Signs at Ramabai’s Mukti Mission

Pandita Ramabai’s encounter with Christ Jesus reoriented her life; she became a champion of service, equality and justice in 19th century India, especially for the cause of women. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, she joyfully and sacrificially worked among hundreds of child widows and famine victims. Her life of prayer, a meditation on God’s word, worship of the true and living God and listening to God in solitude set the foundation for community life. Signs and wonders were encountered at Mission in Kedgaon. Ramabai imbibed the value of prayer in the life of all young girls and staff. Once in the early morning at 3:30 a.m. on 29th June 1904, the girls’ dormitory matron rushed to the quarters where Ramabai and others were living and narrated how one of the girls had suddenly awakened “with the fire coming down upon her.” Having prayed before going to sleep that she might receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, she “saw the fire and ran across the room for a pail of water, and was about to pour it on her when I discovered that she was not on fire.” When the seniors arrived, “all the girls…were on their knees, weeping, praying and confessing their sins. They were all filled with the Spirit of God and were speaking of what God had done for her and encouraging them to repentance.”
Public confessions of sins and “prayer storms” followed (hours of public worship spent in loud and fervent prayer). Such unusual occurrences were reported in many other places, which included visions, dreams, angelic visitations, joy, exorcisms, prophecies, and even miraculous food provisions. And the beauty of this celebrated great revival in India (1905-1906) is the prayer life of children whom God used to spread joy and healing of broken lives in every denomination of India. Let’s pray for the flourishing of life of all people in India.