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Last month I was visiting a training center in a village called Dharuwala. The village name means “drinker’s village.” It is an untouchable village where the people are uneducated, and 90%, both men and women, are addicted to alcohol. The village business is making illegal liquor and selling it to other villages, which comes with all kinds of other illegal activities and fighting.  For many years we were trying to reach this village and send one of our outreach teams but had always met with resistance. Our brothers were beaten up in the village, put to shame, and threatened. We regularly prayed to the Lord to open the door for us to reach the people in and around that village.

Two years ago, during our Christmas outreach program nearby, two young girls brought their father, Bhagwan Singh, to be prayed for. He was an alcoholic and for the past four months he had been very sick. His liver function was minimal, so they took him to many hospitals, and they all recommended a liver transplant. These girls loved their father very much. The oldest daughter who is 19 was willing to donate part of her liver to her father, but because of his other health issues and the cost of the operation the family could not afford it.

One of their relatives who lives in another village asked some of our outreach members to visit their home. They shared the Gospel and asked if they could pray for the family. The first thing they asked was prayer for this man who was dying.

Our brothers not knowing the seriousness of his health issues prayed for his healing. The family was very touched by the prayer of our brothers. Every religious place they had gone for prayer in the past, the people chanted some mantras which they never understood. Here our brothers were praying in simple words which they could understand, and it was clear that they were expressing in prayer their heart’s desire for that dying man and his family. After the prayer our brothers invited them to the public meeting and told them, if possible, to bring the sick man to the meeting.

With great expectation the family brought him and his family to the public meeting. In the public meeting there were many people who were suffering with life-threatening sicknesses. They heard the testimony of a husband and wife who were healed of AIDS. Another woman who was bedridden for 6 years due to a stroke testified how the Lord healed her through the prayers of God’s people. Her husband and children stood with her in front of the people and thanked the Lord. These testimonies built the faith and expectation of this family. We laid our hands on that man and his family and prayed and blessed the family in the public meeting. During the follow up we came to know that this man was from Dharuwala village, and this man and his family was involved in making illegal liquor. In fact, it was in his house that they locked our outreach team a few years ago and beat them up very badly. Before they left that night, they asked us to visit them in their village.

According to Sobha the oldest daughter “in the public meeting when my father realized it was a Christian meeting, he was very uncomfortable. He felt guilt and shame for beating up the brothers who visited our village. But we were desperate and helpless. This was our last hope. In the public meeting, hearing the testimony of the people and the message that was preached that day was very comforting to our family. We even expected that our father would instantly be healed, but nothing happened. As we went back home, we all, including my father, felt comforted. It seemed that our burdens had lifted, and an inner peace and joy came back to us that evening. We sat together as a family, smiling at one another and enjoying our tea. It was the first time in our lives that we could remember just sitting together in peace, instead of constantly fighting, abusing and cursing one another. As the days went by the brothers and sisters visited us every week, praying for us, comforting us and building our faith in the Lord Jesus. We began to see changes in our father’s health. After many months of being bedridden he started walking around the house without anyone’s help. Within six weeks he was able to eat normal food and do normal activities. We never went to the doctor but we believe our Lord gave him a new liver. As a family we dedicated our lives to the Lord to serve Him and Love Him.”

We then started a weekly prayer meeting in Bhagwan Singh’s home. Because of his testimony, many other families brought their sick and alcoholic relatives. Bhagwan Singh used to make and sell alcohol from his house. Now people come to his house to be delivered from alcohol.

Last November 49 people were baptized, including Bhagwan Singh and his family. Then during Christmas outreach our team shared the Gospel with every household in Dharuwala and its 6 surrounding villages. At the public meeting held in Bhagwan Singh’s field, around 700 people attended and more than 140 people came forward for prayer. Then again during the follow up last February another 41 people were baptized. Again during the Easter outreach we had yet another public meeting under the leadership of Bhagwan Singh with over 1,000 people attending, and in June 52 people were baptized. The last week of June we started a training center in Bhagwan’s former liquor shop, training 32 men and women who were saved and delivered from alcoholism. Most of these people are uneducated, some illiterate, but still they want to learn and share the Glorious Gospel that transformed their own lives.

Recently I (Regi) was in Dharuwala teaching the students. Four men came in, wanting to buy liquor, not realizing that Bhagwan Singh’s liquor shop had been transformed into a Gospel training center. Bhagwan Singh invited them in, and they sat listening to me for 45 minutes. During the break we shared the Gospel with them and served them tea. One of them said “For the past few years we have come and bought liquor from Bhagwan Singh. He never invited us to his house. He always chased us away, but today he invited us to his home, his daughter greeted us with a big smile and respect, and served us tea. You all have honored us, sat with us, talked to us with respect, and that is enough for us.” We prayed for them and blessed them, and in tears they accepted our prayer. Bhagwan Singh invited them to come and join them on Sunday for worship, and they said they would come.

God is using Bhagwan Singh and his family to save, serve, deliver, and transform the lives of the people in Dharuwala.

Help Us Share the Gospel

The people of India are searching and open to the Gospel, despite the persecution they face. The fields are ripe unto harvest. Join us in this work with your prayers and financial support.

To find out how your support will help us, click here. 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,

Exciting Word began with the single vision of “reaching the unreached, telling the untold, and touching the untouchable with the Love of God.” The Lord has enabled us to be faithful to that vision and calling. But over the years, as I meet with different people, they very often ask me the same questions: “You have a great vision of reaching the unreached people groups, but what will become of the next level of leaders? Do they have the same vision?” My answer to those questions has been “we are raising up Calebs and Joshuas by the hundreds in the younger generation, to take God’s people into the Promised Land.” Many times I found the answer was not convincing enough or too common. But last month as I attended different meetings, the Lord gave me a better answer to that question.

As we prayed and started various house church leaders training centers in the very remote villages, I saw the young men and women and their eagerness to learn God’s Word. This gave me great joy and assurance that we are training up Calebs and Joshuas. We started 21 training center in various states, with over 600 men and women signed up for the training. Every year we train between 500 and 600 men and women through our training centers in their own native languages in their own native areas. Our instructors are training each of them to be a leader who will lead an indigenous church in their own native language and impart a vision for the lost souls around them, creating a church that is growing and reproducing itself. The students are involved in reaching the unreached through our systematic practical outreach programs that take place three times a year: summer outreach, Christmas outreach and Easter outreach. The impact of these outreach programs has resulted in thousands of people coming to the Lord, and has started hundreds of house churches every year in the unreached areas.

June was a very busy month, with Vacation Bible Schools and youth meetings in different places. Our VBS was a great blessing. It began with 3 days of teacher training in the first week of June. This took place in four different places, in four different languages, and 432 young men and women from villages and tribal areas attended the training. During the next two weeks, they were able to reach over 13,400 children in the villages and slums, age 16 and under, through Bible stories. The teachers who made it possible were simple village young men and women who were touched and transformed by the message of the gospel.

Arushi, 21, was a Hindu college girl when she was transformed by the love of God a year ago. She left a life of rebellion and drug addiction, and took the initiative to conduct a VBS in several slums. She and her friends reached 700 slum children and continue to reach them.

Shanti, a mother of 3 children who lives in a slum, came to the Lord two years ago when her husband was healed. She shared the Gospel with her neighbors, and today both she and her husband are leading several house churches and prayer groups in different slums. Last week we had a baptism service and 29 people who had been addicted to idol worship and alcohol were baptized.

Nadira is a 19-year-old Muslim girl who attended a VBS 5 years ago and received the Lord as her personal savior. When people in India come to know Jesus, they are excited to tell others about the God who changed their lives. They want others to know about the freedom, joy and peace they have experienced. Nadira shared her new-found faith with her other Muslim friends, which caused lots of problems in her life. Her parents locked her in her room without food and water, to force her to renounce her faith in Jesus. But Nadira never did. Over the last four years she has suffered a lot physically and emotionally for her faith. Last year she started to attend college. There she found two other young girls who believe in Jesus, but their parents were also unhappy about it and never allowed them to meet Christian friends. All three began to enjoy their freedom in praying, worshiping, and meditating on God’s Word. Last month they secretly arranged a youth meeting where 42 people attended, and 11 of them dedicated their lives to the Lord. Nadira and her two other friends secretly took baptism.

Manu is from a Hindu high caste family. At a young age he got into a fight and stabbed another young man, ending up in prison for 7 years. When he came out of prison, his family rejected him and he got into the world and worldly habits. Around Christmas last year, our Christmas outreach team found him lying on the roadside. They took him to the hospital, paid for his medical care, and gave him a place to stay in the church. He gave his life to the Lord, and last month he brought 21 other young men to a youth meeting who are struggling in their lives and need deliverance and healing. It was such a great joy to see that our Lord is transforming lives and using them to transform others.

Last month, as I was sharing in different youth meetings, I was greatly blessed to see the vision is being carried forward by the next generation. Pastor Peter, Pastor Binny, Pastor Timothy and Pastor Abishek all are young youth pastors who conducted the youth meetings in different states. Along with them, I ministered to over 1,200 young men and women in different youth meetings. I was blessed to see their commitment to the Lord and His service, and their willingness to serve the body of Christ. They have come from Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and many other religious backgrounds, experienced the love of Christ and received deliverance, healing, and compassion. As one of them said “we are loved to love others, we are delivered to deliver others, we have been healed to heal others, we have been comforted to comfort others and we have been transformed to transform others in Jesus Name.”

Help Us Share the Gospel

The people of India are searching and open to the Gospel, despite the persecution they face. The fields are ripe unto harvest. Join us in this work with your prayers and financial support.

To find out how your support will help us, click here. 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,

There is an old saying that goes “Only one life will soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” As we grow older it is natural to look back and reflect on what we have accomplished in our lives. We think about our childhood, our youth, our career, and our family. Did we make the right decisions at each crossroad of our lives? And as believers in Christ, we also think about our calling. Did we do everything that God called us to do?

In this month’s story, Regi reflects on his calling and asks another important question: Will there be someone to carry the mission forward into the next generation? Have I succeeded, with God’s help, in raising up someone who can keep my vision alive? It’s an important question to ask ourselves. Have you accomplished everything that God called you to accomplish? Is there someone who can carry your vision forward for the next generation? If you have children, think about how you can inspire them to build on what you are leaving them. If you don’t have biological children, perhaps there are young people you have mentored, and poured your life into. Maybe you have creative gifts and you will leave behind a legacy of creativity to others.

Whatever gifts God has given you, take time to reflect on how you have stewarded them. Rather than burying your talents, look for ways to multiply your talents. If your gift is teaching, use your gift to impart knowledge and understanding to others. If your gift is art or music, use your gift to enrich the lives of others while you are here on earth. If you have a gift of financial stewardship and generosity, use it to bless others and to advance the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. See Romans 12:6-8 for more examples of how to use your gifts. These gifts are summed up in Romans 12:10 “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.”

We rejoice that the brothers and sisters in India are devoted to one another. It gives us a wonderful example to follow in our own lives. Thank you for your faithfulness in partnering with us. We could never do what we are doing without your prayers and financial support.

Blessings in the Wonderful Name of Jesus,

Thomas

Dear Partner,

God loves this world more than we do, much more than we can even imagine. Is it any wonder then, when He moves in a remote tribe who are considered “untouchables” and decides to touch them with His Spirit? This month’s story is about such a tribe, a people group cast off by society, without hope in this world. But God…

What about you? Are you feeling like society has cast you off? Are you feeling like you don’t fit in? Like you aren’t accepted anywhere? Our answer is the same as this remote tribe discovered. But God! God loves you more than you can even imagine. He wants to provide for you, heal you, give you His Peace. He wants to shower you with His blessings. Sometimes we need a reminder of His plan, His purpose, and His character.

Jesus summed it up when He said “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly.” If you are experiencing things in your life being stolen, killed, or destroyed, Jesus says that is the work of the “thief.” If your relationships are being destroyed, your peace is being stolen, your hope is being killed, that is not God at work in your life.

Take a moment to cry out to Him and ask Him to impart to you His promise of abundant life, and He will do it! He wants to give you His abundant peace, His abundant joy, and yes, even His abundant provision. Take Him at His word today and expect Him to answer with showers of blessings on you.

That’s what this remote tribe did, and God began to change their lives. Like what happened to them, your change isn’t going to manifest itself immediately. You may have to listen for God’s direction in your life. You may have to start making different choices. But God tells us that “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Let’s choose to trust Him with that, stand firm, and watch God move and bring the answer.

Thank you for your faithfulness in partnering with us. We could never do what we are doing without your prayers and financial support.

Blessings in the Wonderful Name of Jesus,

Thomas

Ravi is one of our missionaries who has worked among the Musahar community for the last three years. He came to the Lord through deliverance and healing from alcohol addiction and liver cirrhosis, through the prayers of some of the believers who worked in the hospital where he was admitted. His health condition got worse, and doctors asked them to take him to a larger hospital which is 100 miles away. His wife, who was 8 months pregnant, pleaded with the doctors and health workers to keep him in the local hospital and treat him there. Two of the nurses who are believers, seeing her helplessness, led her to a house church where she received care, food, and prayer for both her and Ravi. Ravi’s wife Malathy was touched by the prayer and the care and affection she received in the house church.  God in His mercy healed him and delivered him from his addiction.

Ravi and Malathy are from the Musahar community, a tribal people in Bihar who are known as “untouchables.” Musahar literally means ‘rat-ridder’ or ‘rat eater.’ Their primary former occupation was catching rats, and there are many who are still forced to do this work due to destitution and poverty. They are one of the most marginalized castes in India. By some estimates, as many as 85% of the population of some Musahar villages suffer from malnutrition and diseases such as malaria, with no health centers nearby. Their population is 5 million, and their literacy rate averages 3%. Most of them do not have their own land and come under the poorest of the poor, working as bonded laborers in brick factories. They are not Hindus but follow Animistic Hinduism and are deeply involved in witchcraft and sacrifices.

After Ravi came to the Lord, God gave him a great burden for his own community. He is always praying and asking others to pray for his community. In one of my (Regi’s) trips to Bihar before the covid lockdown, Ravi took me to some of the villages where his community lives, and it was eye opening for me too. They are living in very poor conditions under great oppression, bondage, and poverty. That evening, as we walked through a Musahar village to the house where they planned a meeting, I saw the suffering of the people, their hopelessness, and the demonic oppression they live under. The Holy Spirit impressed on me to speak from Luke 4:18.

I knew I was preaching to myself, but at the same time I saw our Lord delivering many women and children, who had been captivities of evil spirits and alcohol addiction. They responded to the message of the gospel. I was experiencing Mark 16:20 “the disciples went everywhere and preached, and the Lord worked through them, confirming what they said by many miraculous signs.” Ravi was translating for me into the tribal language. As he saw what the Lord was doing among his own people, he fell on his knees and began to thank the Lord and cry out to Him. In that meeting he was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to minister to the people. That day the first prayer group started among the Musahar. At that time, there was not a single known church among the Musahar. It is an unreached people group according to the Joshua project.

During the covid lockdown, the Musahar suffered greatly because of poor immunity and lack of knowledge and medical care. Our brothers in Bihar, with the help of Exciting Word, tried their best to help them in some villages with their medical needs and food supplies. Ravi was the one who took the lead in caring for them, standing with them in this difficult time, even helping to burn the bodies of those who died due to covid when no one else was willing to dispose of the bodies. According to Ravi “it was an awful time. No one knew what to do. There was much fear and confusion around, but the Lord gave us grace to serve them and to show His love and compassion to them.”

Another way the Lord used Ravi and other brothers was through music. Since they don’t read and write, the Musahar are very fond of music. Ravi and other brothers took the words of the parables in the Gospels and set them to tribal music. They go to different villages, singing the stories, and explaining them to the people in a simple way. Through the message of the Gospel thousands of people have come to the Lord in different Musahar villages. Over 3,800 baptisms have now been reported from that community. Last year we had our first house church leaders’ training among the Musahar. Thirty-six of them started the training, and some found it too difficult, but 23 of them graduated the training. It was a great achievement for them.

Following on that success, we are planning to give Sunday School Teachers training to 40 Musahar women this month, on June 8th and 9th. We are planning that these 40 sisters will go to 20 villages and reach out to a minimum of 1,200 children between the ages of 8 and 14 in their community. The Sunday school will be held for 6 days, three hours each day. We are expecting God to move in this Sunday school. Through the children, we will be able to reach their parents with the message of the Gospel.

Help Us Share the Gospel

The people of India are searching and open to the Gospel, despite the persecution they face. The fields are ripe unto harvest. Join us in this work with your prayers and financial support.

To find out how your support will help us, click here. 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,

Last month by our Lord’s grace, and by the prayer and sacrificial giving of God’s people, 542 men and women completed the house church leaders training in 19 different training centers. We praise God for all the brothers and sisters, and for all our missionaries and teachers, who took extra effort to go to these training centers and teach God’s word to them.

During the Easter outreach our brothers and sisters were able to reach over 32,000 homes with the gospel message, and they distributed 35,000 gospel packets and over 10,000 New Testaments. We had 22 public meetings in different places, and over 8,000 people attended these meetings. Our Lord moved in these meetings, and transformed the lives of hundreds of people through salvation, healing, and deliverance.

Kiran and her husband Monu used to live in a brick factory. They were illiterate from childhood, and worked with their parents making bricks. They lived like slaves to the owner of the brick company because their parents had borrowed money from the company owner and all through their lives worked hard, but could not repay it. Both Kiran and Monu were 18 years old. Their parents, in mutual agreement, allowed them to live together as husband and wife because they could not afford to call a Hindu priest to conduct a marriage ceremony. Life was very difficult for them. Alcoholism and drug addiction (supplied by the brick company manager to make them work extra hours) affected them deeply. Kiran and her husband became so desperate they ran away from the brick factory without even taking an extra pair of clothes with them. They walked nearly 89 miles without any food. Finally Kiran fainted on the roadside, and some believers came to help them. They were migrant workers who happened to be in the area that season, picking cotton in the field.

The believers took care of Kiran and her husband, and nursed them back to health. Kiran and her husband started working with the believers, picking cotton in the field. In the evenings, several families would come together for evening prayer. This was Kiran and Monu’s first time experiencing a peaceful evening. All through their lives, evenings were full of fighting, cursing, murmuring, and all kinds of abuse, back in the brick factory. But here all the families lived in plastic tents, but they were happy, enjoying meals together and singing and praying together.

When the cotton-picking season was over Kiran and Monu traveled with the believers to their home village and started farming with them. They started to go to the church nearby, and accepted Jesus into their lives. This was 6 years ago, and shortly afterward I (Regi) gave them baptism.

In the following year, both Kiran and Monu joined our training program. During the training they were filled with the Holy Spirit. After completing the training, they felt prompted to go back to their own people, who were still in physical and spiritual slavery. After much fasting and prayer, we laid our hands on them and sent them to their own people. For the last five years they have been working among the poor and uneducated people who are working in the brick factory.

To reach the brick factory workers, they went back to work in the brick factory themselves, so that they would be able to reach out to the people. This was very hard in the beginning but they endured all kinds of humiliation, persecution, hardship (mentally and physically) and continued their effort to save their own people. They were thrown out of the brick factory, arrested by the police for the false accusation of stealing money from the brick factory, and spent three weeks in prison. Even with this, they counted everything as joy and continued the Lord’s work.

Over the last three years we have seen the fruits of their labor, we have had baptisms every three months in their mission stations, more than 480 in all, and last May we started two training centers in their area. Forty-nine men and women, mostly illiterate, completed the training. We thought teaching them was going to be hard, but they were some of the best students and very attentive. Through these illiterate people during last December’s Christmas outreach more than 300 people accepted the Lord, and last month during the Easter outreach we had the most fruitful outreach in that area. We held 6 different public meetings, more than 3,200 people attended, and 428 of them came forward to accept Jesus into their life. Most of these new believers were not illiterate brick makers but were educated villagers who heard the gospel through the poor illiterate people. I (Regi) was in a few of the public meetings. People who came to meet me after the meeting included engineers, teachers, nurses and others who are well educated. They were testifying how our God touched their lives through the prayer of these people. (remember their society doesn’t allow these believers to their homes and despises them, but now these high caste people are coming to the untouchables for prayer.) On Good Friday, 72 people were baptized.

By seeing what our Lord is doing through these simple people we are amazed and thanking God for His favor and life transforming message of the gospel. God is on the move!

Help Us Share the Gospel

The people of India are searching and open to the Gospel, despite the persecution they face. The fields are ripe unto harvest. Join us in this work with your prayers and financial support.

To find out how your support will help us, click here. 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,

Dear Partner,

God is on the move! That is the theme of this month’s newsletter, and it reflects the general mood of the living Church, the Body of Christ. We have seen a move of God at Asbury University, in Wilmore, Kentucky. We have seen God moving in Charlotte, NC, where healings are breaking out at a local church and people are coming from far away to receive a touch from God. There is a hunger for God like we haven’t seen in years, and the same holds true in India. The status quo isn’t satisfying. The answers that people accepted in the past aren’t acceptable anymore. People are looking for real answers to real problems, and they aren’t willing to accept powerless, ineffective answers.

This is a perfect time for The Church to arise! But it’s not a time to simply share the message of the gospel in words. It’s time to stand up in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the anointing of God, and share the gospel in word and in deed. Like Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians “When I came to you, … My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 2:1, 4-5)

It is God’s power that transforms lives, that heals and delivers. But He wants us to boldly step out in His power and pray for the impossible. So, share the gospel in words, that Jesus can save, heal, and deliver all who come to Him. Then share the gospel in actions, by laying hands on the sick and demonized, and commanding every sickness and oppression to leave, in Jesus’ name! We often overlook this second step in sharing the gospel, and people can lose hope when they don’t see deliverance in their personal lives. Let’s step out in boldness and expect God to answer our prayers. Jesus promises us this very thing when He says, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” (John 14:14)

He also says we don’t have answers because we don’t ask, so again, let’s ask Him for the answers to whatever needs we face. Thank you for your faithfulness in partnering with us. We could never do what we are doing without your prayers and financial support.

Blessings in the Wonderful Name of Jesus,

Thomas

Bihar is one of the poorest states in India. Known as the “graveyard of missionaries” since British rule, hundreds of western missionaries have given their lives to reach the people of Bihar. Today, it has not changed much. Two of our missionaries were brutally killed for sharing the gospel in Bihar. Reaching the villages of Bihar has many hindrances, some spiritual and some societal.

Spiritually it is one of the darkest areas due to witchcraft, idol worship, animal sacrifices, superstitions and other demonic religious activities. Societal issues include criminal activities, anti-Christian groups, and discrimination toward low caste people. Traveling to the villages is difficult and living among their culture is challenging.

In the last few years attacks on Christians, churches, and missionaries have increased significantly. Hundreds of new believers have been forced out of their homes because of their new faith in Jesus.

Despite all these hindrances, in the last few years Bihar has been witnessing a great move of God in the villages. New believers from native people groups have been trained and sent out to their own people groups, where they have been greatly used by the Holy Spirit in preaching the gospel. Through their sharing of the gospel and prayer, signs and wonders are happening and people are drawn to the Lord in large numbers.

We have 26 full time native missionaries who are working in Bihar. In the last few years, we have trained over 400 hundred men and women through our training centers and sent them to their people groups in different areas. Through their preaching and prayer every year we are seeing thousands of people come to the Lord through the work of our house church leaders.

In the first week of February Sherly and I (Regi) visited some of our mission stations in Bihar. It was a bit scary because the first day of our visit we heard that three different churches were attacked, and believers, along with their pastors, were beaten up. Several of them had injuries and had to be admitted to the hospital. Sherly and I dressed like the native village people and carefully went to different villages visiting our missionary families. In the five days of our trip, we had 11 meetings and several baptism services.

We visited our missionaries and house church leaders and their families, asking about the progress of the Lord’s work and the difficulties they are facing. Every one of them reported how the Lord has given favor, and there were amazing testimonies of God’s protection and divine intervention in the lives of the new believers. Miracles and wonders are being seen in ways beyond their capacity to understand.  Almost every one of them reported that they were in danger. They are regularly threatened by radicals and followed by people when they go to the remote villages.

But in the midst of trouble, they declare the words of Romans: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”

In one high caste Hindu village, we had around 41 people who were given baptism in the early morning, in the wheat fields where no one would be watching. After the baptism, we left in the evening. Somehow the news of the baptism was leaked to some Hindu radicals from neighboring villages.  They came and threatened the newly baptized believers and local house church leader, and demanded they stop the prayer meeting.  Instead of having their regular worship service on Sunday the new believers came together on Saturday. Around 75 Hindu radicals came to the meeting place. They knocked the believers to the ground and beat them with bamboo sticks, women and children included. The radicals forcefully paraded them through the village, took them to the local temple and demanded they bow down to the idol and put red marks on their foreheads.  When they refused, the radicals again beat them up in front of the villagers. Again, with divine boldness, the new believers refused. They were beaten up a third time, and the radicals tore the clothes of the men, women, and even young girls in front of the villagers. Standing naked in front of the radicals, who continued to demand they bow down to the idols, the Lord gave them grace and boldness. Not one of them, not even the crying children, were willing to bow down in front of the idols. Finally, they took the house church leader and his wife and their young son and daughter. Making them stand fully naked in front of the villagers and the other believers, the radicals mixed cow dung with water and poured it on them (as a rite of purification). By this time a group of women from the village, along with the village chief, came forward, defending the new believers. They brought bed sheets and other cloths and covered them. By seeing support of the villagers growing in favor of the new believers, the Hindu radicals left the village threatening the believers.

These people are simple believers. They only came to know the Lord 6-8 months before this. They are not very educated.  They don’t know much about the Bible, nor do they have a strong theological foundation. They just know Jesus loves them. They were blind but now they can see. They were in darkness but now they are in the light. They are willing to lay down their lives for Jesus. And they know it can be serious. In this area, if one is caught baptizing a person into the Christian faith, that person may be imprisoned for a seven-and-a-half-year sentence.

Help Us Share the Gospel

The people of India are searching and open to the Gospel, despite the persecution they face. The fields are ripe unto harvest. Join us in this work with your prayers and financial support.

To find out how your support will help us, click here. 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,

Dear Partner,

If you have been a Christian for more than a few years, you have probably noticed that society in general is not always favorable toward Christians who wish to express their faith publicly. Now I’m not talking about making excuses for being rude or obnoxious, and expecting others to approve just because you are “sharing the gospel.” When we share the gospel publicly, we should do it in a way that is loving and compassionate toward others.

Even then, we can be misunderstood. People might have preconceived ideas of our motives, and before taking time to listen, they can attack us verbally or in other ways. How do we address this? By responding with love and compassion. Sometimes the most hateful people are the ones that are experiencing the most emotional pain. They might have had a negative experience with Christians in the past, leading them to make negative assumptions about us.

I am both inspired and challenged by this month’s testimony, where young believers take a bold stance for their faith and suffer public humiliation as a result. Please take some time to pray for these believers, that they will continue to be strong in their faith and witness.

Pray for the Church in America, too. We aren’t facing the same kind of persecution, but we face various kinds of opposition. My prayer is that God would help us remain strong in our faith and the expression of our faith, even in the face of opposition.

As you read this month’s newsletter, I want to thank you for your faithfulness in partnering with us. We could never do what we are doing without your prayers and financial support.

Blessings in the Wonderful Name of Jesus,

Thomas

A new light is dawning in every corner of India where spiritual darkness is great. Our Lord is building His church through the power of the Holy Spirit through the work of indigenous missionaries and by the prayer and sacrificial giving of Gods children.

• Exciting Word missionaries and house church leaders, as well as our house church leader trainees, have reached over 3,200 unreached villages in six different states.
• We have distributed over 8,000 Bibles and 42,000 New Testaments. We have also distributed over 250,000 Gospel of John booklets, in 7 different languages.
• Our missionaries and house church leaders started over 1,000 prayer groups and 410 house churches in different states.
• 2,100 healings were reported by our missionary brothers, small and great. Around 2,650 people testified they had received both physical and spiritual deliverance, including deliverance from evil spirits and drug and alcohol addiction.

• More than 11,000 people responded to the altar calls in different public meetings and regular church meetings.
• Of these respondents, our missionaries baptized more than 7,900 people.
• Exciting Word helped 11 of our missionaries to get a motor bike.
• We have given 23 bicycles to our tribal house church leaders.
• We have distributed 48 rugs to the tribal house churches.
• Through our house church leaders training centers, 432 men and women have graduated.
• For the 2022-2023 training center year, 542 men and women are being trained as house church leaders.
• We dedicated 11 church buildings for the Glory of God in 2022.
• Our sewing centers trained 208 poor women and widows and 25 sewing machines have been distributed to widows.

• We have 1,900 children from the slums and poor families attending weekly Sunday school in 48 different slums. In addition, we have weekly Sunday schools in different churches, where hundreds of children are attending.
• In 2022 we conducted 16 seminars for pastors and missionary families in various locations.  One of the seminars was for married couples relationships. The second type we held was for parents and their children’s relationship. The third type of seminar we held was for the family and the church relationships. Around 700 missionaries and pastors and their families from different missions and churches attended them.
• Under the banner of Exciting Word we conducted 9 youth meetings in different locations with over 1,600 young people attending where 228 young people dedicated their lives for the Lord’s work.

Despite the economic hardship caused by COVID, severe persecution by Hindu radicals, and several attacks on Christian workers, our missionaries and house church leaders continue to bring the message of gospel to the unreached villages where there is no Christian presence already ministering.

As one of our missionaries reported, from a Muslim dominated area, many Muslims are being drawn to the Lord. Many house churches have started, and more than 138 Muslims have received baptism in this past year. In this area if one is caught baptizing a person into the Christian faith, that person may be imprisoned for a seven-and-a-half-year sentence.

Another house church leader reported that a village church grew from 17 baptized believers to 170 in a one year. According to him “Many people come to the church with their different needs. Through the prayers of the believers and by the supernatural displays of God’s power during the prayers, many people are healed of physical ailments and experience spiritual deliverance. The Lord meets them where they are and demonstrates His power. This is drawing them and their families to the Lord.”

A house church leader trainee reported that because of this past Christmas outreach, there were 65 people that decided to live for the Lord in the past four weeks and he was able to start 7 prayers groups in different villages.

Another one of our missionaries who was arrested 4 times this past year and beaten by Hindu radicals in his village, continues to minister. During that time 36 families in his village have become believers, including some of the ones who have beaten him up!

Help Us Share the Gospel

The people of India are searching and open to the Gospel, despite the persecution they face. The fields are ripe unto harvest. Join us in this work with your prayers and financial support.

To find out how your support will help us, click here. 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,