Sundar Singh: What Else Could Go Wrong? (Part Eight)

If you’re new to the Exploring with Jake series, be sure to read the introduction. 

Finally, it was time to find out at Sunday School what happened to the man who was caught telling people about Jesus!

The religious leader ordered that his assistant be beaten very, very badly. When the men were done, they threw him outside on a pile of garbage to die. But that’s not what happened. God made him strong enough to crawl off of the garbage pile and get away. After his body had healed from the beating, he did something no one could have expected. He went back into the town that had tried to kill him. The people were so scared—they knew there had to be a reason that he hadn’t died like he was supposed to, but they didn’t understand who or what could have healed him. So, they decided to stay out of his way. He was allowed to keep traveling and telling people about Jesus.

Sundar was amazed by the story and asked the visitor if he knew how Sundar could meet him. The man announced—it was him! He showed Sundar and Tarnyed Ali that he still had Kartar’s Bible with the verse written inside of it. They talked and prayed together all that night. The next day, Sundar and Tarnyed Ali began walking back to the missionaries’ village where Sundar and Tarnyed Ali had met. When they reached it, Sundar left him with the missionaries and began walking again.

He met another man named Susil, who convinced Sundar that he needed to go to college. Sundar went for a little while, but he didn’t like it. He knew that was not where God was calling him to be. Soon, Sundar was back on the trail that would lead him to Tibet once again. One day, when the people of a village got angry with him for preaching about Jesus, they told him to leave. Sundar asked a woman which way he should go, and the woman told him. Sundar started walking that way, but a few hours later, he realized the woman had lied to him. There were no more villages in the direction she’d told him. There was just the trail he was walking on and a dead end at the edge of a huge, icy river. He could not get across.

Sundar collapsed. He didn’t know what to do. The people of the village behind him didn’t want to listen to him, and there was no way to get across the river. He felt like no one on earth cared if he lived or died. He prayed and cried, and the next time he looked up, he saw a man on the other side of the river. The man was sitting by a warm fire. As Sundar watched, the man stood up and stepped into the icy river. The water was freezing and it was moving so fast, but the man didn’t slow down. He kept walking across the river. The cold water grew higher and higher until it was up to his shoulders. The man stepped out of the river and told Sundar to climb up and sit on his shoulders. He reached out his hand and pulled Sundar up. Then he went back into the river. When they reached the other side, he helped Sundar down. Sundar closed his eyes to pray, and when he opened them again, the man was gone. There was nowhere the man could have gone so quickly. Sundar knew that God had sent him to help and to let Sundar know that he was not alone after all. God never forgot about him, and He always cared about what happened to him.

Sundar traveled further into Tibet, but he found that many people didn’t want to hear about Jesus. Then, in one town, the people did listen. They asked questions and let Sundar answer—until their religious leaders showed up. The leaders told them not to listen to Sundar, and the people started yelling at Sundar. They arrested him and took him to their chief religious officer. He was accused of preaching a different religion. Sundar could not deny it; the reason he had come to Tibet was to tell people about Jesus. The leader sentenced him to die. They took Sundar and threw him into a dirty, filthy, well. Then they left him there.

One day went by and then another. Sundar wanted to give up. God hadn’t sent someone to carry him out of this awful place, like He had back at the river, and he didn’t know why. What if this was the last village he ever got to tell about Jesus?

“Dear God, please help us to trust You always, even when things are terrible and we want to give up. Please help us remember that You always have a plan, even when we cannot see it. You promised in Romans 8:28 that You work good out of every situation, no matter how awful. Even when Jesus died on the cross, You had a plan. You knew He would come back to life and save everyone who trusts Him. Help us trust You today. Thank You. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

You can print today’s missionary story about Sundar Singh here.

If you missed the beginning of our story, read Sundar Singh: A Seed Is Sown. 

Read Sundar Singh Part Nine: A Surprise Rescue.