Submitted by philip on
By Mark H. Hunter, Regional Reporter
CAPITOL CITY – It was hot, stuffy and crowded in the one-room shack, deep in a labyrinth of slums of Mumbai, India, when the door burst open and angry young Muslim men ordered everyone to get out – except for one.
“You stay!” they told the pastor of one of Louisiana’s largest churches, who was holding a Bible study with a dozen or so Bangladeshi men.
As part of its international missions outreach, the church unnamed for security reasons recently adopted Bangladeshi Muslims, an unengaged, unreached people group, who have migrated to India by the millions and are the despised, “illegal immigrants” of that predominantly Hindu nation. This was the second trip for the Louisiana church to meet with “house church” planters evangelizing the vast slums of Mumbai.
“The first minute or two my blood pressure rose because I knew they were angry – and I was alone – except for the Lord,” the senior pastor said. “But I felt courage rise. Jesus said, ‘Don’t worry before you go in to testify before kings and authorities, I will give you words in that moment,’ and in that moment the Lord was granting me wisdom to respond to what they were saying.”
The last time the senior pastor was in Mumbai, he and the church’s minister of local and global outreach met with some other believers in another slum in a dark alley lit only by cooking fires. They were confronted then by angry young Muslim men and an elderly imam who warned them to leave.
That same imam strode into the room but this time the pastor was alone because his associate minister had been unable to obtain a visa in time by Indian officials.
“They said, ‘We know you!’ and I said, ‘I know y’all too,’” the senior pastor said with a smile. “It’s the oddest thing; I really didn’t get scared. The Lord gave me a peace in the moment.”
Although the young men were angry, the imam, who spoke English, told the pastor they wouldn’t hurt him; he was a foreigner in a culture that requires respecting visitors.
“In a way I was almost glad to see them again; it showed them we are not going to be intimidated,” the pastor said. For an hour the Christian pastor and Muslim iman with his friends debated beliefs.
“More than once, the imam said, ‘Judgment day is coming; we are all going to stand before the Lord. You [Christians] are in trouble because you are only half way there; you say you believe in one God but you don’t believe Mohammad is his prophet,’” the pastor recalled. “I replied, ‘You’re right; we believe Jesus is the way and Jesus isn’t just a prophet.’
“The old man said, ‘We are together until we come to Jesus and at Jesus we divide,’ and I said, ‘Yes, that’s right,” the pastor continued.
Finally the imam told everyone to go home and pray and ask God to show them the truth.
“And I said, ‘That is exactly what we all need to do: Go home and pray that God will show each of us what is the truth,’” the pastor said. “I believe God will show the true way to those men.”
While the Muslim men never harmed the pastor, all the Christian men he met with have been persecuted and beaten, one so badly he was hospitalized. The house church leaders have also, in the last year, baptized at least 80 people, the pastor said, and they baptized three while he was there.
“The darkness is oppressive; it’s heartbreaking,” the pastor said. “Many people would accept Christ willingly but they’re never even getting the opportunity. We need to pray for the Muslims.”