“Lord, first let me go and bury my mother”
Bishu is a first generation Christian from a small tribe and his family and his tribe were practicing the major religion. It was through his Physical Education teacher at school that he was first introduced to Gospel message and came to it. His young faith was confirmed to him through a dream he had of Jesus sitting under a banyan tree talking with him.
Bishu is one of four sons. In the tribe that he is from his parents are considered to be particularly blessed because when his mother dies her four sons will be able to carry her coffin on their shoulders. Bishu anticipated that if he told his Mum that he had become a believer this privilege would be denied him; he would not be able to participate in the ceremony, and he would be replaced by a son-in-law. This would be very hurtful to his mother and so rather than disappointing her and being excluded from such an occasion he decided to wait until his mother died before he became an open follower.
However, with the passage of time he began to question why he was waiting for his mother to die when he could be showing her the way to eternal life. He came to realise that he should not be waiting for his mother’s life to come to an end, but that he had a God given responsibility to explain to her how she could be saved. He knew he should tell her about Jesus before it was too late.
Bishu decided to become less secretive about his faith in Jesus. He decided to be baptised and take on his new identity as a Christian. One Sunday he was baptised by the pastor of the local church in a private ceremony without his family’s knowledge. That evening when they came together to eat, Bishu’s father noticed that Bishu quietly prayed before he ate his food. His father asked him immediately if he had become a Christian to which Bishu, feeling a little fearful of his father’s response, replied, ‘Yes’. His father continued, ‘I want to talk with you after we have eaten our meal tonight.’
To Bishu’s surprise and amazement, rather than his father being angry about Bishu’s decision to become a Christian he was really interested to know more. His father was the priest in the village, but it was evident that his heart and the hearts of his family had been prepared in advance to receive Jesus. The following Sunday Bishu’s mother and father were baptised and within a year his whole family came to know Jesus!
This story was originally published by Go International.