Roger Thoman’s Posterous

So my young friend, Michael, is on a simple, ordinary business trip to India (his second in the last couple of months).  Well, I will let him tell the story as he told it to me by email:

Today, I ordered ice cream in my hotel room. While I was waiting for the person to bring it, I was asking God to show me something that I could pray for. I said, "God, I always want to tell people about Jesus, but nobody listens. Do something so they'll listen!" When the ice cream showed up, it was Shyam [whom I had met before] that brought it. I told him that since I'm a Christian, that I like to pray for people. He said that I could pray for him to find a new job, so I did.

Then I got to thinking about it, and figured that he's probably on his feet all day long. So I asked him if he ever had any back pain, and he did. I had him sit in my chair in the hotel room, and I checked his legs. Sure enough, his left leg was about a quarter of an inch shorter than the right. I said, "Ready for the craziest thing you've ever seen?" Then I commanded the leg to grow, and BOOM! It came out! Jesus rocks!

I told him to get up to see if it felt different, and he was pretty shocked. He said he had more comfort in his back and neck, and that his stance felt better. He was kind of in shock and didn't really know what to think. I got to tell him about the love of Jesus, and reconciliation to the Father, and the Kingdom of God,... and he listened. It was awesome!

Okay, hold on.  If you are not sure about leg-growing stories, this gets even better.  Here’s the next email from Michael:

The rabbit hole goes deeper. Shyam brought me food again tonight. I asked him how his back and leg was doing, and he said that his back felt different -- it felt better. Then he showed me something: his right hand was a little smaller than the left. The fingers were about a quarter of an inch shorter.

I said, "Well, I've never seen God do that before, but we can give it a try!" I commanded the hand to grow in Jesus' Name, and it did! He was completely in shock. Yesterday, I think he was slightly skeptical. Today, he was flabbergasted. He checked his hand over and over again. And then, the best part: I shared with him about the Kingdom of God again, and the goodness of our Lord Jesus. Then we prayed together, and received Christ as Savior! BOOM! I love it! The Father's in the mood to adopt!

And more good news: since Ashley and I are returning in August, we're going to visit with him and his family, and we should have a good discipleship opportunity. Please, start praying now that God shows up and wins the rest of Shyam's family to the Lord!

God's on the move!

 This is so cool, Michael.  We are praying with you for Shyam and his family!

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I just wanted to bookmark this so that I would have it for future reference.

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J. "I was known as the biggest alcoholic in the village. Last year, I was at
the meeting for the healthcare committee when, during one of his visits, J-M
said that God was wanting to deliver someone from alcohol. He laid his hands
on me and I was completely freed. The villagers have seen a huge change in
my life and I am able to speak to them of Jesus who transforms lives; they
have seen it in me!" J. is participating in the training sessions with his
wife and someone else from the neighbouring village. Four churches have
started up in this one area.
These villages are in an area that can only be reached by boat, the
Pangalanes canal. There are now about 10 churches that we have got going
along this canal. Last Sunday, initiated by themselves, several of them met
together.

A. "I gave my life to the Lord last year while participating in the
healthcare committee meetings. V then spoke to me about coming to a training
course in Tamatave to start up a church. As a woman, I was not taken very
seriously in the village, but God has changed everything. I have been
selected to head up the school parents' committee. The school masters were
never paid in our village, so we were short of teachers. I visited all the
families, explaining how important education is for our children, and how we
need to support our teachers... At present, all the families are clubbing
together and we have teachers once again in our village... "

E. "In our village, we were all poor and spent all our time complaining
about it. Last year, when J-M visited us, we got a word from God. God told
us that we would discover the wealth of our village and that our standard of
living was going to change. A month later, a business approached us about
harvesting Anajavidi, a plant that grows profusely in our sterile, sandy
soil. Our whole village has changed, many houses now have battery-power and
we are able to have electricity, charge our phones... The village is
developing." (Anjavidi is used for thatch roofs in Normandy!)

V. & M. : "We gave ourselves to the Lord a few months ago. Our village was
known as a place used by bandits to the point that the authorities had
decided to destroy it. We began to cry out to the Lord for our village, that
the atmosphere would change; we can witness that Jesus has changed our
lives.... We believe that our village will not be wiped off the map!"

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A trainer, recently working with CPM practitioners in a region of Asia, wrote this report of the work there:

I was with a group of forty practitioners. We had everyone map out their ministries. Almost all had four generations of new churches of new believers. Several had nine generations of new churches. One had 12 generations.

These are a mixture of literate and non-literate, most in small towns, some in villages.

Discipling is intentional and knowledge is one component, but those at the growing edge have learned to be obedient to the little bit that they know. 

Storying is being used, songs are being used, visuals are being used, a few short booklets, and a very few printed Bibles are available. The bottom line is not quantity of knowledge that keeps these movements growing, but obedience to as much as they know. Having heard stories of God’s power, from creation to the life of Christ and resurrection, it is natural for new believers to expect Christ’s power to be available to them and to experience that power.

During the session, seven commands of Christ were set to music in six languages including one Muslim dialect. Though obeying the commands of Christ was already a component of these movements, each dialect or language group creating its own song to be better able to pass on Christ’s seven commands to newest believers was a felt need.

Some, but not all, are daily having their new believers ask each other:

1. What God has said to them that day: “What did God say to me?”

2. What they are doing to be obedient to what Go has said to them: “How did I obey?”

3. Whom are they going to tell: “Who did I Tell?”

This simple process keeps the Gospel moving outward.

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