Receiving the Spirit

Remember the story in the book of Acts when God called Peter to go preach to Cornelius? The Bible says that before Peter and his companions arrived, "Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends" (Acts 10:24 NIV). After Peter preached the Gospel to them, everyone in Cornelius' home received the Holy Spirit. Peter and his Jewish companions were amazed. Peter then said, "'Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.' So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 10:47-48).
As Americans, we often stress individualism. The same is true of the Christian Church in the West. Evangelistic strategies often stress individual choice. But individualism is not a high value in Eastern countries. And, from the story of Cornelius in the book of Acts, we see that conversion isn't always an individual choice. The Holy Spirit can move on one person or an entire group.
We have a friend here in Darjeeling who is in his mid-twenties. He had been attending church and studying his Bible over the past few years, but in the past year he took a job working at a large retail store about three hours down the mountain. He had come to learn about the Sabbath, but his job doesn't allow him time off on Saturdays. So, he stopped attending church, and his spiritual life has suffered from his lack of Christian fellowship.
A few weeks ago, he approached our teammate, Jonathan Lovitt, and said that he had been offered a job in the Middle Eastern city of Dubai where he would make about 5 times what he makes now. But he said that he wasn't happy. Surprisingly, he said that he would rather not take the job in Dubai, and that he wanted to quit his job in the retail store. He said he wanted to move back to Darjeeling and work for the Lord to reach Darjeeling with the Gospel. Our teammates, Jonathan and Karen, were blown away by his change of heart. When he left Darjeeling, they thought he would probably never come back. In addition to stating his desire to work for God, he said that he and his family, including his mother and siblings, should all be baptized and join the Seventh-day Adventist Church. We can see the Holy Spirit moving like in the story of Cornelius.
This young man, who speaks Nepali and English, will be working as a translation assistant in helping our team develop culturally sensitive Bible lessons. Unfortunately, the devil is really upset about this young man's decision to dedicate his life to serving God. Just a few days after he told us that he wanted to serve the Lord in Darjeeling, both his mother and older brother lost their jobs. Please pray for him and his family.

Jared & Tonya Wright