Brother Uday Narayan has been our resident missionary to the Fiji Islands and India for nearly four decades. His wife and family have shared his burden through the years and have also accompanied him many times, preaching and witnessing the true gospel over the vast harvest fields of Indian souls. Now the Lord has provided a couple who share this same burden. Brother Ravind and Sister Suman Narayan (no relation), spiritual fruits of Brother Uday Narayan’s numerous crusades in Fiji, have answered the call to join him as our church’s resident missionaries to the same harvest fields so beloved by Elder Narayan. Our church and pastor fully support and celebrate their appointment to continue evangelistic outreaches in the years ahead. Elder Narayan will continue journeying to India and Fiji as his health permits, but he is overjoyed to pass the mantle to this younger couple who are honored and deeply humbled to succeed him. Ravind and Suman have already been to India earlier this year, sharing the gospel. At press time, Ravind was about to embark again. Praise the Lord! The following begins a two-part series of the testimonies of faith of Ravind and Suman Narayan. We begin with Sister Suman and how the Lord called her to be His willing vessel when it seemed all odds were against her. Her story is one of victories and triumph making her the spiritual saint she is today. Read and be inspired!
PART I THE TESTIMONY OF SISTER SUMAN NARAYAN
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HUMBLE AND CHALLENGING BEGINNINGS
uman was born in Fiji on the island of Viti Levu. She and her three sisters and one younger brother grew up in the rural outskirts near the city of Nausori. Her parents, Kamlesh and Jai Lata, were very devoted Hindus. Suman grew up in the 1970’s and 80’s on a ranch surrounded by rice fields in a wooden house with a corrugated metal roof and dirt floors. They had no air conditioning and slept on the floor. They lived together in their eight-room house with her father’s three brothers, their wives, and their children, approximately 18 people in 18
SUMMER NEWSVINE 2018
all. “We all pulled together,” said Suman. If the harvest was good, they had enough, but if it rained and they had no rice harvest, it was very difficult. They did not worry about snakes because the mongooses ate them, but mosquitoes--they were always a problem, along with typhoid and dysentery. They got their water from a well which never ran dry. At night, when it was dark and private, they would bathe next to the well. Since they didn’t have a car, they had limited entertainment. Suman and her sisters cooked and sewed, and she loved spending what free time she had reading. Her father was a carpenter, and her mother worked in a garment factory. Her parents were very strict. She wore only dresses, Her father forbade her and her sisters to wear pants or to cut their hair. Her grandmother cautioned her and her sisters not to marry a city boy, or they would be locked up in a house. Because her parents and grandparents were devout Hindus, she remembers an uncountable number of idols and pictures around their home to which they faithfully prayed. Her favorite was Saraswati, the god of education, as she wanted to pass her exams and do well in school. Her dream was to find a career that would help her and her family. Fiji, at the time, was under the English education system. They had major exams at the end of elementary and high school which must be passed in order to advance to the next level. She loved studying Shakespeare, and her favorite teacher was her English literature teacher. She walked two miles to school every day barefoot as it rained so much the muddy roads made walking in shoes impossible. She studied hard, got good grades, and passed her exams, but was unable to attend college as their family could not afford the cost. Life was difficult for Suman growing up because her father was an alcoholic. She remembers that he would always come home loud and drunk and would argue and grow violent with her mother and sometimes his own mother. He never gave them any emotional support. They tried everything, but to no avail. Suman was very close to her grandmother and loved her very much. Her grandmother was a great comfort to her when her father would come home drunk. When Suman was 17, she put aside her dream of going to college and went to work to help support the family. She got a job working at the same garment factory as her mother. Suman got paid 50 cents an hour; her mother 75 cents. Her mother would also wash clothes at all of the homes of the wealthy people in their area. She would
