Revival Now!

I trust the testimonies this month have encouraged you. As you can see, when you invest in our church leader training program, you are not only giving an individual an opportunity to learn, grow, and become a leader. You are also impacting the entire community where that student lives. Will you prayerfully consider supporting a training center? It costs around $100 a month to maintain each training center, where around 25 students learn church leadership skills. Helping to support these training centers will allow much needed funds to be used for other needs, such as providing support for our missionaries and pastors.

Wherever you choose to give, and for whatever amount, you will have the satisfaction of helping to extend God’s Kingdom here on earth, and storing up riches in Heaven!

Discipling His People…

…until He comes,

Thomas

V* is a 22-year-old young man. He grew up hearing curses from his parents every day. Each had said “I wish you weren’t born in our family.” They saw him as a burden on the family. His parents viewed him as unwanted, and so they neglected him. His only comfort was his grandmother, but when he was 12 years old she passed away. This broke his heart.

He was forced to cook, clean, and do the household chores. He did his best to please his parents, but they never said a kind word to him; instead, they beat him and yelled at him whenever he made a mistake. As the years went by, he became more and more desperate; he thought about committing suicide or running away from home. At 22, he was full of hatred towards his parents.

One day, hope finally came when he answered a knock on the door and met two brothers from our house church leader training. They shared the Gospel with him, and gave him a New Testament.

The second time our bothers visited the village, he was waiting for them, eager to hear more about Jesus. As they shared, his eyes welled up with tears as he listened. On their third visit, V* came to a small prayer meeting our brothers started. That day in front of the village he repented from his hatred, and invited Jesus into his heart.

Along with the prayer group he started praying to Jesus about his situation at home, and for his parents. For

him, their cursing words did not matter anymore. He was happy with his newfound love for Jesus and His Word. Slowly, he noticed a change in his parent’s behavior towards him; his parents stopped cursing at him and abusing him.

V*’s heart swelled with joy. He saw his family transforming and Jesus answering his prayers. He shared the Gospel with his family regularly. His parents were angry at first, but over time they began to listen to him and sit with him in prayer. A couple of times his parents attended the prayer groups.

He joined our house church leader training program. After the 40 days of training, he slowly took the lead in the prayer group in his village. Over the past three years he has led hundreds of people to the Lord. The house church in his village has grown to a “full-grown” church with over 120 baptized believers (including his parents!). Last month we had a baptism service in that church, and 19 people were baptized!

Just imagine preparing for your wedding and budgeting for all the expenses involved. In India, a bride’s parents are not only expected to pay for the wedding; they’re also expected to pay the groom a dowry. In many cases, dowries aren’t just one simple payment to the groom; new husbands in India often make huge demands. Greedily, they pressure brides to make their families pay. If they don’t, new brides in India are often tortured, humiliated or beaten, by their husbands or in-laws. (In our churches we don’t practice the dowry system. But, we do allow voluntary gifts to be given to new couples.)

K*, whose marriage was torn apart because of her husband’s dowry demands, was devastated. She couldn’t bring herself to tell her parents about her husband’s insults and beatings, since they had already given so much. She quietly endured 2 years of abuse, but then things got worse. Her husband and in-law’s had wanted a boy, so when she gave birth to a girl they were furious. When the baby was 3 months old, she left, and went to live with her family. The next 6 years were very difficult. K* found a job as a field hand, which left her with an aching back and trembling legs, as well as many other health issues.

A year ago, she met some of our sisters who were attending a house church leader training program in her village. They shared the Gospel with K*, and prayed for her. They also told her about our tailoring center in a nearby village. K* joined the tailoring center, learning quickly. There she also gave her life to the Lord. Since then, she has regularly attended a worship group, and wants everyone to know the one true God she has met, who loves her just the way she is. After graduating from the training, K* started a small tailoring shop in her village. God blessed her and she is now earning enough to provide for herself and her daughter.

In addition to running a business, K* also joined our house church leader training this year. In the last few months, she has led more than 11 people to the Lord. Last week they were baptized in her training center.

S*: “I was an alcoholic. No one came near me, or talked to me, including my wife and children. I was miserable. The addiction took everything from me; my wealth, health, reputation, family and friends. I felt alone, and I even tried to commit suicide several times. One day a young man came by, sat down, and talked with me, with great affection and kindness. He told me how Jesus loves all sinners. I told him “You are wrong; no one loves sinners.” But he was persistent. He gave several examples from the Gospels that demonstrated God’s love for sinners. He told me about the woman caught in adultery, the thief on the cross, and finally, about the man in the temple, who prayed, ‘Lord have mercy on me!’ That day, under a mango tree, I asked the young man, ‘Can Jesus show his love to me?’ He said, ‘If you repent from your sin Jesus will pour His love in your heart and you will be transformed.’ I asked him to pray for me. He laid his hands on me and began to slowly pray for me. I was standing, but not for long. I felt so weak. My knees bent. Weeping, I asked Jesus to show kindness to me. When we finished prayer I felt fresh. I was smiling and felt light hearted. That day God saved me from the addiction, because of this young man who was willing to share Jesus with me and pray for me.”

S* went back to his home totally transformed. His family welcomed him back, and later the entire family received Jesus and became church members. A year later, he attended our training program. After graduating, he went back to his own people and friends, and the Lord helped him lead many people to Christ. Today he leads two house churches, one in his home and the other in the neighboring village.

When an Indian man or woman accepts Jesus as their personal Savior, they are very passionate and eager to share their newfound faith in Jesus with their friends and relatives. Unfortunately, when they are unable to answer their friends’ questions, they keep quiet because of their lack of knowledge. The house church leader training equips them with the knowledge they need. Once they are trained, they go back to their own communities, where there are almost no Christians. In their home village, God uses them to share the Gospel, and, miraculously, families and entire villages are transformed.

The house church leader training curriculum is a study based on the life, teaching and ministry of Jesus. Along with imparting knowledge, it is designed to help them develop a strong personal relationship with the Lord. Emphasis is placed on the importance of living a practical Christian life and sharing one’s faith with those who have never heard the Gospel. This takes place in their native environment, over the course of one year. Each student’s goal is to establish a strong, reproducing community of faith in their native village.

Every year we train hundreds of leaders in our training centers. This year we have 16 training centers and 394 trainees going through the program. Recently our ministry leaders spoke with individuals who completed the training program last year. This month we share some of their testimonies.

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” 2 Tim. 2:15, NASB

This month we share some testimonies from our VBS programs that we conduct in several locations. The message of the Gospel touches the hearts of the children, who then share Bible stories with their parents. Entire families are reached in this simple yet powerful way. Our story starts with J* and continues with the others.

A Teenager Commits Her Life to Christ

Nineteen-year-old J* is the oldest among the 5 children of our missionary S*. Seven years ago, her family, all of whom were raised as Hindus, became believers in Jesus. Since the beginning of their lives as Christians, S* has been actively involved in reaching the unreached villages and starting prayer groups. He also has been planting house churches. To support his family, he still works as a farmer, growing wheat and rice. Farming is the family’s main source of income.

Because J*’s father has a great desire to reach children with the Gospel, she has become a leading force behind the young people in the church. She has also taken the initiative in starting Sunday schools for slum children in their neighborhood.

J* is very gifted in teaching the children songs, and teaching Bible verses through the use of Bible stories. She started with 12 children, and by God’s grace and with her dedication and hard work, slowly the Sunday school grew to more than one-hundred children, within just a few months. Over the past three years, J* has started Sunday school classes in four different locations. Today, every week more than 500 children from the age of 6 to 16 are attending these Sunday school classes.

Last year we sent J* and 18 other young men and women for Sunday school teacher training. Last month under the leadership of J*, 20 of our young men and women who have been through the Sunday school training program conducted VBS (vacation Bible school) programs in different locations. In one month theses young people were able to conduct 21 VBS programs in the slums and in the poor villages. Over 8,000 children attended the three day VBS programs. Ninety percent of the children were from non-Christian backgrounds. All three days they were learning Bible stories, singing, worshipping, and praying. According to J* around 25-30% of the children made decisions to live for the Lord Jesus. Below are some of their testimonies.

Indian “Hippies” Hear the Gospel

Thirteen-year-old M* is an untouchable from a “hippy” community, a nomadic group who travel from place to place looking for work. Since this group of people doesn’t stay in one place, M* never attended school. When he saw that many local children were going to the community hall (where our VBS was being held), with curiosity he went to see what was happening. M* watched through the window and some of our brothers invited him to come inside and join the other children. It was the first time in his life he had participated in anything like this. With his whole heart he joined in the singing and he enjoyed listening to the stories. M*’s community is poor. The parents set out each morning to try to find work as laborers so they can may make money to buy food for their families each day. It was M*’s job to look after the young children, so during the break he went back home and brought all the other children from the hippy camp (more than 40 of them) to the VBS. On the second day of the VBS, M* and three other children from the hippy camp came forward to dedicate their lives to the Lord.

Three weeks ago one of our missionaries started a prayer meeting in the hippy community. More than 70 people including 35-40 children are attending the prayer group. Seeing the transformation in their son, M*’s whole family has started attending the prayer group.

Please pray for these children. They have never gone to school and their parents didn’t know how to raise them properly. Now some of our believers are helping to teach these children to read and write.

Muslim Children Come to Jesus

S*, a 13-year-old girl from a Muslim community, came to a VBS this year. For her it was altogether a different world. She liked everything in the VBS: singing songs with motions, hearing different parables and moral stories and even getting to meet other boys and girls from her Muslim community who were also attending the VBS. She was really enjoying every minute of it. Every day she went back home and shared with her mother about all the exciting things she had heard and done. She asked her mother questions about Jesus. On the last day of the VBS she brought her mother with her. That day, during the altar call, she and her mother went forward to receive Jesus as their personal Savior, along with many other children from the Muslim community. They desire to know how to please God with their lives. Through our VBS program, God is answering their prayers.

Jesus Saves the Slum Children

D*, a 14-year-old slum boy dropped out of school and played in the streets all day with other children. His father is an alcoholic and his mother is a domestic worker. She tried to provide for the family, but often she was forced to knock on neighbors’ doors and beg for rice so that she had something to feed her family.

A friend of D* brought him to the VBS. After his first day at the VBS, D* was very excited about everything: hearing new stories, singing and worshipping Jesus.

In the VBS, D* heard about Jesus for the first time through the Bible stories. D* was impressed by the many miracles Jesus had performed, and he was curious to know more about Him. As the days passed, the Lord moved in his heart and D* realized his need for Jesus. Willingly he came forward and received Jesus as his Savior. D* now prays every day and is growing in the Lord. He asks that we join him in prayer for the salvation of his family.

A Little Child Shall Lead Them

Children aren’t just the leaders of tomorrow; they’re also the leaders of today. Through singing songs, hearing Bible stories, and learning to pray, children discover Jesus—and they can’t wait to share their newfound hope at home. Everyone who comes into the Kingdom of God must enter as a child. What better way to reach a community than through the children? They have no prejudices or prior opinions about Jesus like the adults have. They have no reluctance to embrace the Gospel because of societal pressure, like their parents do. And, once they come to Christ and their parents see their genuine faith and love, it compels them to hear the message of the Gospel for themselves. By breaking down the walls of resistance, entire families and communities can be reached with the good news of Jesus Christ.

Will you help us in this task? The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. In addition, people’s minds are often on other things during the summer vacation months. Our funding may drop, but the needs continue. Please prayerfully consider supporting us, in reaching the children of India and their families.
Sharing His Message…
…until He comes,

Again we are privileged to tell the story of how the Gospel transformed an entire village, even touching the heart of a Hindu radical. God’s love knows no boundaries, nor does His power have any limits. And sometimes he uses us while we remain unaware.

A Village With a Reputation

Two years ago one of our outreach teams was invited by a local church to do an outreach around a small town. This town was a popular pilgrim destination, where many tourists came to worship at the local shrines. On the outskirts of the town was a village inhabited by tribal people. Since they were mostly uneducated, “outcast” people, they were involved in all kinds of illegal activities. The two primary occupations of the villagers were drug trafficking among the men and open prostitution among the women. None of the local people wanted to visit the village. The only outside visitors were tourists who were customers of the tribal people.

This village is inhabited by people who are part of a tribal caste. The traditional occupation of these people is any kind of work that can be classified as “entertainment,” including dancing at fairs, performing as street acrobats or street musicians, and tightrope walking. Unfortunately, this occupational category also includes prostitution, human trafficking, and the like.

In this particular village, prostitution was their main source of income. It had been a tradition in this village for over 100 years. The children of this village live with their mothers and rarely know who their fathers are. The men in the village do not engage in any significant income-producing work for the majority of their lives. Their accepted incapacity to earn as high an income as the women, adds fuel to the prostitution business. Over time, the men in this village have become accustomed to a ‘comfortable’ life with negligible responsibilities. When asked about prostitution, the men insist that it is by choice, and not by force. But in a young teen girl’s mind, who has witnessed nothing but their ‘family business’ as the only skill they know, there remains very little choice. The girls believe that marriage ruins a person’s life and being a married woman is like being a ‘mule’; therefore they willingly choose to accept prostitution as their means of support.

Innocent Outreach Workers

Not knowing anything about this village or the people, our outreach team went out carrying literature as they usually do, intending to share the Gospel in the village. They
went two by two to the houses in the village, and people gladly received them. With great smiles on the faces of the villagers, they were thinking that our brothers were their customers. But when they found out that they had come there to share the Gospel, the villagers cursed at them and verbally abused them. Our brothers endured all this treatment and continued visiting each house.

At one particular house, two of the brothers knocked at the door and a lady came out and invited them to come in. She asked them to sit down, thinking they must be her customers. Still not realizing that something was odd about this village, our team members sat down, handed her some literature, and began to share the Gospel with her. While they were sharing, some other women and children from the neighborhood also came to hear. As our brothers continued, more people from the neighborhood joined. Our brothers went on sharing the Gospel for more than half an hour. Finally, with the people’s permission, they prayed for them, said goodbye, and went to the next house. As the team members went from one house to another, they met with varying responses. Some people opposed them and verbally abused them, but a few of them received them well, and a few heard the Gospel through them. Still in the dark about the village, our team members invited people from the village to attend the next Sunday service at the local church.

When the teams returned to the local church, they shared their experiences in the village. The pastor explained about the village and the people there. He said, “I was going to warn you and tell you not to go to that village, but now you have already gone.” “Do not go again to that village,” the pastor strictly told them.

Unlikely Disciples

The next Sunday, two village women came to the church service and the outreach team recognized them. After the service the young men introduced them to the pastor. The pastor talked with the two women and they requested special prayer. These two women began to come to the church every Sunday. They also brought other people from the village with them, which, as you might imagine, made some of the regular church members extremely unhappy.

At this point, the pastor had no choice but to rent a room in their village, and to start a weekly prayer meeting there. He met with a lot of resistance from the tribal people. They did not want Christians to come to their village. The men of the village even went and complained to the Hindu radical groups against the church people. But God in His mercy began to move in the lives of the people. The first meeting in that village started with 5 people; today there are more than 85 baptized believers and every Sunday around 150 people attend the service. They are truly saved and transformed by the love of Christ. At present, hundreds of people have abandoned their sinful lifestyles and are living honorable lives in the community.

Just a couple weeks ago, one of our teams was in that village for a baptism service during the day, followed by a public evangelistic meeting that night. Nineteen people were baptized, and around 300 people attended the evening public meeting. Being summer, most people sleep on their flat rooftops, trying to stay cool. We estimate there were another 300 villagers listening to the Gospel message from the rooftops. At the end of the night, many responded to the altar call and came forward to give their lives to Christ.

The Village Earns A New Reputation

But the most touching moment of the night came when the local Hindu radical leader, a man who is well known in that area and who was well aware of the activities in that village, and also well aware of the weekly Christian meetings, came to the stage at the end of the public meeting and asked permission to speak.

He addressed the people saying, “As far as I know, this village is well known, but for all the wrong reasons. But over the last two years, since these people have started their prayer meetings in this village, I have witnessed tremendous change in the lives of the people in the village. I always thought and preached that Christians convert people by bribing them, but now I have seen that the message of the Gospel changes and transforms people’s lives. The people in this village lived in sin and utter darkness for generations. We thought they would never change but the Gospel has changed them. I never thought that the Gospel had that kind of transforming power, but today when I look at most of your lives and how you have been transformed, I am convinced that Jesus is God and He heals and transforms the lives of people.“

That evening, after the meeting ended, we invited that radical leader to join us in the back room, where he surrendered his life to the Lord and accepted Jesus as his personal savior! The following day we started a tailoring center for the women to be trained in and to make a living for themselves and for their family. Thirty-eight women from the village signed up for the training!