"Today I spoke to a 14 year old girl who told me that she was willing to die for being a Christian"  I wrote these words two days ago right after I spoke with a young Indian girl who I called "Shorty".  This is her story.

Shorty has one sister, she was 16 and her name was "Smily" :].  Together with there mom they live in a grass hut that is about a 10 min bike ride from the redemption center.  I went for a ride one day exploring and "Shorty" saw me as she was walking home from school.  She ran home to her mother who is a pastor of a church they have in their grass hut.  She is a brilliant girl and is able to speak pretty good English.  So her mom had her track me down and come to their home/church.  As I walked up to their house with her, there was a man there who was waiting for me.  He said that in a vision the day before God showed him that a white man was going to come and so he was there waiting.  Talk about crazy...  Over the next two weeks I preached in their 12 foot by 12 foot church/home.  Every Sunday they have about 50 people packed out the door and standing in the dirt road! 

They also began to tell me the story of how they had gotten there.  They lived in a very nice house in the city of Guntur, but when the mother "Sister Shanthi" became a Christian her Hindu husband began to beat her till she would bleed. Eventually they ran away and are in hiding far on the outskirts of town.  They have only been there for 2 months and the husband has been trying to track them down.  He has hired "brutes" that have come to "Shorty's" school and tried to follow her home. They heard that the “brutes” were hired to have them killed.  As they are telling me all of this all of a sudden the words come out of this innocent girl’s mouth.  "Even now if the brutes found me in this house I am ready to be killed for my love with Jesus."  Smily and Sister Shanthi then repeated. "We are willing to be killed for Jesus also."  I had never seen courage like this before.  I’ve heard stories of people who were on the edge of death and chose their commitment with Christ over their own life, but had never met or talked to anyone let alone a young girl.  It was one of the most powerful experiences of my life and I will never forget it.

Philippians 1:20-22 "Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

"Jesus Freaks" is a book of stories of martyrs that Dc Talk and "Voice of the Martyrs" published.  In it there is a quote that says "Many have never contemplated whether they would be willing to die for Christ because they have yet to truly begin living for him."

Ok so..... I am in Kolkata right now!  After a relaxingly long 23 hour train ride and an hour and a half in a lost taxi I have found my destination. It was very difficult having to say good bye to the orphans as you might imagine. :[  Tomorrow I go to a Compassion International Project School for the day.  Please pray that I stay safe.  My biggest concern is that my stuff will be stolen.  Other than that I'm very excited for my journey to begin now that I am "Han Solo" as my brother Tim put it :]

Thank you again so much for you support.  In the top picture I added Shorty is on the far right then Smily and their mother.  The man on the left is the man who saw the vision that I was coming!

(Bottom Picture) In the church these four girls randomly showed up and said they heard I was there and wanted me to tell them the gospel. Then they humbled themselves and asked King Jesus to be their savior.

 

In Christ, David Peterka

James 1:1-3 = "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance."