Life Mission International

God raises humble to bring Glory to His name

This is Rajaram born in a poor Hindu family with three brothers in kanchipuram district. He was very zealous in doing all the rituals to Hindu gods by shaving his hair, going as pilgrimage to many Hindu temples offering prayers.

There was no sufficient income in his family. So as a family they went for daily wages work. Even in his very young age went for daily wages work. He worked and studied up to grade 9. Then he went to different boarding school. At that time due to stress he became addicted to alcohol, gambling and many evil habits. In that school A Christian teacher shared with him about Jesus. With the help of his teacher he learned more about Jesus and that led him to repent from all his sins. After his studies he got married to a Hindu girl.

He shared the gospel to his wife and led her to Jesus. Then as a family both of them went to a church near to their house and also participated in all church activities. By seeing his involvement in the ministry his pastor gave one of the Village namely Kandigai to do ministry. Then his church pastor who is currently undergoing Purpose Driven Training (PDT) introduced him about our K.G.T program. This training has helped him to make good relationship with people and to start small group bible studies. He said that I have learnt from this training that gospel without good relationship with people is meaningless. So far he has baptized nine people and started three small groups after this training.

His vision is to multiply the church strength to 600 people within 2014. He is also working in a leather factory in Chennai. He lives with his wife and two children. To achieve his vision he is working hard in his area. Uphold him in your prayer.

Testimony of VARADHARAJA PERUMAL

 

This is Varadharaja perumal from Salem. He was a Hindu priest. He was very pious in doing all the rituals to the Hindu idols. Every year in March he used to walk on fire as a vow to Hindu idols. By carrying the idols on his shoulder he will dance and walk several miles in bare foot as pilgrimage. At regular intervals he would shave his head to pay the hair offering to Hindu idols he also spent huge money in conducting many poojas and festivals for idols he spent more than one lakh rupees ($2200) per year. He was such an idolater.

Though he did all these things he felt emptiness in his life. During this period of time he also got married. Soon after his wife got cancer and he also suffered from a mysterious disease. The doctors told him that they have to remove his leg to save his life. He was shocked he didn’t know what to do. He cried to the idols. All the idols that he worshiped abandoned him. Because he spent all his money to these idols he did not had any savings he didn’t had sufficient money for his treatment. He was in a hopeless situation.

At that time His sister in law who had a little knowledge of Jesus asked him, why can’t we try Jesus? So they went to a pastor near to their house and shared their misery. He introduced Jesus to him and prayed for him. Pastor told him to surrender their life totally to Jesus. So he obeyed and surrendered his life to Jesus. Miraculously he and his wife got healed from these deadly diseases.

From that day onwards he started doing ministry with his pastor. First he shared his testimony to many people. After few years, he realized his call and started planting a church. Last year he came to know about our Training program and joined the training. He was challenged by the trainings about personal evangelism and about small group bible study. Now he has completed three modules of training. So far he has baptized 18 people and also started 2 small groups. Now he has established a new church in Aatayampatti in Salem district. His vision is to establish churches around his villages and raise leaders to plant those churches. He lives with his wife and three children in Salem. We thank God for all the happenings in his ministry.

Friendliness breaks the evil caste system

Friendliness makes the impact VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Caste system is one of the biggest evil in India. When I left my village for the first time to attend 6th grade in the  close by town, I was scolded by a lady, on my way to school, using all bad languages. Not knowing why she was scolding, I went much closer to ask her why she is scolding. She started shouting more and was throwing mud on me. She cursed me saying my shadow has fallen on her, now she is impure and she has to undergo the rituals to clean her. I was so sad because no one have ever treated me that badly and it was my first day to high school. 

As I was quiet and sitting sadly on a bench, one bold boy from my class, he was from the town, approached me and asked me why I am sad. I told him the story. He said she is a high caste Brahmin lady  and you are a low caste boy and because your shadow has fallen on her, she has treated you badly. He said he can teach her a lesson. Next day he asked me to come to the school earlier, as he had a by cycle, he asked me to sit in the carrier and we drove the cycle to her street. As usual she was coming on the street to go to the temple my friend drove the cycle in between her leg (slowly) and when she feel off, he told me to hug her tightly. We both were hugging her tightly and laughing as she spitted on us and  used all kind of filthy language as she was made un pure. We were so happy and thrilled for doing this, felt like we conquered the world.

The people in Kalavai are much lower than my caste, you can imagine how the high caste people would have treated them for so many centuries. That is the reason they were shy when I went to their village to visit to come near to us. It took for me three visits to their village to make an inroad to get to touch them. When GCC team started coming to Kalavai, apart from the good work they have done, it is their TOUCH that made all the difference. No one have ever touched them with this kind of love and when they see the love in us they see JESUS in us. Whenever people ask for GCC people, they say Jesus people. For others these photos are just photos, for us these are CASTE BREAKING ACT and GOD’S LOVE ACT. Thank you Granger community people for allowing these little one to touch you, sit on your lap, jump on you and play with you. You have truly displayed Christ Character to this village.

Whatever you have done to the least of this one…

This is Mallika from Kalavai. She was born in an Irular community. This community is considered as the lowest in the caste system in India. In India there are 4635 People groups are there. Her father Chinnapaiyan was a wood cutter and her mother Laxmi was a coolie. Her family was a very poor and they starved for food. None of their family members are educated. From the childhood though she starved for food her parents taught her self-respect and self content to be satisfied with whatever she have.

She was married to Gajendran who was living in Irular colony, kalavai. Then she came to his husband’s place and settled here. She have four sons and two daughters. Namely Sekhar (married), Suresh, Ravi, Manigandan, Govindamma and Rajeshwari. She got married when she was very young. Even though her husband was poor but was rich in affection with her and the children. He was also a daily laborer.

This family did not had any land or house and by his hard work he put a thatched house for the family in a government land closer to Irular colony.  Four years back her husband met with an accident and died leaving behind 6 children to Mallika to take care. She went to the local hotels to clean the vessels and tables and they used to give the left out food and the waste to her. By this she used to feed the children. Many a day all of them went to bed without food.

One day I was in the village doing some work, bought some food to eat for three of us. One of Mallika’s child Rajeswari was standing there. I asked her did you eat? she said no. I asked her about breakfast, she said no? What about yesterday, she said no. So I gave her the lunch parcel we bought for us to sit and eat in our car. She ate all the food, she was that hungry. She was around 10 years old and have never been to school. I asked her, whether she is interested in going to school. She said yes. Now we are sponsoring her to go the English medium school and providing noon meal to 15 of the children including her.

After the death of her husband, the thatched roof was damaged by rain, sun and wind. The whole hut would leak and they did not had any other place to sleep. All through the night the entire family would be wet and awake. Often her children will become sick. By seeing their misery, the neighbor Shanti told the family to stay in their hut. She had 4 family members along with Mallika’s  family 11 of them lived in a ten by 14 feet hut for around 6 months. That was the time the government allotted the free land to all the landless people in the village. Shanti hut was in someone else’s land and they asked them to vacate the land. So Shanti and Mallika had no other choice but to bring the hut down.  Seeing their predicament one family who got new house built by us, asked them to stay with them for last 3 months. 

When the GCC team came to Irular colony to built the houses last month, we decided to build house for both Mallika and Shanti. The entire community, even the children after coming from the school joined to build the homes. 19 of the GCC members and 12 of the Life mission members and the Local community help build the homes. One of the Veteran Nancy dedicated the house. It was a moving time.

She bought garland for all the team members, and the team honored them by garlanding the entire family, her heart and eyes filled with gratitude for the loving act. 

For the first time in this village, we have also built a small vegetable garden behind the Mallika’s house, as this will provide enough vegetables for the family. We did fencing to prevent the goats and chicken spoiling the garden. Seeing this, other  families are now motivated to have their own vegetable garden behind their houses.

When we adopted the village and start building houses (so for 20 houses have been built) for people she was longing in her heart “when will my house be built '” Now the team have built a new house for her and dedicated the house on Jan 4, 2011. Now she is very happy. She said in tears, even my parents and brothers have not cared me like you all did. 

It’s Christ love that compelled the team to move with compassion, knowing whatever they do to these little one, they are doing to Jesus. She said she is thankful to all the  foreigners who have sacrificed their time and money, to build  her house.

She is suffering from leg and hip pain and she is unable to work for long time. Unless she works, she won’t be able to feed the children. She has requested us to remember her in our prayers.