According to AICC leaders, Dalits are coming to Christ throughout the villages of Punjab, a northern state. Truckloads of people are turning up at public meetings, where preachers are seeing miracles taking place.
"The pastors I sent tell me that people asked them to pray, and they prayed and miracles happened - mostly healings," D'Souza said. "It's amazing. Even patients given up by doctors get healed."
Such meetings go on until 11 o'clock at night. Sikh and Hindu villagers also attend and arrive in big numbers at public meeting grounds in regions such as Firozpur, close to Pakistan. Villagers attend prayer services that last up to four hours. Many are baptized.
When the Punjab state legislature took a stance against the issue of Christian conversions recently, a New Delhi TV team went to the northern villages to interview residents. Many reported that praying to Jesus fulfilled their needs. "My mother was sick," one said. "Jesus did something and she was healed. Now I'm a believer."
Dalits are yearning for a social change that will do away with their status as society's evil refuse.
"The Great Commission is about real transformation, not about numbers," D'Souza said. "Jesus never said, 'Go and make more numbers of disciples.' There are mission groups that say, 'Oh, we've got a hundred-thousand converted.' But have their social, economic and spiritual lives been transformed?"
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