I began to pray for India 7-10 years before I ever went to visit. During that time of regular prayer, I was able to keep a visiting Indian minister in my home to help him in a fundraising trip he made to the US. I was impressed with how polite this man was. He was the leader of 1200 churches and 4 bible schools which was the fourth largest protestant denomination in India at the time. Not long after the man went back to his home in Kerala, God began to inspire me to go to India. I could sense the Lord as He spoke to me that I should plan a trip to share the Gospel there. Naturally, I thought about contacting the man who stayed in my home. He had promised to take care of me and put me on a stage for a crowd of ten thousand people if I ever wanted to visit his state. Shortly after I began to consider that offer, another minister I knew from Australia called me and told me he felt the Lord was speaking about me going to a bible school in another state and he wanted me to pray about it. I prayed and felt the Lord was in that word from my friend, so I made plans and went to that Bible school in Andrea Pradesh to be a part of whatever God wanted me to do. While I was there, I learned a lot about the Indian culture and the Christian people there. I also began to see God work through healing miracles as He touched many people when the missionaries prayed. I also taught the students in the bible school new worship songs and became friends with some of them. By the end of my trip there, I had seen God move in a strong way and I even received an invitation to join the staff of one of the churches in Hyderabad. I was surprised and encouraged, but I knew my call was not to work in just one church.
When I returned home, I had a place in my heart for India and I continued to pray for the nation and the Bible school students I had met. I had one student ask if I could send some new music for them and we continued to correspond as time went by. The young man sent me a picture of his father and him standing on a concrete foundation and asked me to pray that the Lord would complete the property as a church. The young man’s father had worked for the government for years, but when they found out he was a Christian pastor, he was fired from his job. He took all of his retirement fund savings and built the foundation for his church to have a building. We were happy to pray with them and believe God would answer. It was interesting to us that the Lord used a man we gave a temporary place to stay to help them have the prayer answered. The man was starting a new job and was planning to use his first check to pay the security deposit for an apartment. When he got the check, the Lord told him to give the tithe to the church building fund in India. (We had shown him a picture of the young man and his father on the concrete foundation). The man was starting his new job in the mortgage industry and he had a very good three weeks of business. He gave the tithe money to us to send to India and we did. To our surprise, the money was enough to complete the building and the church members were delighted!
We continued our correspondence and when the building was completed, they asked me to come for its dedication ceremony. After praying, I felt the Lord said to go, so we were part of the new building opening. God began to open doors for us to minister while there on that trip and we saw many people respond to the message of the Gospel. We even sponsored a pastor’s conference and had many pastors come for the teaching of the word. This relationship continued to develop and we worked with the bible school student (Raju) to develop outreaches and conferences while his father focused on his local church.
As we continued to make trips to India, we traveled to small villages and shared in meetings with the people. We saw many of those villagers give their hearts to Jesus and we experienced much of God’s healing power as He showed Himself strong for the people to see. After many years of continuing this outreach method, the Lord said to me on one plane trip that He was taking us from hundreds of people hearing the message to ten thousands. I was excited and blessed at that word. I did not know when it would happen, but I looked forward to that day! On that same trip, our first outdoor meeting had about 16,000 in attendance, the second had about 25,000 in attendance and our third meeting had about 50,000 in attendance. In every meeting we had about 80 percent of the people sign cards that they were born again. We saw so many miraculous healings that we couldn’t count them all. God was touching our region and the people came to expect the best from God. Once we were observed by the government as being so well received, they refused to give us permits of approval to hold the evangelistic meetings anymore. We were forced to go back to villages where we would have 2 or 3 thousand come to hear the message of Jesus, but God was still faithful to draw people into His kingdom. We still saw God’s healing power released and many received healing and salvation.
During this time, Raju wanted us to pray about getting property so we could take care of orphans that were turned out onto the streets. We prayed and the Lord gave us the money to buy the land and eventually the first floor of our ministry building. We built in phases as God supplied the money. Eventually we completed the ministry building after nine years. We believed in God for every step and he was faithful to complete the steps. All the while, we continued the pastor’s conferences, we held outreaches, and we took care of the children as God supplied.
After 25 years, the national government cancelled my visa to India and will not allow me to return. My memories of the good things God did while we were there are still positive. We have more than 150,000 signed decision cards that indicate people who were born again, we had many church buildings constructed to support the local ministries, we ministered to thousands of pastors in conferences over the years and we helped hundreds of children learn to be productive adult Christian people as we supported them in a time of their lives when they were cast aside. It was a blessing to see God’s hand move for all of the people He touched during our 25 years of ministry in India. Praise the Lord!
