Re-building The Broken Walls

Greetings to you brothers and Sisters in Christ. I trust that you are daily making your calling and election sure  (2 Peter 1:10) as our Lord and savior Jesus Christ is coming soon.

It has been some time since we posted a blog as we have been travelling quite extensively in our visits to a few different States in India. It has been quite an experience for us to have travelled over the last few weeks. Truly India is quite a vast and diverse Nation indeed. The different States that we have visited all have their own language, food, traditions and customs. I have never been in a Country where there are so many different languages, in fact the scholars say that there are more than 18 Official languages and 1,600 unofficial dialects across India. The official languages each have their own alphabets some of which number in the hundreds. So for those of us in the West who thought that the 26 letters of the alphabet was a challenge, they should take a trip across India.

The one thing though that I have found to be consistent across the different States of India is the condition of our Church. We have found our Church to be in much distress and hardship in the various places that we have visited. We have seen religious persecution in the rural places in South India but I have come to understand that this phenomenon is not just limited to the Sout. I have met Pastors who have told me that they were beaten and even placed in Jail as they sought to preach the Gospel in different places. I also met a local Pastor in one State who recounted for me with graphic explicitness his near death experience at the hands of a radical Hindu group. He told me how he and a group of students were conducting an Evangelistic meeting with some tribal people. Then all of a sudden his meeting was abruptly interrupted by a large group of extremists mounted on a tractor. These extremist also came with the police who were complicit in their activities and who were in support of this group. Many such cases never make the light of day in India because of the local political support that these groups receive, what a shame. Some of the participating Pastors in this Evangelistic effort escaped into the woods but one Pastor unfortunately was caught.  He told me how the men demolished his tent and destroyed the books and church reading material and how they purposed to kill him as an example to all of the other Christian believers. This Pastor told me how the men captured him and poured Gasoline on him and was about to set him on fire. He told me that all that he could do was pray earnestly to the Lord for deliverance as he thought about his wife and his 2 week old baby. The Hindu man was about to set him on fire but felt as though a power was restraining him as the pastor prayed. By the mercy of God the Hindu man all of a sudden felt compelled to let our Pastor go and so he escaped to tell the story. In many places across India unfortunately this is an almost daily occurrence. People lose their lives and even have their homes or churches demolished for the claiming the name Christian.

One would naturally be discouraged as you see and hear of these bitter circumstances except for the fact that we have read the end of the book and know that God’s truth will triumph against all opposition.  One writer said that bible is a great anvil that has destroyed many hammers. Throughout the centuries many men have arisen who have sought by various means and methodologies to exterminate Christians and to destroy the bible. These have all come and gone from the stage of action but the bible and Christians are still here and will remain until the very end of time. Even though groups of men led by Satan marshall themselves against Christ and His people, I can take confidence in the fact that I stand on the right side of secular as well as biblical history.

We have also spent considerable time on our project to restart the advent work in many places. Due to discouragement and lack of care, in some places congregations were left without pastors and some churches have fallen into disrepair. We have been diligently working by God’s grace over these last 2 Months to reopen all the Churches that were closed and to revive the work and re gather the flocks that have scattered hither and thither as sheep without a shepherd. Please pray for us and this work.

As I pen this blog it is now December 15 and it is hard to believe that we only have 10 days until Christmas. It is our 2nd Christmas in India and we hope by God’s grace to spend the holiday doing good and giving, as the bible has said that it is better for us to give than to receive. The Metro New York Men’s prayer Ministry has been kind enough to sponsor part of our Christmas program for 2011. They will be giving towards our Children’s program which is a program designed to provide clothes and school supplies for 500 of our needy children in the Villupuram Region.  We are also planning to provide clothing and braille bibles for some members of a blind Ministry in the City of Bangalore. In most of India there are no social services in place to assist people with such disabilities, as many abled bodied persons can barely scratch out a living for themselves and their families. Many of these individuals are thrust out from their homes as they cannot work to contribute to the home economy. Some of these blind women are exploited and abused. Both men and women are sometimes beggars on the daily trains and others try to make and sell small trinkets to provide for themselves and their families an income. It is a bitter life for many of the blind individuals in India and we wanted to do something to show them Christ’s love. We believe that everyone should have an opportunity to read God’s word the bible and so we have volunteered to purchase some braille bibles and also provide a suit of clothing for our brothers and sisters in Bangalore. We take seriously the admonition found in the bible in Matthew 25, Jesus said concerning practical Christianity:

Mat 25:42  For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:      Mat 25:43  I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

Mat 25:44  Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

Mat 25:45 then shall he answer them, saying, verily I say unto you, in as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

If God has impressed your heart and you feel impressed to support this project please feel free to make a donation to https://dev-3-going-forward.pantheonsite.io/ just click on the donate button. Your support will be greatly appreciated. May God richly blessings be with you on this Christmas season. From Villupuram Tamil Nadu South India. Maranatha