Diamonds in the Dust

The Vision of a Deadly Culture

It was in the year 1991 that Sentila saw a vision -- a vision that shaped her whole life. It moved her to love drug addicts and victims of HIV/AIDS. In the vision, she saw a group of young people, both male and female, in the streets with chains on their hands. They were going to a place called “The land of no return.” She saw even married couples chained by some evil army. They were in a hopeless condition. They did not want to go with their captors, but there was no one to save them. Their faces looked so gloomy, and they were bitterly crying for help. She was walking in their midst, full of heaviness, and thought, “Is there any way that I can help these people? What shall I do for these hopeless young people, chained and captive to this big army?”

Sentila elaborated on her vision later by saying that she went to the place where the whole city threw away all their garbage. A voice told her to pick up the precious things she found there -- even living human babies wrapped in cloth. Pick them up and feed them -- help them. So, she went (figuratively speaking) to the places where rubbish and all the dirty things people throw away are discarded, so that she could collect rejected human beings who were still alive, but condemned by their families and thrown away as dust that is swept up from the floor. She was given the assignment to rescue the diamonds from the dust.

The Meaning of the Vision

The Lord revealed to Sentila that the people she saw were the drug addicts in Nagaland. He said, “Go to them and help these people.” She replied, “Lord, I cannot do that. I am not skilled, nor am I the right person to deal with such a horrible group of people. Send someone else -- not me. Why not send some young man?” But the Lord encouraged her, “I will be with you; I will give you wisdom and understanding. You just obey.”

From that very day, Sentila saw drug addicts as dear children of God. The Lord directed her attention to Luke 19:10 -- “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” That verse seemed to come alive to her. It seemed to be asking her to go to drug addicts and find those people wherever they were. That they would not be found in the churches or rescued from pulpits; rather, that she should seek them out and make them her friends, and tell them that our loving Father understands their struggles and pains. She was to tell them to put their trust in Him, and that the Lord Jesus is their only hope for personal change and an abundant life.

The Start of the Work

It was this vision that strengthened Sentila to set her feet on the untrodden path of caring for the people with whom she now works. At the beginning of her work with addicts, she underwent not only a financial crisis, but also humiliation from society. Many a time people considered her as a prostitute and female addict. But she discovered this truth: “Loving addicts as children of God was the best means of communication.”

She was not well equipped technically or medically to deal with them. But when they saw her heart’s desire was to help them, the addicts trained her. They told her the fundamental facts about addiction, and explained their behaviors. The addicts collected different books on drugs and gave to her, so that she would be more skilled to deal with their friends. The addicts were her teachers. A real love blossomed between them. They come to Sentila as their friend, because they need someone to love them as a child of God. She has found that, as she puts it, “Addicts are hidden gold – diamonds in the dust!”

Shelter for the Addicts

During the initial years of her ministry with addicts, at least ten different addicts found a place in her house as her child. Sentila and her husband treated each one as a normal boy. They tried to train them in a very natural way. Often she said to them, “You can sleep, exercise, or play -- whatever is comfortable for you.” It was very difficult for them during their withdrawal period. One thing she observed was that they could bear the pain because somebody loved them and accepted them. To God is the glory.