John Ensor: Well, welcome everyone. We wanted to take a few minutes today to kind of wrap up, uh, some of our recent travels to. India and, uh, and really give you a peek as to what God is starting to stir in this great country. Uh, for me, India is a land of tremendous mystery, uh, beauty and enormous, I would say, knee buckling challenges.

Historically, it’s been one of the places that God has stirred people, uh, to go there as missionaries, people like William Carey Amy Carmichael are, are famous throughout the world for the introductory pioneering work that they did in India. Um, but today it’s a land of, uh, 1. 5 billion people. Uh, I think it recently, um, uh, became the most populous country in the world.

That’s right. And, uh, Mark has been the one that has been, uh, uh, leading our, our efforts in India. Mark, it’s good to see

Mark Nicholson: you again today. Good to see you. Good to see you. Yes. This was my eighth trip to India in the last few years, um, spanning COVID time. So, and it was great to be back there. You’re, you’re so right, John, when you, I, I really want to get you over to India at some point, but it is, it is an amazing place because it is, Everywhere you go in India, it is bustling with activity and movement, uh, sites and sounds and smells.

And it’s just almost overwhelming to the senses. Um, most places in India, but yeah, but in many ways it’s a beautiful thing. It’s, it’s, it’s these exotic Hindu temples and monkeys and animals, uh, it’s, it’s jungles. It’s, it’s, uh, exotic foods that just are.

John Ensor: Overcrowded cities and that’s right. Colorful dresses.

And you know, it’s, in many ways, it’s more mysterious to me than a place like China. Yep. Is just because of the cultural outlook of the place. Yep. And I know that there’s just overwhelming challenges between, uh, uh, Hinduism and Islam. Sure. And some of the fractions there and some of the attacks against many of the Christians, especially in the north.

And, uh, I know that, uh, You’re going to India because it’s our mission to go to places of greatest need in terms of abortion, infanticide, and gendercide, wherever those are most concentrated, that’s kind of our top priority, and that’s what’s brought you to India.

Mark Nicholson: Yeah, the first thing that took us to India, I think, was the idea that probably more gendercide occurs in India than any other country.

Uh, that of course in India and most places results in baby girls being aborted or put to death in favor of baby boys culturally. Uh, but the abortion issue and even the infanticide issues are also, uh, tremendous mountains to be tackled in India.

John Ensor: Yeah. Yeah. I know you told us that story once about the miracle baby.

Yeah. Yeah. Really illustrates some of the enormous. spiritual and rational challenges that are, that we face in India. Tell us about that.

Mark Nicholson: Yeah, I think the, I love a couple of things about the story, but one of them is that it, in many ways, it encapsulates in one story, uh, part of the, the real heart and the core of what Passion Life exists.

Um, to see God do and it’s, it’s not just about babies, but it’s about the gospel. So this story comes from the Punjab area, the Sikh religion area of the Northwest India. Uh, was teaching a group, a small group of pastors there a few years ago, and one of those pastors took that four questions training that I took him through about two or three weeks later.

He just preached it in his small church of maybe 12 or 13 people. He preached this pro life theology in a succinct way. And there was a Christian woman in his congregation who was listening and she started thinking about her non Christian neighbor who she had recently found out was pregnant and going to have a baby.

So the Lord stirred her to go next door after the service and speak to her neighbor, who was of course a Sikh and a non Christian. And the woman said, no, I have a, an abortion appointment scheduled for, for tomorrow morning at 9am. Hmm. The Christian woman said, Oh, I mean, is this something that you want?

And the non Christian said, no, no, I would love to have this baby, but we have learned by ultrasound that the baby is a girl. My family won’t allow me to have a baby girl. I must have a baby boy first. It’s my duty and responsibility. And so we’re going to, we’re going to abort this baby. And the Christian woman was so distressed and, and, and talked with her and showed her compassion and support.

Um, because she could tell that this lady would be happy to have a baby girl. Uh, it was just that her husband and her father wouldn’t allow her to in the end. I love this in the end of their conversation. She said, You don’t know my God, but my God knows you and my God knows your baby. And if you will trust me, I will put my trust in my God.

And you will see God move to help you, to bless you, to protect your baby, to provide for you everything that you need. So the woman skipped. the abortion appointment the next morning, but didn’t tell her family. And all week she was worried that people would find out. And eventually she went to a second doctor to get an ultrasound to check up on the health of baby.

Long story short, the baby that the second doctor found by ultrasound was a boy. Now there was question at first as to whether or not God had miraculously changed the gender of this child. Female baby into a boy to protect its life. But what we know from India is so often Doctors who perform abortions will lie to a woman about the gender of the baby in order to sell that abortion to her.

In other words, this was probably a baby boy and the doctor said it’s a baby girl knowing that she would pay him to abort the baby, go home, get pregnant and come right back to him and he would be able to make more money. So when this woman told her extended family, the story. Her father stood up in the assembly of the extended family and said, the Christian God has provided a miracle to save the life of our precious baby boy.

And the entire extended family, whatever that means, this was related to me by the pastor, whether that be three people or, or 10 people, I don’t know. The entire extended family made a profession of faith that day because of what they had seen God do to intervene. on behalf of the baby boy that they all wanted to see born.

So,

John Ensor: and maybe in their mind you’re saying that in, in some ways they’re, they’re seeing that the miracle rescue was somehow changing the baby’s gender in utero, but the real, miracle is that the neighbor went and talked to her. That’s right. In the name of Jesus and appealed to her and slowed things down and then gave God a chance to work things out in a life

Mark Nicholson: saving way.

Of course, the miracle that God changed her heart. We can’t change hearts. This Christian woman who spoke to her neighbor really can’t change hearts. All she can do is by speaking up and then God used that obedience. By changing this woman’s heart and, and that led to life change for an entire group of her family members.

It’s a beautiful, beautiful illustration.

John Ensor: Well, I do think that that represents sort of the moral and spiritual darkness. The, the, uh, as well as the, the power that we have in, in Christ to go out and make a life saving difference to people. Our vision around the world is really to, to summon the Christians to the biblical vision of being an army of good Samaritans and providing a life saving help and do it in a life changing way, uh, rescuing the innocent, uh, in this way.

And you guys are just now really diving into India as the great, great, big challenge of passion life going forward. And I know, uh, That you’ve been building a very strong partnership with Pastor Amit. Paul, tell us about Amit and what’s about to happen here.

Mark Nicholson: Amit, Amit is a pastor, uh, who lives in Calcutta and he had the, the, the vision or the burden of pro life ministry had been laid on his heart just recently, right before I met him.

I was introduced to him through another missionary who, uh, was aware of his burden. So I went over there in 2018, November of 2018 for the first time. And again, we, we’ve made, I’ve made eight trips and I’ve always worked with Amit. But for the most part, I’ve been training Amit to do the Passion Life theological training and to train other people to do that.

And Amit has been doing it primarily in the Northern part of India, which is much more non Christian or un evangelized. Uh, as compared to Southern India where most of the Christian activity in the last hundred years has taken place in, in India. So Amit has been working in Calcutta and North Bengal primarily, but this trip was a little bit of a branch out for that.

John Ensor: Well, Mark, when you go to hard places and you do hard things with people, it’s exciting. We want to see it. Uh, I’m eager to meet Amit and introduce Amit to our support community.

Mark Nicholson: There he is. Great. Amit, thanks so much for joining us today. Um, it’s great to see you. Um, how you doing?

Amit Paul: Yeah, I am. I’m okay. I’m by the grace of God, and I’m really thrilled to, uh, see what God is doing in our country in the recent days.

Mark Nicholson: Yeah, yeah. Well, so we spent maybe eight days together in India. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Traveling all over, and we had this wedding, and then we did all this heavy travel. Maybe. You could share with our friends who are watching the video today, uh, what you thought some of the highlights of our time together were, or what you thought it was special that God was doing as we, as we traveled together.

Uh,

Amit Paul: I think, you know, two, two main areas I should, uh, say, uh, this time when you came and both of us, we traveled together in different parts of our country. Uh, the number one thing is that, uh, we were prioritizing our, our, you know, vision, not only for West Bengal, but for the entire different parts of India.

So that is one area. And, uh, second area, we, we were seeking to raise up more leaders or joining with more leaders so that, uh, the multiplication work may go rapidly. And, uh, we believe that in the days to come. We’ll take the baton, you know, in their own hand and they will, you know, really do good at the same time.

We went to Bangalore. We got a huge response from the student groups from the women’s leaders group pro life pastors. They came together even filmmakers. So they were there and they got the vision. And they’re really, uh, uh, taking some initiatives. So this is, uh, one area where we got, you know, a good success, not only the pastors, but also the students group.

So second generation is also got interested, uh, in, in their own circumstances. That’s

Mark Nicholson: right. And part of the work that we were doing there in Bangalore. Was in a way we were piggybacking on previous work that had been done with, uh, another pro life group that we know and work with called pro life global.

They had been there stirring up student groups, and now we were there kind of reinforcing, if you will. So that was, that was a bit of a highlight. We went to, um, Coimbatore and we met with, with leaders who have. been in the pro life movement in, in India, kind of working mainly by themselves, trying to work with other people, but they’ve really been long term workers and, and visionaries for a long time.

We were in Mumbai where we connected primarily with the Catholic group of pro life workers there. So really we worked with the, everywhere we went, we worked with a, a kind of a different group of people. Uh, we were in a Bible college in Dehradun, um, speaking with leaders there. So Some real highlights.

What do you think, Amit, going forward, do you think will be the, the fruit of our traveling together? Um, do you think it will be, just the connections that we made or, or encouraging people from different parts of the country to, to look together and work together. What do you think the fruit will be of our time together?

Yeah, Mark, it

Amit Paul: is, it is really, uh, some, uh, uh, you know, positive thing, uh, because it is not only the connections. Yes, we, we got connected with many leaders, uh, around the world. Some of them I knew earlier, some of them I also, uh, you know, made for the first time. Some of them, I knew them over phone, I didn’t see them, but now we see face to face and we exchanged our, you know, vision.

So, this is not only, uh, to connect with them, it is just not we met them, but I have full faith because they continually keeping in touch. Uh, like the Quimbattu man, he was traveling to West Bengal for some other reason. Uh, he was speaking in a pastor’s conference, not on pro life issues. But while returning, he was just connecting with me, Amit, how you are going, you know.

Uh, so again, you know, they are keeping in touch. And then the Delhi group, uh, we met with, you know, only a few key leaders, uh, and, uh, One of them, he got connected with the Bihar group, Patna, where one of his cousin brother is a pastor. So he called me, uh, uh, over WhatsApp and said, Pastor, I am really amazed by hearing, uh, the things that the vision that you got.

So I please, you know, enroll me in your vision. I want to, you know, eradicate abortion from Bihar. So that way we are seeing the people that got interested. They really, some of them, they really catch up with the vision. And tomorrow or day after, we are going to see a very great harvest. We are going to harvest in India, not India especially.

Mark Nicholson: To the, to the glory of God. Yeah. Yeah. To the glory of God. That’s a great faith vision. Well, Amit, we’re so thankful that you were able to join us here for a few minutes and, um, And give your thoughts on our time together. Thanks for joining us. I know it’s getting late at night there.

Amit Paul: Yeah, my greetings to all the entire families

John Ensor: there.

Well, Mark, it’s exciting to meet Amit and to get a sense of who he is and his passion and his commitment. And I can understand why you guys enjoy working together side by side from city to city to city to city to city. I know you got sick on this last trip, but I know there are moments where it isn’t all mystery and wonder and beauty.

It’s just crushing determination. Uh, and I know you had an example that, uh, I think it’d be good for our people to know that, that this kind of work has a lot of those really hard moments.

Mark Nicholson: You never know exactly what God is going to do or what’s going to happen. And sometimes it’s wonderful and sometimes it’s exhausting.

But as you mentioned, John, we were doing a seven cities in seven days tour where we would fly in the morning, teach all afternoon and into the evening, uh, crash in a hotel room near the airport and then fly the next morning to another city. But one night when we kind of got in a little bit early, and I think we were in Mumbai.

Amit came to my room right as I was getting ready for bed, 7. 30, 8 o’clock at night. And he said, I have a family that I know in Mumbai that I’ve connected with. Their nine year old daughter has cancer and we have been supporting them and praying for them. They’re not believers. And I’m going to go out and pray for this girl tonight.

Would you like to come? John, everything in me wanted to say no, because I was starting to get a little bit sick at that point. I was tired from our travels. But there was something about Ahmet’s excitement about going to pray with this family that just made me think this is really important. And so I summoned my strength, not with necessarily the best inward attitude, but I went and we took off in a little tuk tuk, a little rented vehicle.

And we drove across the city. It was about an hour, a little more than an hour each way. And we wound down a narrow corridor and climbed up almost like a fire escape through a hatch. And we were walking from the basement of the apartment to an apartment that was on the third floor and there were, this apartment was one room.

It was about the size of my home office. And that one room was their kitchen and their bedroom and their living room for the seven people who lived there, including this nine year old girl who had a cancer diagnosis. And we sat there and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to understand a word that was being spoken in Hindi.

This was a poor family. Without much education, no English. They fed me as, as if I was the most honored guest I had ever had in their home. And I sat there with this nine year old girl in my lap, though I couldn’t communicate with her. And I just listened to these people interact. Um, you can see in the video, there’s even a, a mattress that folds down off of the wall onto the floor.

So the seven people in this, in this family can, can all sleep together on the floor of their one room apartment. Just a touching, beautiful time of seeing the culture and seeing the people and connecting. Um, for some reason it was important for them to have me there, I guess, just because I was a foreign guest.

And in the end, I was very, very thankful that I went, but we got home at about one or two in the morning, exhausted, um, but feeling like we had done the right thing. This is, this is missions. Sometimes it’s gritty. You know this, John, you’ve experienced it before in, in various places. Um, I don’t necessarily know what to say about that story and the importance of it other than to say I want our, our, our people to understand that missions is a shifting thing.

And, and we never know exactly what to expect when we go out, but we do sense that God is working. Um, building relationships with these people is so important and just excited about what God is doing all over India as we meet people from various walks of life.

John Ensor: Yeah, there’s no doubt that, uh, it’s hard to, to really get a sense of what we’re doing if you don’t share some of these hard moments in which all of your strength and all of your energy has already been spent.

And yet you still have to go one more step and one more, one more, uh, one more effort is required to fulfill God’s will in that setting. So, yeah. Thanks for, uh, answering that call. And now what’s before us is, is coming up with a larger plan, uh, for India in the next several years. And, uh, I just want to, uh, show everybody again, that part of that plan includes, uh, Making and distributing, uh, 000 of what we call the Littlest Missionary or the Passion Life Tiny Baby.

Uh, these cost about a dollar a piece. They’re 3D printed, scientifically accurate, wondrous to behold. We call it the Littlest Missionary because everybody who receives one of these wants to show it to somebody else. And I know that you have some plans to go out and print up, uh, 20 or 30, 000 of these almost immediately.

Mark Nicholson: That’s right. You can, uh, you can make these, you can make these models in Columbia, South America, or you can make them in China and ship them into places like India, but you get caught sometimes at the border with customs tariffs. And so another kind of breakthrough for us on this particular trip to India was we found a manufacturer who is able to go ahead right away.

Start reproducing these models in high quality. So we were able to give him everything that he needs to get started, and we’re hoping to be able to, uh, get 10, 20,000, 30,000 of these models made up in the next several months in India for use, specifically in India. Um, so we need to tackle that challenge.

John Ensor: So if you, uh, are watching this and you want to be a part of this big, uh, challenge in India to bring the gospel of life to one of the neediest places in the world, this is a good entry point. You know, you can give 10 and pay for 10 of these. You can pay 100 a month and be underwriting the cost of 100 of these every month.

But, uh, We need to raise the money to make these in India and start getting them distributed there as we go out and teach our four questions. There’s another way that you can really respond to our questions. Uh, challenge in India. I also recently wrote up this little booklet, uh, called the moral crisis of abortion and world missions.

What’s the connection? And you could go to our homepage at passionlife. org and download this. And I really invite you to do that. Read it over and then begin to share it with a couple of people, maybe at your church, church leaders. There’s a lot of people who are interested in places like India from a missionary perspective, but are closed minded to seeing, uh, the moral crisis of abortion as an entry point.

Uh, for Christian, uh, evangelization. And then, of course, there’s a lot of people who are pro life who never think outside the border of the United States. So we’re trying to bring these two groups together to marry one another, to bring the work to the neediest places. And since the U. S. only accounts for 3 percent of all abortion in the world, Uh, on an annual basis.

We really want to grow our community and start to target the neediest places like India. So that’s two action points right there that, uh, that you can jump in on as well as begin to pray specifically for Amit. And for Marcus, he leads the charge there in India. Mark, any wrap up

Mark Nicholson: thoughts? Yeah. Uh, final thoughts.

I, I would just say that missions is a, um, is we’re not just trying to teach people. We’re, we’re trying to start movements and I, and see God work in lots of people coming together, working together for his kingdom and, and, and reproduce that. So I’m excited, very excited about what God is doing in India.

And the fact that this trip connected us With so many new places and, and we were kind of throwing a stone in the pond with new people in new areas. Um, it’s really, really exciting and ask people to pray with us for India that we’d be able to see and trust God to start a movement of good Samaritans who will rescue babies in India.

So that’s my wrap up. I’m, I’m, I’m really thankful that people joined us today. Um, John, it’s good to talk to you and. Yeah, very much appreciate

John Ensor: you Mark for your time. Thanks for going over there. Thanks for all of you who have prayed and sent some of your charity and we got to push a rock up the hill. So let’s do it together and for the glory of Jesus.

Thank

Mark Nicholson: you.