Africa preaching
In 1996 we were doing Padayatra from town to town. An advance party would ask a village chief or local king for a place for us to stay, which worked out quite well. But there was one village where the leaders would not give us a place to stay. This was a big cause of anxiety. Someone told the devotees that there was a school down the street, so the advanced party went to see the principal. To their surprise, as soon as he saw the devotees he rose from his seat and offered obeisances. He explained to the devotees that he has been chanting Hare Krsna for five years and reading Prabhupada's Bhagavad-gita day and night. His family members were also devotees, he said. The devotees were ecstatic and told him what they needed. He said that the devotees could have the whole school and that his family would cook a feast for them.
Another time we were distributing books near a government ministry. From the forth floor we heard someone calling us and saw him signaling us to come up. We went up and met this man, who was a Methodist preacher. He told us that he once got a small book, and it sat around for a long time because he was thinking, "I'm a Christian, so why would I read that book?" But one day he picked it up and read the whole book in one sitting. He said it was the best book he ever read. That week he was preaching at the church, and he just repeated what he had read. After the sermon many people came up to him and said his sermon was great, the best they had heard. He told Srinivasa that he wants him to come every Friday to discuss the knowledge in our books and then he will present it in the Sunday sermon.
Spoken by Srinivasa Prabhu at the Vrndavana book distribution Seminar.
