Ministry of the Word Literature Journey to West Bengal

Report: The Ministry of the Word Literature Journey

Asansol and Kolkata, West Bengal

13-20 March 2020

 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in the Christ and manifests the savor of the knowledge of Him through us in every place. 2 Corinthians 2:14

God Leads Us in Triumph

Amidst the pandemic Coronavirus scare gaining momentum in India, the Lord led us to visit a city, Asansol, for the first time with the ministry of the word. The door to this city was opened through a brother who just got saved and wanted to be baptized. He has been shepherded by his elder brother who is one of the brothers in the church in Gurugram. Once we sensed the Spirit’s move, we seized the opportunity to visit him immediately; firstly, for the baptism of the family who just believed into the Lord and secondly, for the introduction and spread of the ministry of the word to other believers in this new city.

Eight Believers Baptized!

The newly saved brother was a very staunch idol worshipper all his life until he met the Lord Jesus Christ by simply calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus who delivered his whole family from intense demonic attack and possession. The name of Jesus set the entire family free! Such dynamic salvation prompted them to take water baptism at the earliest possible. Once we were there, we ministered the truth concerning baptism and led the family along with other new believers into water baptism. Altogether, eight believers were baptized!  

All Idols Torn!

Immediately after the water baptism, the brother threw away all the idols into the very river water he was baptized into. At his home where we were given hospitality, all the idols including those from Christianity were all removed. His wife, on the night of her baptism, saw in her dream that snakes that were crawling around in her home have left! She testified that she had been a worshipper of snakes for many years and always lived in fear with frequent demonic attacks, even demonic possession at times. Now she joyfully declared that the Lord Jesus has set her free forever! All snakes were gone, the Spirit has come!

Home Meeting and Group Meeting

Basic practices of a Christian life like calling upon the Lord’s name, pray-reading the word of God, family prayer and truth pursuing using Rhema books, Bible reading and study using the Holy Bible, Recovery Version with footnotes and listening to LSM Radio as an online aid started right away in their “new” home.

A weekly group meeting on the Lord’s day evening along with other new believers began in their “new” home too. A mini-library was also set up in their living room as the brother purchased the selected set of ministry books by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee.

"The Church in Asansol," West Bengal 

A “pastor” who has left the denomination and is very burdened for evangelism was so captured by the truth we ministered to him and his family. As we ministered on Christ and the church, he testified that he and his wife got the answers for what they have been praying for, for years to know what the church according to the Bible is, and how to go on in their Christian life and service.
On the Lord’s day, he invited us to minster to three groups of believers under his shepherding. So far, he has been shepherding about 300 believers in and around Asansol. He even began to say that he and the believers are henceforth the “church in Asansol.” Of course, the Lord has to do a lot more of inward recovery among the believers there.

Pray for the full recovery of the believers, especially the leading brother and his wife, as they have now come into contact with the ministry and are pursuing the ministry books.

“The Church in Kolkata,” West Bengal

A brother who has been translating the ministry books into Bengali is now in Kolkata with the burden of raising up the Lord’s testimony one day. Besides his translation work, he is also in fellowship with a brother who is shepherding some 30 believers in his home.

This latter brother is a full-time tailor by profession but very burdened for the Lord’s work. He left the denomination he used to be in, and is now meeting at home with the believers he has brought to the Lord, calling themselves as “the church in Kolkata.” The basic element of a Christian life, translated into Bengali has been used to shepherd the believers there. Life Lesson, 4 volumes have been translated into Bengali already. These ministry books will serve as good shepherding materials for the seekers. 

13 Years After!

In 2007, during the Gospel Move in India, a brother was contacted and gifted with The New Testament, Recovery Version which he has been reading since then. After the gospel move, due to shortage in follow-up, he was never contacted again. But this time, the moment we met he showed us the Recovery Version and exclaimed in joy that we are in fellowship again. This brother is a professional Bengali translator. He expressed his burden to translate the ministry books into Bengali.  May the Lord gain him for Bengali translation.

There are about 300 million Bengali speakers worldwide, approximately 228 million native speakers and another 37 million as second language speakers. Bengali is the fifth most-spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by total number of speakers in the world.

Pray that the Lord will fully gain and perfect our two brothers for the Bengali translation service.

A Truth Seeker

In our January 2020 books exhibition at Bokaro, Jharkhand, a sister came and enquired for the best-translated version of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek to English. Then, we introduced the Recovery Version to her. She conveyed the message to a brother in Kolkata who contacted us again and again. This time we met him and introduced the Holy Bible, Recovery Version, face to face. His innate response was, “Brother, I need this Bible, whatever the cost!” He purchased 2 Holy Bible and 1 NT Recovery Version right away.

As we introduced the ministry books one by one, his appetite for the truth was so wet that he requested to purchase all the books in Hindi and selected set of books by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. He testified that he stopped going to the denomination because there was nothing to feed on. He would rather stay at home on the Lord’s day, pray and do a “research on the Bible”, quoted verbatim.

He even tested our understating of the Bible and our practices in the church life. The answers we gave him excited him so much so that he exclaimed he must have finally found a group of Christians who actually follow the Bible in this age, which, he confessed, is very very rare and hard to find.

Now he has requested for a time of fellowship over the phone at least once a week, to fellowship on the truths in the Bible even as he has started reading the Recovery Version and the ministry books.

Pray that this brother would experience the Lord’s word in Psalms 43:3, “Send forth Your light and Your truth; they will lead me; they will bring me to Your holy mountain and to Your tabernacles.”

May the Lord richly bless the sowing of the divine seeds through the ministry of the word in West Bengal.