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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

This month we share a testimony of how powerfully the Holy Spirit moves in the darkest and most remote villages of India, using simple people to reveal His Glory. This event happened during the second week of December 2020.

 Riku, our missionary, and his wife were riding on their way to a village which is 45 miles away from their home town. It is a poor village where most of the people are outcasts or “untouchables.” As far as we know, Christ had never been preached and no one had ever heard the Gospel in that village. During three days of fasting and prayer, the Lord had given Riku and his wife a burden in their hearts to pray for that village, which he had heard of but had never visited. The three days had just ended, and now they were on their way to that village, to visit and pray over the village.

Until then, all they knew about the village was what they read in the newspaper. Every year there were accusations that human sacrifices were being performed in the village. Also, every family is expected to perform a yearly animal sacrifice to the village god and goddess. In general there were lots of witchcraft practices and killings reported in the village.

As Riku and his wife rode around the village on their motorbike, the townspeople were very unfriendly. It was hard to talk with them.

Lunch time came, and they sat under a banyan tree just outside the village, praying and asking for the Lord’s guidance. Riku and his wife were really burdened, so they prayed for some time. As they were praying they heard some movements in the banyan tree. When they looked up, they saw a young man in his late twenties sitting up in the tree with a rope around his neck. Riku and his wife realized that this young man was about to commit suicide. They pleaded with him to come down, and after much effort, Riku and his wife were able to coax him down.

They comforted him, gave him water and shared their lunch with him. As they sat there he shared his story. He was fed up with his life and had been planning to end it by hanging himself. When he was 8 years old his father died of tuberculosis because no one in the village allowed him to go to the hospital. Instead they did all kinds of witchcraft and offered animal sacrifices to the village god and goddess. To pay for this, his mother took a high-interest loan from the local landlord, pledging their farmland as collateral. She was unable to repay the loan, so the landlord took their farm. For the past 20 years he and his mother have worked on that farm. He said his mother endured years of suffering and pain at the hands of various people. She often told him she endured it all for him, to try to give him a better life. Now for the last three months she had been very sick, so he took her to the nearby government hospital. They ran many tests, but they could not find anything wrong with her. Finally the chief witch doctor of the village, a lady, and her disciples, came and told them the village god and goddess were very unhappy with the young man and his mother because they have not offered any animal sacrifices for the last 4 years. They said that was the reason she was sick. In order for her to be healed, they claimed, the man and his mother would have to please the god and goddess by each of them sacrificing seven goats! The young man was in shock; he didn’t have any money and no one was willing to lend him any money, since he still owed his landlord a huge sum.

He was quite desperate and wanted to find treatment for his mother, but this pushed him to the brink. It was beyond his endurance—he had no hope for the future, no purpose in his life, and he had come to the tree to commit suicide. He was sharing this in tears with Riku and his wife. They too felt the pain and agony of this young man who loved his mother so much.

Riku and his wife comforted the young man and shared the gospel with him. They told him how much Jesus loved him and his mother. The young man listened to them and Riku said to him that because of this same Jesus they were here at this time to stop him from taking his life. The young man gave his life to the Lord under that tree and pleaded with them to come and see his sick mother and bless her too. He had a renewed hope that she would be all right.

As Riku and his wife reached the young man’s small, one-room mud brick house, they saw that the  witch doctor and five of her disciples were sitting outside the house. As Riku and his wife walked in they were very uncomfortable, but they continued into the house, where they found his mother in the bed, very tired and thin. They felt very sorry for her, and wanted to spend some time with her, share the Gospel with her and pray for her, but the presence of the  witch doctor and her disciples, along with the way they were questioning the young man for bringing them to his house, made them very uneasy.

As the only mature believers in the house, Riku and his wife felt a responsibility to pray for the man’s mother, so Riku asked permission. The witch doctor started questioning Riku and his wife, and they politely answered her. By then, a lot of other villagers had gathered outside the house, and some came inside. Riku and his wife felt fear slowly gripping them, and they called out to God in their hearts. The witch doctor started shouting at them as she learned that Riku and his wife were there to pray for the mother.

The witch doctor and her disciples, with the support of the villagers, challenged Riku and his wife to prove that their power was stronger than hers. Riku and his wife felt it would be better to just leave, but the witch doctor and her disciples forcefully stopped them.

They were afraid, and didn’t know what to do in this situation. As time went by, more and more people gathered around the house, while the witch doctor continued shouting and entertained the crowd. She mocked and ridiculed Riku and his wife, as they sat quietly, praying in the Spirit. As they prayed the Holy Spirit came upon them and they began to speak in tongues. The presence of the Lord came down in that place, and the witch doctor and her disciples, who moments before were shouting and mocking Riku and his wife, now fell to the floor, crying out in pain and agony. Hundreds of people were watching it—they too were afraid, not knowing what was happening. Among the crowd, people in demonic torment began to cry out. After a few minutes, Riku and his wife, led by the Holy Spirit, prayed for the young man’s mother at her bedside. She was instantly healed! She sat up on her own in her bed, the first time in six weeks, according to her son! As Riku and his wife came out of the house, the witch doctor and her disciples lay on the ground, still unable to stand! They pleaded with Riku and his wife to help them. Riku and His wife laid their hands on them, prayed for them, and commanded the evil, tormenting spirit to leave. Then, from the crowd, many afflicted people were brought forward for prayer. They prayed for them and they were all delivered. A young man was brought forward, his hands tied with a towel. He was the son of the witch doctor, and he had lost his speech and gone mad 14 years ago. Since then he had wandered around the village. When Riku and his wife prayed for him he was instantly delivered. In front of the crowd, he began to speak! He recognized his mother for the first time in 14 years. They embraced one another and cried. Riku and his wife told the people it was not their power, but it was the power of Jesus, who died on the cross, who heals and delivers.

Today most of the villagers believe in Jesus. Riku and his church people freely share the Gospel to anyone who will listen. Their influence has already caused six families to stop operating illegal stills, which were selling alcohol to the villagers. As a result, many people have been delivered from alcohol.

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,

Today marks not only the beginning of a new year, but it is also the start of a new decade! With your help, Exciting Word has accomplished much for the Kingdom of Heaven, and we have no plans to slow down or stop. Read some of the statistics from 2020 that give just a glimpse of what God has done!

• We reached 1100 previously unreached villages with the Gospel
• We shared the salvation message with 22,000 homes
• We planted 828 new house churches
• More than 19,500 people gave their lives to Jesus Christ and were born again
• We trained more than 312 men and women as church leaders
• We served more than 35,000 cooked meals to the homeless and those in slums
• We distributed more than 115 tons (9,200 bags) of food supplies to the poor

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 blessings mentioned above, we have also undergone hardship and persecution.

• 17 of our missionaries were beaten by Hindu radicals
• 19 of our missionaries were arrested by the police while sharing the Gospel, or while leading a house church meeting
• 9 of our house churches buildings were either burned down or pulled down by Hindu radicals
• 29 families of new believers were forced out of their village and had to abandon their homes for believing in Jesus
• One of our missionaries gave his life on the mission field

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. This month we have a beautiful story of how God is moving through two simple people! As you read their story, be encouraged! And please keep our teams in prayer.

Blessings in the Wonderful Name of Jesus,

                       Thomas

Dear Partners and Friends,

In just over two weeks, the year 2020 will go down in history. For some people, this year brought with it a wonderful blessing, maybe the birth of a child, or maybe an achievement that was long in the making. For others, this year has brought extreme difficulty, debilitating sickness, or the death of a loved one. Either way, this year will pass into history, leaving us with the memories.

In light of the fleeting nature of our lives, let us ask ourselves “what memories do we want to leave behind with our loved ones? How do we want them to remember us?” Let’s go out of our way to create positive memories with our family and friends. We don’t know how much time we have left, so we want to use it to it’s fullest potential. Take time to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. Have a meal together as a family. And spend time sharing the Word of God with family and friends. Find an inspirational movie that you can all enjoy. The list is endless – all you need is your imagination!

And while you are sharing happy times with your friends and family, don’t forget about the lonely and the downtrodden. Find ways to bless the poor, the homeless, and why not make it a family event? You will lift up someone’s spirit, and you will be blessed, too!

Our dear Brothers and Sisters in India are fighting the Good Fight of Faith, with spiritual weapons. This month we have a beautiful story of how God is moving through two simple people! As you read their story, be encouraged! God wants to give you your own story to share. And when He does, write us, and tell us your story. We will rejoice with you!

And as I say every month, any time you need prayer or help in any way, please feel free to reach out to us. And please keep our brothers and sisters in India in prayer, as they face the same kinds of challenges that we face. Together we will overcome, and God will be glorified.

Blessings in the Wonderful Name of Jesus,

                       Thomas

Hira and his wife Lathika are from a backward tribal group in the state of Z*. They worship six major gods and a host of nature and ancestral spirits. Although they had no idols or temples, they believed that the Sacred Grove and the Spring nearby was where the supernatural powers lived, and it was there that prayers and sacrifices were made, to avert the ill will of the gods, and to bring upon themselves, their crops, and their animals the blessings of the supernatural. In addition, each family had two more gods of its own, a household god and a secret god, whose name was never divulged to anyone except the eldest son in the family.

Witchcraft also has had a very strong influence among the tribe. They believed in the existence of witches in the society, who, motivated by envy and operating through the medium of the “evil eye” or other magical practices, brought sickness, death, and other calamities upon members of the village community. To uncover a case of witchcraft, a witch-finder would be hired who would determine the cause of the disease and the identity of the witch. Once the name of the witch was known that person was often beaten, fined, driven from the community, and sometimes killed. Witches in their community were always female, while the witch-finders were always male.

Hira and Lathika took part in these religious practices from childhood onwards, and after their marriage, they moved to Hira’s village. Lathika was a high school educated girl and had always spoken against witchcraft. After two years of marriage, she was unable to have a child. Hira’s parents and family members approached a witch-finder to find out why. The witch-finder, knowing that Lathika was against witchcraft, and because she spoke openly against the women in the village, wanted to teach her a lesson. He told Hira’s parents that Lathika herself was the witch! He said she should be thrown out of the village or calamities would fall on the entire village. The witch-finder was able to convince the villagers about it, and the village community ordered her to leave the village within 24 hours or they would force her out of the village.

Hira’s parents wanted Hira to reject and not to be associated with her. But that night Hira and Lathika ran away from the village without anyone knowing. They walked all night and came to the small town. There they took the first bus in the morning, not having any specific destination in mind. They did not go to Lathika’s home fearing Hira’s parents would discover them and forcefully take him back.

Four years ago, one of our outreach teams was walking back to their rented room, after visiting a tribal village in a remote area. After walking a few miles, they stopped to rest under a banyan tree. There they found Hira and Lathika sitting under the tree. They got into a conversation. Hira and Lathika hid their identity but they were desperately in need of a place to stay. Since our team could not allow them to stay in their rented house, they asked for the help of the landlord and he allowed them to stay for a few days. Over the next few days, the outreach teams shared the Gospel with Hira.

Hira and Lathika were amazed to hear this Gospel. A Gospel that saves, unites, shows love and kindness, and forgives every sin and wrongdoing. All through their lives, they had practiced all kinds of witchcraft trying to please their god and goddess, out of hatred, anger, envy, enmity, and by putting down one another. But this Gospel was exactly the opposite.

They found work on a farm and were the first people to join the local prayer meeting with the outreach team. Hira and Lathika joined the house church leaders training program and soon became house church leaders in that village. Their lives in the village over the past three years, humanly speaking, have not been easy for them. They lived in constant fear that Hira’s parents would find them and forcefully separate them. And there was the constant threat from Hindu radicals to renounce their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But their faith and trust in the Lord kept them safe. Through their testimony, prayer, and hard work, they have led hundreds of people to the Lord.

A year ago, R* and S* visited Hira and Lathika in the remote village. They held a church meeting in the village, and over three hundred people attended! Around 60-70 people responded to the altar call. They really felt the Presence of the Holy Spirit, and many people were touched by the Presence of God during that meeting. Hira told us about his ministry that he started in 7 other villages, and those villages are 5 to 6 miles away from his house. We felt prompted to supply their need for transportation. Through your partnership, we bought a bicycle for Hira and Lathika to enable them to travel. They were really happy to have received that!

At the beginning of 2020 we were in the midst of COVID and the lockdown was just beginning, and so many other things but Hira and Lathika were not much aware of any of these things. They continued reaching the unreached villages by bicycle. They traveled from one village to another sharing the Gospel and leading hundreds to the Lord.

Last week our minister-in-charge in the state of Z* visited Hira and Lathika and sent us this report. “Yesterday we returned after spending 5 days with Hira and Lathika it was one of the most amazing trips to the mission field. The day we reached Hira’s village he took us to 29 villages where they have started prayer groups during this last year. We met hundreds of new believers who were once in darkness, but now they live in the marvelous light of the Gospel, worshipping the one and only true God. The last five days we baptized large numbers of people in different villages during our five days’ trip. God is moving in a great way through Hira and Lathika. All through the trip, I was asking the Lord what is in Hira and Lathika that you are using them to draw these people to your kingdom? By the end of the trip, I can say there is nothing special about them. They are simple village people with pure, dedicated, willing hearts being obedient to their Master.”

Today Hira and Lathika are even blessed with an 8-month-old baby! Her in-laws came to know about it, and they visited them, asking for forgiveness. The village authorities have given a small land to build a place for worship.  Our brother laid the foundation stone and started the work. As I write this story, we are now praying for a motorcycle for Hira and Lathika so they can continue to visit the 40 villages where they now have started prayer groups!

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,

We are seeing the Light of the Gospel is shining in the remote corners of India, where spiritual darkness has greatly prevailed for many years. Despite human limitations, economic hardship and lockdown, severe persecution, and the murder of some missionaries, God’s people continue to share the message of the Gospel to unreached people groups and villages that have little or no Christian presence. Our Native missionaries in northern India are reporting from their mission stations, saying “our Lord is building His Church” by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of our local missionaries who are called to share the gospel. Our Lord is confirming His Word through signs, wonders, and miracles.

A Miracle Opens the Door

Our native missionary Naresh reports from the tribal area “we are seeing many people from unreached villages come in ox carts and other means from their village to the prayer groups or house churches.” These people bring their physical and spiritual needs, and we are hearing their testimonies, that they have experienced the presence of the Lord in their lives. Most of the people who came had never heard the name of Jesus in their life. They came simply because they were desperate.

Our gracious God healed them and delivered them. They experienced the presence of the Lord in such a way that they were transformed. The following week or the next meeting they return, bringing with them more people who need prayer. As a result, several villages are now open to the Gospel message because they have seen friends and relatives made well. Prayer groups and house churches are growing among the K* people group, a tribe of about 8 million people living in India. Over the past six months, we have started 79 prayer groups and house churches in their formerly unreached villages. As the Bible says, “the disciples went everywhere preaching, and the Lord was with them and confirmed what they said by the miracles that followed their messages.” Mark 16:20 (Living Bible)

The Church is not Locked Down

From another village, we have received a report from our missionary John (name changed). Their ministry started three years ago with no Christians in that area. By last December they had 32 baptized believers in their area. When the COVID situation came and the lockdown started, they thought the ministry was over, since they could not meet or visit one another. But God kept everyone safe and built their faith. Brother John encouraged their 32 believers to share their faith with their friends and relatives. God moved in those situations. Within the last seven months, they have welcomed 292 newly baptized believers in that area! Most of the people became followers of Christ after experiencing the power of God in their lives through physical and spiritual healing through prayer. Through them, the message of the Gospel spread, and more people were drawn into prayer groups.

Locked in to Preach the Gospel

One of our missionaries, Ramu, along with his wife Reena, was working in an unreached area. [Reena had become a Christian when she was 19 years old after she was delivered from an evil spirit. As she began to go to church regularly, because of the pressure from the villagers and Hindu radicals, her parents forced her out of their house. Sometime later, church people arranged her marriage with our young missionary Ramu.] They were both serving the Lord in an unreached area during the lockdown. In April they came to know that Reena’s father was very ill and wished to see her. Ramu and Reena rode on their bicycle for three days, 92 miles, to see her father. When they reached her father’s village, they thought they would not be allowed to enter, but the villagers gave them permission to stay. They stayed a few days, and then they came to know that one family in the village had tested positive for COVID. The entire village was immediately closed, and no one was allowed to leave the village for three weeks. So Ramu and Reena shared their faith and their testimony with their captive audience and prayed for many people with many different needs. Almighty God, in His mercy, touched many lives and healed many people. Alcoholics were desperate because they could not find any, or when they found it they did not have money to buy it. They came to Ramu and Reena, and in their desperation, many were delivered. Last week 78 people declared their faith in Jesus through water baptism! Ramu and Reena report they are reaching the neighboring village, as women are forcefully bringing their alcoholic husbands to the prayer groups, for prayer to get delivered!

Prepared Ahead of Time

Yet another missionary reports that “in the last six years of his ministry I have not seen such a great harvest as in the last six months! People came to me asking for prayer and I prayed for them. God has touched many lives and healed many people. Because they have experienced the power of God in their lives, 37 new families have come to the Lord. And many young people are committing their lives to the Lord.”

We praise the Lord for the God-given vision of our “Christ Discipleship Training Centers.” Through the training centers, we have trained over 4000 men and women who were the frontline spiritual warriors of this COVID season. Since churches could not meet for the last seven months, they were the ones who were leading the house churches and prayer groups in their areas. These native brothers and sisters are being used by God. They are having a great impact on building His Church in the remote villages of India.

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,