Kinnaur is located in the northeast corner of Himachal Pradesh, bordering Tibet. With a mountainous area, ranging in altitude from 7,612 ft. to 22,362 ft., Kinnaur is one of the smallest counties by population with around a hundred thousand people. Kinnaur is located on the Indo-Tibet border, offering a unique blend of Indian and Tibetan cultures, and a blend of Hinduism and Buddhism. In every home you will find a room dedicated as a Hindu or Buddhist worship place. Spirit worship is also part of their way of life. Every story or incident in the family or in the village typically involves some kind of demonic spirit. To keep on pleasing these spirits, the people will do anything. No one in this region wants to displease the spirits. Christianity was never heard of in this region, and 15 years ago there was not a single Christian believer in this region. Kinnaur was totally unreached.
15 years ago, Naima was an educated young Tibetan monk who was a strict Buddhist, but Buddhism and its practices confused him. He was looking for the true God and searching for truth in his life. He received “The Gospel of John” from some believers, and Jesus began to speak to him. I (Regi) had the privilege of leading him to the Lord and baptizing him while he was in Dharamsala. When the religious head of the Buddhist monastery found that Naima had become a believer and that I led him to the Lord, they attacked me and tried to kill me. The Lord Jesus miraculously saved me from the snares of the enemies and protected me. Then they turned to Naima attacked him, beat him up, locked him in a room, and tried to force him to reject his faith in Jesus. By God’s grace he was able to run away from the monastery.
We could not keep him in our place, so he went to one of his distant relatives in Kinnaur to hide himself from his own people. While he was in the remote village in Kinnaur he could not find any Christians to fellowship with him. After almost two years of hiding, one winter morning he was asked to help carry a young man on a stretcher through the snow to the hospital. The young man was suffering with breathing problems. Because of the snowfall there were no doctors at the hospital. There were several patients who were very sick. Among them was Bhim Singh, a Nepali laborer who brought his 8-year-old daughter to the hospital for treatment. They were waiting for two days for the doctor to arrive. Her condition was getting worse, and she was unconscious. Seeing her situation and the pain and agony of Bhim Singh and his wife, Naima was moved in the spirit and started to pray in his heart for her healing. While he was praying in his heart, without realizing it he was praying aloud and audible to everyone. Bhim Singh brought his unconscious daughter to Naima and laid her in his lap. For the first time in his life, Naima was about to lay hands on someone and pray. When he laid his hands on her and prayed for her, she instantly gained consciousness and was healed in front of the people in the hospital. That day Our Lord moved in a very special way through Naima, healing several other people also.
This was the beginning of a great move of God in that small mountain region. From that day the light of the gospel began to shine in one of the darkest parts of India. The first two weeks of May 2024, Sherly and I, with two other brothers, were visiting different house churches in that region. We went from village to village, attending small meetings of 50-75 people, fellowshipping with them, teaching, admonishing, and correcting them. We could see the light that began to shine 15 years ago, still shining and getting brighter every day. We fellowshipped with hundreds of new believers who have been transformed by the message of the Gospel, delivered by the power of God, washed by the blood of Jesus, and were worshipping the Living God in spirit and in truth.
Naima (from a Buddhist background) and Bhim Sing (from a Hindu background) were transformed by the power of God, and now they in turn are transforming hundreds of peoples’ lives. For the past 15 years our Lord has used Naima and Bhim Singh, and other brothers and sisters, in a tremendous way to start hundreds of house churches and prayer groups. While we were there, we had 18 meetings, where a total of over 100 people gave their lives to the Lord. While we were worshiping the Lord in small gatherings, we saw men and women being delivered from evil spirits. During worship, people were healed, and we baptized 92 people. We started two house church leaders training centers in this region to train native men and women. Today according to our brothers and sisters there are more than 6,000 believers in this area!
God is building His church in India despite all the hardship and persecutions and attacks on believers and church leaders.
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We want to thank you for every one of your prayers. Without your prayers we would not be able to harvest this harvest. 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