"I'd only been with Christian people for one month when they put a Bible in my hand.
I didn't know what to do with it."
In 2002,Raj Singh was a town drunk in a village in South Asia. He had once held a good job, even had his own land and house, he had a wife and five beautiful children. But alcohol stripped them of everything.
"You have to tell the stories from the Bible.' So this is how I started learning the Bible stories one by one. Now I could know God and I could understand the truth."
Finally Raj Singh could no longer provide for his family, and even their house was taken by the village money lender. By now Raj Singh was drinking so much that often he was not even aware of where he was. Sometimes he'd pass out and sleep on the road and other times in the jungle. And when he did come home drunk, he would often beat his wife and children. The family had nothing to buy food or clothes.
Then one day the pastor of a small church in that village, seeing the destitution of Raj Singh’s family, was moved to compassion. Now as it happened, this pastor was enrolled in our biblical storytelling training.
So Pastor Phulen started visiting Raj Singh and his family, telling them stories from the Bible. Every day for more than a month, 2 or even 3 times a day, he'd go and tell stories and talk to Raj Singh about his drinking.
Raj Singh had always hated Christians. So to avoid them, he started getting up early and stayed away from home all day so he wouldn't have to listen to the stories. But his family was pressuring him to attend the church. And every time he stayed home, there were those storytellers again! They often told him the same story over and over. It was about a prodigal son who had left his good home and wasted everything.
After a couple of months, the Christians invited Raj Singh to go with them to the storytelling training. He tried to get out of it anyway he could, but finally agreed. It took eight hours by train to get to the town where we were holding the training.
The first time I saw Raj Singh, his eyes were all red from drinking, his clothes were wrinkled, his shoes were old, and his teeth were still red from chewing the narcotic "beetle leaf" that Indians call Paan.
Later Raj Singh would say,
"I'd only been with Christian people for one month when they put a Bible in my hand. I didn't know what to do with it. I didn't even know which was the top or the bottom. But they were telling me, 'You have to tell the stories from the Bible.' So this is how I started learning the Bible stories one by one. Now I could know God and I could understand the truth."
"Because of those stories, that's how I learned everything: what to do, how to live, how to obey God. And slowly, my life was totally changed. I cannot even comprehend how I was before, a drunkard and who I am now. I cannot even imagine that I have experienced such great change."
Two years later, when Raj Singh graduated from the storytelling program, the same church that won him to the Lord, asked him to become their pastor! Earlier this year, Teresa and I had the immense joy of seeing Raj Singh again. He told us that during the 13 years since we'd been together, he's started three new congregations, and has baptized 106 people that he won to the Lord!
It's not easy. Raj Singh’s tribe strongly opposes Christianity. If someone from this tribe comes to Christ, they will make them pay a huge fine. Then they try to force them to leave the village by beating them; they may even try to kill them. But Raj Singh spent the last 13 years catching those people!
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