Life Mission International

Baptism in India

When we present Jesus to our non Christian friends, here in India, accepting Jesus as one of their god is easy, because they have 33 million god adding another one does not hurt them at all. But when we say Jesus is the only way and He is the only one God and you need to abandon other gods if you need to follow. That’s where people have to really make a big decision. When people make that decision they encounter one or all of the following type of persecution.

1. Excommunication from family and relatives. You lose your identity and share in the property, no one talks to you and cannot participate in any family function. Many times physical abuse and ill treatment takes place.

2. Excommunication from community / village. This means you will not able to take water from the public well / bore well, cannot buy things from the local store, cannot buy milk from the milk man and no one would talk to you in the entire village. It is a way of forcing you to leave your house and get out the village. It’s is a big humiliation, eventually people have to leave the village as they cannot survive even if they are rich.

3. Persecution from fanatic groups. People from other faith come and attach and burn properties and people. People are killed, raped and forced back to come back to their original religion.

4. Losing government benefits / organized persecution. The movement you became Christian, the government stops all the benefits, includes scholarship in education, job, promotion in housing and etc. There are few states in India has anti conversion law, that put the Christians in danger of paying fine up to $3000 or jail for three years, if you convert people to Christianity. There is also organized attack on Christians. See the link below.  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/world/asia/13india.html?_r=3&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

http://www.conservapedia.com/Anti-conversion_legislation_in_India

In the above background, if someone comes forward to take baptism, it is a huge thing. They have experienced Jesus in a personal way that makes them bold and they are ready to face any problem for taking, public confession of faith in Jesus through, Baptism. Brother Varadaraja Perumal, who was a Hindu Priest, is leading people to follow Jesus. His testimony is here.

http://lifemission.typepad.com/life_mission_internationa/2011/01/testimony-of-varadharaja-perumal.html

He is currently undergoing the PDT training. He has completed Level 2 training and recently he have lead a group of people to take baptism. I had the joy of participating in the event. Here is the video.

Rajeswari : Transformed girl

When we selected Irular colony village as our adopted village to transform through the local church, people were afraid to come close to us as they thought we are high caste and the are low caste and they cannot come closer to us. It took few months to get closer to them. Once while we were doing a construction project, we bought some food from the local restaurant and started eating. Then I noticed this girl, Rajeswari, standing little far watching us taking Lunch. I called her and asked her whether she had Lunch. She said no. I asked her again, what about breakfast she said no. What about yesterday dinner, she said no. Then she said she eats once in a day and she ate only in the previous morning. Today she is waiting for her mother to come from the close by town where her mother is cleaning the utensils for a restaurant. She used to bring the left out food for her 6 children. Rajeswari father died when she was an infant. Then I gave her our food, because she was hungry, she ate two of our lunch.

I asked her what are you doing? she said she is going with her sister to shepherd the goats. I asked her why don’t you go to school, she said her mother don’t have money to send her but she said she is interested in going to school. She was 9 year old then. We took initiative to send Rajeswari and other children from the community for the first time in their history to go to the close by English medium school in Kalavai. Within few months she picked up the studies and that started changing the way she keeps her body clean, the way she talks and the way she relates. Now she is studying third standard she is studying the word of God, praying and helping other little girls in her community. I was amazed to hear her praying, she speaks to God, like, He is standing by her. She is so healthy and happy now.

Today we have changed the lives of 16 children by providing education. We also provide noon meals to these children. We also have after school program in which we help them in their studies, teach bible and provide evening tiffin. This has helped them to be healthy. Now they are influencing their parents to keep their homes clean, and teach them good habits. Parents are thrilled to see the changes taking place in their little children. Now they have a hope, that their children would live a better life.

My Trainer: Dr.Sunder Singh

When I finished my Bachelor degree in 1989, I got an award from Serampore university. I was the first person to get this “gold medal” for my college from Serampore university. Two of the other colleges offered me scholarship to pursue my higher studies  and I was interested in doing so. Then I wanted to consult the man of God, Rev.Dr.D.Sunder Singh, who taught me how to study the bible and how to do ministry. He told me that it is better to go to the field first and plant churches for few years, then probably would be good to go for higher studies. I did not expect this but obeyed him, as I have high respect for him. I knew whatever he says would be good for my life.

I went to Ambernath, a suburban town of Bombay,  as directed by the Church to plant new churches. During our colleges days for 4 years,  during weekends, between the semesters for 10-15 days and during the summer break for another 10-15 days we as a group, have involved in planting number of new Churches. This experience has given us both biblical and practical knowledge. When I went to Bombay this training has helped me in planting a Church. And by God grace, He helped me plant another Church among the most backward people of this town. I stayed there for three years before I went to do my higher studies in one of the prestigious institution in India, Union Biblical Seminary, of Pune.

Dr.Sunder Singh, who was a practical man, who loved Jesus and His people, presented a paper on Theological education and Church Planting in a Mission Conference in Chennai in 1992, where around 2000 Christian workers attended. In his paper he said that the Bible colleges in India are not producing Church planters and hence he proposed the following 7 recommendations to change this.

1. Let us train as many as we can, engage as many as we can, win as many as we can, when doors are open for the preaching of the gospel.

2. Let the seminaries be the “task force” in a given area in fulfilling the great commission of our Lord, carrying the gospel to the un evangelized towns and villages of India.

3. Enroll only those young men and women who are called and committed to the cause of evangelism and Church Planting.

4. Appoint faculty members who have gone through the exciting experience of giving birth to a Church themselves.

5. Make sure that seminaries are idea factories and research centers which produce men of action and not just institutions of mere academic pursuit.

6. Establish more regional and rural bible schools and offer certificate level courses, for 80% of India’s population live in 600 thousand villages.

7. Establish a clear and closer link and tie with the Church. Seminaries should serve the Church and not the vice versa.

Today when I look back my life, I am so happy for the counsel of this godly man. What I am doing now is the exactly the same 7 recommendation he had in 1992, for the Bible colleges and theologians. I started doing this from 1996 and by God’s grace I could train Church planters both within India and in foreign countries to plant around 2000 Churches till today. One man’s vision changed the destiny of many. Glory to God!