...[A] true story from the banks of the Ganges River in India.
Hardware is a holy city on the Ganges River, not far from the more famous city of Varanasi (or Benares). Hundreds of thousands of Hindus travel there every year from all over the world to bathe in the river's "holy" waters. Police estimate that 35 million people come to Hardwar's "Kumbh Mela" festival, which takes places for two weeks every 12 years. These millions believe that taking a ritual bath in the Ganges will wash away all their sins.
One day while Brother Varghese, a native missionary, was walking through the packed throngs of people at the water's edge, he saw a young woman crying uncontrollably. She was beating her chest with her fists as she wailed in grief.
With compassion, the native missionary knelt down and asked what was wrong.
"The problems in my home are too many and my sins are heavy on my heart, so I offered the best I have to the goddess Ganges, my firstborn son," she said.
At that, Brother Varghese began telling her about Jesus, about how He loved her and her baby, and that through Him her sins could be forgiven.
"I have never heard that before," she replied through her tears. "Why couldn't you have come 30 minutes earlier? If you had, my child would not have died."
... Right now, nearly 3 billion people are unreached by the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. Most live in Asian countries. Many of these nations are closed or greatly restricted to outside missionaries. But God has raised up thousands of native missionaries like Brother Varghese. They are willing to take the Gospel to their own people - in spite of the suffering and persecution that await them. ... While you read this letter, all across Asia there are young women just like that mother, young fathers, children, trying to wash away their sins through pagan rituals. The sad truth is that most of them are dying without ever hearing the precious name of Jesus Christ. ... What if there had been a dozen native missionaries out there on that day when the young mother threw her baby into the river? Or a hundred? Or a thousand? This of the difference their presence could have made!
The real reason Brother Varghese was witnessing alone is that it takes someone like you, who believes in the Great Comission, to send out more native missionaries.
...Even today is not too late for you to begin helping to win thousands of souls for Jesus in some of the most unreached areas of the world. ...
KP Yohannan
