Working Together

“There are many people who want to come and join in your worship, would you accept them?”

I grew up in an Adventist home and learned the Bible stories from my parents, and my older brother and sister, and also in Sabbath school. So I knew about God since my childhood. When I went to school I learned more about God and was baptized.

Now I’m married and have children. We live in the area of the West Bangladesh mission. Here I’ve met many people who don’t believe in God. Many are addicted to intoxicating drugs. After coming to this village, I visited many homes and encouraged the people to come to church. I’ve also given many Bible studies. Praise the Lord, many have given up their addictions and are coming to church. It is exciting to see how much they have changed.

When we came to Uchadanga village, every evening our family gathered together for worship. The very first day when we started singing, the neighborhood children came and joined with us to sing and pray. After a few days, someone asked, “There are many people who want to come and join in your worship, would you accept them?”

I told them, “Yes, everyone can come to the church,” so now we gather together in the church to worship God every evening.

My favorite Bible chapter is Psalm 91. From beginning to end, I love this chapter very much. When I fall into danger I remember these verses and feel safe. I tell my schoolchildren this verse and they believe it. In danger I recite this verse in my mind and I feel peace in my innermost soul. I thank God for His words to us.

Don’t Let Them Go!

Preaching and teaching God’s word isn’t always easy; sometimes we face very difficult situations. Once we were going to a certain village, but we stopped at another village on the way, where we visited many homes and prayed with the people. When we were coming back through that village, some youth caught us and started yelling, “These people came here to make us Christian. Hold them and tie them—don’t let them go.” They were calling more people. We were afraid and praying to God for help.

God is so great! He immediately sent an answer to our prayers. Just as a large crowd was gathering, we all heard a call to prayer. Some said, “Let them go. We don’t want a major disturbance now.”

Then they told us, “If we see you again, we will beat you black and blue.” I’m sure that God rescued us and that many times He rescues people like this. After arriving home we prayed and thanked God for His protection and for answering our prayers.

We often preach in villages and often have to travel quite far on foot. When we go to the villages, we visit many homes. Most of the village people stay at home in the evening and go to work in the morning. During the winter season, when we go visiting it becomes dark early, so we have to go home quickly. But in the summertime we get long hours to visit and talk.

The Privilege

Up to this time, I’ve been privileged to bring many souls to God. One experience I would like to share involves a Hindu lady with whom I became very close friends. Every day I would go and talk freely with her. One day she asked, “Sister, you are married and have a husband. Why don’t you wear bangles on your arms and vermillion on your forehead?*

This gave me the privilege of explaining my Christian behavior and beliefs to her. Gradually, I showed her from the Bible about food and other things. In this way our friendship became very strong. One day she came to our church and said that she wanted to see how we sang. After this, she often returned. One Sabbath she started to sing with us. Then she shared the song with her husband. In the evening both she and her husband were singing. So I invited both the husband and wife to join us in singing at the church, and they both came.

One day they told me that they wanted to become Christians. They very much liked the Adventist church and our singing and praying. One day my husband preached about not worshiping idols. Afterwards this couple said that this was true.

“Why do we bow down to man-made idols?” they asked. “From now on we will serve and accept your God.” We gave them more Bible studies, and they were baptized. They now come to church regularly.

*In Hinduism, women traditionally indicate they are married by making a bright red (vermillion) mark on their forehead, using a powder called sindoor.