Bangladesh is one of the least-reached nations on earth. According to the Joshua Project, there are 174,398,000 million people in Bangladesh of which 98.9% are considered unreached. There are 299 people groups in this nation which is predominately Muslim. Christians make up less than 0.3% of the population.
On this trip, I worked with local believers to minister in two rural village campaigns. These villages are near the border of India and are mostly composed of Hindu people. On the way to our Gospel campaigns, we passed a huge Hindu festival. People were lighting candles, bowing to idols, celebrating Diwali, “the festival of lights.” They were searching for light…but they didn’t know Who the true Light really is. That night, we preached about Jesus who proclaimed, “I am the Light of the World.”
And what happened next was incredible…People were healed…Souls were saved…Hearts were filled with peace for the first time.
Two entire villages were transformed…from darkness to LIGHT! In one village we saw a total attendance of 1,250 over three nights. We recorded the names of 579 people who prayed with us for salvation. In the second village, 2,150 people were in attendance over three nights with the largest crowd reaching 850 people. In this event, we recorded the names of 1,049 people who decided to follow Jesus.
Jesus Saves & Heals
When I talk to people about Jesus in the rural areas of Bangladesh, I start with the basics. I begin by holding up my Bible and explaining, “This is God’s Book. In this Book are many miracles. I want to tell you about the three greatest miracles in God’s Book. #1: God Created You. #2: God Loves You. #3: God Saves You.” When people hear the simple Gospel message, it opens their hearts to respond to Jesus.
I saw one of our counselors praying with a woman who surrendered her life to Jesus. Moments earlier, she had been standing in the crowd as a Hindu who had never heard the Gospel before. I shared how Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for our sins and asked, “Who wants Jesus to forgive your sins?”
With deep emotion, this woman lifted her hand and walked forward. One of our young Christian counselors met her, prayed with her, and carefully wrote her name and the directions to her home on a decision card. This was the first step in her new life with Christ.
Sick people came forward for prayer. They are villagers who put their faith in Jesus and He responded by healing many of them. A man in a blue shirt who had suffered from serious eye problems suddenly began to see clearly. He lifted his hands in joy, saying, “Now I can see!” Another man in a striped shirt had endured five years of knee pain, but after prayer in the Name of Jesus, the pain vanished completely. A woman wearing a green scarf had struggled with hip problems for six years, yet Jesus restored her mobility instantly. A woman in an orange scarf, tormented by pain in her back and head, felt the power of God touch her, and all the pain disappeared. Every healing is a testimony of God’s mercy. These miracles demonstrate that Jesus is alive and at work in Bangladesh!
Follow Up for New Believers
After the campaign is over, local evangelists continue to preach in each village until a church is established. The place where we did these campaigns will now become a preaching point and an evangelist will go back there on a regular basis to follow up on the new believers. He will start house churches and once there are enough people who are serving the Lord in the area, a church building will be built, a school will be planted, and slowly, and with great effort, the kingdom of God will grow.
Evangelism Training
On this trip we also did an evangelism training seminar for one hundred pastors, teachers, and evangelists and taught twenty-five Bible school students. During the seminar, I used my book “The Gospel in Pictures” as a textbook. This teaching takes students through different methods of sharing the Gospel using pictures. I taught them the Romans Road, Jesus is the Bridge, and the Three Circles. This teaching is powerful because the visual aids help the local evangelists to remember the key elements of the Gospel long after we are gone. In the West, our education system teaches us to memorize lists of facts, but in many countries, truth is easier to remember if it is presented visually or through stories.
“It is 4:15, we have to turn off our sound system,” a pastor at our village campaign in ********* told me. Our worship team had just finished singing simple Christian tunes like “This is the Day that the Lord has Made” and “Hallelujah.”
“Why?” I asked, “I am ready to preach to the crowd.”
“Because it is time for Muslim prayers and we do not want to offend them,” the pastor explained to me, “Five times a day the Muslims call people to pray from the Mosque that is next to where we are holding our Gospel campaign. If we make noise during their call to prayer, we might offend them and they will force us to shut down the meeting.”
Our village campaigns took place on the front lines of Gospel work. We were standing on the enemy’s turf trying to take new territory. We were in a majority Muslim country. While I was there, the war between Israel and Gaza was raging. The head of Hamas called for a world-wide day of anger and Jihad against Jews and Christians. In the capital there were demonstrations where mobs of people burned the Israeli flag and the American flag. Thank you for praying for my safety!
Once the Muslim prayers were over, I began preaching. My sermon had four main points: God Created You, God Loves You, God Saves You, and God Heals You. When I gave the altar call hundreds of people prayed with me for salvation right in the shadow of the Mosque!
The amazing miracle is that on the same day when Islam was calling for anger, we saw the love of Jesus manifested in a powerful way. It was on a Friday. Not only was it the day of our biggest attendance at the campaign, but it was also the day when we saw the most people get saved.
Our team did two village-size Gospel campaigns. Each campaign was three days long and also included a conference for discipling young people. We deliberately kept the events small because we did not want to attract too much attention. Even though the events were small, they will produce a big impact. The ministry we are working is sending a pastor to each of these villages to plant a new church so that the new believers can be discipled.
Each of these villages have never heard about Jesus before. Before we came, there were no churches and no Christian believers in these villages. But now there are!
A total of 1,211 decision cards were filled out. Many people were saved and every night people testified they were healed.
CAN YOU HELP US REACH PEOPLE FOR JESUS?
Evangelist Daniel King is on a mission to lead people to Jesus. But he cannot do it without your help. Can you give a financial gift today to help us “plunder hell to populate heaven?” To support King Ministries in our quest for souls, click here!
