During our recent trip to India we had many wonderful experiences. We saw miraculous signs and wonders. We saw people being filled with the Spirit starting to speak new languages. We saw many healings. We saw many people coming to Christ. But the highlight of our trip was what we experienced in a remote village in South India!

At the Easter Conference God spoke to us prophetically that on our next trip to India

he wanted to take us to new places and new people. Therefore we planned one week at the end of our visit to be open, with no appointment, enabling us to go to a new place to be with new people! When I got the prophecy I had several names in my mind of new people that had contacted us and wanted us to come to visit them. During our time in IndiaI was able to rule them out, one by one, until I was left with one new name: Venkateswara Rao. We had already invited him to come to meet us at Warangalwhere we were having time with Abraham. When we met Ventateswara Rao we immediately felt this was the new person we had to visit.

Our new friend has started an organisation called "Faith Action for Community Transformation" – Fact India. He is doing a tremendous humanitarian work to help the downtrodden village people to help themselves to generate income. These poor village people are exploited by the high cast people lending them money demanding 15-20% interest pr. month!

The way the work is organised was very impressive. Everything was ordered in a systematic way. We were first taken to the office to see the administration and get an insight in how they were working to help the poor. Then we were taken to different villages to see some of the projects they were involved with!

First we were taken to a village at a garbage dump. The people were living in simple straw huts. In this place several self-help groups had been started. Proudly the women showed us their saving books, their records and minutes. These people had not only received some humanitarian help, they had won a new dignity and found a new life! In this village FACT had been able to help starting a school. Two basic buildings with half walls and straw roofs had been erected. About 50-60 children were being trained in the school. They had no chairs or tables, but happily they received teaching sitting on the floor. This simple school meant they had a brighter future in front of them!

In the evening we were taken to a community that had helped a lot of prostitutes to quit their prostitution and have a much better life. It was moving to see how content and happy they were because of the help they had received! They had experienced the life-changing saving power of Jesus Christ!

The next day were taken by car one and an half hours to a remote village by the

Krishna

river. 300 families lived in that village. More than half of them had received help from FACT. The entire village had been set free from the grip of the money lenders. When we arrived they proudly showed us their buffalo cows which they had required through the self-help groups. About 140 buffalo cows had be provided through this amazing project in this one village!

We walked on a narrow path through some banana and turmeric fields to reach the big Krishnariver. There an ox-cart was waiting us. They wanted to take us to an island in the river to show us some waste land which they had transformed into fruitful agricultural land. It was quite an experience to sit on the ox-cart as the oxes were wading through the river to cross to the other side. I could not resist the temptation to take of my sandals and dip my feet in the warm water of the Krishna River, hoping that there would be no hungry crocodile or other dangerous creatures in the river!

It was amazing to see how this vast land had been transformed into fruitful cultivated land. There was a lot of work going on. Many people were cutting grass for their buffalo cows, carrying the grass in big bundles on their heads as they crossed the river. Others were growing bananas, turmeric, sugar-canes, maize among other things and many different vegetables. The land had been given by the government to FACT which had developed the land and given it to a co-operative society organised by the villagers.

On our way back to the ox-cart a man came running. He was in state of shock. His arm was shaking and his hand swollen. Somebody had connected a wire to high-voltage electricity and he had been hurt. Straight away we laid our hands on him and prayed for him. Instantly there was a change. The shaking stopped and the swollenness disappeared! God is good!

After our return to the village we met with all the women in the self-help groups and some of the leading men in the village. They asked us to speak to them. I expressed my admiration on their work and told them about Norwaythat used to be one of the poorest nations in Europe, but due to the blessing of God now has one of the highest living standards in the world. I told them of how God used a farmer’s boy, Hans Nielsen Hauge, to transform our country and set it on a track of blessing and prosperity. Then Zephry gave a similar greeting. Then Solveig was asked to speak.

Solveig read from Psalm 23 in the Bible and gave a very powerful testimony of the goodness of God and how he provides for us and help us in all circumstances. She was really overflowing of joy as she was sharing the good new of the Kingdom of God with them. While she was sharing the Spirit of God was working in our middle in a very special way. At the end of her bold testimony the president of the self-help groups asked for prayer on behalf of all the women. Then we had the opportunity to pray a very powerful prayer!

Our friend Ventateswara Rao was totally taken by surprise. He had tears in his eyes. He had been working in this village for more than six years and there were only two believers! They had never shown any interest in his spiritual endeavour before. Now they were collectively asking for prayer! What a miracle! He went back the next day to enquire what had happened, why they had asked for prayer. They only explained that something strange to them happened to them while Solveig was sharing the Word of God with them. The only natural response was to ask for prayer! They also requested us to help them erect a community hall for the self-help groups and for prayer-meetings!

To us this was the highlight of our trip to India this time!