Greetings, grace, and peace to you in the precious name of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.
Once again the Lord blessed our most recent mission trip to Sri Lanka and
India. Pastor David Arulnathan and his wife Victoria joined us in our trip
as well. While we were ministering in India, David and Victoria were
ministering in Sri Lanka. In India, we visited new churches we had started
and it was a joy for us to see the churches had grown both numerically and
spiritually.Pastors are serving the Lord faithfully by bringing new souls
into God's kingdom. New converts are passionately sharing Jesus Christ with
their Hindu friends and neighbors and inviting them to church.
In one of the new congregations I had the great joy of laying hands on three
young men to commission them as evangelists to three villages. Kumar,
Godwin, and Gideon were new converts from Hinduism that I had baptized about
5 years ago. They felt God calling them to ministry. They obeyed the call,
went to Bible College, received two years training and came back ready for
ministry. Praise the Lord!
At another new congregation where I was scheduled to preach, the pastor
walked up to me just before I was to start and said I needed to hear
something before preaching. A young boy eleven years old stood before the
congregation and started reciting the 119th Psalm. He had memorized all 176
verses of this psalm and did not miss a verse or stumble! I was thrilled.
After he finished, the pastor told me the boy could recite Psalms 120 and
121 also!
The new Christians in these congregations, which are only 3, 4 and
5 years old, are living testimonies to what God is doing in the lives of
these converts.
Dr Pushparaj, who is supervising our ministries in India, continues to be a
great blessing to the new congregations and helping and guiding our pastors
in ministry. We traveled 400km through the night to reach a village in south
India to dedicate a new church we helped build.
After finishing our ministry in India, we came back to Sri Lanka and joined
David and Victoria. We visited churches — preaching, teaching, and baptizing
new converts from Hinduism and Buddhism. A total of seventy-five converts
were baptized and received into fellowship.
In one of the worship services, I called for sharing personal testimonies.
One woman stood up and said how Jesus Christ changed her husband's evil and
sinful life and made him into a new husband and new father to her four
children. “If the Lord Jesus can bring such a miraculous transformation,"
she said, "then my children and I want to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord
and Savior too.” This was a Buddhist family and I had the joy of baptizing
all six of them.
A New Christian’s Witness
A week after he had become a Christian, Vijay went to his Buddhist priest
and witnessed to him about Jesus Christ. The priest was angry and questioned
him as to why he became a Christian. He answered and said, “I have been a
Buddhist all my life for forty-five years; what Buddhism could not give me,
the Lord Jesus Christ did within a few minutes. I heard the gospel message,
I responded and I said, ‘Lord Jesus, take away my sin, forgive me, cleanse
and make me a new man and I will follow you.’ Jesus Christ cleansed me of my
sin and made me into a new man. What my Buddhist priest and my Buddhism did
not give me, Jesus Christ gave me!” Friends, what a tremendous and bold
witness this was to a Buddhist priest.
I asked Vijay if he would be persecuted by Buddhists? “Yes,” he said, “but
don't you worry, Christ will help me and I can handle it.” What a great
faith. Please pray for Vijay and his family.
In another church where Pastor David preached, a man who had been a Hindu,
knelt down in the midst of the congregation and shared his testimony.
His son had been sick for several months and he had taken the boy to many
doctors and many hospitals. The boy was suffering from a chronic illness.
When everyone had given up hope for recovery, some laymen heard about his
situation. They fasted, prayed, and visited the boy's home. They shared the
good news of Jesus Christ — the great physician — and offered to lay hands
on the sick boy and pray. With the father's approval they prayed for the
child and the Lord touched and healed him! Later the whole family accepted
Christ, was baptized and received into the church. Both our pastors and
laity are actively engaged in ministry. What a joy to be in ministry in a
church that is on fire for the Lord!
A New Mission Challenge
We are planning to buy a piece of property where our ministry is located in
Sri Lanka. Currently, The Siloam Evangelical Mission owns the land where the
mission is located, but they are closing and going back to Germany. This
property of two acres, a church building, parsonage and two other buildings
is for sale. Many ministries are run from this site including an orphanage
that houses 21 children ranging in age from 9-17 years.
Buddhists have already offered to buy the property with ready cash, but I
pleaded with the mission not to sell the property to them. I said that I
would try to raise enough funds to buy the property for our mission work. We
took a step of faith and negotiated the price from $65,000 current market
value to $45,000. We have raised and paid $15,000. We now need to raise the
balance of $30,000 before the end of May 2004. With the support and prayers
of all our prayer partners, we believe we can raise this money before the
end of May. This is our greatest need at this time.
Other needs include three motor scooters for pastors who minister in distant
villages. Cost: $600 each. Another congregation, meeting in a small house
for worship, needs to buy a piece of land which will cost about $2,000. Yet
another new congregation that meets in a palm-leaf thatched shed also needs
a church building. This may cost $6-8,000.
We are sharing these needs with you as our prayer partners. These needs are
for new Christians who have come out of the Hindu and Buddhist religions.
It will take some time to teach and train them in Christian giving so they
can support themselves. Pray with us earnestly for the Lord to provide us
the needed funds to carry on the evangelistic mission work to which God has
called us. We have a burden for Hindus and Buddhists in these nations-they
need Jesus Christ.
In both India and Sri Lanka we have a total of 24 workers, pastors and
evangelists. We need to support them financially until such time the
churches can support their own workers. We try to send $50 month for a
pastor and his family. We have not been able to support them regularly
because of the lack of funds. If 24 of our prayer partners send us $50 a
month, we will have enough funds to support our workers. If the Lord lays
this need upon your heart, say “Yes” to the Lord and help us.
We will also continue to drill wells in villages where people need drinking
water. Drilling a well costs around $1,500-2,000, depending on the depth
where water can be reached and the distance from where the equipment comes
for drilling.
We believe our Lord's return will be soon and before his glorious coming, we
want to win as many souls as we can reach. The un-evangelized and the
un-reached people in India and Sri Lanka are our mission. We invite you to
pray with us and prayerfully consider helping us meet our mission challenge.
Will you help us take the gospel to these nations by sowing your generous
seeds of financial support?
Thank you and God bless you.
Editor’s Note: Your checks can be written to UMORE and
designated: India/Sri Lanka Mission. Please send your gifts to:
UMORE: India/Sri Lanka Mission
Harry Knutsen, Treasurer
308 N. Main Street
Walcott, IA 52773
Your gifts are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
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