The Friday Fax - India

India: "If you kill me, I will be with Jesus"

nospam@example.com (Friday Fax) — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 12:20:00 +0100

"If you kill me, I'll be with Jesus," Fakar told his torturers. In Spring of 2004, Fakar had been given a green booklet explaining the Gospel using statements in the Koran about Jesus (Isa). Convinced, he was baptised, along with his wife and three daughters, and could not stop speaking of his new faith. After a few months, the local Islamic leaders warned and threatened him. One day, a dozen men attacked and beat him. He died of his injuries. Our partners have started almost 50 house churches among Muslims in Kashmir, India, and the new believers helped others following the recent earthquake in the region. They provide people with a roof over their heads and warm clothing, and make sure they also feel the warmth of God's love.

India: dreams in Kashmir

nospam@example.com (Friday Fax) — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 12:17:00 +0100

Raju, a devout Muslim, had a dream in which two corpses were lying in the street. According to Islamic tradition, the dead must be buried immediately. Raju buried the first, but the second one spoke to him, saying "I am not dead. I have eternal life, and you can have it too. Go to your friend. He has a black book. Page x tells you how to find eternal life."
The following day, Raju visited his friend, who was a secret follower of Isa. His friend opened his "black book" (the Bible), and Raju found eternal life, just as he had seen in his dream. He has now started 30 house churches!

India: thousands of churches started in the Himalayas

nospam@example.com (Friday Fax) — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 15:05:00 +0200

In the space of only a few years, thousands of house churches have been planted in seven districts of the Indian State Himachal Pradesh, a core Hindu area in northern India on the slopes of the Himalayas. Hundreds of Christians work as full-time missionaries in Randeep Mathews' church planting movement. Only a few years ago, news like this would have been unthinkable.

One death leads many to life
Saritha was the only one who followed Jesus in one remote village in Himachal Pradesh. She had to fight a lot of resistance and had many opponents, but remained true to her faith, believing and regularly praying that other villagers would find Jesus. She suddenly fell ill and was taken to hospital, but none of the drugs had any effect. Discharged from hospital, she returned home and testified with her last breath that she would go to heaven. Moved, her parents became Christians. Over the following weeks, many others in the village also decided to follow Jesus; the village is now home to around 80 believers. One disciple's death led many to life, and God answered Saritha's prayer, even in her death.

A medium follows Jesus
Pummy is a 30-year-old single Sikh who worked as a medium, prophesying to others in the names of idols. Then she started to hear about miracles happening in Christian meetings in the area. Interested, she wanted to find out whether the rumours were true. After witnessing what was happening, she decided to follow Jesus herself. Her story has led over thirty others to Christ. As a child, she was adopted by a rich non-Christian family. Because she has become a Christian, her family has excluded her from their will, but Pummy will not deny Christ for any price.

Source: Agape Voice

India: Jithu - from terrorist to missionary

nospam@example.com (Friday Fax) — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 09:57:00 +0200

Jithu took a knife, ready to stab himself. "Even death," he thought, "would be better than being arrested and thrown in jail." Suddenly, words his uncle had said years ago flashed through his mind: "If you're in trouble, Jesus is the only person who can help!" Jithu's uncle was the only Christian in a strict Hindu upper-caste family. At 7 years old, Jithu was encouraged to join a Hindutva group. (Hindutva is a right-wing fundamentalist Hindu philosophy, which teaches that India is for the Hindus, and should only be ruled by them.) For ten years, Jithu was an enthusiastic Hindutva disciple and, like his fellow disciples, he was not afraid to use violence. He once set off a bomb, injuring many people, and had to hide. In his fear, he remembered his uncle's words, and shouted "Jesus, if you are the true God, then help me!" Nothing happened, so he lifted the knife again, ready to stab himself. But he could not. Something held his hand back; he could not move. Then he let the knife fall.
The following morning, he woke up feeling happy, and knew that Jesus had helped him, and would continue to help. He met a Christian policeman, who advised him to confess everything to the police. Jithu did so, and appeared in court, but God kept him from being sent to jail. That day, he decided to follow Jesus. His family was horrified; he was allowed to continue living at home, but they refused to feed him. He started teaching children, and prayed for an opportunity to give his life to God completely. His uncle told him about Operation Mobilisation, which Jithu has since joined. He is now telling people all over the world about Jesus.
Source: Jithu and Debbie Meroff in OM Nachrichten (OM News)

India: openness for the gospel after miracles

nospam@example.com (Friday Fax) — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 12:35:00 +0200

Surgeon Dr. Victor Choudhrie of Madhya Pradesh, India, reports that at the moment, it is mainly miracles which cause people to open their hearts for Jesus and, when they have heard more about him, commit their lives to him. "God is working predominantly through women and uneducated people," says Choudhrie. In July 2005 alone, Choudhrie knows of 352 people who have been baptised, 77 new churches planted and 1,506 people who have been trained as church planters. The following is a selection of his recent reports:

Healed of epilepsy
Nirmala Bai had been fighting mental illness and epilepsy for three years. Her marriage had become traumatic, and none of the medical treatments had any effect. Finally, someone suggested that an evangelist pray for her. She was completely healed, and is now part of a growing church, along with her husband.

Jesus can do what snake-charmers cannot
The heavy rain in the monsoon period drives many snakes out of their territories and into the villages. That leads to many snake bites, and only lucky people can be treated in time. Mohit was in the forest with his herd when he was bitten by a snake. He managed to make it back to his village and tell people what had happened, then lost consciousness. Neither the snake-charmers nor the village healer could do anything to help him. One of his neighbours asked a follower of Christ to pray for Mohit; 25 minutes later, he regained consciousness. Many people became open for the gospel through this miracle.

The deadly Bible
In Chattisgargh State, a deadly snake wrapped itself around a 15-year-old's hand during a church planting seminar. He managed to brush it off, but it fell on someone else. That person also managed to shake it off, and it finally landed on an open Bible. It died on the spot. The witnesses who did not yet know Jesus were astonished, and many have started following Jesus.

Source: Dr. Victor Choudhrie

India: mentoring pays

nospam@example.com (Friday Fax) — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 16:27:00 +0200

Recent research reveals that new churches have been planted in almost 50% of the villages in Punjab, a state in northern India. That is an almost unbelievable development. An ever-increasing number of Christian leaders are joining REACH PUNJAB 2007, which aims to plant a new Christian church in every Punjabi village. Besides such reports, we regularly hear news from India such as this:

in the past three months alone, 1,500 people in Uttar Pradesh State have been saved, and almost 300 new house churches planted. This month, 125 people from Chandoli Block have been baptised. The people are being discipled intensely, and we have been able to train 500-600 people to plant churches through intense prayer, constant training and long-term mentoring;
3,758 people have been trained as leaders in Uttar Pradesh;
2,765 Muslims who now follow Jesus have been trained as leaders;
In 2004, 1,997 people were trained for the harvest work in north-western India, making a total of 6,697. The number of people being trained each year grew by 43%;
In central India, 8,748 men and 1,978 women were trained last year, making a total of 27,186. Annual increase: 65%
There is a church-planting initiative in around 50 of New Delhi's Colonies (neighbourhoods). One network of 48 newly-planted churches totalling 600 baptised believers is led by 20 people, who are training another 30 new leaders...
Sanjeev was a young taxi driver before he joined Operation Agape, where he started as a chauffeur. Something in him began to burn as he listened to the conversations in his car. He started praying for the Farukkabad District in Uttar Pradesh and began training a few young men. Since then, over 30 house churches have been planted, and a network of 18 churches formed, united in the vision to plant new churches in all of the district's 2,000 villages...
Of the 10,000 women who attended training, many have become effective witnesses for Jesus and are directly involved in planting new churches in their surroundings. They were trained mainly by women trained by women to train other women...
In central India, 200 women are trained as church planters every month, as well as two church planting trainers.

"The key to this historic explosive growth, besides the simply-reproducible house churches," explains Dr. Alex Abraham, one of the human motors in the northern Indian church planting movement, "is the consistent mentoring. This mentoring model tries to follow Jesus' and Paul's training model:

Jesus selected 12 disciples from up to 7,000 people who followed him;
He showed them a model of ministry,
corrected them,
prayed with them and held retreats with them,
sent them out as practical training, and discussed successes and failures with them,
spoke into their lives prophetically,
commissioned them and sent them to multiply the process.

The apostles also trained their "Timothys" (2. Tim. 2:2) by working multiplicatively, thinking in terms of several generations of disciples, finally handing the baton on to them, to be passed on to others. Paul (1^st generation) taught Timothy (2^nd generation), who taught reliable men (3^rd generation), who in turn taught others (4^th generation). This is a basic Biblical principle, as shown in the following table, published in the quarterly Operation Agape newsletter:

Leader	1^st generation	2^nd generation	Effect
Moses	Israel's elders	The people of Israel	A holy people
Moses	Joshua	Israel's soldiers	Taking the land
Deborah	Barak	Israel's army	Victory over the Canaanites
Eli	Samuel	Saul	Establishment of the Kingdom
Nathan	David	Solomon	The temple was built
Elijah	Elisha	King Jehoash	Worship reinstated
Mordecai	Esther	Jewish people	Genocide prevented
Jesus	The apostles	Elders	Rapid church growth
Aquila and Priscilla	Apollos		Solid Bible teaching
Paul	Timothy	Reliable men	Orderly growth

"A healthy, obedient church is like a plant which grows and endlessly multiplies itself" (Dr. George Patterson)

Source: Agape Voice, Dr. Alex Abraham, June 2005, e-mail AgapeLdh (at) aol.com

India: from one beggar to another

nospam@example.com (Friday Fax) — Fri, 06 May 2005 20:56:00 +0200

Kingdom Ministries, a Swiss missions agency, assists in starting church planting movements, particularly in India. One of the key elements are local Christians involved in saturation (house) church planting. Kingdom Ministries regularly receives reports like this:

"In the name of Jesus, stand up and walk!" G. Singh used the words Peter spoke to the invalid. 66-year-old Mayadar rode a sort of trike from house to house, begging, and expected Singh to give him some coins. Singh, though, prayed with authority, and Mayadar was healed! He rose from his 'wheelchair' and could walk! He was baptised, and now leads other beggars to Christ.

Deliverance and church planting

37-year-old Iqbal, a Sikh, came to a Christian meeting. He was tormented by evil spirits, and had torn 15 suits in 20 days. He was delivered following intense prayer, and decided to follow Christ after listening attentively to God's Word. Last year, the church planter working in the region led 158 people to Christ and baptised them. There will soon be a church in every village in the region.

Source: Kingdom Ministries, Switzerland, tel. (+41) 33 439 3099