“I am a little angry with you,” she said. Her voice was low and soft but the look in her eyes told me she was very serious. I sat across from my new friend, the wife of the Anglican priest whom I had stopped in to visit. I had no idea why God had me stop by and visit this man each time I came to his city. We had nothing in common. He was a highly educated priest of a wealthy and highly formal church while I was an American Pentecostal preacher. But, each time I came God would make me knock on his door and have an awkward conversation as we sipped chai.
Now, during one of these visits, his wife had sat down and let me know she was not happy with me. “I am very sorry, did I do or say something to offend you?” (It would not be the first or the last time I did something dumb to offend the Indian culture). “You come here and work with the private churches, but you do nothing to help us!” If she was trying to hide her negative feelings toward me, she was doing a lousy job of it.
“Help you? I don’t understand. How could I possibly do anything to help you?” I asked, feeling very confused. “Our churches are dying!” She explained. “We need revival! We need you to come to our churches and preach and pray. We need you to come help us!” I sat looking at her thinking she must be a little crazy. Me? In an Anglican church? I didn’t even know when to stand up and sit down in those formal services. “But,” I replied, “you know I am a Pentecostal preacher right?” I don’t think I would fit in your churches very well.” “No problem! No Problem! You come and bring revival and everything will be fine!”
“It seems shepherds are important in your religion?” my friend asked. We were sitting on the floor with a few of our shepherds in Kashmir drinking chai and talking. Over the course of my visits here I would tell stories about Jesus being the good shepherd, how Jesus laid down his life for His sheep, about David being a shepherd who became King, how he killed the lion and the bear and several other stories. (I do love telling a good story.) My friend’s question opened the door for another one. “Yes”, I replied. “Shepherds are very important to God. In fact, when His son Jesus was born, shepherds were the first ones to hear the good news as God sent angels to appear to them in the night sky as they were watching over their flocks.”
For the next several minutes I told the story of how the angel appeared to Mary, a young virgin, and told her the Holy Spirit would come upon her and place the seed of the Son of God in her and that she would give birth to the Savior of the world. I told of Joseph being visited by an angel to tell him to stay with Mary and that the baby was sent from God. How they had to travel while Mary was very pregnant, but all the rooms were full and the only place they could find was a barn, and that the Son of God was born in the presence of cows, sheep, and donkeys. The shepherds sat and listened intently to every word I was saying as I made the story as dramatic as I could (with my friend interpreting). In this culture most of the adults are illiterate so they love stories, and I was really enjoying telling them this one.
She stood about 5 feet tall and probably didn’t weigh 100 pounds. She was quiet, almost shy. At first glance you would almost overlook her but as I looked closer, I could see the fire in her eyes and a determined look on her face. My first thought was “This woman is a warrior!” She stood in front of a group of 37 pastors (6 being women) that represent 14,000 churches in North and Central India. All of them are leaders of at least 100 to 1000 churches.
“When I first began”, she said, “I was despised and very few people wanted to come to the classes. They would gossip and spread lies about me but there were a few women who wanted the training, so I began with them. When others began to see the difference in their lives, they began to come to me and ask for the training. The women who have received the training have become better wives and mothers.