A Faithful Slave

Yesterday, the 18th of January 2022, one of our dear brothers, a Marathi translator and editor, went to be with the Lord. The matter was made known to me while I was in the training hall of the ongoing Recovery Version proofreading project. Perhaps, the time had come for our brother. It was surprisingly shocking, yet the Lord is sovereign.

Later, I took the initiative to make the matter known to all the other serving ones in the literature service through our WhatsApp group. In the afternoon, a brother and I attended the funeral meeting online and at the last minute, were able to send a text message which was read outloud at his burial site, afterwhich he was buried.

Message on Behalf of the Serving Ones in the Literature Service

Read outloud just before Br. Samuel Sane's burial at the burial site.

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Dear brothers and sisters, as serving ones in the literature service who had the privilege of serving the Lord with our dear Brother Samuel Sane, we convey our deepest condolence at the departure of our dear brother. This is a huge loss to the Marathi literature service, and we believe , for the church also.

Our brother had been so faithful in his service. The Lord used him to begin the translation of the ministry of the age to Marathi. He had been a fellow slave and fellow soldier who untiringly served the Lord supplying the riches of the ministry to saints through his translation service. Inspite of his several physical weaknesses, our brother served faithfully till his last breath. We are deeply grieved by this loss. Our heart goes to the family members of our brother. We stand one with all the brothers in the local church there in prayers for the Lord to encourage all the bereaved. 

We are in the middle of bringing the  riches of the New Testament Recovery Version to seven Indian languages, one of which is Marathi. Our dear Sister Preethi is laboring faithfully in this service. Her father had been a strength to her, both her mentor in this service and a wonderful companion to her. We pray that the Lord would supply her and grace her and the team to bring out the Recovery Version in Marathi. That would really make our brother Samuel happy as it would please the Lord also.

Brother Kerry who is also here in Hyderabad wanted us to convey how appreciative he is of Brother Samuel's faithfulness in his service.

May the Lord be with our Brother Samuel's family, all the saints and grace us to go on for the fulfillment of His economy.

Serving ones in Amana Literature

Today, in the memorial day meeting, as serving ones in the literature service, we were given the first opportunity to testify on his behalf. 

Br. Samuel Sane was the pioneer for the Lord’s move in Maharastra and had paved the way for many more to be brought into the truths. He spearheaded the translation of majority of the hymns which are being used in the churches speaking Marathi today all over Maharastra. He had also been faithfully translating the ministry literature to Marathi diligently and faithfully. One key word that stood out in all the testimonies is, "faithful."

For many years our brother had been suffering from many health issues. But whenever anyone enquired about his health his plaintruth reply had always been, "Grace upon grace, abounding, absolute, and bountiful grace who is Christ Himself is sufficient."

He used to be the first person to translate all the training and conferences materials whenever assigned to him. He had also raised up a good number of serving ones to follow in his footsteps. Now we have a team of Marathi translators who will continue the Marathi literature service. Though we have lost him physically, he had raised up his predecessors, not leaving his service void, to continue the very works he had given his whole life for. He had trained his own family to be so one with the ministry, especially in the literature service, that the condolence amount we offered to his family was offered back for the sake of the literature service in Marathi. What a testimony!

In my portion, I shared just two verses that I believe, truly describes his service.

“Who then is the faithful and prudent slave, whom the master has set over his household to give them food at the proper time?” (Matthew 24:45, RecVer)

“His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful over a few things; I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:21, RecVer)

Besides, many other saints who have been shepherded by him have testified concerning our dear brother. With all these saints remembering what the Lord had done in our brother's life, a brother well quoted this verse:

“Precious in the sight of Jehovah is the death of His faithful ones.” (Psalms 116:15, RecVer)