A Sikh women was miraculously healed from agonising arthritis when she watched the Jesus film in her village.
Soni (name has been changed), a mum of four, was sometimes unable to move any part of her body. Despite visiting many hospitals and trying a range of different treatments, she could find no relief. "My pain was increasing day by day," she says. "I used to get much pain and swelling in both my hands and body." She felt hopeless, and no-one seemed able to help her.
That is, until she went to a screening of the Jesus film. Having never had any contact with Christianity or the Bible, Soni was intrigued when she heard about the screening in her village, which is near Amritsar in the Punjab region of India – the only Sikh-majority region of the country. "I had never seen or heard anything about Jesus in my life," she says. "So I was very curious to know what this was about."
She and her family went to watch, and they were not alone. A crowd gathered to watch the film, which was shown by local church planters working with UK Christian charity BMS World Mission. As she watched the film, Soni was moved by what she saw. Jesus was healing the sick and the demon-possessed. "I was truly blessed to see how Jesus healed many," she says. "I was also blessed to hear the teachings of Jesus."
More moving to Soni was the fact that the film didn't only effect her emotionally. While watching, God completely healed her of her arthritis. "I felt something happen in my body as the movie was going on," she says. "At the end of the movie, suddenly I realised that my pain had gone."
When the film ended, Soni asked for prayer from the church planters and told them how Jesus had healed her. She gave her life to Christ immediately and has been a faithful follower ever since.
Soni is one of almost 3,500 people who have become Christ-followers through watching the Jesus film in India's Punjab and West Bengal regions, thanks to a project supported by BMS. In total, at least 10,000 people have watched the film, many of them hearing the gospel for the very first time. God is on the move.
"Jesus released me from my arthritis pain," says Soni. "From that day, I surrendered my life to him."
Please pray for Soni and for the thousands of new believers living as minorities in their Sikh and Muslim communities.
