From a Team Expansion worker
The women’s Bible study gathered around well-worn Bible opened to Acts, their discussion centered on chapter 9 and the scattering of early believers after Stephen’s death.
“Notice how persecution drove the Christians eastward,” their teacher observed, tracing an imaginary map across the table. “Some traveled extraordinary distances. Church tradition tells us the apostle Thomas reached as far as India itself.”
Lou* straightened in her chair, her eyes brightening with recognition. “That was actually the first penetration of the Gospel into what we now call the 10/40 Window.”
The woman beside her—a quiet grandmother named Mary—suddenly pressed her napkin to her eyes. Her shoulders began to shake. “Mary?” Lou touched her arm gently. “What’s wrong?”
Mary’s voice came out broken, wonder and tears mingling together. “My neighbor… she’s from India. She only comes to America every few months to visit her grandchildren.” She paused, struggling to compose herself. “We’ve become such good friends. We take morning walks together, we talk about everything—our families, our lives, our faith.”
Understanding dawned across the circle of faces. “For years,” Mary continued, “I’ve prayed to be a missionary to the unreached peoples in India, in the 10/40 Window. I thought God had said no because I’m too old, because I never had the money to go.”
She looked up, her face radiant despite the tears. “But He didn’t say no. He brought India to my doorstep. He answered my prayer by making me a missionary right here—to a woman from the very place I’d been praying about.”
The room fell silent except for the rustle of turning pages as someone found the passage in Acts 1, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Sometimes the ends of the earth are just next door.
*Names changed
