18 Mar NO SOUL IS TOO FAR GONE!

I happened to travel through the roads of Raipur to Rajnandgaon in October for my brother’s wedding reception. It was around 9.30 pm. We got to know we are going to be late as the four-lane road was made into a two-lane road; the other two lanes paving way for people who would walk to a hilltop temple at Dongargarh in Rajnandgaon during Navratri.

I had seen people in their 40s and 50s taking such walks to Palani in Tamil Nadu. Least did I expect young teenage girls and boys, with backpacks walking barefoot on highway roads so late in the night! For most of them there was no religion involved in this. They were doing it for the fun and adventure involved! I was so disturbed passing hundreds of such youngsters!

I closed my eyes for a while and cycled back my thoughts to when I was a teenager. Even I was in vain pursuit for the things of this world, but I always knew the true living God and there were so many people around to remind me of God’s love. In my teenage years I had put my full potential in Academics, Sports and in various other fields! I opened my eyes to again see another bunch of girls and boys walking – wasting their potential, energy and time – for nothing! In the name of fun and adventure Satan has completely blindfolded these young minds! Apparently, this was not the case a few years ago. I felt like grabbing a collar and asking ”Hey!! Why are you doing this?” My Amma said she felt like grabbing a mic and proclaiming the gospel. But we were helpless. There were police stationed everywhere. These youngsters may or may not do it as part of a ritual, but somewhere deep down in their hearts there is a starving to find out the truth.

We celebrated Christmas a month ago. How privileged are we to worship a God who chose to leave the heavens and come down in search of us… sinners, to save us. Unfortunately here – not somewhere in some part of the world but in our very own country, thousands of young students are still wasting their precious life in pursuit of the vain trappings set by Satan.

That day, we as family decided to pray with burden for what we saw. Many times, I say to myself and I’ve also heard people say, prayer is the least thing we can do for situations like these. But I strongly feel Prayer is the best that we can do. Just that we need to pray with burden and with the assurance that God can turn things around even if I’m the only one praying.

Later in the month of November, the killing of John Allan Chau, an American missionary by the Sentinelese tribe, hit the news. I got to read a copy of his final letter to his family and it said, “You guys might think I am crazy in all this but I think it’s worth it to declare Jesus to these people”. He also added “This is not a pointless thing – The eternal lives of this tribe is at hand and I can’t wait to see them around the throne of God worshipping in their own language as Revelation 7 : 9-10 states”. He did not really care about the perils of entering the habitat of these vulnerable tribal people. All he wanted was to share the love of Christ to them. What zeal for Christ for a 26-year-old! His testimony challenged me, and I pray even more fervently for the student group I met. I do believe that on the day of Christ there will be a remnant from every tribe and tongue and people bowing before the King, and among those, there will certainly be some from the bunch of teenagers who were walking towards Rajnandgaon that night.

Evangeline Ann Daniel, Chennai, pursues her PhD in the National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis, Chetpet, Chennai. She loves ministering among students.