Recovery Visits

During this time of visit to Hyderabad, the Lord burdened me to visit a couple of families for the dual purpose of visiting them after a long time and also for shepherding them into the church life by introducing the church brothers in Hyderabad. 

The first family on my list of burden was a doctor's family. I met them for the first time in 2005 when as trainee I went to the most prestigious medical university in Delhi for the preaching of the gospel. Since then, this family has been in touch, of course, off and on, and they even joined the meetings now and then. Now that they are placed in Hyderabad, and that the church is here, I felt it good to introduce the brothers in the church. 

Our fellowship began with a note on the one new man and a review of the recent conference message, the deepest thought in the books of Romans: God became man to make man God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. Then we went on to fellowship the truth concerning the Body of Christ with an emphasis on the oneness and practice of the church life in a local church. Out of burden, I also encouraged the family to open their home for home meeting to which they also felt the need and agreed to it. Now it is up to the local church to consider the follow-up shepherding. By the way, we enjoyed a wonderful grilled and chilly chicken too as our lovefeast. I felt so burdened for this brother's family to be properly shepherded into the church life as I know them as ardent lovers and seekers of the Lord Jesus Christ, besides they being also introduced and tasted the ministry of the word and the church life when in Delhi. 

We also met with a brother who is highly placed in a multi national company who has the heart of the gospel and is burdened to shepherd seeking believers. Though he himself may not regularly join the church meeting, he has been enjoying the ministry of the word and also had once been to the short-term training in Gurgaon. Now, having introduced him again to the brothers in the church, he was willing to coordinate with the saints in spreading the ministry books among the working class of seekers in his company. May the Lord gain our brother and make him a useful vessel unto Him. 

Another surprise meeting was with an Engineer whom I met and knew him way back in 2005 while serving the Lord in the church in Delhi. He enjoyed the church life then, had been to USA twice for engineering job, and was in one of the local churches in USA. Now he is back to India, and testified to us that he also quit his job to serve the Lord full time purely out of burden. To my surprise, he also testified that the Lord led him to serve among the gentiles, mostly the uneducated youth in the outskirt of the city, and also gained a good number of new believers. In fact, he used to fellowship with the church some six years ago and lost touch for some reason. It was a joy that by this visitation a preparatory ground work was done for the recovery of this brother and the group of new believers he is shepherding. 

To this brother, the specific burden I released was on the reality and practicality of the Body of Christ with an emphasis on the need for more fellowship as members in the Body. I also shared some specific points of truth from The Normal Christian Church Life by Watchman Nee and The Genuine Ground of Oneness by Witness Lee, with my experiences of these truths as a personal testimony. The Lord blessed the fellowship and he opened up for more practical fellowship in the coming day. He himself spoke up and requested brothers to visit him, and he expressed his willingness to fellowship and blend with the church. By the way, his mom prepared a tasty local Chicken curry for the lovefeast with a delicious dessert that pleased my palate.  

After all these families visit, I fellowshipped with the brother in the church that the Lord has opened many doors and He is recovering many of His children. In fact, I prophesied to the brothers by faith that God is blessing the church and is going to double the number of the saints in the church this year itself. The brother also testified that all these are indeed God's blessing to the church here, as the church has been brought into more fellowship and blending in the Body. With all these visits, I testified to the brother that my burden was released for this visit. I personally was so thankful to the Lord that I was graced to introduce and shepherd the seekers known to me personally to the church. 

I now pray and believe that all these families would be fully recovered for the testimony of Jesus and the church-life in Hyderabad. O how I long to see them again; they all being in sweet fellowship, oneness, blending, all for the building up of the church in Hyderabad!