The Misunderstanding of Christianity (Part 3: Inspired by Indian Christians)

In 1984, I was a burned-out pastor on fire for Jesus, managing a small retail lumber yard in Murfreesboro, TN. Religious obligation had me faithfully attending a nondenominational, non-charismatic church.

One Sunday, a man from India preached there. His name was MA Thomas. He was full of passion and love for Jesus. He had started hundreds of churches, 5 or 6 Bible schools, 70 or so Christian schools, several orphanages, and a few leper colonies throughout India. As he spoke, I felt an inner prompting to ask him if he could use a volunteer teacher at one of the Bible schools.

As we talked, there was an instant heart-to-heart connection. He eagerly welcomed me and invited me to come to India for three months to teach in the Bible school where he taught.

After I had made plans to go in the Fall, the pastor of the church tried to get Brother Thomas to uninvite me because I speak in tongues. Brother Thomas told the pastor something like: “My wife was raised in the Indian Pentecostal Church, and she speaks in tongues, so I have no problem with that.”

A few months later, Brother Thomas made another trip to the USA. When he returned home, I went back to India with him. We had to spend the night together in New York, and to save money, we stayed with Indian friends of his in a rundown, high-rise apartment building in the Bronx.

They served us a meal of Indian street food that one of them had just brought back from India. That food started me on more than a year-long battle with stomach problems. The next morning, I woke up with cockroaches crawling all over me. I’ve never seen that many cockroaches again. I began to wonder if I had made the right decision to go to India.

When we got on the plane to head toward India, Brother Thomas was talking to everyone. He asked one man to sit by him until the seat holder came. He quickly and joyfully began to talk to the man about Jesus. Then he asked him if the plane crashed, where would he go for eternity? The man said he didn’t know. Then he went on down the aisle to his seat.

Halfway over the Atlantic, the pilot announced that we had lost one of our two engines and would be making an emergency landing in London instead of landing in Frankfurt. The seat by Brother Thomas was still empty. Suddenly the man showed up and asked if he could sit with us. He wanted to know how he could go to Heaven.

Brother Thomas told the man about Jesus dying to save us from our sins and how Jesus is now alive and wants us to let Him live inside of us and be our inner ruler. The man prayed and surrendered his life to Jesus. Brother Thomas talked to him about how wonderful Jesus is until we landed safely (Thank God!) in London.

After much flight rescheduling, we finally arrived in New Delhi. We picked up out luggage and headed toward the train station. Then we found our second-class seats and spent more hours headed toward Kota, Rajasthan (in between New Delhi and Mumbai) where Brother Thomas lived and the Bible school is located.

We finally arrived at Brother Thomas’ tiny house beside the church. There I met his wife, his teenage son Samuel, and his daughter Elizabeth and her husband. Finally, they showed me to my small room upstairs above the church. Exhausted with stomach problems and culture shocked, I quickly fell asleep.

I was awakened the next morning for breakfast. The family had their meals together at a table in the church kitchen. There was no silverware. They just used their fingers both to serve and to eat the food. I am a germaphobe and had to depend on God the next three months to help me be polite and eat.

The first day they acclimated me to their lifestyle and routine. About 30 students lived at the Kota Bible Institute about a block away. After introducing me to the students they showed me the classroom where I would teach the Bible (in English) three hours every weekday morning. (The student’s had been taught English in school, but I had to use simple vocabulary and speak slowly for them to understand me). I also had brought a 6-booklet Navigator, fill-in-the-blanks Bible study that I taught from. Someone in the Murfreesboro church had bought enough for each student to have a set. Several of the church members had also contributed to help fund my trip.

Brother Thomas shared their daily schedule with me. He, his family, and the students gathered in the church to spontaneously and fervently pray together three times every day: from 5:30 to 6:30 AM, 2:00 to 2:30 PM, and 9:30 to 10:30 PM. Of course, I was expected to be a part of those prayer meetings. The students also spent the afternoons from 4:00 to 7:00 on the streets and door-to-do talking to people about Jesus and I often went with some of them. I had my meals with the family at the church. The students had theirs at the school.

They had powerful, passionate, and Spirit-anointed church services on Sunday morning and also on a weeknight. I was frequently asked me to preach at them. It was challenging. I was interpreted into two different Indian languages. My preaching and my Bible teaching were better received in India than anywhere I’ve ever preached or taught. They also had me preach a three-day outdoor crusade in a slum in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). I even preached at two or three Indian weddings. What a blessing it was to have my unconventional preaching style so well received!

Seeing God do amazing things through sold-out Christ followers in a passionate Spirit-led environment for three months was incredible! Indian Christians changed my life! I’m crying as I write about it.

When I was leaving to go to the train station to begin my return home, everyone crowed around me, hugged me, and powerfully sang together the song in English, “God Be With You Till We Meet Again.” What a trip!

Yet, God had more in store for me. An English man who had spoken at the church in Murfreesboro made arrangements for me to spend two weeks in England on my way home. One week I was a tourist. The other week was another powerful spiritual adventure.

I spent Christmas week in a castle owned by Torchbearers, a ministry founded by Major W. Ian Thomas. Every Christmas for many years a fairly small group of Christ-followers had gather there for an intimate, informal time of seeking the Lord together. There was some teaching and a lot of Spirit-prompted sharing, praying, and testimonies. It was 1 Corinthians 14:26 in action — what I had been searching for since the Jesus Movement.

When I returned to Middle Tennessee, I had the desire to try to get back into full-time ministry again and face more disappointment as a pastor.