In previous posts this week, we shared how three young Indian believers came to faith and how they are actively ministering where they are now. This is the final part of the series of stories about these believers who are making a difference in India. This blog shares a series of questions and answers from these three Christians.
India is our prayer focus for Secret Church 16: A Global Gospel in a World of Religions. Join us as we learn about and pray for India.
Read in their own words how they view sacrifice, persecution, and more. At the end of the blog are prayer requests you can use to lift up these faithful believers and be part of their ministries.
How do you view sacrifice in your service to Christ?
Samar
When we come to Christ, one of the first things we need to realize is he owns everything now. He is Lord of our lives, [meaning] he owns our homes, he owns our thoughts, he owns literally everything. Trust me, when we taste Christ, we taste the glories of heaven. There is nothing better.
So our homes have been open ever since we got married. We have been mentoring people. We have boys sleepover at our house and literally throw everything around and devour our fridge, and we’ve just loved it. It’s been painful. We’ve discussed some [about] our personal space, but we have loved doing it. If he gives us a bigger home, we will still let people in because none of it belongs to us. We feel obligated to serve. We owe it. Our life is wasted if we don’t give back or let it be spent for the sake of Christ.
Without sacrifice and without paining us, it’s not the gospel. Without it really hurting somewhere, if nothing is literally costing me something it’s not the gospel.
Aadhya
He [Samar] is more into giving and he can more easily say, ‘Okay, It’s okay, come on in. Yeah, you can stay with us.’ For me, it’s like, ‘I have to make dinner, make bread.’ Really he just has to say come in and I have to do all the groundwork.
Only for the sake of Jesus, we will do it. We have had people who have had a drug background and we will invite them and say, ‘You can come and stay with us.’ [We can] just minister to them by them looking at us live—how we do ministry, how we interact with each other, how we just do family at home.
What do you think are the biggest challenges for Indian believers to spread the gospel?
Samar
There is a lot of corruption and that is one of the challenges. The Christian community sees a lot of attacks. You see other communities really flourishing. You see the Hindu community, they are flourishing because everyone is in favor of them. But the Christian community, won’t really retaliate.
There are a lot of rules and laws and Christians can’t meet at a certain place. The cops will turn up at our meetings and shut our sound systems at 10:00, but the other guys can go on whenever they want to.
How does music provide you with an opportunity to minister to others as Indian believers?
Aryan
The great thing about the arts is that it’s a bunch of people who are trying to break the social norms and write culture. The great thing is they are searching, so by default, the arts are a way of communicating love. The beautiful thing is painters and writers, they are always thinking out of a place of hurt. So they are sensitive to those aspects of their life…I think the next generation of people who are music ministering are going to reach out need to really figure out what the need of the art is of your audience and how you are going to plug in Jesus…That is the beauty of art.
How can we pray for you as Indian believers?
Aadhya
If you could just pray for a spirit of boldness to come in the people [of India] to preach the gospel and not feel afraid. [And for] the church to give community to the youngsters because youngsters are not there in church. They are all finding community outside of the church.
[And for me, please pray] to help me be hospitable without thinking. I struggle with that.
Samar
I think you can pray for cleansing, pray for washing of God’s servants all across this country. This materialism trap…has a way to really load people even in the church very deeply and it’s a very fine line. So, if you could pray for the church in India to be uncompromising and to walk in the center of God’s will.
If you are praying for me personally, just pray for me to be sold out for the gospel all the days of my life. That’s the one.
Aryan
[Please pray] that we would never lose Christ as our first love. If that intimacy is maintained…then we are good. Just that we don’t fall out of that love ever—just Jesus.
*Names changed for security purposes
