Revolution in World Missions

Chapter 13, Hope Has Many Names The question is, what does the Bible say about social justice and compassion? What is the Church's role in these matters? Clearly, by simply looking at Christ's example of how He lived on this earth, we are not to neglect the needs of suffering humanity. When Jesus came, He not only fed people's souls with the truths of heaven, and in Him as the bread of life, but He filled their stomachs with fish and bread and wines as well. He opened not only the eyes of people's hearts to see the truth, but also their physical eyes, restoring their sight so they could see the world around them. He strengthened the faith of the weak while strengthening the legs of the lame. He who came to breathe eternal life into a valley of dry dead souls also breathed life into the widow's son, raising him up once more. It was not one or the other, it was both, and both for the glory of God. This example of ministry carries all throughout the Bible. Look back through the Old Testament, and you will see a strong emphasis placed on compassion toward the needy and social justice for the downtrodden and poor. God demanded the care and protection of all those who were oppressed, and some of the most terrible judgment fell upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the way that they exploited the poor and needy. In Matthew chapter 22, verses 38 through 40, Jesus clearly marked the Christian's social responsibility when He said that loving God is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. All the law and prophets are summed up in both, loving God and loving others. It was not one or the other, but again, both, for the glory of God. We cannot say we love others if we ignore their spiritual needs. Just the same, we cannot say we love others if we ignore their physical needs. Jesus came for both. Indeed, Jesus has shown how the physical suffering of humanity brought many to call upon Him as the Savior of their soul. In John chapter 20, verses 30 through 31, we are told, and truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. The gospel shows that it was the sick, the demon-possessed, the hungry, and the poor who came to Jesus, and whose lives were changed by His healing touch. Jesus Himself declared that He had come to preach the good news to the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed. Through the many who were healed from horrible diseases and set free from satanic bondage, Jesus showed Himself as the only one able to save their souls from sin and death. The mercy ministries Jesus did were not an end in themselves, but were rather a means, and it is the same today. Yet, as I mentioned in the previous chapter, we must not misunderstand or replace evangelism for social action. The Great Commission is not a mandate for political liberation. Many who are familiar with the ministry of Gospel for Asia know that first and foremost we are committed to planting churches and making new disciples. Our concern has always been evangelism and church planning, never to be replaced by social work alone. The salvation of souls and making of disciples have been our aim and goal in all things, the ruler by which all ministry opportunities are measured. But this in no way means that we do not care about the physical suffering of those to whom we seek to minister. Our spirits, which are eternal and infinitely more precious than the whole physical world, are contained in perishable physical bodies, and throughout the Scripture we see that God used the felt needs of the body to draw people to Himself. Truly, the needs of suffering men, women, and children in this world are great, especially in the 1040 window. Calcutta alone is home to more than 100,000 street children who know not mother or father, nor love and care. They are not just a number or a statistic, they are real children. Though nameless and faceless on the streets where they live, each one was created with love and is known by God. It is doubtful they've ever held a toothbrush or a bar of soap. They've never eaten an ice cream cone or cradled a doll. The child laborers of South Asia toil in fireworks, carpet and match factories, quarries and coal mines, rice fields, tea plantations, and pastures. Because they are exposed to dust, toxic fumes, and pesticides, their health is compromised. Their bodies are crippled from carrying heavy weights. Some are bonded laborers, enslaved to their tasks by family poverty. According to the Human Rights Watch, this is life for 60 to 115 million children in South Asia. In the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, nine-year-old Lakshmi works in a factory as a cigarette roller. She tells her sister's story, giving us a glimpse into their world. My sister is ten years old. Every morning at seven she goes to the bonded labor man, and every night at nine she comes home. He treats her badly. He hits her if he thinks she is working slowly or if she talks to the other children. He yells at her. He comes looking for her if she is sick and cannot go to work. I feel this is very difficult for her. I don't care about school or playing. I don't care about any of that. All I want is to bring my sister home from the bonded labor man. For 600 rupees, I can bring her home. That is our only chance to get her back. We don't have 600 rupees. We will never have 600 rupees. 600 rupees is the equivalent of approximately 17 U.S. dollars. These whom Christ thought of while dying on the cross must not be forgotten by his body today. These for whom Christ suffered then must not be forsaken by us, his hands and his feet, now. In the midst of advancing world evangelism, we cannot hold back the healing embrace with which to care and provide for these precious children in the sight of God. I'm particularly talking about the Dalits, or the Untouchables, the lowest caste of India. For 3,000 years, hundreds of millions of India's Untouchables have suffered oppression, slavery, and countless atrocities in the name of religion. They are trapped in a caste system that denies them adequate education, safe drinking water, decent paying jobs, and the right to own land or a home. Segregated and oppressed, Dalits are frequently the victims of violent crime. And just as the need is great, so is the possibility for Christ's power and love to be known. In recent years, the door to these possibilities has been flung wide open. Among Dalits and other low caste groups that face similar repressive treatment, there has been a growing desire for freedom. Leaders representing approximately 700 million of these people have come forth demanding justice and freedom from caste slavery and persecution. The turning point came on November 4, 2001, when tens of thousands of Dalits gathered for one of the most historic meetings of the 21st century, publicly declaring their desire to quit Hinduism and follow a faith of their own choosing. Since that event, the Lord has led Gospel for Asia to tangibly express His love to Dalit, low caste, and tribal families in a unique way, by reaching out to their children. GFA Bridge of Hope, our children's outreach program, is designed to rescue thousands of children in Asia from a life of poverty and hopelessness by giving them an education and introducing them to the love of God. Through this effort, churches are planted and entire communities are set on a course toward spiritual transformation as well as social development. Today, more than 30,000 children are enrolled in hundreds of Bridge of Hope centers, and the program continues to grow. One of these schools is located in the village of native missionary and pastor Samuel Jagat. When Samuel set out last year to establish a school for Dalit and low caste families in his village, he had no idea that the group of 35 children attending would make such a remarkable difference in his ministry. But one little first grade boy in his school was about to show him otherwise. Nibun's mother had been ill with malaria for a long time. Doctors, priests, and sorcerers could not find a cure, and her death seemed inevitable. But Nibun had a little seed of hope in his heart, God's Word. Bible stories were a regular part of the curriculum at the village school, where teachers worked diligently to give children the best education while showing them the love of Christ. Like many other children, Nibun would come home and narrate every story he had heard to his family. One night, as Nibun and his family sat together beside his mother's bed, he told them how Jesus raised a widow's son from the dead. It became a turning point in all their lives. That night, after hearing this story, Nibun's father later shared, I could not sleep. This story was burning in my heart again and again. Nibun's father sought out Samuel the next morning. After hearing more about Jesus and his offer of salvation, the man asked the pastor to come and pray for his wife. I believe Jesus will heal my wife just as he did the widow's son, he affirmed. Nibun's mother, though weak in body, shared the same confidence. My son talks about Jesus many times in our home. I believe Jesus will heal me. Pastor Samuel laid hands on the dying woman and prayed for the Lord to raise her up. Then he returned to his home. The next day, he saw Nibun and asked how his mother was doing. My mommy is walking around, he reported happily, and this morning she prepared breakfast for us. When Samuel arrived at Nibun's house, he found a family transformed both physically and spiritually. They had all made a decision to follow Christ. This openness to the gospel among the Dalit people and other low-caste groups marks an unparalleled opportunity to reach some of the most unreached on the earth today, up to 700 million souls. They are part of the harvest, Jesus tells us, is a vast field ready to be reaped and brought into God's eternal kingdom. Bridge of Hope provides the means by which we can cross over to these millions and accomplish the task. Nibun's father expresses it this way, I thank God for this school and pray that he will use it to bring his light into many homes, just as he has done in our family. From the beginning of our ministry, we have always used every opportunity to share the gospel and see thousands come to Christ, especially in the most poor and needy communities. This has not changed. Since our beginning, we've had special ministries among leper colonies and slums, with dozens of churches having been planted among these needy people. So when we saw the desperate cry of help from the Dalits, we were eager to reach out to them. The most tangible way we saw to do this was to set up primary schools for their children, as education often equals freedom in many of these nations. In fact, one of the reasons so many children and their families stay enslaved as bond laborers is for the simple fact that they cannot read the contract made between them and their loaner. Because of illiteracy, they are blindly taken advantage of and cheated out of not just money and time, but their futures. Yet these schools are not just a social effort whose purpose and end is education, not at all. For it is the love of Christ that constrains us to reach out in this way, knowing that each child and his family are precious in the sight of God. These children and these schools are simply the bridge, the means by which to communicate the gospel and see millions cross over from death to life. Let me tell you an experience I had in the beginning stages of this potential ministry to the Dalits that changed my thinking and propelled us to move forward with the Bridge of Hope project. It was while sleeping in the early hours of the morning that I had a dream. I was standing in front of a vast wheat field, looking out upon a harvest that was clearly ripe. I stood there for a while, overwhelmed at the size of the harvest. The field continued for what seemed like millions of endless acres, for as far as the eye could see. As I stood there watching the golden wheat sway in the breeze, I got this sudden understanding that I was looking out upon the harvest that Jesus spoke of in John chapter 4 and Matthew chapter 9. It was as though the Lord was telling me that this harvest is free for the taking, much as Psalm chapter 2 tells us to ask for the nations and He will give them to us. Overcome with excitement at seeing so much harvest ready for reaping and knowing that this represented millions upon millions of souls being rescued from an eternity in hell, I began to jump up and down. With all my might, I ran toward the field, but as I drew nearer, I was stopped. I couldn't go any farther. There was a wide, gaping river in between the harvest and myself, a river so deep and raging that I dared not step closer or try to cross. I had not seen it from where I stood before, but now I did. My heart broke. I was only able to look at the harvest, unable to embrace it. I stood there weeping, feeling so helpless and full of despair. All of a sudden there appeared before me a bridge reaching from one side of the vast river to the other. It was not a narrow bridge, but was very broad and so huge. As I watched, the bridge became completely filled with little children from all over Asia, poor destitute Dalit children like those I'd seen on the streets of Bombay, Calcutta, Dakar, Kathmandu, and other Asian cities. Then it was as though someone spoke to me and said, If you want to have this harvest, it's all yours, but this is the bridge that you must walk on to get it. I woke up from my dream and realized that the Lord was speaking to me about something so significant that if we follow His instruction, we will see these endless millions of untouchables come to know Him, and the children would be the bridge to reach them. I shared this dream with my colleagues, and we realized that God had given us this call to bring hope to the children of Asia. Through Bridge of Hope schools, children would be taught about the Lord Jesus Christ and experience His love, and through them their communities and families would come to know the Lord. Miraculously, this has been happening. God has been faithful to carry out the plans He placed in our hearts. In one part of India, we set up 50 schools among communities that previously did not welcome us or the gospel message. As a matter of fact, when we first went into some of these communities to preach the gospel, we were strongly opposed. But as our brothers went in to set up a primary school for the children, we were welcomed in a new light. Within time, 50 Bridge of Hope schools were started in that region. Within 11 months' time, 37 churches were planted, and it all began with the little children learning about Jesus, going home and telling their parents. Then miracle after miracle began to transpire. This is not an exception, but something that we're seeing on a daily basis. The Lord willing, as we move forward with a deep conviction to see the gospel preached and the Great Commission truly fulfilled, we will see literally millions come to know the Lord. As we respond to their physical needs and do what we can in the name of Jesus, with the intention for them to hear the good news of forgiveness from sin and redemption through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord, communities will be changed, churches planted, and disciples made. The true fulfillment of the Great Commission must be at the heart of every endeavor that ministers to the felt needs of humanity. When this remains the element carrying the work forward, the love of Christ is shown in a tangible way that reaches down deep in the hearts of men and women, drawing them to the Savior of their souls. When all is said and done, the bottom line must be, the poor have the gospel preached to them. If that is not done, we have failed.