Mentally ill, he wandered aimlessly in the jungle until Jesus healed his mind

Mentally ill, he wandered aimlessly in the jungle until Jesus healed his mind

By Mark Ellis. Special to ASSIST News Service

INDIA (ANS - March 24, 2016) -- In one of India’s most remote areas, among one of its most primitive tribes, Pratik* wandered aimlessly among the predations of the jungle and the tangled muddle of his own mental illness, seemingly lost for weeks at a time.

He periodically came back to his senses and returned to his wife at their home in an area of Chhattisgarh, one of India’s poorest and most illiterate states, according to a report by Christian Aid Mission (http://www.christianaid.org).

For six years he fluctuated between sanity and insanity, wandering between his home and the jungle and its perils. His wife feared for his life.

This cycle might have continued indefinitely if a missionary named Siddharth* had not been gripped with a passion: to reach thousands of people groups in India yet to hear the message of salvation in Christ.

Siddharth began his outreach with the Gonds of central India, idol- and nature-worshiping animists who suffer daily from hunger and poverty. With the power of the gospel and the Holy Spirit, he and his team of indigenous missionaries gradually saw Gond villagers’ addiction to alcohol turn into zeal for the Lord, according to Christian Aid Mission.

Then he and his team went to unreached areas among the Sahu, Oravan, Khadia, Kanwar Chamar, and Korwa people, and 50 churches were planted.

One of the new converts among the Korwa was a friend of Pratik. This new believer ran into Pratik early last year during one of Pratik’s periods of sanity – a reminder of God’s sovereignty and providential care.

“He heard about the Lord Jesus Christ through one of his friends, and he wanted to know more about the Lord,” Siddharth told Christian Aid Mission. Amazingly, Pratik walked 31 miles on jungle paths and dirt roads to reach the Korwa church.

Photo captions: 1) Former animists from the Korwa people group worship Christ in Jharkhand state, central India. (Christian Aid Mission) 2) Mark Ellis (left) with Dan Wooding on their “Windows on the World” TV show.

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About the writer: Mark Ellis is senior correspondent for the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net), and also founder ofwww.GodReports.com, a website that shares stories, testimonies and videos from the church around the world. He is also co-host for "Windows on the World" with ANS founder, Dan Wooding, on the Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network (http://hsbn.tv). 

** You may republish this or any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net).