Imagine that you were born in a remote place in India and that you have never heard the name of Jesus. You long for peace and forgiveness of sin, but years go by and the emptiness in your heart only increases. Finally, you can’t bear it any longer and you walk away from your family, your possessions and your village to devote the rest of your life to the worship of a multitude of gods. You own nothing except for the saffron robe you wear and the stick in your hand. You wander from temple to temple in an endless search for ultimate answers.
Years come and go but you hardly notice. People respect you as a holy man and seek your wisdom. But you alone know that in spite of all the rituals you observe, the offerings you bring and the prayers you recite, your soul is engulfed in a a blacker darkness than when you started your journey. One day you are sitting in a temple courtyard with two other holy men when a young man walks up and gives you and your friends little leaflets. You start to read and your heart begins to pound. Could it be true that a God named Jesus can forgive sin? Could the message on this piece of paper hold the answer to the longing of your heart?
You call the young man over and ask him a multitude of questions about this new God and what it means to follow Him. He patiently and politely answers each question. As he shares about the love of God and salvation through Jesus, your heart deeply yearns to know Him. Finally when the young man courageously asks if you want to receive Jesus, you and your friends decide to call upon His name for salvation. As you do, you experience how Jesus cleanses you from all sins and delivers you from darkness. Immediately your heart overflows with joy and peace and you know that from this moment on, you will live for Jesus alone.
This is not a make believe story. It happened in a western Indian state. The man who led these “holy men” to the Lord was a Bible student in the Bible school of one of our ministry partners. What a victory for the cross! And it all began with a few little Gospel tracts. Millions of men, women and children across India have never heard the Gospel story. In fact, they don’t even know the name of Jesus and have never seen a Bible. Just like these former holy men, their lives are filled with heavy burdens, darkness and unforgiven sin.
A simple Gospel tract in their native language can change their eternal destiny. And people in India receive these tracts eagerly, then pass them along to family members and friends to read. Many times, as they travel from one person to another, these tracts end up in remote villages where the Gospel has never been preached. Along the way people open their hearts to Jesus and receive the gift of eternal life.
Right now, our ministry partners need to print at least two million Gospel tracts in various languages to sufficiently supply their native missionaries and churches for outreach work. Amazingly, they can produce each tract for about a penny so the cost for that massive amount of tracts is only $20,000. Through the distribution of these tracts thousands of men, women and children will have the opportunity to make Jesus the Lord of their lives through these materials. To help provide this much needed Gospel literature, visit our Contribute online page and designate your gift for “Gospel Tracts.” For more information on this and other fine ministries that you read about on this site contact us at info@hope-builders.org.
