With their pockets full of sharp stones, 19-year-old Ezra and his friends marched down the dusty road. They had heard that a Christian evangelist would be preaching that evening, and they were eager to meet the man—to kill him. But as they approached the meeting place, they saw that quite a crowd was gathering. "Maybe we should wait until everyone leaves," Ezra whispered to his friends as he ran his fingers over the jagged edges in his pockets. "Then no one will see us."

The young men agreed to hold out until the preaching was over—then they would drag the man into a nearby field and stone him to death. As radical Hindus, they saw the evangelist as a threat to their community.

Born into a low-caste family in southeast India, Ezra had grown up being taught that only the pious would be elevated in the next life. His family was so dedicated to their household god, the King Cobra, that cobras had been kept in the house for generations—even though seven family members had died from snakebites, presumably as punishment for bad deeds.

But as Ezra stood at the back of the crowd, listening to the preacher with contempt, he began to hear amazing new ideas. The evangelist, little knowing his own life was at stake, talked to the crowd about sin. He explained that no one, no matter how "good" his deeds, could ever get rid of the evil in his heart. But Jesus, the incarnate God who came to die for the world's sin, offers hope. Only through accepting His gift of forgiveness and new life can we be freed from our slavery to sin.

Everyone is equally sinful? And this God has died and come back to life to make us free from sin? Ezra's heart beat faster as his mind churned with questions he'd never thought about before. He had always blindly followed his family's religion, which taught that the Lord (the "Krishna") incarnated himself to punish sinners and to perfect good people. But this was just the opposite. Could there actually be hope in admitting one's sinfulness? Can this Yeshu Krist really save me? Ezra felt strangely moved.

Then came a bolt of lightning. The evangelist seemed to look straight at him and said, "Be sure your sin will find you out!" (Numbers 32:23) Sweat pricked Ezra's scalp as he tightened his fist around the stones in his pocket—and then slowly loosened his grip.

Pierced to the heart, he turned to his friends and said resolutely, "We cannot do what we came to do." Ezra ran past the crowd to meet the evangelist he'd originally come to kill, hungry for a new beginning.

The Same Holy Spirit

Twenty-five years after that dramatic night of transformation, Ezra talks about how Jesus Christ is still radically changing lives in India. We're sitting in the living room of Paul Reynolds, a member of First Baptist Church of Atlanta, marveling at all the Lord is doing through Gospel Fellowship India, the ministry that Ezra founded after experiencing his own "road to Damascus."

Ezra is now the director of GFI, which is responsible for planting 162 churches with over 20,000 worshippers in seven states of India and running a Christian elementary school, two Bible training schools for indigenous missionaries, literacy programs in every church, and two orphanages. He's also a humble, unpretentious man in his 40s, whose utter confidence in the Lord is infectious. When I hear him tell of the Gospel spreading like wildfire, people being healed, and native missionaries demonstrating tenacity that seems unreal, I can't help but feel I'm hearing stories straight from the book of Acts.

Still marveling, I say, "We American Christians tend to think the Holy Spirit works differently today than He did in the early church. In the back of our minds, we figure we shouldn't expect miracles to occur or people to be freed from evil spirits. Yet these things seem commonplace for GFI missionaries."

"Yes, when we pray for possessed people, naturally, the demons will be leaving them," says Ezra matter-of-factly. "God heals sick people, and that becomes a witness to others who then believe in Jesus Christ. That's what is happening."

Ezra speaks from personal experience: his grandmother was miraculously healed of a fatal disease, and as a result, his once-hostile family turned to the Lord.

Willing to Die

That's just where the comparisons to the New Testament church begin. Like the early Christians, Ezra and GFI's missionaries are willing to pay whatever it costs to follow Christ. They expect opposition but don't allow it to crush their enthusiasm for sharing Jesus' love. In fact, they see that God is often at work in the midst of people who persecute them. After all, Ezra remembers that he was once such a person.

"I can't help but think of Saul of Tarsus," I blurt out to Ezra. "Your story is like his—he was so zealous to kill believers, and God used that zeal for His purposes."

"Yes," says Ezra, smiling. "We see many people with militant attitudes who, when they hear about Jesus Christ, they become like Paul. The Word of God transforms their lives. Now they live with a Christian "militancy"—with a sword of love! And they are willing to die for Jesus."

Missionaries-in-training at GFI's Bible schools even use Fox's Book of Martyrs as a textbook. "We want to inspire them to have the boldness to face any situation, through any persecution or sacrifice," explains Ezra, himself a former victim of stoning, stabbing, and imprisonment.

Ezra tells us about Sunil, a GFI missionary who began witnessing in a village and was immediately met by hostility from leaders. Sunil stayed anyway, and soon people began turning to Christ. In spite of the extraordinary transformation in many individuals, opposition grew. Finally, he was brought to the village center, where elders ordered the people to burn him with cigarette butts.

When Sunil arrived at the hospital, he had over a thousand burns on his body. "I and some other leaders asked if he would leave that village now," says Ezra. "He said, 'No, I will go back.' And the next month, there was a church!"

One Spirit, One Body

With India's staggering population of a billion people, turning the country's tide toward Christ seems daunting. Almost 2,000 years after the disciples were sent to preach the Gospel to the world, 500,000 villages in India still don't have even one Christian witness. But just as Ezra planted churches one by one, single seeds can become a bountiful harvest.

"Two years ago," says Paul, "Ezra shared with my Sunday school class about how God is powerfully using the Jesus film in India. One of my friends got an idea that some of us chip in for a used projector to replace Ezra's recently damaged one. It was nothing for us, really. Since then, 20,000 people have watched the film, and many got saved as a result. I can't fathom how God used a bunch of us to be a part of their coming to Christ!" Paul goes on, "We Americans have such awesome opportunities to further God's kingdom because of how He's blessed us materially. It's amazing how He multiplies what we give Him—and how far a small offering will go in a third world country like India. You would not believe how little GFI effectively runs on. I get excited thinking about how little it takes to support a pastor's family—I can't quantify how much God can do through them to His glory!"

"It's so easy to forget," I muse, "that being a part of 'the church' means you're linked with a worldwide body of believers, not simply with a local fellowship or even denomination. It means we all need each other! As Scripture says, the eye needs the nose, and the hand needs the foot—one part of the body can't say it's more important." (1 Corinthians 12:14-22)

"And it takes all the parts of Jesus' body to work the way He meant it to," adds Paul. "When we do work together, what a beautiful picture!"

For more information about Gospel Fellowship India, see www.gospelfellowshipindia.org.