Ministry of the Word to Manali, HP

A beautiful valley surrounded by snow-clad mountain famous for tourist destination welcomed us warmly in a Christian-run school guest house. The story behind this connection, a brother welcoming guarantee to Manali and to the guest house, is worth mentioning. 

Few years ago a brother from Rourkee heard about me and came to meet me along with another brother in Gurgaon who knew my address, since then, we maintain our relationship in Christ. This brother from Gurgaon got married to a sister in Manali and is known to a principal of a school who was given a free Rhema booklet in Hindi when he recently came to visit him in Gurgaon. This principal handed over the Hindi booklet to another brother who is a clerk in the same school who read and was so impressed by the truths. He wanted to order the next set, but his filled-in postcard for next set order was sent to him back wrongly twice instead of being sent to Rhema's office in Bangalore. Then he decided to send SMS instead, and he did it thrice to make sure his complete address was sent with a request for the books in Hindi. This happened when we were praying and considering to visit Manali. He then became the key contact who made all the arrangements in the city. And it was he who welcomed us in the early hour of the morning when the city reeled at about 1 degree Celsius. 

Our first meeting was with the school principal who has been an ardent reader and lover of the ministry of the word. Within few minutes of fellowship our brotherly relation became so sweet and intimate. He invited me to share my testimony and the word of God in their Bible study meeting. I did so as the Lord led me; testifying and ministering on who Jesus is and how to experience and enjoy the Lord moment by moment. The Lord richly blessed the meeting. After the meeting we had long hours of fellowship with the principal on the Lord's recovery, clarifying the misunderstanding some people had of the church life with real life testimonies of our own in coming into the church life. The fellowship continued with lovefeast and went on till late night. We were glad that the Lord led us in all our fellowship. The following day he sent a message, quoted verbatim:

Thanks for the enriching fellowship we had last night. My heart always beats and yearns for the oneness of the church locally and universally. Sometimes I felt that lot of time and resources have been squandered due the lack of understanding of the importance of this oneness among the believers and churches. The man made church systems always hindered the biblical truths. I was always enriched by the writing of brothers Nee and Lee. Thanks for sharing these spiritual riches with us in Manali. Hoping to have many more such meetings with you in future as the Lord permits.

The next day, though we planned to meet various Christian leaders living in the vicinity of the city, the Lord marvelously brought all the pastors together without any pre-plan. These pastors came for different purposes in the premise where we were lodged, some to pick their children after school, and some to meet doctors for medical check up, and through word of mouth among the pastors themselves, we could meet all of them. All the pastors received the ministry books and almost all of them ordered the entire Hindi set of books. That was the Lord's sovereignty. Thus we could meet all the leading Christian leaders in town. 

Then we had a lighter moment of sightseeing tour to Solang, a mountain enveloped with snow; the first time I saw and touched snow with my own hands. We enjoyed God’s creation, appreciating the beauty of nature with a couple of selfies and snapshots. In the evening we were invited for a lovefeast at a brother's house where we also fellowshipped on the experienced of living by faith. 

We thanked and praised the Lord for His sovereignty in the distribution of the ministry of the word in Manali. 

May the ministry seeds sown bear fruits in its own time. Amen.