Seven years ago, Emily Clinton was at a breaking point.
A small-town Alabamian at heart, the Southern Baptist worker was having emotional difficulty serving in the predominantly Hindu country amid the spiritual darkness, humidity and big-city life.
Then, at the request of her husband, Jeff, she called upon a friend of hers for prayer via an e-mailed letter. “That was the turning point for me,” Emily Clinton recalled. “Three weeks after sending the letter, I felt the oppression of my spirit begin to leave.”
Appointed as Southern Baptist workers eight years ago, the Alabama couple — 1986 graduates of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas — serves along with their five children among a population in South Asia that is 80 percent Hindu. Jeff Clinton said the hardest aspect of their ministry has been breaking down barriers that stem from Hinduism.
“The people see Christianity as a foreign religion,” he said. “Hinduism is all the people have known for generations, so if someone changes to Christianity, they are basically breaking off from their family.”
At times, Jeff Clinton said he and other Christians are overwhelmed by how to best reach the millions of people who practice Hinduism in this part of the world. In fact, there have been times when the Clintons have felt like transferring elsewhere.
But while the conditions may seem unbearable at times, knowing God has called them to serve in the country gives them comfort.
“This city where we live is dirty but it’s our dirt,” Emily Clinton emphasized. “This is our city and our people. This is the place where God wants us.”
And each time someone accepts Christ as his or her personal Savior, the Clintons are reminded of the reason they are here — as was the case two years ago.
Serving alongside a national named M.J., Jeff Clinton was faced with the challenge of starting a new outreach in a section of a city with 3 million residents and only one small church. After much prayer, M.J. was led to offer free copies of the “Jesus” film to the people there. In the end, more than 500 people viewed the presentation and M.J. was able to follow up with many who watched the video.
“Slowly God began to work there,” Jeff Clinton noted. “M.J. began to make some contacts and eventually get into people’s homes to break down that barrier of sharing Christ with them.”
The outreach led two people to accept Christ as Savior.
God is also working there through WorldCrafts, a nonprofit ministry of Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU).
Local artisans — many times the poverty-stricken or prostitutes seeking a way to rebound from their past mistakes — make such handcrafts as grass greeting cards, tote bags and other accessories. Jeff Clinton then works with WorldCrafts to market these products in the United States through WMU, providing much-needed income.
“In each case … we are able to provide a means of work and recovery for those who are in desperate need of it,” he explained.
WorldCrafts Director Andrea Mullins said the work has been transformational, not only for each individual artisan but also for families and communities as well.
“WorldCrafts partners with him to increase sales and therefore makes it possible for more … lives to be transformed,” she explained. “The crafts that are sold represent so much more than the actual product. They represent the basic needs of life — food, clothing, shelter, education and hope.”
Though they have been serving in South Asia since 1999, the Clintons knew long beforehand that they would be sharing Christ among people in the 10/40 Window, the region of the world containing the greatest concentration of unreached people. More than 1.7 billion people in this region have little or no access to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“We’ve learned that obedience to God is an everyday thing,” Emily Clinton said. “Sometimes that walk leads you further geographically than you ever expected.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — Some names have been changed due to security concerns.
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