Today we joined Pastor Benjamin Francis, one of the most exciting and energetic ministers I have ever met. Scratch that, he is THE most exciting and energetic minister I have ever met. Pastor Benjamin’s project is Big Life Ministries (not to be confused with the American organisation of the same name) who specialise in bringing the gospel in innovative ways to the thousands of villages that surround Kolkata, which is where 80% of the population live. If you want to measure success in numbers, since 2003 he has planted 7,500 churches and has seen over 100,000 conversions and tens of thousands of baptism’s.
His model is simple; go to the centre of the village and start playing games with the children, this draws the adults in. The adults tend to invite you to their homes which gives you the opportunity to share your testimony and the gospel.
Today we drove 2 1/2 hours to Diamond Harbour on the Bay of Bengal to a village to take part in this; the men played games with the children with the adults looking on, we then did a little sketch and a song (with a translator), then one of the Big Life team shared the gospel. While we were doing this the women went into the homes to visit and drink tea with the women. As a result of all of this is that there is now a new church in Diamond Harbour, several people gave their lives to Christ (Hallelujah) and one of them has invited Big Life to start a house church at their house. Their first meeting is this Saturday. Before we left I prayed that we would all come together as a group, put aside any discomfort, uneasiness or fear and meet with God in a big way. This certainly happened today at that little village on the edge of the Bay of Bengal, praise God!!!! Please pray for these new Christians, please pray for the work of Big Life Ministries and Pastor Benjamin and please pray for us as we go into the interior tomorrow (Wednesday) to do this again.
Paul “Big Mac” teaching the Big Banana song
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