Sat night met with R and his missionaries or area pastors. Each gave testimony, including current ministry and needs. Most only need $50/month. Plan to write up stories for RIMI’s newsletter.
Unfortunately, power went out part-way through these testimonies. So we resorted to plan B: I asked the questions while someone else held a flashlight for Mike and he took notes. Now, I find myself trying to reconstruct that evening sans notes. Well, I have notes from one of the first and I can share that.
First, I'll mention Anil (below)....
He is the home church pastor that you saw when I showed the family from Friday night. He is dedicated and intense about serving the Lord. Unfortunately, his wife is still Hindu. There is much more to the story than that. But I am choosing not to share the rest of his story, until he resolves the issue of a divided marriage. I met with Anil the following week, when he came to Nagpur for Transformational Leadership Training. I explained to him in detail why I could not share his story and need until this issue was resolved.
Instead, I will take this opportunity to talk about the 2 young men below: Blessen M. Pappachan (L) and Prakash Ninama (R), church planting in Sirohi, Rajasthan.
I met Prakash at the start of my first trip. He was then a student at the Bible College in Jodhpur. He had only been out of Hinduism for a couple years at the time. To start my series of lessons on "Principles of Worship," I asked all those present, "What is worship?" We went all the way around the room with a wide variety of responses--some good, some rather far afield. The last person to response was Prakash, sitting far to my left. He stood, as each had done when giving their reply, and said, "Worship is pleasing God." I was thrilled! That is clear enough to be easily remembered but broad enough to take in everything we do when done with the desire of pleasing God. So since then, Prakash has had a special place in my heart and memory.
On the other hand, I had never met Blessen until Saturday night.
Well, in brief, here are their stories. And here is their story:
Blessen was born and raised in a Christian home. But he never led a spiritual life. Parents hosted weekly Friday night prayer services which he did not like. So he would go out that night. He left home at 18 years of age. Traveled from Kerala to West Bengal (look it up, it's a long distance). But he was won back to Christ by his father's love. This really is a very unusual comment in Indian society. Rare enough from a Christian home, like Blessen's. But very unusual in most Indian homes, to say anything about "father's love." Blessen had ruined the family's reputation by his lifestyle. But whn his father learned where he was, he called him and asked him to come back anyway. Upon his return, Blessen had long talk with family's pastor. Pastor drew parallel between his earthly father's unconditional love and our heavenly father's unconditional love. That won Blessen's heart and he surrendered to Christ.
By contrast, Prakash was born and raised in a Hindu family. Illness started spreading in the family. His father went to magicians and witchcraft practitioners for 10 - 15 years. But these brought no peace, no help and no resolution to the ongoing illnesses. His father suffered from stomach problems and then his mother developed the same. They continued to feel no peace even though they tried to please all the idols. Meanwhile, the illnesses spread to his aunt. She also had no peace. At one point they heard drums in aunt's house. His aunt then went insane. (I am unclear on the connection between the drums and the insanity.) In her insanity, she stopped eating. They consulted more magicians. One of them told the family, "She will die." His aunt was living naked. Then her husband, Prakash's uncle, said he had heard about Christians. Suggested they try them. Took aunt to a pastor in another town. Pastor prayed and told them healing will come slowly. One week later, she was all well--both physically and mentally. So both Prakash's family and his aunt's family came to Jesus Christ.
Since his conversion, Prakash proved himself as a trustworthy servant in the local church. So his pastor recommended him to the Bible college in Jodhpur, where I met him. Since his graduation, he teamed up with Blessen. On 8/8/08, they started their efforts to build a Christian church in Sirohi. From August through December, they concentrated on learning the local customs and language (Marwati). At the beginning of January, Blessen began his second fast since moving there. (He explained later that he entered this fast partly because they did not have enough food in their house to feed both of them for 10 days until their next support came.) Meanwhile, they were handing out Christian tracts and encountering verbal abuse.
One day, Blessen was taken by the police. When this happened, Prakash was told to return to Jodhpur temporarily. Blessen was ordered to stand in a solitary room at the police station--no sitting, no walking around, just stand there. During the next 3 hours various officers hurled accusations and verbal abuse at him and sought to humiliate him. This continued for 3 days--each day taken to the police station, ordered to stand, listened to the abusive language. After these 3 days, they wanted him to sign a contract that he would not talk about Jesus any more. He told them he could not do that. Finally, they stopped hauling him in. But he was followed, especially by one officer in particular. This man was a Muslim police officer. He watched Blessen's every move. But slowly he became friendly with Blessen.
Because they are Christian, they could not find housing. They almost left. But God told them to stay. Soon after a house owner came to them and allowed them to stay.
What difficulties do they face? First response is "lack of food." These 2 young men live on next to nothing. Plus, they still cannot live in Sirohi; instead they live more than 15 kilometers away (that is almost 2 miles). They walk to and from Sirohi every day. The walking combined with the poor diet has started affecting their health.
Would you please join me in praying for Blessen and Prakash?
And if you feel God leading you to help in their situation, you can contact "Reaching Indians Ministries International," their parent organization, at by clicking HERE.
Thank you for your comments and feedback! Keep them coming. :)
ttfn
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