🌍🇮🇳 Stories from the Field: India — One Compound, Thirty Lives

It was November 2004, and I was walking through a community in the state of Manipur, India, with my translator when we entered a family compound that I knew absolutely nothing about.

There was no stage waiting for me, no microphone, no church building and no carefully planned evangelistic event. My translator simply introduced me, the family welcomed us, and then something beautiful began to happen. Word spread that visitors had arrived, family members and friends started gathering around, and before long there were far more people there than you can see in this old photograph.

I introduced myself, but I hadn’t traveled all the way to India simply to tell them who I was. I wanted to tell them who Jesus is.

So standing there in that compound, with my translator beside me, I boldly shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I told them about the God who loved them, about sin and our need for forgiveness, about Jesus dying on the cross and rising again, and about the salvation He freely offers to everyone who places their faith in Him.

Then came the moment that still stays with me more than twenty years later.

People began responding.

I don’t have an exact count after all these years, and this photograph captures only some of those who were there, but I remember approximately 30 people praying to receive Christ that day.

Thirty people.

In one compound.

On what began as another walk through a community in Manipur.

Looking at this old photograph today takes me right back there. The picture isn’t high-definition. It came from one of those early digital cameras we carried in 2004, and time has certainly left its fingerprints on it. But maybe that’s part of what I love about it. It captured something real—a moment when a group of people gathered together, the Gospel was proclaimed, and God allowed me the incredible privilege of watching people respond to Jesus.

I have traveled to many places since that November day, preached in many different settings, and met people from cultures all over the world, but experiences like this helped teach me something very early in my missionary journey:

Never underestimate what God can do when someone is simply willing to go, open their mouth, and faithfully proclaim Jesus.

More than twenty years later, I don’t know where all of these men and women are today. But I can still see their faces in this photograph, and I can still pray that the seeds planted that afternoon continued to grow long after I walked out of that compound.

Because the story was never really about an American walking through the jungles of India.

It was about Jesus seeking and saving the lost.

“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
— Luke 19:10 NKJV

Who first shared the Gospel with you? If someone played a part in leading you to Christ, honor them in the comments by sharing a little of your story. 🙏🌍