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Have you ever heard of a place called Rajasthan? I hadn’t either until Sunday School this morning. Rajasthan is one of the states that make up India. It is on the northwestern side of the country and shares part of its borders with Pakistan. Part of Rajasthan is desert, which means there is a lot of sand in Rajasthan!

Rajasthan isn’t all desert, though. Most of the people there farm. Even though the ground has a lot of sand in the soil, it’s not all a big desert like you think of in the Sahara or someplace like that.

One thing that people in Rajasthan need are camels! Some of the farmers need camels to plow their land so they can plant things like wheat, barley, sugarcane, and corn.

There is something they need even more—God and His Word. They need people to pray for them and tell them about Jesus. Very few of them have ever heard about Jesus and His love.

One of the groups of people who live in Rajasthan are called the Meena. Most of the Meena don’t live close together; they live scattered among the hills. It’s a long walk between Meena houses. That makes it hard for missionaries to reach them and tell them about Jesus. It’s so far to travel on foot, and trucks sink in the sand, so they don’t work very well to get from one place to another. But, do you know what the missionaries need to move around from house to house?

You guessed it—camels! They are specially made for traveling long distances in the heat across the sand. So not only do camels help feed the people physically, God can use camels to help missionaries feed the people spiritually. After all, no matter how much food we eat at one meal, we always have to go back and eat more eventually if we want to stay alive! But Jesus and His Word feeds our hearts, and He gives us the way to stay alive forever with Him.

“Dear God, please help the people of Rajasthan, and please help the Meena people. Please send them people who will tell them about You and how much You love them. Please send them Your Word in a way that they can understand, so they can have the food that gives their hearts life that lasts forever. And please even send them the camels they need! Thank You for creating such special animals that can work hard in deserts, no matter how much sand they have to walk through! In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.”

If you’d like a printable version of today’s story, click here.

If you’d like to help send a camel to the people of Rajasthan, click here.

Read more of the Modern Witnesses series.

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