October EHC newsletter

Jesus said "Therefore go and make disciples Matthew 28:19 of all nations."

India Shutterstock: 215763271

October 2014

You Can Never Love Without Giving This year marks EHC’s 50th year of ministry to the vast nation of India.

As I reflect on the men and women who’ve invested their lives to reach this Hindu nation, I think of Amy Carmichael, Irish missionary to India in the early 1900’s. Best known for her writings, the 50 years she gave to India focused on the plight of girls, as young as age five, who were offered by their parents to temple gods as prostitutes.

Opening an orphanage for these marginalised girls, she loved them and restored dignity to their broken lives.

“You can always give without loving, but you can never love without giving,” is one of Miss Carmichael’s best known quotes. Clearly, she understood the most basic human need—to be loved. Her own sister said of her that Amy was “ very much concerned with both loving and serving people wherever and whenever opportunity arose.”

“Serving” others, no matter what their social or economic status, is what Jesus did and what He calls His followers to do. To be “like Christ” is to put the needs of others before your own. This simple principle is paramount to EHC pioneer missionaries all over the globe. Why else would they do what they do? Theirs are lives of immense gratitude—gratitude to the Saviour they’re so passionate to share in their nations. Giving many hours of personal time—in addition to working jobs, caring for their families and serving in their churches, these dedicated workers are the hands and feet of Jesus himself.

These dear ones sacrifice time, energy, ridicule and sometimes their lives to bring the Gospel to unfriendly and hostile areas. You’ll read about some of them in the following pages. From Asia to the Caribbean they serve. Please take a moment to lift them up to God in prayer—the work they do is difficult and exhausting.

Dick Eastman Every Home for Christ International President

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ehind her somber eyes and exotic beauty lies a story whose ending is yet to be written. Her name is India, one of the oldest nations on earth. Her children young and old are born to destinies determined by man-made castes.The fortunate inherit immense wealth, privilege and the highest social standing.

The lesser, through no fault of their own, are doomed with the curse of “social lepers,” sentenced to a life marked by the world’s severest poverty.

India

Second only to China in size, India’s population of 1.2 billion is a mixed conglomeration. Polarising social and economic ranking, diverse languages and religions—feed varying degrees of hostility.

These challenges, coupled with the sheer size of this giant nation, make India one of the most difficult areas of the world to evangelise.

This year, Every Home for Christ celebrates 50 years of ministry in India. The work has been difficult for the India EHC pioneer missionaries, intent on bringing the light of Christ to their nation. Much prayer and fasting cover their efforts as they boldly take the Gospel door-to-door. It’s not unusual for them to travel many miles by foot or bicycle in the extreme triple-digit heat to reach rural villages where no roads exist. Often, they’re met with hostility from angry mobs who chase them out of their villages, tearing up the Gospel literature they came to share, sometimes beating them before running them off.

One EHC team recently had such an experience. Though they’d been told that several years ago a gospel team was brutally beaten by anti-Christians in a remote village, they felt strongly about reaching this area for Christ. After leaving Gospel literature at a couple of homes, they observed a group of angry men watching them. “Who gave you

Greta Gabaglio

permission to distribute Christian material in this village?” they shouted. “Don’t you know this is a Hindu village?” Snatching all the literature from the hands of the missionaries, they tore it up and threw it on the roadside. With threats to their lives, the volunteers were run out of the village, quickly realising they were being followed by men on motorbikes. As one of them took off his shoe to beat the group, the missionaries cried out to God for protection.

Fortunately, they were able to escape— manhandled, but not seriously injured.

Such incidences only fuel the fire that burns in the hearts of EHC workers as they trust God for their protection and ask the Holy Spirit to penetrate the darkness of their nation. Undeterred, EHC workers are continually striving toward reaching every person in this vast nation.

More than 275 million homes have been visited, one at a time, by volunteers whose hearts beat to transform their nation with the Gospel of Christ. They know full well that the bondage of centuries of idol worship is not easily broken in a nation where 80 percent of the people practice Hinduism.

Of those home visits, 9,439,221 people have responded to Christ.

What drives these workers? A passion to reach a new generation in India for Christ— it will be the youth of their nation who courageously break away from the religion of their ancestors, that will transform their nation.

Though India is an open nation according to the law of the land, persecution often accompanies the work of the Gospel. More and more Christian families are being targeted with beatings and destruction of their property. Recently, in one such attack several Christian families lost all their possessions, including one EHC worker.

Another such attack sent hundreds of

Indian Christians fleeing into the jungles as their homes were being destroyed by angry extremists.

In the face of persecution, EHC India continues to go home to home with the Gospel seeing as many as 158,967 responses each year.

The Regional Director of EHC India says, “It is because of God’s grace and guidance, with the prayers and support of God’s people, that we can share the Gospel of salvation to those who are seeking the truth. The ministry faces challenges and hardships, but God turns them into opportunities for us to pray more and to serve even more passionately in hard times!

We praise God that in spite of challenges, opposition, and persecution, EHC workers in all Indian states continue to serve.”

Amid these enormous challenges, the winds of change are blowing. A glimpse of a “new India” is emerging from the rubble. Partly due to advanced opportunities for education and technology, and partly due to a growing hunger for truth, more and more young people are rejecting the gods of their ancestors and embracing the love of Christ.

Among a population where more than half are under the age of 35, a bold new generation of believers is emerging.

These new believers and the EHC workers who minister to them need your prayers.

Pray for the courageous young people who have defected from their ancestral faith and have been ostracised from their families.

Pray for churches that are being monitored more closely. And most of all, pray for God to continue to pour out His Spirit on India, a nation deeply in need of the Gospel.

If you would like to help support the work of EHC in India at this historic time, please use the enclosed form and envelope to send your designated gift.

- Kathy Gowler

Pray for the Rev Samuel Hilel Lal India Every Home Crusade/Every Home for Christ Executive President.

Pray God will give him wisdom as he leads a full time staff with hundreds on staff.

Pray for Samuel's wife Deepika, his elder daughter Deepanjali Esther and her husband as they are expecting their first child to be born very soon and his youngest daughter Divya Sarah.

"Expect Great Things from God; Attempt Great Things for God" - William Carey India 1793 'Expect great things from God; Attempt great things for God' was the call William Carey made which would forever be associated with his name. Have faith. That was the first requirement. With that, the necessary power would flow into man so that he could achieve the seemingly impossible. God's promises were so generous, so unmistakable to Carey, steeped as he was in the Word of God as revealed in the Bible. 'Seek ye first in 1793 and in five years he translated the the kingdom of God and his righteousness, New Testament into Bengali. He completed and all these things shall be added unto you.' the translation of the whole Bible into Bengali in 1809 and was responsible for its It must be remembered that he was translation, in whole or in part, into 24 other not preaching to a wealthy, influential languages and dialects. congregation that day but to a gathering of fellow Baptists. The ministers/pastors there The humble shoemaker from were mostly, like himself, in charge of small, Northamptonshire rose to become a poor Village Churches. They were ordinary, distinguished College professor whose good but unimaginative men. Carey was an assistance was sought by Governors-General embarrassment to them; he had a 'bee in his in India. bonnet' about missions.

Could Carey have imagined as a result In 1777 Carey was apprenticed to a of his going to India 221 years ago and shoemaker in Northamptonshire, but after other missionaries launching the Gospel his conversion he spent part of his time as in India that today there would be millions a preacher, teaching himself Latin, Greek, of Christians in India and indigenous Hebrew, Dutch and French. He sailed for India missionary works like Every Home for Christ!

Papua New Guinea Land of a Thousand Languages!

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he nation of Papua New Guinea, known simply as PNG by the people of this Pacific island region, has a population of six million people. PNG is arguably the most linguistically diverse nation on earth per capita, with more than 860 languages discovered thus far (with the strong possibility of numerous languages and dialects not yet even discovered). PNG could well be described as “the land of a thousand languages!” EHC is now highly active in 16 of the 20 provinces in this diverse nation.

provinces of PNG. Further, PNG is one of the most difficult places on earth to reach home by home because of the treacherous mountains, crocodile-infested rivers and lakes, and isolated communities with no established road networks of any kind.

But EHC workers have not given up on the remote villages and mountainous towns they know exist. They are dedicated workers who are out there, pounding the gravel and rocky paths, going to every home, despite the danger and physical demands of their In addition to the language challenges, journey. Their goal is to reach every person, in tribal warfare is a huge obstacle to home- every village, in every home with the Gospel to-home evangelism in many of the remote of Jesus Christ.

Raymond’s Story Raymond (pictured right) was a drug addict in Mount Hagen city of this district of PNG. In June of this year, EHC was part of a crusade organized in the city. One night, EHC’s National Director was preaching when Raymond was convicted of his sin and gave his life to Christ.

More than 100 people were also brought into the kingdom. Since that event, Raymond has been delivered of drug addiction, discipled by EHC workers, and has served as a volunteer for EHC, reaching other drug addicts in the nearby Chimbu province. Raymond reported, “My life had no purpose when I was into drugs. Now that I have Christ in my life, I have something to live for. I know that God can use me to reach out to those people like me who have become victims of drug addiction.” Glory to God for this wonderful transformation in Raymond’s life!

Francisco shares God’s plan of salvation with Wichi youth.

Miracle Sparks Revival ARgentina

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very Home for Christ workers around the world are reaching people with the Gospel every day.

People groups that have been unreached still exist in many nations and EHC pioneer missionaries are working feverishly to reach them. In 1991, EHC Argentina began a special project to just such a people group; the then-largely-unreached Wichi tribe.

About the Wichi, they are hunter-gatherer people and are semi-nomadic. Despite transculturation, a fairly large number of nomadic clans exist within the Wichi community. Mud houses with rooves made of leaves and branches help them survive temperatures that can reach 120 degrees.

Wichis hunt deer, armadillos and rabbits for food, and a significant part of their economy is derived from weaving nets and

handicrafts for purses and textiles.

When EHC workers began to reach out to the Wichi, they found a ripe harvest as many began turning to Christ. These special outreaches that began all those years ago continue today. Ministry among the Wichis has grown significantly, now including networks of Christ Groups, training indigenous leaders, and the mobilization of Wichi believers across the nation of Argentina—and beyond!

During that first year of outreaches , one of the very first Wichi to come to Christ through EHC was a man named Francisco Mendez. After receiving Jesus, Francisco was discipled by EHC workers. Today, Francisco is a prominent pastor who now leads EHC’s ministry among the Wichi, including overseeing many Christ Groups!

One Sunday at a Christ Group meeting led

by Francisco, a man in a wheelchair arrived, accompanied by several friends and family members. The man, named Avelino, suffered from cerebral palsy. Avelino had been paralyzed for more than four years, and the latest medical report indicated he would remain in this condition for the rest of his life. Avelino and his family had received gospel literature at their home a few days earlier when EHC workers visited them. After reading the booklet, they were moved by its message. An address printed on the literature led them to Francisco’s Christ Group that following Sunday.

reach the unreached with the Gospel.

The group first traveled to Los Blancos, a village of 1,000 Wichi who had never heard the Good News. The incredible response was immediate: at least 200 Wichis, mostly young people, came to Christ! From there the group continued to the village of Cornejo, even deeper in the jungle. Once again some 200 Wichis received Jesus!

One of these was a 16-year-old girl who had been in bed for days with a very high fever.

After EHC workers shared the Gospel with her family, they prayed for the teen and she was healed.

From Cornejo they traveled to La Tusca, where yet another 300 indigenous people received Christ as Saviour. In a few days it was on to Tartagal, where another 100 Wichis found Christ. After Tartagal, many of the team had to return home because of their jobs, but a smaller group of 30 believers stayed on with Francisco and continued visiting other indigenous communities, and the harvest continued to multiply!

It was there that the family met Christ personally, and in that initial meeting Francisco prayed a prayer of faith over Avelino. The result was a miracle. Francisco testifies, “Immediately after the prayer, Avelino stood to his feet and began walking!”

The whole Christ Group was amazed at this manifestation of God’s power. That one service lasted from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. the following morning, and a great revival broke out among members of the group!

Motivated by this miracle, Pastor Francisco and other members of the Christ Group (120 in all) felt compelled to go to other communities in their Province of Salta to

In the village of Algarrobito 150 more souls were saved. In the town of Bayibian more than 300 received salvation. All told, six villages were transformed as more than 1,250 Wichis came to Christ in this village-to-village and home-to-home campaign in the Province of Salta. In all these regions new Christ Groups have been firmly established and continue to provide a strong witness of Christ.

For Francisco the dramatic work continues as a result of all these salvations. What is happening in their region through the spread of the Gospel is unprecedented—it has extended even beyond the borders of Argentina!

One convert named Ramón Juarez was a tribal chief in the town of Cornejo. He had received Christ as a result of earlier EHC outreaches. Ramón alerted Francisco to

the fact that there were numerous Wichi communities across the border in Bolivia with multitudes yet to hear the Gospel!

So Ramón,a brand new convert,and Francisco went to the town of Aguaray in Bolivia and visited yet another Wichi community. As it is customary to meet with the chief of a village before entering, they located the leader and shared their intentions with him. He warmly received them and allowed them to share the message of salvation with him. However, the chief told Francisco that he didn’t want to abandon their religious traditions. He explained that they worshipped an idol called Pachamama that represents the “Mother Soil” and because the soil provides its fruits for their sustenance they felt a need to honour and worship the idol.

Francisco responded by telling the chief that he and Ramón had come to announce that the one true God who made all the earth and the very soil that produces all fruit

sent His only Son as a sacrifice for the sins of all the people of his village. The chief was impressed and asked Francisco to return later and tell all of his 3,000 villagers more about this new God and His Son Jesus. Even more recently Francisco received a message from chief Ramón in Cornejo, asking him to travel again with him to this village in Bolivia because, according to Ramón, the natives there are “very interested in hearing—in the Wichi language—about this new God.” Francisco returned to Bolivia to preach the Gospel to the hungry souls who were eager to know about Jesus.

Francisco concludes, “This is the first time in my life that God has shown me so great a gift of seeing a revival like this among our tribes. When I see the people receiving Christ and forsaking their idols in such amazing numbers, along with the miracles of healings that God is performing, we feel enormous joy. We can’t help but praise the Lord!”

Two new Wichi believers study foundational Bible passages found in the “Be Fruitful and Multiply” (BFAM) curriculum.

A WILL IS NOT FOREVER You can revisit it as many times as you please. If you do not want to change the Will substantially, all you need is a Codicil with the changes. It makes sense to review your Will after you retire.

WHEN THERE IS NOT A WILL

WHERE THERE’S

A WILL, THERE’S A WAY

Death should be our liveliest preoccupation—especially useful if it makes you concentrate on life. You don’t want to die feeling you haven’t lived, haven’t kept everything neat and tidy for those left behind.

As the old proverb goes, “ If I were to die tomorrow, what would I wish to have done today?”

MAKE A WILL, FOR ONE. You don’t have to be rich, famous, with one foot in the grave, or signing a death warrant to make a Will. It’s wise forethought. This is the only way of making certain that your worldly possessions go exactly where you want them to go, to save your loved ones from suffocating red tape, legal hassles, and unwelcome claimants.

Without a Will it is possible to have left behind a split-atthe-seams-family and unseemly legal wrangles—all for the want of a Will.

Your estate will be divided among your legal heirs according to the law of the country.

Your heirs may have to spend long hours in court to take possession of their property. They will also probably have to pay legal advice.

INFORMATION At Every Home for Christ we have some information we can send you to help you in preparing your Will—this information is sent to you free of charge.

EVERY HOME FOR CHRIST Also let me encourage you to pray about including Every Home for Christ in your Will. It’s a decision in your “lifetime” and I am sure you will be blessed just as you are now when you give a gift.

May God guide you.