I am sitting in a church in Bangalore.  This church is the ‘home base’ for the children’s homes and local churches we have been visiting in our travels.  The church is on the second floor of a building in a downtown area, a midsized open space with imitation wood floors and a low stage built at one end.  A wooden cross graces the wall behind the stage.  Rays of light are painted on the wall emanating from the cross, with the names of God – “Alpha and Omega, Jehovah, Savior, etc” written across the beams.
 
We are here so the worship team can practice for the youth worship service scheduled for tomorrow night.  One of our team is an amazing worship leader with many years of experience – he is interacting with the Indian team….”Jesus Christ, I think upon the sacrifice, you became nothing, poured out to death…once again I look upon the cross where you died…”  Like musicians practicing anywhere, they start and stop, repeating portions needing work.  The rest of the team watches, scattered through the room, on plastic chairs or the floor.
 
It is an opportunity for me to write.  There is so much write about, there is hardly time.  It is like John said:  “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did.  Were every one of them written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”  John 21:5.  Isn’t that the truth?  It is not only the signs and wonders that Jesus performed when He walked the earth, but also all those performed in ordinary lives of believers through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Day by day, believer by believer, providing salvation, strength, restoration, healing.
 
The Lord brought this home to me in a particularly powerful way in our first city, located in northwest India.   We had come to open a new children’s home.  The environment was not friendly to Christians—in fact, there was only a small house church of 4 families in a city of 500,000+.   Persecution is real and state sanctioned.  The authorities, including the manager of the place we stayed, were suspicious of us, and we had to be careful how we spoke and who was listening.  We could not show our bibles in public, even to the staff.
 
I was sitting alone on the front porch of the place were staying, praying and preparing for a devotion time I had been asked to lead.  I pondered the purpose of the trip.  I had of course thought many things about it, but I wanted to focus in, to simplify. I was reading in Ephesians Chapter 3:  “to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.”  Yes Lord, went my thoughts, but what does this mean for us, today, here in this city?  What does it mean for me personally, right now?
 
The place where we were staying was an estate, with beautiful grounds.  Servants were out and about.  An old woman swept the porch.  Gardeners were beginning their duties.  An occasional delivery driver came down the gravel road leading to the estate and swung around the side of the house opposite me.  The air was cool- the workers were bundled up against the cold.  As I contemplated this scene, I was aware that every person I saw did not know Christ.  There were only 4 saved families in the city, and absent some remarkable coincidence, these people had probably not heard the gospel.  
 
A middle aged man came up the gravel road on a motorcycle.  He wore a worn brown coat and a stocking cap.  Hunched against the cold, the expression on his unshaven face was fixed.  My impression was that he was arriving for work at the estate.   
 
I thought about his world.  He is probably a father, a husband.  He has children who love him and depend upon him.  Just a single life—a wonderful, beautiful ordinary life happening out here miles and miles and miles from anything that is familiar to me.  The Lord spoke my heart – “he is what the gospel is about.”  Not big churches, or great works, or transcendent worship, or theology.  He is the unborn church.  He is the reason Jesus died. 
 
What difference would it make if he heard and believed the gospel?  In place of fear and uncertainty, hope and confidence.  In place of spiritual poverty, abundance.  Strength to face the struggles of his environment, joy from the Lord.  “A beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning.” (Isaiah 61:3).  Just as we return to the Lord again and again for renewal of our strength, so could he.  Just as we pray and seek for our families, so could he.  Just as we find strength in fellowship with other believers, so could he. 
 
Like a pebble in a pond, the spiritual ripples would spread to his family and community in a widening circle.  He is the unborn church.  Jesus Christ came to change his ordinary life, and millions of ordinary lives like his (and ours), into something extraordinary, a reflection of the glory of God.  “For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all nations.” Isaiah 61:11.  Together, we are the body of Christ, a reflection of Gods “manifold wisdom.”  Ephesians 3:10.
 
I prayed for this man, and his family.  We were not in a position to share the gospel with him directly.  My prayer was that the small church in this city would shine, spreading the light of the gospel.  The Lord is at work here, and has plans for the city.  Lord, let your kingdom come.
 
The Lord used this time to show me the importance He places on individual lives, the living, growing nature of the Church, and the commission of the Church to “preach good news to the poor.”