Walking with Giants

Western Christians often succumb to the perception that they possess a superior faith and understanding of the Christian life. After all, we have a rich Christian history and have been nurtured in church for multiple generations. Having such experience and biblical knowledge, it is our responsibility to take the gospel to less fortunate and spiritually deprived people around the world.
Missionaries are often put on a pedestal and considered in a special category of Christians due to their sacrifice and dedication. But any perceived echelon of spiritual distinction pales in comparison to the saintly servants of God found among national believers in India and around the world. There are saintly men like Gnaniah, a village evangelist who was beaten for his witness yet persisted until churches were planted among pagan villagers. Pastor Solomon Raj led Bible studies that continued into the night due to people's hunger for the Word of God. His listeners sat all day long on hard, dirt floors as they prevailed in prayer, pouring out their hearts to God for their people, hour after hour.
Illiterate village workers have used their knowledge of four or five languages to take the gospel to unreached people groups. There were those who turned their backs on lucrative professions in order to share the gospel and train others. They were rejected by their families, eschewed basic comforts, and bore scars from attacks and riots for the sake of the gospel.
Stephen planted churches in the slums of Mumbai, where the stench and poverty would have deterred others. Paul Prodhan, a simple farmer-evangelist, became esteemed like a biblical patriarch as he nurtured a movement among tribal Christians in Orissa.
Western Christians look with admiration on prominent preachers and renowned leaders but are deprived of knowing such real spiritual giants, whose lives are characterized by extraordinary devotion, uncompromising sacrifice and an intimate walk with God.
Readers of Walking with Giants have an opportunity to meet these giants and others, such as Pastor G. Samuel, who trained laymen in his Hyderabad megachurch to start hundreds of churches, and Nazir Masih, who led a church planting movement in the midst of Hindu radicalism in North India.
For years, Harry and Barbara Bush immersed themselves in the remote areas of India and South Asia as part of an itinerant missionary team seeking to train thousands of grassroots workers to reach into the darkness across the subcontinent. But instead of coming with all the answers from years of experience and education, they encountered giants in the land. Not Goliath-like giants who stood against the gospel as a formidable adversary, but spiritual giants whom God was using so that the kingdoms of this world might become the kingdoms of our Lord.
This book will challenge the reader to a deeper dimension of spiritual growth. Pastors will find an abundance of powerful real-life testimonies to inspire their congregations. And for those considering involvement in missions, Walking with Giants will strengthen their resolve to be obedient to God's call.
The lives and ministry of the Bushes, and others on that itinerant team, will never be the same. And neither will yours as you read of the austere lifestyle, demanding travel, and cost of getting the gospel to the ends of the earth. Your heart will be broken as you read of suffering and sacrifice; you will yearn to grow in the depth of faith that characterized these giants, and will find yourself praying that, like them, you would be counted worthy to suffer for sake of Christ and His kingdom.