From the jungles into the Vineyard

“I was a robber and used to loot trucks on the highway,” shared Reysingh as he narrated his story.

We were a gang of four and we would put obstacles on the road, as trucks would navigate a steep winding road through the jungles. We would loot them and run away with everything our hands would find. The police would chase us and we were in and out prison several times but I was too involved in this to leave it. I also had several court cases against me, but nothing would stop me. One day I became very sick and I thought that I would die.
Then one day, someone asked me to go to a home where some people were praying. As I walked in, I sensed a supernatural presence and then I don’t know what happened to me. It was a long time later that I woke up. They told me, that I fell down under the power of the Spirit as I was prayed for. But I knew nothing.

After I woke up, I began to understand and see things differently. I definitely wanted to leave my old ways behind and start totally anew. I approached the pastor and he told me about Jesus. Immediately I sensed something and declared, “I will serve this Jesus” I went back home and shared everything but no one was ready to believe it, specially my wife, who had borne the brunt of my evil habits, including drinking.

I began telling others about Jesus. I started to bring them to this home, where this pastor and his small group would meet each week. He would pray and lives were being changed constantly. There was a certain roadside tea shop, where I used to gather with my old friends during my ‘looting’ days. This is the place the Lord took me to share my new found faith. They heard my story but did not want anything to do with it. And then God began to increase the numbers. First it was just a few people each week. Then it became a small group and then by the end of the year, almost 50 of us were walking 12 kilometers one day just to attend church!

That is when I was encouraged to start a gathering of my own. I invited all of this people into my home and we began praying whole nights. God began to flood homes, people and farms with His presence and by the end of the second year, we had over a hundred people gathering for prayers. But then persecution broke out.

They broke into my home as we were praying and began to mercilessly beat everyone. They caught me and my first believer and then scared the rest away. After a while, there was no feeling left. They were all over us, beating us with sticks and stones. And then they climbed on my shoulders and asked me to stand up. I could not. But they forced me and my friend to walk over 2 kilometers to the police station, with a person sitting on our shoulders! It was pure mockery for a former dacoit to be dragged around like this. They vowed to burn everything down and chase us away from the village. We had only God to look to for help. And this we did. Hardly a few people came the following week for prayer.

But that was three years ago. Now through NMM, God has given us a beautiful and spacious church building in the same village and that too, on the main road. Over 600 believers and a house full of passionate worshippers. Since I cannot read and write, I regularly my fellow missionaries to come and teach my people the Word. But when they are not around, I sit on my knees and my Father tells me what to speak to the people. I have no idea what I speak but the lives that are changed and the testimonies that we hear each week tell me that God is at work and this is the time to rise up and build.

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