E-pray: October 2009
Dear friends,
We trust and pray that you are doing well. We thank and praise God for your partnership with us in the ministry of the Gospel. We are so thankful that we were able to send the container with the food and a lot of other useful things for the ministry and the people there. Thank you for all the help we received. Please pray that the container will arrive safely and we will be able to clear it through customs without any hassles.
I am preparing to return to India in a few weeks. Please pray for me as I attend to the many projects and responsibilities in India that need my attention.
We have been praying for the people of Orissa and following the news. Just last week there was a bomb blast by the anti-Christians in one of the refugee camps. Please keep praying that this would end soon so the people can get back to their homes and lives once again. We trust that God is in control and He will use all of this for good somehow.
Pastor Ezra and his family live at the training center and he travels and speaks and encourages the believers in our SERVE India churches and around the area. This is the testimony that Pastor Ezra told as he remembered the night the radical Hindus came to kill him…
“Dozens of angry Hindu fanatics rushed into my house on that night. Each possessed Hindu orange bands on their foreheads and machetes and rods in their hands. As soon as they saw me they hit me with their rods and yanked me. I fell on the ground and fought for consciousness as hard as I could. They continued to beat me and they yanked my hair. Perhaps they would pull off the top of my head. I tried to pull my legs together and one grabbed me and yelled, ‘You cannot escape this time, this is your day to die!’
I feared I would die without saying farewell to my wife and two young children and my father and mother. My mind filled with the thought of them, hoping for their tender arms to secure me as they had so often. I thought of my father who reluctantly agreed for me to go to this village and try to preach Jesus Christ in the state of Orissa. I thought how sad he would be. I thought of my beloved wife. and my children and how they would grow up without me and a sense of fear came to me. At the same time my spirit yearned to fly to Heaven to be with my beloved Jesus who died for me.
My arms strained as 2 enemies of my Lord dragged me out to a ditch. A trail of blood followed, gushing from my mouth and my body. My bones showed protruding from my dark skin. One of the men placed his rough bloody hands around my neck and squeezed until my body went limp. ‘He is dead, leave him,’ he said. So they left me in the ditch for dead.
I sensed the presence of God by my side. My church members found me lying in a bloody pool. They took me immediately to the local hospital. Over the weeks God strengthened me and miraculous healings took place. While I was in the hospital there were more people brought in from these riots. We realized it was not safe for us to be in our homes in Orissa any more. Hundreds of believers were leaving their homes and going into the forests for safety. We joined with them. There was no food or anything in the forests. We were eating grass and leaves and feeding it to our children. We heard there was an invitation by SERVE India to go to Andhra Pradesh where it is a safe place. I praise God for how he led us there.
Our hearts are back home for our state of Orissa and our hope is that the people would repent and come to know the Living God.”
We are so thankful for all of you in our lives and so grateful for your prayer for us. Thank you for standing with us and bringing the Gospel to the unreached.
May God bless you and your families as you follow Him.