By Lon Allison, Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center, Wheaton, IL
Like many, I have fantasized and romanticized about traveling with the Apostle Paul to be first to Greece, Asia Minor, and Italy with the gospel. In a very non-romantic way, that dream became a reality in March, when the Billy Graham Center and students from
On my first morning in Delhi, I was informed I would be speaking at an outdoor political rally near the Indian Parliament buildings. The rally was held by men from the nomadic (hidden) people, which make up seven percent of India's tribes. The demonstration was to protest a lack of basic facilities and the desire to carry identification cards. My host and fellow speaker, Sunil Sandar, whom I describe as a combination of Martin Luther King, Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, and Francis Schaeffer, told me to be brief and clear. "What was I, a Christian evangelist, doing at a political rally?" I wondered.
Many protestors had come to Delhi from villages and small towns. Many had never seen a white westerner in the flesh, much less heard a gospel message. In the areas where we were to go this week, there were no Christian churches. There was no Christian history, and probably no Christian teaching. I was with utterly unreached people. As we approached the group, eyes turned toward me. I was wrongly dressed in dockers and a polo shirt. Tattered and faded robes covered these men. We sat down cross-legged in the dust, in a small area just off the main road. I was also too clean. My clothes were clean, my body bathed. Not these men.
Numerous speakers spoke of the injustices faced by this group. Through translation, I learned that most viewed political power as the only hope to rectify the wrongs. Then it was our turn. "What could I say in five minutes? How should I insert gospel ideas into such a milieu of foreign thoughts and passions?" I didn't have time to worry, or prepare. My instruction had been brief from Sunil and the other leaders: "The first thing to understand about India," they said, "is the belief that people are not created equal." I started there. I told them I had come from a country where we believe all people are created equal. "We believe this," I said, "because we are created by the one God, in his own likeness. And we believe that at one time God sent his own Son, Jesus, to be the true King who would love us and lead us."
Sunil took it from there. I'm not sure what he said, but the men began clapping, cheering, and raising their protest signs. I think our presence adorned our words. These listeners, considered some of the very lowest in their society, were lifted by the fact that an American had come to sit with them. I hope so. I hope more, however, that the brief words about Jesus lodged in their minds enough that they can hear his voice, which will come to them through other voices—and that somehow they will find him.
From the rally in Delhi we traveled a hundred kilometers through smaller cities and villages. We spoke of Jesus, we washed the feet of untouchables, we prayed for people. We brought our hope in Christ and left hoping he would never leave or forsake these dear people, and that he would bring them to salvation. We witnessed a caste leader of the Cobblers, who after hours of post-meeting discussion with Sunil, shared that he and his people would now follow this Jeshua, who reminded them of their ancient story of a Bali Raja (Sacrificed King). The "utterly unreached" is no longer romantic to me. Deep sadness at these people's plight is more like it, and a deeper Spirit-born confidence that the gospel is for the utterly unreached, as well as for us. Pray for the more than two billion utterly unreached in our Father's world.
Our Page on Facebook
Our Feed on Twitter
Subscribe to Our Feed