is a no small adventure. If in other similar organizations, no supervisor would be willing to take on this; because escape could happen at any time, which makes me admire the courage and love of the supervisor of Kundan House even more. Molly emphasized that he was the most competent and best social worker she had ever seen, and he was a Hindu.

Soon, we saw Mrs. Patel, the director of Kundan Home, accompanied by five dark-brown girls wearing light brown uniforms. It can be seen from the shrinking eyes of the girls looking around: the blooming flowers in the courtyard in front of them and the free and easy interaction between people are quite unfamiliar to them; they are not the same as the red light district or the square concrete square concrete of the government rescue home that they are familiar with. Compared to the architecture, this place is a paradise.

During dinner, what was surprising was that the five people wearing traditional Indian clothes at the table opposite were actually girls from the Kundan House. The colorful saris showed a bit of the childishness and shyness unique to girls. At this time, Mrs. Patil, who was sitting at the same table with me, pointed at Geeti from a distance and said to me: "She was brought here from Nepal." She shook her head, "She is only thirteen years old."

Mrs. Patil went on to say that what was helpless was that even if the court knew that it was her relatives who trafficked her, it would still award custody of the girl to her relatives after she was rescued. Logically speaking, this should be handled by the juvenile court and does not fall within the jurisdiction of the criminal court at all. "Two or three of these five people were sold by their relatives for just a little money!" It was heartbreaking to hear this. From her words, it was clear how much Mrs. Patil loved this job. and investment.

The peak of the short-term mission was to study the Bible. Everyone came to a waterfall and sat around on the rocks. When we use "unconditional love" to illustrate the great love of Jesus Christ who laid down his life, Anne, an older girl, recounted her sad past. "When I was in the brothel, I hated my life so much that I couldn't feel any love at all. I asked many people for help, hoping to escape this dark life, but this was just a fantasy..." She said sobbing, "One night, I I was about to commit suicide by taking medicine, but if Brother Richard, a social worker from "Freedom for All" hadn't stepped in in time and saved me, would I still be here today? ...That was the moment when I felt most loved."

Then, we practice the love of Jesus with practical actions - washing each other's feet. From the initial resistance to the final request to be washed and to wash others' feet, everything is done in a solemn and solemn manner, and we truly experience that God is among us!

Before the camp ended, in addition to hearing the girls’ heartfelt thanks to others, they also heard the Hindu supervisor, Mrs. Patil, proactively remind them: “Don’t forget to thank Jesus!”

This unforgettable week has opened a new page in the lives of countless people!

[India Mission Briefing]

From the short-term missionary experience shared by Stephen and his wife, this magazine has compiled four things that should be self-examined and prepared in advance if you are interested in missionary work in India:

Are you inspired and called by God?

Before Stephen and his wife joined the short-term mission in India, they had been paying attention to reports on the global modern slave trade, and they felt that God would fill their hearts with righteous wrath and mercy. They have a special understanding of Isaiah Chapter 58 and know that living out their faith is God’s command to believers. The prophet Isaiah severely denounced hypocrisy under God’s command. In verse 6, God specifically warned:“Is not this the fast I have chosen, to loose the bands of evil, to undo the bands of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and to break every yoke?”So when their church offered a short-term missionary opportunity to actually help young prostitutes who had been trafficked into the sex trade, they immediately responded to God's call without hesitation.

Are you prepared for long-term service?

During a one-week short-term missionary trip to India against human trafficking with church members, they visited a "survivor home" (a shelter for rescued young prostitutes) and held a Bible study camp for these girls to share The gospel and the love of God.

Talking about their future burden, they plan to return to the missionary field in six years. During this period, you will seek God’s will to plan your life path and make financial and educational preparations. Stephen plans to further his studies and his wife will be equipped with a medical education. In addition, he also emphasized that before God prepares them to embark on the long-term path of service, what they need most is prayer and clear guidance from God.

▲The peak of the short-term mission was to study the Bible. Everyone came to a waterfall and sat around a rock. We used "unconditional love" to explain to the girls the great love of Jesus Christ who laid down his life.

Do you understand the obstacles for Indians to believe in the Lord?

Stephen observed the people he had contacted with the gospel and realized that there was a huge cultural gap between the Indian worldview and the Western world, mainly due to its strong polytheism. Indians are often recognized as a people with spiritual nature, but they do not regard Christ as their God. At best, they only regard Christ as one of the gods for them to choose from. Since they saw Jesus as one of the pantheons—it was difficult to believe in the One True God or to expect it to have any impact on their lives. Therefore, it is difficult for Indians to accept the declaration that "Jesus is the only Savior and the only God" when they first come into contact with the gospel.

Are you using acts of love to implement the gospel?

Not long after Stephen arrived in India, he heard a friend say with his own eyes after hearing the gospel: "I have never heard such a different truth." Thank the Lord, compared to ordinary Hindus, those rescued girls have experienced God through Christ After everything the disciples had done for them, they had a particularly open heart to the gospel.

Stephen admitted frankly: He has met various types of Christians in India, the most common of which are Christians with a Catholic background (probably a disciple of Jesus and the fruit of Thomas’ missionary work). Although they emphasize spiritual life and Christian identity, they are very vague about the connotation of the gospel and do not care much about it.

Of course, there are still many Christians with solid beliefs in India. Stephen said that there are many ways to resist human trafficking in India, including: Freedom Firm (tentative translation, www.freedom.firm.in), which It is a very remarkable gospel ministry. There are also organizations such as International Justice Mission (website: www.ijm.org) and International Oasis India (tentative translation: www.oasisindia.org). Churches or members of the Christian community who are interested in missionary work in India or rescuing child prostitutes may wish to learn more about it and then support each other.

Journalist profile

Yu Guoliang, born in Guangzhou and raised in Hong Kong, received a PhD in atmospheric physics from the United States. He is the author of many good books such as "Physicists Read the Bible" (Daosheng Publishing) and "John Code - Decoding of the Da Vinci Code" (Tianen Publishing).