The Wealthy Man

Greetings brothers and sisters in Christ; we thank God for the richness of His grace, mercy, and for you because of your support of the church in India. Imli recently returned from India with a report of how God is moving through national missionaries in miraculous ways. These testimonies show it is God alone provides hope to the hopeless.

A church planter we will call Bill had been trying to share the gospel in a village controlled by a wealthy man who owned a lot of the land. This man confronted Bill because he did not want him coming to his village. Bill kept on witnessing in the village despite this rich man trying to stop him.

One day Bill went to the rich man’s village and noticed a lot of people had gathered around the man’s house. Bill asked one of the villagers what was going on. He told Bill the rich man had hired several villagers to work his rice farm. It was his responsibility to provide lunch for his workers. One of them started choking on his lunch so the other workers assumed the rich man was trying to poison them all, which was a common thing for people to do in the rural villages. The rumor spread to the neighboring village. All the villagers decided to put the rich man under house arrest and contact the local militant group that supported and protected the villagers and hold a trial to decide the rich man’s fate. Since the militants were in favor of the villagers, the rich man and his family would be put to death. The leader of the militant group said they would arrive at the village in four days. Bill learned from the villager he was talking to that he had arrived on the third day since all this happened.

Bill asked if he could meet with the rich man and was given permission. The rich man was very nice to Bill when he saw him. He told Bill that he did not try and poison the workers, but one of them had just started choking on his lunch. He also said to Bill, “Thank God you came. There is no hope.” Bill replied, “I told you once about Jesus, I will tell you again. Are you going to take the chance?” The rich man and his whole family accepted Jesus. After Bill prayed with the rich man and his family he told them he would come back the next day.

When Bill returned the next day there were no villagers guarding the house. Bill went inside the rich man’s house and found him and his family rejoicing. The rich man told Bill the militants had gotten into a gun fight with the Indian army while on their way to the village. All except one of the militants were killed.

Bill was allowed to start a church in the village. Today the rich man is the main active member of the church.