More from Bella Pillai

My devotion “In the Lord’s Footsteps” was written about a time in 2011 when I was beginning to feel the pull of devoting more time to serve God and use the gifts he has given me for the extension of God’s Kingdom.

I was leading an international project and almost back-to-back had two other international projects which by God’s grace turned out to be very successful. However, the responsibilities I carried left me very little time to even read and study God’s word the way I used to. After sitting in the sidelines at work due to family responsibilities, I was finally doing what I was good at and enjoying it.

The Lord continued to speak to me and I gave in my resignation post the assignment. I was led to take some time to prioritize my relationship with God and thought God may then get me back to my corporate life.

This is when I set out to walk a new and untrodden path. Having an MBA under my belt, I did my PhD in theological studies to focus on teaching and discipleship. I also had the opportunity to attend leadership training in Thailand for a few weeks.

God then gave me opportunities as I was invited to minister in remote areas in India where God’s word had been planted and new churches were blooming and growing. I was amazed to see God’s hand working amazingly through his people. With my gift of teaching, I realized that complementing the evangelist’s work with discipleship and teaching was a good line of ministry. Having been in the corporate world we had enough savings and this ministry did not require much funds. I just needed to cover the occasional travel at times, and hospitality was local. As I had freely received, I knew I must freely give.

I’m not an orator, and my language skills (other than English) really poor, yet I trust God as I teach with or without verbal translation (though I do use translation tools and parallel-language Bibles for my PowerPoint presentations). I believe I should follow Christ’s Great Commission to “teach everything I have commanded you.” I studied and prepared material for a “Bible Journey” through the Old and New Testaments. I’m now doing an in-depth series on “Gracious Jesus” — the life and teachings of Jesus. They are posted on my website bibletransforms.com and converted to devotionals for a Bible app.

After my husband retired, we both surprisingly felt led to go to North India, though we had family and property in the South where we grew up. God opened more doors for service, and I was connected to dozens of church planters — mostly in North India — many of whom did not have Bible training. I use virtual meeting platforms for teaching and discipleship with them. Many of these church planters were not well to do, but their desire to serve God led them to start small churches in their area with those they had witnessed to. I encourage them to continue in their work while serving God, as it was a good self-supporting model of ministry. Overfunding has corrupted many ministries and ministry leaders in our country, and I think it’s time for simple lay leaders like us to pursue and lead God’s work in our own small areas of influence.

I continue to seek God’s leading one step at a time as I continue to serve him and follow “in his steps.”