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Dear Partner,

This has been a challenging year in the US, to say the least. But what we have experienced can hardly compare with the hardship the people of India have been facing. Their infrastructure has been bending under the weight of COVID and nearing the breaking point. In a normal year, labor strikes and political unrest can wreak havoc on the shipping industry, slowing trucks to a halt for days at a time. But the pandemic has only made matters worse.

Adding to the logistical problems, the widespread panic among the people spreads like wildfire. The average person believes that trouble and distress come as a result of something done wrong in a past life, and suffering must be endured in order to be found worthy of a better life next time. Without the hope and confidence that things are going to get better, people are troubled with fear and despair.

Please pray for the people of India, that they would come to know the true God, who gives hope, banishes fear, and will wipe away all tears. Pray that the believers in India will continue being an example of Christ’s compassion and mercy, as they distribute food, medicine, and prayer to all those who are hopeless. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13, NASB)

If you feel the leading of the Holy Spirit, please give financially to support the work, and please pray that God would provide the answers that India needs to survive. We could not do any of this without the generous financial support of you, our partners! We also rely on and ask for your continued prayer support.

Blessings in the Wonderful Name of Jesus,

                       Thomas

Regi tells this story of a recent event that brought back painful memories, but also a great blessing.

The Good Samaritan

It was summer, 21 years ago, and I was returning from a village after visiting a few families and praying for a few people. A group of young people (Hindu radicals) stopped me on a bridge and forcefully took my shoulder bag. They took out my Bible, tore it to pieces, and threw it into the river below. I tried to stop them, but they knocked me down and started kicking me with their boots. Bystanders saw me lying on the bridge, but no one came to help. I was very weak when they took hold of my hands and feet, and threw me off the bridge, into the river 150 feet below. At that time, a Swami (a common name of a Hindu religious teacher) came by and stopped the radicals. He fished me out of the river and took me to a nearby house, where he gave me water to drink and put some bandages on my bleeding hands. He apologized for what the radicals had done to me and comforted me. Then he put me in taxi and sent me back home. He was a Good Samaritan and a true neighbor to me.

Swami visited me several times during my recovery and we become friends. He was a highly devoted follower of his religion – growing up with the deep-rooted belief that he would be blessed by his gods if he pleased them. Failure would bring curses on his life, and so, to ensure blessings, Swami regularly offered prayers, sacrifices, and followed all kinds of rituals. I often presented him the message of the Gospel, but he always rejected it, saying he didn’t need to follow it. He felt no need for Jesus in his life.

After five years everything changed, when Swami was diagnosed at 49 years old with stage 4 incurable cancer. He went to different hospitals to continue treatments, but the doctors had no hope for him, and sent him back to the temple where he lived as a Hindu priest.

Without knowing about Swami’s situation, I visited him. Finding him lying in bed very weak, skinny and greatly depressed, I felt sorry for him. Once again I shared the Gospel with him, telling him how Jesus healed the sick, and that Jesus still heals today. After sharing, I asked permission to pray for him. He said he would greatly appreciate that, so in front of his devotees, as this Hindu priest lay dying in a Hindu temple, I laid my hand on his head and prayed for his healing, in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Over the next few weeks, I visited him frequently and shared the Gospel. I even gave him a Bible. Every time I visited, I noticed that his condition was steadily improving. After two months, he came to our house and told me that he wanted to repent and confess his sins before me. I told him not to confess his sins to me, but to Jesus. That day, in front of my family, he repented and received Jesus into his life. After three months, he secretly took baptism.

After this, he said it would be difficult to continue living in this area. He asked me for a favor. He left his family when he was 16 years old and never went back home or inquired about them. He said if his parents or siblings were still alive, he wanted to see them and share the Gospel with them before he died.

We agreed to help him, and arranged for him to travel to his home village. After that, we lost contact with him. We didn’t know where he was, or what had happened to him.

The Macedonian Call

In January we received a “Macedonian Call” from some brothers in a remote area. They had heard about our house church leaders training program, and asked us to come and help them train up house church leaders and start a training center in their area. Earlier this month we took one of our training teams to visit the remote area and meet with the brothers who invited us. They received us with great joy and told us “There was a Swami in our village who taught about Jesus and prayed for us, and led us to Jesus. He died a year ago in his sleep.”

We visited Swami’s home to meet with Swami’s brother. There he told us that his brother had left home to become a Hindu “Saddhu” (A Hindu religious holy person). He said “My brother wandered through the Himalayas for 33 years, learning and teaching Hinduism, but 16 years ago he was diagnosed with stage four cancer. A friend of his, a missionary, told him about Jesus and how Jesus can heal. The missionary laid his hands on him in the temple and prayed for him in the name of Jesus. That same man sent my brother home. After 33 long years he came home, and stayed with us. For the last 15 years he has lived with us, telling us about this Jesus who healed him. He started teaching the Bible, sharing about Jesus and salvation and he led us all to Christ.  For the last fifteen years he lived a healthy life. The doctors gave him six months to live, 16 years ago, but instead, he lived 16 good years.”

Swami’s brother continued, “All those years he was going around sharing the Gospel, leading people to the Lord. There are thousands of people in the area who have been miraculously healed or delivered by the prayer of Swami. Thousands of people were delivered from idol worship and the caste system, and now believe in Jesus because of Swami.”

We learned that our Lord used Swami to start 29 churches in remote tribal villages, in a state where preaching the gospel is almost impossible. They told us that 15 years ago there were hardly any believers among the local people, but today there are thousands of believers who truly worship the Lord in Spirit and in Truth. God used Swami to reveal His Glory to them. Over the last five years, hundreds of house churches have been started in the remote villages. Since covid, they have not been able to meet together the way they used to. They are meeting in village churches but they don’t have enough trained leaders.

As he shared Swami’s testimony, I asked to see a picture of him. When Swami’s brother brought a picture, I nearly fell to the ground, crying and praising God.  This same Swami was my Good Samaritan, who saved my life! Who was healed of cancer by Jesus!

How can I explain my emotions? We spent two days with the believers in that area, visited many villages, met hundreds of believers, and started two training centers in that area. With man, it is impossible, but the Lord has His own way to reach people He wants to draw to Himself.

Help Us Share the Gospel

Will you help us continue sharing the Gospel in the darkest places of India? Psalm 119:105 says ‘Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.’ You can share in the blessings! 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!

With your help, the Gospel will be proclaimed, and you will be blessed, along with thousands of others!

Proclaiming the Gospel…

                      …until He comes,

Dear Partner,

How many times do I sense God calling me to something, only to get discouraged and distracted after a short time? Maybe things don’t go the way I expect them to go. Maybe the Lord seems to be slow in answering my prayers or fulfilling His promises. We are so accustomed to “fast food” and other conveniences that sometimes it is difficult to follow a process that takes any significant amount of time.

But quite often, the impact of the Gospel is seen after the passage of time. In His parables, Jesus often compares the Kingdom of God using a farming metaphor. The Kingdom is like a seed, or like a farmer sowing seed in a field. There is a natural delay between the sowing of the seed and the harvest. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like that. I would much rather reap the harvest immediately after sowing the seed! But even in the sowing, the waiting, and the reaping, God promises us that if we follow His process we will reap, if we don’t give up!

So dear brothers and sisters, don’t give up! I am speaking to myself as much as I am to you. Keep believing, keep trusting, continue expecting that God will answer. Even when you are faced with seemingly impossible circumstances, let God know what you want, and then thank Him in advance for the answer, and for His faithfulness.

This month’s story is a testimony of God’s faithfulness, over a period of sixteen years. I trust it will encourage you to keep holding on. As you read this story, please keep our teams in prayer. Some happy endings haven’t happened yet, and there is sometimes sadness or trouble in the time between sowing and reaping.

We could not do any of this without the generous financial support of you, our partners! We also rely on and ask for your continued prayer support.

Blessings in the Wonderful Name of Jesus,

                       Thomas

Living a true Christian life in the villages, for a new convert is not easy. As Jesus said “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24) Following Jesus, being obedient to His Word is paying a great price. Here are some living testimonies.

“You Can’t Nurse Your Baby!”

Sister Geeta (name changed) who came to the Lord three years ago, is now a house church leader with three house churches in different villages. Read more…

24-Hour Lockup

In a remote village where the Gospel was first preached 2 years ago, our outreach team was persecuted and beaten up and told not to preach the gospel. Read more…

Homeless for Christ

Ravi and Suman are twins, 18 years old. Six months ago, they were secretly baptized. Read more…

Falsely Accused

Brother Ullas and his family were falsely accused of kidnapping. Read more…

Rumors of COVID

Fifteen believers and a house church leader were arrested by police…Read more…

Help Us Share the Gospel

Will you help us continue sharing the Gospel in the darkest places of India? Psalm 119:105 says ‘Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.’ You can share in the blessings! 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!

With your help, the Gospel will be proclaimed, and you will be blessed, along with thousands of others!

Proclaiming the Gospel…

                      …until He comes,

Fifteen believers and a house church leader were arrested by police while praying together in their village last week. They had permission for 50 people to gather. They only had 15 people present when a Hindu radical told the police that some people at the meeting were COVID positive and were spreading COVID knowingly. They will be tested and then released.

Every one of them is fine, but they have been quarantined in a school building. Pray that they can go home soon.

Brother Ullas and his family were falsely accused of kidnapping. The truth of the matter is that some young girls, who are the friends of Ullas’ daughters, have been attending their prayer meeting, every Friday evening from 4 pm to 6 pm. Some Hindu radicals, with the agreement of the girls’ parents, locked up the girls and accused Brother Ullas and his family of kidnapping them. The police arrested Ullas and his wife and questioned them for 6 hours concerning the young girls. But the following morning, the missing girls escaped from their captors, came to the police station, and asked for protection from the Hindu radicals and their parents. After spending 48 hours in jail, Ullas and his wife were finally released.

“But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness you are blessed and do not fear their intimidation and do not be in dread” (1Peter 3:14)

Ravi and Suman are twins, 18 years old. Six months ago, they were secretly baptized. Last month, their family came to know about it, and they pressured them to deny their faith in Jesus. When they refused, the family members physically beat them up and locked them up in their house without food for several days. Finally, fearing legal action if something happened to them, their family disowned them and expelled them from their home. This happened on February 11th, simply for continuing in their Christian faith.

For the past few weeks, they have been living in a government hostel. Even though they are homeless, they are confident that God Almighty will comfort & settle them. Our Christian brothers are standing with them to help them.

“Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.” (Psalm 27:10)

In a remote village where the Gospel was first preached 2 years ago, our outreach team was persecuted and beaten up and told not to preach the gospel. Praise be to God, the seeds planted two years ago yielded fruit in July 2020, during the lockdown period, as 4 families turned to Christ. Again, last month, three more families received Jesus. In January our brother Mohan started a prayer group in the village. Last week while they were having the service, a group of Hindu radicals arrived and started arguing and threatening them, demanding they forsake Christ.

Finally, they beat up the families, including women and children, and locked them in the room where they were having the meeting, for over 24 hours. But the new believers continued their worship and prayer, as the Hindu radicals watched the house. After 24 hours the villagers and some relatives brought food and water for the believers. The Hindu radicals allowed them to eat and drink and finally freed them.

By seeing the faith and courage of the believers, and their prayer and worship, God had moved in the hearts of the radicals.

“Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.” (Psalm 91:14)

Sister Geeta (name changed) who came to the Lord three years ago, is now a house church leader with three house churches in different villages. She was taken from her home by the police at 5am. They accused her of practicing witchcraft and took her to the police station. The police mistreated her, threatened her, and demanded that she deny her newfound faith in the Lord, and forsake Jesus Christ.

When she refused, they brought the false allegations against her and kept her in custody illegally until the evening.  The whole time, they refused to allow her to breastfeed her six-month-old baby girl. She was told if she denied Jesus and agreed to stop sharing her faith with others, she would be allowed to nurse her baby and they would send her back home. She replied, “You can kill me, or kill my baby, but I can’t forsake Christ.”

Finally, after seeing her faith and determination to follow Jesus, the police took her back home in their own car. Praise God for her unwavering faith and courage.

Dear Partner,

Here in America, we might have the impression that the world has stopped. Life has been at a standstill. Society is slowly opening up, masks are starting to come off, people are beginning to move more freely. In India, the Kingdom of God has continued advancing, even during a time of difficulty and persecution.

By God’s grace, this year 56 of our native tribal brothers are going out for the summer outreach. They are from Bible colleges and our own training centers. They will be divided into 7 teams of 7 each; 5 teams will be going out to the unreached villages of one state and two teams in another. Please pray for their protection and divine provision for the outreach. We need 30,000 Gospel packets, 20,000 New Testaments, and 2000 Bibles.

We are also starting 16 training centers in different states, where between 450 and 500 men and women will be trained as house church leaders. Apart from that, we are starting 6 small training centers in the mountain villages with less than 10 trainees in each. These will be two-day training sessions (with an overnight stay) every two weeks, for the convenience of the trainees, who will be coming from remote villages to attend the training.

We could not do any of this without the generous financial support of you, our partners! We also rely on and ask for your continued prayer support. In addition to the needs mentioned above, some of our missionaries have also undergone hardship and persecution. This month’s newsletter contains several stories of victory amid persecution.

You may be unable to share the Gospel with your neighbors because of lockdown. But you can share in the work that our dear Brothers and Sisters in India are doing, and you will also share in the reward. As you read these stories, please keep our teams in prayer.

Blessings in the Wonderful Name of Jesus,

                       Thomas