This mission trip to the Kerala tribal area and to an unreached people group in Sri Lanka was full of divine direction and miraculous guidance.
Jins arrived in Kerala mid January and had a blessed time visiting the tribal area a couple of hours from his home there. There were crusades in two different villages. Most of the people are Hindu. In one place, after the meeting, the local pastor there told Jins that they had never had an experience like that. The people were coming to him and talking to him who never used to talk to him before. Many people came to request prayer. The Holy Spirit was moving and touching the lives of people. There are approximately 50 villages surrounding these two, that we are focusing on reaching out to. We are working with 10 different pastors who have been going to these unreached villages for the last four or five months. God is moving in these places – please pray for the hearts of the people there to continue to receive Him and allow Him to work in their lives.
Towards the end of January, Jins set out on a trip to Sri Lanka that God put in his heart more than a year and a half ago. While worshipping at a church in Branson, a few words came to Jins and he couldn’t stop saying them. He didn’t recognize the words and stopped to write them down. The first word was Udagala, which he found was the name of a village in a remote part of Sri Lanka. The other word was Gusta, meaning “The Staff of God. The one who will be polite and caring for the community just like angels”. Since that time, Jins knew that he must go and had tried a couple of time to go to Sri Lanka, but had not been able to because of not having a connection with a translator.
Finally, through a long-time friend whom he had gone to Bible college with in Delhi and worked with in missions for a couple of years in Goa, a connection was established with a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base.
Before going to Sri Lanka, Jins watched the below video that he found on youtube of the people he was going to seek out. Little did he know that he would meet the lady you see on the screen below, and that she would come to hear the Gospel for the first time and give her life to Christ.
Jins was joined in Colombo, Sri Lanka by Jossy, and together they went to the YWAM base that Jossy had connections with. A young Sri Lankan couple traveled with them by five different buses to get close to this village. They didn’t even know how to get there. They went by faith. Jins kept telling them that God would take care of them and take them there.
When they were in the last bus, Jins saw one man sitting in the front of the bus with a few mats and blankets for sale. He was telling himself, “I wish I could buy a few mats and blankets from him so that we have something to sleep on when we get to this place.” When the bus stopped at the final stop, the Sri Lankan couple asked the bus conductor about how to get to the village and the conductor told them that the man selling the mats and blankets was going to the village and might be able to take them there.
As they got down from the bus, the man with the mats began walking and the small group trailed behind him, but then he stopped and told them they could go ahead. Not sure of the way, the man then said to them, “I’m going to take you to the village” and started leading the way. They just followed him, knowing that God sent him to take them to this place. They climbed steep hills and went through jungle trails for four hours. They were attacked by leeches, which they battled along the way. They didn’t have much food because they didn’t know how long it would take to get there.
God protected them from all the wild animals along the way. Elephants are a threat in this area, so much so, that people build tree houses in some areas to stay safe.
When they finally reached Udagala, one lady came with a lot of salt to help them get rid of the leeches. She was so friendly and loving even though she was very poor. Jins told the man who had led them there that they didn’t have anywhere to sleep and he took them to a school and talked to the teacher and asked if they could sleep there for the night. At first, the teacher didn’t want them to, but later he said that they could stay the night there. Since they didn’t have much to eat, they were praying that God would provide them with some food. The school teacher told them that he would have someone come and prepare food for them. When one couple came with the food, Jins asked them if they had heard about Jesus and she said no. That was the first time that Jins realized that this was a place where the people had not heard the Gospel and that was why God had brought him there.
It was a really rainy evening and they slept on the floor on mats. By morning, there was water coming up in the floor.
In the morning, they were invited to have breakfast in someone’s house. While they were having breakfast, Jins felt that he must share about Jesus, since they hadn’t heard about Him before. Some other people also came and started talking with them, so Jins asked if he could share with all of them about why he came there. He shared from the beginning about how he came to hear about the place and how God spoke to him. He was able to share the Gospel with them, and how Jesus healed him from cancer. They were hungry for God’s Word and after he shared with them, five people gave their lives to Christ. They asked Jins and his group to come back. They told his group that the next time they come, they would have a small house for them to stay in. They left that place knowing that they would be going back again, as well as to the surrounding villages.
Our God is able! What we need to do is obey Him. He makes a way where there is no way. There is nothing too hard for Him. When Jins took his step of faith, he didn’t know how he was going to get to this place and how he was going to sleep or what he was going to eat or who was going to take him there. All he had to do was take the first step of faith. Whoever is reading this, know that if God tells you do something, just do it because He is going to be with you. He has opened all the doors, even though we don’t see it yet.
They came back blessed and excited, from seeing how God was there for them. It increased their faith in God. Please remember this people group in your prayers. There are millions of people that are lost, without Christ, and we have work to do. Let’s build and bring those who are lost into His kingdom.
Christ For All Tribes 