Sundar Singh: Footprints Over the Mountains

Ch - Sundar Singh: Footprints Over the Mountains: Christian Heroes: Then & Now by Janet & Geoffrey Benge
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Sundar’s mother wanted him to be a holy man, or sadhu, and, being a Singh, he was expected to follow in the Sikh faith of their family. They thought the Sikh scriptures were better than the Hindu scriptures; also the Sikhs believed in only one God. The Sikhs thought themselves above the rest of the people of India.

Since the public school was five miles away, his parents sent him to the Christian mission school nearby. Sundar was a good learner, and pleased the teachers. Before his mother died, he prayed that she would live, but after her death, he hated the Christians and their God, making life at the mission school miserable. Since he still had to go to school, he told his father he would walk to the public school, but after he contracted malaria, he was not strong enough to make the walk. His father insisted that he attend the Christian mission school again. After some time, he was still sick and depressed from the malaria, and he decided he must know if God was real. He prayed and asked the Lord to show Himself to Sundar that night, or he would kill himself under the morning train. He says that Jesus appeared and spoke to him. That night his life changed. He repented and believed on Christ.

When Sundar told his family about his new faith in Jesus, they tried to change his mind, finally poisoning him, when he left to live with Christian friends. To their amazement, he survived the poisoning.

He had a burning desire to tell everyone about the Lord. It occurred to him that people with listen more readily if became a Sadhu; not a Sikh Sadhu, but a Christian holy man. He traveled all over, preaching as he went. Many people drove him away, but some listened.

Sundar had a particular burden for the people of Tibet. He would walk over the Himalayan ranges to preach to them, although bringing in a foreign “religion” was illegal. One of the first times he was preaching, he was caught by the grand lama and sentenced to die. Since their religious convictions forbid them to actually kill someone, they have divised many methods of slowly “allowing” people to die. Sundar was thrown into a dry well to die, a well that he discovered had been used many times for the same purpose. Rotting human remains and bones surrounded him with an awful stench. After three days, he was miraculously rescued.

He went on to many places, being persecuted and tortured, but continuing to preach. He began to be well known, and other countries asked for him to come to speak to them. Sundar preached in many countries, but he always came back to the places his heart yearned over. In time his father came to know the Lord.

Sundar never returned from his last trip to Tibet. No one knows or admits to knowing what happened to him. We do know that he was faithful to preach God’s Word; faithful unto death, and he will receive a crown of life.