Reflecting Upon Ananda Mela

Four and a half hours went by yesterday with such a whir that I'm having a difficult time putting together some cohesive thoughts and impressions from our outing to the Ananda Mela Hindu Indian festival at the Redmond WA city hall campus.

We started slowly, trying to hand tracts to people as they sat in the little court yard, listening to the music that was being played. We were all but rebuffed by several people who either wouldn't accept a tract or didn't want to have a conversation after accepting a tract.

At this point, the adventure became very encouraging. We spoke to a couple of sisters, who were dressed in beautiful Indian garb. They were very interactive and seemed to listen to everything we said and seemed like they understood what we were talking about. The one gal said she probably wouldn't deserve to go to heaven because she admitted to lying, stealing and breaking several other commandments. But, she said she hoped she could do enough good works to out-weight her sins. I was able to give her an analogy that helped her realize God is just and she could never bribe God with good works, or do enough to pay for her sins. I then had the privilege of sharing the Gospel with her and we left her with a Pocket Gospel of John.

We had so many one-to-one (or one-to-many) conversations and all the people we talked with were very respectful and humble and (seemingly) appreciative to allow us to "preach" to them.

There were a couple of conversations that were much more difficult though. Many Hindus claimed to be respectful of other religious perspectives, and even 'believe' in Jesus, but when I explained that Jesus is the only way to heaven, they came a little unglued. Nothing aggressive, but one lady got up and walked away, she got so upset.

We were very encouraged to meet a Christian Indian who actually had a booth at this festival. We went and visited his booth late in the afternoon, and he had a very scriptural exhibit. Interestingly though, he was instructed not to have any Bibles or Gospel tracts displayed. So, he had them hidden in a box and if anyone was interested, he would give them a Bible or a tract.

We also spent quite a bit of time in the 'Vedic' center area, speaking with their 'priests'. Here again, we were met with resistance, even attacks against the deity of Christ and the veracity of our Bible.

All-in-all, it was such a time of worship to God and being filled with His Spirit as we shared with person after person about the 'Gospel' message and explaining the need for God and his solution to our sin problem. We ended up giving away about four hundred and fifty tracts and a dozen Gospels of John. And we had some great one-to-one conversations with at least four dozen people.

The Indian people and culture is really in many ways very loving and kind and gentle and joyful. May God reach many of them with the Good News of how to receive salvation and have eternal life.

God bless...