Praise the Lord that, through faithful friends and generous believers, I have received enough funding for my mission trip to India this November to purchase my air fare ($1,451)!! I just need the remaining amount to send to Truthseekers and a little bit to cover the visa for entry into India. Thank you for financial and spiritual support!
In case you want to know a little bit more about Truthseekers International and what the American group will be doing to help, here is an incredible story about how their ministry began:
"God joins East and West" - the story of Sunil and Pam Sardar
(as taken from http://truthseekersinternational.org/sections/aboutus.php?Id=1)
In 1985, a young American woman named Pam visited India as part of a family mission trip. Her soul was stirred with compassion for the physical and spiritual poverty of this unfamiliar but wonderful land. However, upon her return to her teaching job in Elkhart, Indiana, Pam began to spend her time in self-directed pursuits. She nearly entered a marriage that was clearly not part of God's plan for her life. Three weeks before that marriage, Pam ended the relationship and surrendered the direction of her life to the guiding hand of Jesus Christ.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a young Indian national named Sunil was pursuing opportunities to bring the life saving news of Jesus Christ to his beloved country. God moved his heart toward a ministry with an eternal impact- planting healthy, vibrant churches. He wanted a wife with whom to share this journey, and began to pray, asking others to pray as well.
It happened that Pam's mother was one of the people who began to pray for Sunil. As she prayed, the Lord impressed upon her spirit that Sunil's wife would be her daughter, Pam. She shared this conviction with both Pam and Sunil, who agreed to take the matter to the Lord in prayer. Having never met, Pam and Sunil were nonetheless open to any way that God might want to work in their lives. God gave Sunil the following scripture: ''No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him – but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.'' (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)
The Lord spoke to Pam as well, and the first time Sunil called Pam in April of 1989, they became engaged over the phone. Sunil flew to the U.S., and the couple first met in August of 1989. Two months later they married. They see their marriage as a miracle directly from the hand of God, and have been living that miracle ever since.
In July of 1990, Sunil and Pam Sardar began their ministry in India among a small tribal group in Maharashtra (central India) called the Kolawar. After witnessing for several months, Sunil planned a leadership conference for the group, and 45 people were baptized into Christ. Minutes after the baptism, militant Hindus stormed the gathering and Sunil was arrested. Imprisoned for four days, he continued sharing the Gospel and several fellow prisoners came to the Lord. God used this sequence of events to birth a church-planting ministry called ''Dinbandhu'' (Friend of the poor.)
Sunil became active in politics and aligned closely with Prakash Ambedkar, a Member of Parliament and grandson of one of the men who wrote India's Constitution. He also began publishing a weekly newspaper called ''Jankar'' (one who knows truth) to educate lower castes and Dalits about the need for change in India. Working with others, Sunil and Pam helped begin an English medium Christian school in Wardha for tribal and lower caste children. Through this network of activities and relationships, the Dinbandhu ministry flourished. More than 400 churches representing 40 different castes stand as testimony to God's miraculous work poured out through a decade of church planting.
God has led Sunil and Pam into a new phase of ministry, the creation of Truthseekers International, named after the 19th century Truthseekers movement started by Mahatma Jotirao Phule. The goal of Truthseekers International is to present the Truth of Jesus Christ to the seven hundred million lower caste and Dalit peoples throughout India.
The home for Truthseekers International is New Delhi, a strategic city in Southeast Asia. In Hindi, ''dil'' means heart. As never before in history, this new heart city is open to change. Trusting God and His leading, Sunil and Pam see this as God's time for revival.
God has given Sunil a vision of the river Ganges filled with thousands of new brothers and sisters baptizing each other in the name of Jesus Christ. Share the vision. Pray for India.
0 comments:
Post a Comment