Last week, our country manager in South Asia visited a hunting community to train and share Scripture. He met a partner pastor, who told him his astonishing testimony.

Ishaan’s* tribe hunts to survive. They gather their livelihood from the forests, so they are used to worshipping nature—idols their community makes for themselves.

God sent a pastor by the name of Arrush* to stop by Ishaan’s house and share the gospel with him.

When Arrush first visited Ishaan’s house, he found his only daughter on her deathbed. Ishaan explained that he had gone to so many different doctors for the young girl, but his daughter was still dying. When Arrush humbly spoke about how God has the power to save her, Ishaan was very much against hearing about it. In fact, he was so angry that he took a stone and smashed it against Arrush’s head. After some time, Arrush left bruised and brokenhearted.

After a couple of days, the Lord prompted Arrush to return to Ishaan’s house. At first, he denied the task, in fear of the enraged man he had met there just days before. But later that week, he bravely drove back to find Ishaan sitting outside of his home. Ishaan’s face hardened the moment he stepped out of the car.

Arrush was timider this time, but again he gently shared the gospel story. And again, Ishaan became infuriated, picking up stones to throw at him. Then suddenly, seeing the violence take place, his wife ran out of the house to intervene.

“We have tried so many gods. Why don’t we just try this new God?” she wailed.

This suggestion gave Arrush the opportunity to pray with the two of them. And as he spoke, Ishaan began to weep. He felt the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Today, Ishaan is leading a church of 60 believers. And his daughter is one of them! He will do anything to preach the Word, share Scripture, and proclaim his transformational testimony with whoever wants to hear it. He explained that his congregation was on fire for Christ, but they were not equipped with the right tools to learn more. So, after hearing his amazing story, our representative gifted Ishaan with 40 full Bibles and other Scripture materials for his church and fellow ministry leaders!

*names changed for security reasons