Source: Beyond, March 27, 2021
The Banjara people of North India live bleak lives. They are impoverished. Illiterate. Unwelcome within city limits. They live under tents of plastic sheeting, often next to open sewage. They eat the scraps that butchers can’t sell, and they are considered too low for any caste group to accept. Their lives are devoid of hope.
Then a disciple told one Banjara group about Jesus.
They now have hope and have been changed by the Holy Spirit in every way. They eat decent food. Many have built one-room homes of brick. They started a school and their children are learning to read. Many have started micro-businesses. And they are obeying Jesus’ command to make disciples of the lost.
Banjara house church leaders met recently to seek God for direction in reaching 3,000 more Banjara families with the gospel this year. Though they are poor and mostly still illiterate, they are owning the Great Commission for themselves. They are dividing up the work and funding it from their own resources.
When people are discipled to Jesus—not Christian culture or church traditions—true transformation results. This is the Book of Acts in action.
Read the full story and see a previous report from the same source, Balking at Baptism.
You might also want to read about how God used an indigenous gospel film to spark a movement to Christ among the Banjara (Create International).