On Sunday, September 21, we were in church in a remote village of Haryana. Our missionary Balwanth Singh and his wife Ranu Kumari were serving the Lord there. Almost 16 years ago they came to a public meeting because after being married for eight years, they still had not been able to have a child. As Hindus, they went to every Hindu temple, every man-made god and goddess and every Hindu self-proclaimed guru, but with no results.
Balwanth’s family pressured him to leave Ranu and marry another woman, to have children for the family. But Balwanth loved Ranu and wouldn’t leave her. They were desperate, so a friend of Ranu brought them to the small public meeting. In the public meeting they heard the Gospel and came forward for prayer. Our brothers laid their hands on them and prayed over them and blessed them.
By our Lord’s abundant mercy after three months Ranu was expecting a child. They thankfully invited our missionary into their village and had a meeting in their home. In that meeting 12 of their relatives accepted Jesus, and a prayer group started that day. Slowly the prayer group grew into a house church, and the house church grew into a church of 200 baptized members. This church started 9 mission stations, and planted over 92 house churches in unreached villages. Balwanth and Ranu became the ministers in the church and oversaw the EW ministry in that area.
That day at church, many people stood up to share their testimonies: A woman in her late forties, named Geeta, shared that 18 months ago she was diagnosed with stage 3 stomach cancer, and was hospitalized for three months. After this she was sent home, being told there was nothing more the doctors could do. Three months passed and she went back to the doctor for a checkup. The results showed the cancer was spreading. On her way home, one of her relatives brought her to Balwanth’s church. During the church service her relative shared in front of the church what was going on in Geeta’s life. She was crying but she stood up and asked the people to pray for her. They prayed for her, and she began to attend the church every Sunday with her young children. Every Sunday she went forward for prayer.
After three months Geeta returned for another checkup. The tests showed that the cancer had not spread since the last tests, so that was a positive sign. The faith and trust of her and her two children had grown in Jesus. According to Geeta “the medical test results changed our families lives when we felt desperate. Our only comfort was the church and fellow believers. Their prayers and words of comfort and encouragement were the only positive words we heard around us while our family and relatives were cursing us.” Geeta began to hold on to the scriptures and believe them. At her 9-month checkup the cancer had shrunk considerably. She said yesterday was her 15-month medical checkup and the results showed that she has been completely healed. The doctors asked her what other treatment she had during the past 15 months, and she said, “I read the Bible every day and every Sunday I go to the church and they pray for me.” The doctors said that she can lead a normal life without any fear. In tears Geeta and her family were thanking God for the divine healing, and the whole church was praising God.
Another testimony: a mother and a 15-year-old young daughter stood up. During covid, her daughter, Mancy, had kidney infections. She was unable to get proper treatment and both of her kidneys were damaged. Since then she has been on dialysis twice a week.
A few months ago someone suggested they go to church and they would pray for her. The mother told her husband, and he said, “don’t go to the church, they convert people and force them to eat beef!”
But this woman was quite desperate and, seeing no improvement in her daughter’s condition, decided to take her to the church against her husband’s wishes. One Sunday morning they went to church, and she shared about her daughter’s health issue. The believers came around her and prayed. According to the mother, “this was the first time we saw people who cried out in tears to their God to heal my daughter. This was the first time we heard about Jesus, His love for us, and His compassion. Since then my husband and I have been coming to church, my daughter’s health condition has improved, and she has dialysis every other week. Seeing her happy and smiling brings a smile to our faces. Since we started going to church, we now know how Jesus changes people’s lives.” Again, we laid our hands on the 15-year-old girl and blessed her and prayed for her.
There were many other testimonies during the service, and everyone was lifting the name of Jesus and thanking Him for His goodness. I ministered the word there and 16 new people accepted Jesus as their personal Savior. Despite all the persecutions, anti-Christian propaganda, threatening, and attacks on the house churches, our Lord is building His church. He shows His mercy and grace to people by healing them, wiping their tears and comforting them.
Please Pray With Us
Over the last several years in India, twelve pro-Hindu state governments have passed anti-conversion laws. Recently, they passed stricter laws targeting house churches. Christians will not be allowed to worship in their homes, but at the same time other religious people are allowed to do so. In the last few years, hundreds of house church leaders were arrested by authorities, attacked by Hindu radicals, beaten up and imprisoned for years without bail.
The Hindu radicals and the pro-Hindu government is trying to pressure Christians, and have stopped all government benefits to low-income Christians. Friends and families are urged to boycott new believers, and the Hindu radicals are not even allowing Christians to bury their dead in the villages.
Some believers went to the Supreme Court, and the court accepted their petitions, and issued notices to 12 states of India, challenging their strict anti-conversion laws and the banning of house churches. They have four weeks to defend these laws, after which the Supreme Court will either uphold or repeal the laws.
So, dear people of God, whatever you do in the next four weeks, please pray earnestly that the laws in those 12 states are repealed, that such laws are never implemented in any other state, and that there is freedom of religion in India as per the Constitution.
For us this is the time to cry out to the Lord. May God do what is best for all of us. There are millions of believers joining hands together in prayer.
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,