Housewives and farm labourers in India see fruit

After arriving in Mumbai, we went south for 8 hours, finally coming to a large village set among farm fields where cotton is still picked by hand. Kakasaheb, a farmer who is also a bi-vocational pastor, had gone through our basic story training in 2006-2007. We were eager to see him again and meet the rural storytellers he has trained. His team of four men and six women are leading adult literacy projects and telling Bible stories in a dozen villages within a 15 mile radius.

After welcoming us with garlands and gifts, they demonstrated their storytelling skills by telling various Bible stories. But I was amazed when they began recounting what God is doing through their ministries! In just 24 months these housewives and farm laborers have won 133 people to the Lord; all have been baptised and gathered into new congregations where Jesus is worshiped with song and story.

They described how, through hearing the stories from God’s word, lepers were healed and tumors disappeared.

One storyteller, a middle-aged woman, spent some minutes describing a miracle of healing and conversion that had happened in someone’s life. She finished by saying “And I have brought this person with me today. She is sitting right there!” An elderly lady stood up, her face seamed with the travails of her 70 years, but beaming with joy for having found the Savior. Each of the storytellers asked us for prayer so they can win even more people to the Lord.

Used with permission from ‘Stories from storytellers’