Sarala is the sister of one of our Tribal missionaries, Balwinder, who is reaching his tribal community with the Gospel. They are gypsies, living a nomadic life in tents. They travel together as a tribe, stopping to set up camp in their own slums. Balwinder came to the Lord from this same community. When I (Regi) met him for the first time, his family of eight lived in a tent in very poor condition. From there, God chose Balwinder and saved him. He went through our house church leaders’ training program, and God used Balwinder to establish the first church among his community. Through his ministry thousands of people came to know the Lord from his community.
Three years ago, his sister Sarala was married to Vijay who is also from the same tribe, and they moved to a new place which was 100 miles away from her home. Sarala was a wonderful worshiper and Sunday school teacher and actively involved with her brother’s ministry. But in the new place she did not know any other Christians. It was a large slum, with over 800 families in it, but not a single Christian except her husband. She felt lonely and depressed. The spiritual atmosphere in the slum was very low. Drug and alcohol addiction was very common, with 70% of the men and women being habitual drinkers. Along with her husband, she visited a few other slums nearby, areas where their relatives lived, but there, too, she could not find any Christians to fellowship with. She became increasingly lonely and more depressed spiritually. Several times, she asked Vijay to move from that slum to some other place where she could have some Christian friends, but Vijay could not leave his aging parents alone. Her spiritual depression got so bad that it began to affect her physical body. She was desperate, not knowing what to do. She wanted to help people, and share the Gospel with them, but how?
The following Sunday, her neighbor fell sick, and they took her to the hospital. Since they have three children, ages 7 to 12, they asked Sarala to keep them at her house and watch them until they returned. She agreed. It happened to be on a Sunday, and Sarala and her husband were just preparing to have a time of prayer. They spread a mat on the floor and asked the children to sit on the floor with them. Sarala and Vijay started singing a worship song, and as they were singing, the neighbors’ children tried to follow along. Sarala stopped, and taught them the song, and the children learned fast. Meanwhile, a few other neighbor children heard the singing and came to Sarala and Vijay’s tent. She shared the story of the lost sheep with them. Then she asked the children to pray for their parents. She led them in prayer, and the children repeated the prayer after Sarala.
This was the humble beginning of the house church that Sarala and Vijay started. First, it was a Sunday school for the children, and very soon after, the Sunday school turned into a Sunday church service. Sarala now realized that God had a plan for bringing her to these slums, her spiritual loneliness was the catalyst that opened her eyes to see the needs of the people around her. Sarala and Vijay started to pray fervently for God’s wisdom and His favor.
Shortly after this, Sarala and Vijay came to one of our regional pastors’ meetings and shared about the open door before them, and the need to reach those people in the slum. By this time, they had visited around 13 such slums in the 40 miles surrounding their home and had met with numerous people. They were literally begging us to send some missionaries into those slums. After they shared, we called them to come forward. We laid hands on them and prayed for them and sent them as missionaries to those slums. It was almost a year ago today that me (Regi) and Sherly were in one of the slums to baptize 29 people. Last month Balwinder came and gave baptism to 32 people in another slum. Sarala and Vijay both work hard to reach all the 9 slums where they started house churches in the past year. More than 123 people took baptism from these communities. God is using Sarala and Vijay to deliver so many people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. When we visit the slums, non-believers greet us and share testimonies of their good works.
Today we visited four slums in different areas with Sarala and Vijay and met and talked with newly baptized believers. Upon seeing and hearing the transformation that took place in their lives, we rejoiced with them.
Afterward, we attended the house church leaders training center that we started last month. Many people can’t write and read but they listen carefully, and 24 men and women from that community from different slums come every week, leaving their work to learn God’s word. As I was sitting with them and watching them, I asked the Lord to give me such a hunger and thirst for His word. During the class I asked them what they wanted God to do in their community. Most of them said there are 21 different camps or slums in that area, and they wanted to see a house church in every camp. I gave them a homework assignment, due by next April or May. The assignment? “Your training will finish soon, but before that happens, we want to see a house church started in all these 21 slums. Once that happens, you all will have passed our training successfully.” Everyone agreed, and we prayed together for God’s divine wisdom and strength for each one of them. We will stand with them in prayer for these slums and for their community.
As I write this testimony, I know the Indian government is coming against all Christian churches. Each state parliament is passing new bills and introducing new laws, mercilessly attacking the Christian churches, missionaries, and even ordinary believers. In spite of all this, our Lord is building His Church, drawing people from all tribes, castes, and religions.
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This is just the beginning of the story. We know that through these children our Lord will do a mighty work in each of their families and in the villages. Our primary focus was to teach prayer: How to pray, to whom to pray, and what to pray. And we know that prayer can change every situation in our life!
To find out how to contact us, and to read more inspiring and exciting testimonies of what God is doing among the unreached people groups of India, click the links on the right, and keep reading!
Proclaiming the Gospel…
…until He comes,