Dear Pastors, Supporters and Church Family,
I thank God that, like every month, God has saved us from many kinds of sorrows, troubles and diseases. God is great, almighty and trustworthy. These days, I am preaching from book of Acts, verse by verse. Whenever I study the book of Acts, I am filled with renewed vigor and enthusiasm. If I look at our present situation and compare it with the circumstances of Paul’s time, then the present crisis is nothing in comparison to their present crisis. When I read about Paul’s life and study about his ministry, my heart fills with joy and a different kind of enthusiasm.
We are studying from the book of Genesis in our Bible study on Fridays. God is encouraging many people to join this study. Although many people in this Bible study are illiterate, the Holy Spirit is helping them to understand and obey words. They are starting to share the Word of God with their neighbors, village and community. Christians in my state are less than 0.5% of the population. I believe that many souls will be saved by the Lord.
“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days
come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure
in them”
Ecclesiastes 12:1.
Thank God that on June 1st, about 10 of us pastors organized a youth meeting together. About one hundred and fifty young people participated. They deeply understand the Word of God, worshiped together and met the youth of other churches. Many young people are moving towards worldliness. The purpose of us pastors was that the youth of each church should understand and recognize the youth of each other church so that if the Lord leads, then they will marry a Christian only. In these days, many Christian young adults are marrying Hindu boys and girls because of not getting in the right relationship. Due to this many Christian girls have gone back to the old life. They have deviated from the faith due to marrying a Hindu boy. Here, it is a male dominated area. For this reason, men put pressure on their wives to follow the orders of their husbands.
God Sets the Solitary in Families (Psalm 68:6a)
Truly our God is very great, powerful and gracious. God always takes care of orphans and widows. I keep reading it in the Word of God everywhere like Deuteronomy 14:29, 16:11, James 1:26, and Isaiah 1:17, 23. There are many other verses by which we understand that God loves and cares for orphans, widows and foreigners very much. When I was in Bible College, I was taught by two sisters who taught at a Bible college. They encouraged me, “God has given you a heart for orphans and widows. You should open an orphanage in the future.”
At that time that I came from Bible college. My eldest sister has 4 kids. Her husband is mad. Her son lives in a boy’s home. It was very difficult for her to take care of 3 children and provide them education. She washed dishes, cooked, and swept houses for others for her job. For this reason, I started having my 3-year-old niece study at my home about 10 years ago and started paying for all of her school supplies, books, school fees, etc. Today, she has turned 13, and is studying in the seventh grade. She plays the small drums during our Sunday service and home church and teaches Sunday school. She has the children memorize Bible verses and teaches them action songs. She is increasing day-by-day in the Word of God and in the fear of the Lord. I am requesting you all to pray that if it is the Lord’s will, then in the future, I will be able to keep some more orphan children and move them forward in education and in the fear and Word of God.
Faith is Incomplete Without Works!
Whenever we wake up in the morning, we look at our face in the mirror and thank God that God has made us beautiful. There is one believer in our church, named Surrender (right), who, before he knew Jesus, cursed himself whenever he saw his face. His hands and feet blistered in a strange way and blood and pus came out of them. I have shared about him so many times in prayer requests. One of his wounds smells very bad. Because of this, no one wants to talk to him or even come near him. This has been going on in our church for a long time. We are praying that God will heal him soon. Lately, God has led me to help him get treatment again. Just praying is not enough for him. I thank God that I have taken him to the doctor to get him treated again. He has been taking medicine for about a month. Now his wounds have stopped smelling foul and they have stopped having pus. Please also remember this brother in your prayers that God may give him complete healing.
One More Village Open for Fellowship!
Thank God! This month God has given an opportunity to preach the Good News in another village where no one has heard the name of Jesus Christ until today. Because the people cannot read and they also are not on social media, the name of Jesus Christ has not yet reached the ears of the people. They do not even know who Jesus Christ is. I wrote above about Surendra, who is suffering from strange disease. This village is where his elder sister lives. We took Surender to his elder sister’s house to preach the Gospel to his elder sister. When we reached there, his elder sister had called the people of the whole village to come listen to the Gospel. When I started preaching, the Lord did a great miracle there. There was a person who was suffering from an evil spirit. He suddenly started crawling on the ground like a snake and started speaking many different dialects. We all prayed for him and God healed him at that very moment. When the people around saw this miracle, they believed in Jesus Christ. The driver of the taxi in which we went also believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and took us to his home. He believed in Jesus Christ with the whole family. Lately, I see that Lord Jesus is helping us all to spread the Gospel like this in so many ways.
Many Believers are Fleeing Because of Unemployment
I thank the Lord that He called me to serve in a state where people are very poor and are in debt. The population here is very high. Because of this, the government is not able to give jobs to everyone. About 50% of the people work in big cities away from this state. Some do physical labor; some do dishes; and some work in factories. Here the government gives some grain every month to people to eat, but due to lack of jobs, people are still falling prey to malnutrition. There is also a believing family of our church, in whose home there used to be a fellowship every Monday. They also left our state and went to work in a big city due to being poor and not finding a job. Because of this, we started a fellowship in a different house. God is blessing it. The believers are engaging in the Bible study and God is helping them grow in the Word of God.
Prayer Requests:
- Please pray–there is a flood in the village which is affecting all of the believers outside our village. This flood usually lasts for about 3 months. Pray that God will make arrangements for all of the people to live, eat, and have clean water.
- Please pray for a boy named Raju (right). He is about 21 years old. He was born paralyzed. He is neither able to walk nor speak. His parents have to take care of him like a child drinking milk. His whole family accepted the Lord about 10 years ago and always keep coming to the Lord’s house. We also have a home fellowship at their house. His parents carry him in their lap despite being 21 years old. Please, all of you, remember this child in your personal prayers.
- Please pray! There is an anti-Christian organization working in our village. During last Sunday’s fellowship, a person from this group came and looked at who was attending and left. Pray that God will give them peace and that they will not do anything against God. Please pray that God will give me a chance to preach the Good News to them.
- Kindly pray continuously that my church can be registered, and that a security camera can be installed.
- Please pray for my country–there are many types of riots happening here. Trains were burnt in many places and a bus was set on fire. The government had to shut down the internet for about 4 days.
- Pray for my mother’s health–that God will heal her. Her hands and feet are always in pain.
- Thank God that He gave me a chance to preach the Good News to a village where many people are illiterate and who had not even heard the name of Jesus Christ. In one of the families there, almost everyone in the family is haunted by an evil spirit.
- Pray for a believer in my church who is suffering from a very strange disease. Please pray that God provide the financial needs for treatment or even healing.
- Please pray and pray for a child who is an orphan and mentally ill. His aunt cares for him. May God heal this child. Before, when he was suffering from TB, the people of our organization helped provide for his treatment.
- Please pray for a new movie projector for my church. My old projector broke because of a surge of electricity while I was showing the Jesus movie during Christmas outreach.
Thanks for your help, love and partnership for the Gospel.
God bless you all!
Pastor 11
*Names and faces have been changed or omitted for security reasons.