Praise the Lord for His faithfulness. It is by His goodness and faithfulness that we are still alive and doing the work of the Gospel. I would also like to thank you all for your continued prayers for us and for the ministry of the Gospel. Our special thanks to all of you who are sacrificially supporting us financially.
We are doing well spiritually, though sometimes not doing too good physically. But still the Lord, by His grace, is giving us strength to do the work He has called us to do. He not only gives us strength to do the ministry, but He opens up doors for the ministry. As I have shared with you, in our state persecution of Christians is severe. We are not allowed to bury new believers who die. Even if we bury the dead, when the Hindus come to know that Christians have buried a new believer’s dead body, they come and excavate the body. In spite of these persecutions and oppositions, the Lord opens doors for us to preach the Gospel.
One of our relatives bought a new car. The day he bought the car he took sweets and snacks for the workers at the car showroom. There are more than fifty workers and all of them gathered there by the car at the time of delivery. I was also invited to pray for the new car before it was taken out of the showroom. I had the opportunity to share the Gospel for fifteen minutes. None of the men and woman who works at the car showroom is a Christian. All of them listened to the Gospel silently and I prayed for the workers before I prayed for the car. In Ephesians 5:16 the Scripture says, “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” The Hindi translation says, “Consider every opportunity precious.” The Lord gives us each opportunity and we should not let it go.
In our Calvary Bible Institute, the second semester has started. During this semester, the students are taught I and II Samuel, Ezra and Nehemiah, the Gospel of Luke, Acts, Romans, and I & II Corinthians. The men are doing well and enjoying their time in the Word. I am teaching my favorite book–the book of Romans. I am always blessed when I read this book. It is a great encouragement in our weaknesses and challenge to live Christian lives. It explains the Gospel that: “Christ died for the ungodly… God exhibited his love towards us while we were yet sinners… For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son… We are justified by His blood, we shall be saved.”
“Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ?” What a great question! This is answered in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Last month, we were able to attend a pastors conference in our neighboring country. It was a time of refreshment and encouragement. Each day, for three days, we had three sessions in which various pastors taught the Word. The theme for the conference was “Seeing Jesus.” We were encouraged to follow Jesus in our Christian walk and in our ministry.
The believers in our fellowship have been protected by the Lord, meanwhile Christians are being persecuted everywhere in our state and also there are many car accidents. Though some of the Christians in our fellowship have had accidents, the Lord has saved them and kept them alive. Two young women had accidents twice in two weeks. One of them broke 2 of her teeth. A pastor from another church, who is our neighbor, lost both of his parents on the same day in an accident last week. His parents were in a scooter and a pickup truck hit them and both of them died at the scene. Every day people are losing their lives in accidents. Please continue to lift us up in your prayers.
Thank you for being a part of the ministry of the Gospel.
Co-workers in Christ,
Pastor 15* Family
*Names and Faces have been changed or omitted for security reasons.