After their Sunday worship service yesterday, Pastor Masood and a number of youngsters in his church divided into four teams (partly to help properly ‘socially distance’ in this time of Covid) and headed out to nearby villages to share the gospel and distribute bibles.
The pastor and the two young men with him felt drawn to a woman sitting by herself in front of a house. They approached, gave her a sample gospel and began sharing about Jesus. As soon as she heard the name of Jesus, she shouted angrily at them and threw away the gospel leaflet.
Alerted by the noise, neighbors began appearing and rebuked the pastor and his team for annoying the woman.
Just then, her disabled son, about 18, also appeared, crawling on his knees through the home’s door to his upset mother. He listened to all that was going on.
When the angry neighbors surrounded the pastor and his team members with the intention of attacking them, the woman’s husband joined the scene, making his way to the front of the crowd. He grabbed what he could of the bibles and gospel literature, threw them away, and began brutally beating Pastor Masood and the two young men with him. The pastor fell to the ground under the blows.
Suddenly the disabled son spoke up. “Father they are our Lord’s people! They speak the truth. Please don’t beat them!”
The boy’s father, mother and all the gathered neighbors seemed stunned, gazing in disbelief at the disabled boy. His mother practically fell to her knees in front of Pastor Masood, reached out and then held on tightly to his leg, crying aloud for forgiveness.
Her husband, now suddenly motionless, gazed at Pastor Masood as if he were some divine being.
The pastor of course had no idea what was going on. In hushed, reverent tones, someone told him the disabled young man had never, ever, talked before. No wonder all were awestruck! Pastor Masood consoled and calmed them with the peace of Christ, and then shared some of his own experiences with Jesus.
Crawling towards the pastor on his knees, the son asked for prayer. Pastor Masood held his hands by the young man’s head and prayed. As he did, the boy slowly straightened until he stood tall at his full height.
The amazed villagers could barely believe their eyes. They feared even getting near the pastor and his team members, murmuring among themselves that surely they came from heaven.
The pastor assured them he and the youngsters with him were simply servants of the Lord Jesus. He then shared the gospel more fully, explaining how Jesus was crucified to save each and every person from sin and death. Jesus is the mighty healer, and the miracles they had just witnessed were by His hand.
When he asked the people to accept Jesus as their Savior and Lord, everyone agreed! They also arranged a prayer meeting for that evening, and many attended and were healed and saved. By the end of Sunday evening, the whole village of about 120 people had joined the Kingdom of Jesus.
Please pray for the ministry of Pastor Masood and his church. He and his team continue distributing bibles, and we thank those of you who helped in acquiring those.
While we have already sent them 3,000 bibles, they now need another 7,000 Urdu bibles. Please pray for them, their ministry and for all the people who have newly accepted our Lord Jesus as their Savior. No doubt they will now face persecution from other villages, all Muslim.
[You can read our earlier stories of Pastor Masood’s often dangerous work in northern Bangladesh here: Urgent prayer request for pastors and believers in northern Bangladesh, Important update from Pastor Peter Haneef on attack in northern Bangladesh and LATEST UPDATE from Pastor Peter Haneef on attacked pastors and believers.]
______________
If you are able to help us buy bibles for Pastor Masood’s and other’s work, please click here:
BLESSING Bibles for Mideast
