Even though I won’t be able to post this until tomorrow morning, I wanted to write tonight about what just happened at the first Gospel Meeting.
When the pastors picked us up from the hotel, it must have been rush hour. I haven’t encountered anything like the driving in Hyderabad. I couldn’t do it justice, so I won’t try. Suffice it to say that it amazes mean that anyone ever gets anywhere alive.
Even though we hadn’t heard the British voice saying, “Your car is running on reserve fuel” that we have heard regularly since we arrived, we stopped for gas. I was sure we were going to be late. When we arrived, however, very few people were there. An enormous version of the poster with our faces on it that we have been seeing all over town was the back-drop for the stage. It was hard to believe this was the same field we had visited yesterday. The dirt was now covered with large mats, thousands of chairs were set up (amazing given that none of the churches we have visited have had chairs), a draped back-drop that ran the entire length of the field and large stage had been set up overnight.
As we were sitting waiting to begin, Andy asked me if I could hear the people that were praying under the stage. At first, I thought he was pulling my leg, but sure enough, I could hear the voices of a group of believers that was under the stage praying for the entire evening. (I think we could learn a few things from these people about dedication and sacrifice.)
We were finally seated on the stage and again draped with shawls and flowers like we have been everywhere we go. Our interpreter is apparently famous throughout the state of Andrah Pradesh, and he was on the stage with us. We were also joined by some important officials. Many more people had come into the park, and we had a large crowd.
Brent went first, and did a fantastic job sharing about how God had used a trip to India to draw him to Himself. I was glad I had decided to use him as our lead-off batter. As he was talking, Satyanandam told me that an important person was arriving, and he and a whole delegation went down to meet him. The man was the chief of police for all of Hyderabad. He sat down next to me and introduced himself. When Brent was finished, this man got up and also shared the Gospel with the crowd – he was a Christian.
Next up was Larry who did a masterful job of sharing his testimony and calling the people to Christ. I was starting to feel the pressure build after two great performances.
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When we had been sitting at dinner before leaving the hotel, I was feeling so nervous I was sick to my stomach. I barely ate. When we got into the car, the words, “My peace I give you” came to mind, and I immediately started to relax. I didn’t have any anxiety for the rest of the evening. My pulse started to quicken a little bit as they were calling my name to come forward, but I just repeated the words to myself, and I never gave my fear another thought for the night.
I decided to take a chance and tell a joke, even though I knew that humor is difficult to carry across cultures and languages. The audience might just have been being polite, but I got a nice laugh.
I really have no idea how it went, except to say that I really enjoyed myself. It was actually a lot of fun. When I sat down, I turned to Brent and said, “We just got to share the gospel with thousands of people. That’s pretty cool.”
Satyanandam and our interpreter gave an alter call when I was finished. I sat there and thought, “It doesn’t matter to me if no one comes forward. I’ve done what I can, and the rest is up to the Lord.”
Then, people started to come forward. I was sitting on stage, and I just lost it. I was totally overwhelmed as God brought these people to the stage. I sat up there with my hands over my face, sobbing, for about five minutes. Satyanandam asked me to come up and lead the people in the sinner’s prayer, and I had to ask Andy to do it instead.
After these people invited Christ into their lives, they were invited on stage to meet us and receive a prayer from us. All of them wanted to do that. After a while, the pastors told me I needed to say just a quick prayer because the line was getting too long. Then, it was, “Please just say a quick blessing.” Even though there were seven of us up there to pray with these people, all the people wanted to pray with all of us.
I don’t know how long it took, but I loved this opportunity to shake hands with these wonderful people and ask God to bless them. It was totally joy.
It took me several hours to come down from my high.
Praise God.
Jonathan
