An Inspiring Excerpt from "My Billion Bible Dream"

Here is an excerpt from a book I'm reading, "My Billion Bible Dream," by Rochunga Pudaite. The author has sent millions of bibles all over the world and has helped translate the bible into his people's native language in India. The following quote comes from a conversation he and a man were having about India and poverty. The man confronted him that he should be sending food instead of bibles. Pudiate responds by telling this story:

"Watkin Roberts was a chemist in Wales when a great spiritual revival swept his area. He read Lord Roberts's account of the pursuit of the Hmar headhunters and felt God wanted him to take the Bible to the Hmars. But when he arrived on our borders, the British agent said to enter our territory was too dangerous. He found some Lushais from a trip adjoining the Hmars and set to work to translate the Bible in the Lushai language.

One day, missionary Roberts received a gift of five pounts, worth about twenty-five dollars in American currency, from a Christian woman in Hemstead, England. He used this money to print a few hundred copies of the Gospel of John in Lushai. Then he sent Gospels by a British runner to the chief of each village in the tribal area.

The chief in my father's village of Senvon received one of the Gospels. A Lushai tribesman happened to be there and read the book to him. But the Lushai could not satisfactorily explain what it meant to be born again. He suggested that the chief invite the translator, Roberts, to the village.

When Roberts asked the British agent for permission, he was told not to go. 'When I go in there, I take along a hundred soldiers for protection,' the agent said. 'I can't spare a single soldier for you!' When Roberts showed the invitation to the British official, the agent retorted, 'That's an invitation to have your head lopped off. They'll make a celebration out of you.' But Roberts found an interpreter and went...

...The chief received him graciously. But Roberts couldn't seem to help the chief understand the gospel either. After five days he was about ready to leave when his interpreter, who had been listening, took him aside and told him a story. 'When two tribes are at war,' the interpreter said, 'the side that wishes to make peace goes to a mountaintop at sunrise and beats a big war drum three times. If the other side replies before sundown by beating their war drum, that means, 'Come to the boundary and let's talk it over.' The chief who wants to make peace kills an animal and lets the blood of the animal flow along the boundary line. Then he and his enemy place their hands on the slain animal while their spokesmen negotiate. When they reach an understanding, the chiefs embrace and share in a peace dinner. I believe that is the way you can explain how God makes peace with man,' the interpreter told Watkin Roberts.

That evening missionary Roberts explained to the Hmar chief that God so loved the world that He sent His Son to die on the cross - the 'boundary' of sin between God and man - to make peace with man. The Bible was a record of God's treaty with man and His invitaiton for man to come to the boundary and accept God's sacrifice for peace.

The chief and four other Hmars solemnly announced they wished to make peace with the great God of the Bible. Once they had done so, Roberts returned to the British outpost."

After the missionary left, the Hmars that received salvation that night became preachers. They preached in other villages, and many people were saved. One of the sons of those first preachers went on to translate the entire bible into their language. The population of the Hmar tribe in the late 70's was up to 125,000, with at least 95% of them being Christians. They had an 85% literacy rate when the book was written, much higher than India's national rate, and the per family income was nearly twice as high as the rest of India. Pudiate, the author, felt the burden to give the entire world a bible because of what the bible did for their village. It wasn't charitable donations or government; God and His Word changed over 100,000 people because of one missionary, Watkin Roberts, and the distribution of bibles. At the time Watkin Roberts went to the headhunting villages of the Hmar tribe, he was 22.