Churching: Southernmost Tip

The southernmost tip of India, Kanyakumari, has the church life where I came to visit for churching and sight seeing. Before this city, I visited Marthandam and Nagercoil. In all these coastal areas the saints took care of me so well. They took me around to different sight seeing spots, to the beach, to the shipping harbour, and specially treated me with different variety of seafood during my stay with them. It was a wonderful time of churching and blending.

The simplicity of the saints and their love for the Lord and care for the members of the Body is amazing. I just felt blessed; not just me, but also them. They indeed have been blessed with all the best that nature can bestow; clean air, clean water, fresh vegetables and fresh seafood, with a  very minimal need for money. On top of them all, they have been enjoying their church life in a simply yet sweet way. Praise the Lord!

The testimonies, fellowship, and prayers of the saints were very enjoyable. Though I did not intend to, I could perceive what has been going on in the churches there. Just by visiting them and being with them, I could discern the situation of the saints and the churches. Whenever I got the opportunity, I tried my best to minister Christ as life and encouraged them to go forward in loving the Lord and pursuing Him. May the Lord continue to shepherd and blessed the saints and the churches there.

As a sightseeing trip, the saints also took me to a rocky mountain being built with museum and statue, to a Sunset Point to see the sun setting over the horizon, to a Sunrise Point to catch a beautiful glimpse of the sun ascending from the vast ocean, and to the place called "Triveni Sangamam", the meeting of three oceans-the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal.

One crucial point in our fellowship was, the burden a brother brought up for fellowship related to the visiting of Bihar where he used to serve as missionary in the past. He testified that he has a good number of brothers and sisters who need to be shepherded for the Lord's testimony. As we fellowshipped, I felt it was the Lord's speaking and His open door for His move to North India, especially Bihar this time. Perhaps, it is time for me to visit this state now and sow the seed of the Kingdom of God! In and through the fellowship we were all clear concerning the Lord's move to Bihar. May the Lord gain His heart's desire in Bihar! The move to the North is also from the move to the South. Here is also another precious lesson: the Lord speaks in the Body, through the Body, and for the Body.

Serving Ones Training

This month, the serving ones training in Trivandrum was another step in my spiritual life and service in the Body. This is the city where my marriage to my wife was first made public to all the saints in the churches in India when there was a combined meeting in 2006. It was also the first such meeting for the church in Trivandrum. Now, after twelve years I came again to this city for a training.

The messages in the training was from the recent ITERO, "The Development of the Kingdom of God in the Christian Life and Church Life." The messages were so deep and so convicting. The Lord's speaking was very strong yet very sweet. I was reminded again of my timely and urgent need: to experience and enjoy the reality of the kingdom life. This message is very much needed for me and the churches in India. The underlining burden in this series of message is the need to diligently pursue the growth in life and the need to have a hidden life with God. All the good deeds done must be done in secret, only to the Father, and there must be a strong life of prayer. My personal and intimate relationship with the Lord must be very deep and strong, and my fellowship with the Lord must be very sweet. 

Personally, there was a step ahead in my function and also in my coordination with the brothers serving in the work. Our fellowship and oneness in serving together has been strengthened. We enjoyed a sweet coordination. I could sense the development within me in the way I coordinate with my fellows coworkers. This is a definite breakthrough. In my sharing when the time was given for some selected brothers to give the concluding words, I emphasised this particular burden of the need to live a hidden life and pursue the growth in the divine life for the reality of the kingdom of God.

In this training also we introduced to the churches in India the coming of brothers from various countries for the ITERO to be held in India for the first time. After thirty years of the first local church being raised up in India in Trivandrum, we made this announcement in the city of Trivandrum. What a sovereign arrangement of the Lord it has been!

Praise the Lord for the serving ones training! Every training, especially this one, I have been graced to go forward in my spiritual life and service in the Body.

Gospel Feast

The entire month of April in the church in Gurugram is a month of Gospel Feast. In coordination in the Body, the trainees from FTTT and FTTND with the saints in Gurugram propagated for the entire month day by day, and house to house. In this city under the scorching heat of the burning sun that raised the temperature to 40-43 Celcius, the saints went out faithfully and the Lord has blessed the labor of the saints.

1 Corinthians 15:57-58:

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

In this Gospel Feast, our labor in the Lord is not in vain. As the Lord burdened us, we set a goal of gaining ten solid families for the church life and thirty baptisms to be gained. So that, gradually, a new district of the church in Gurugram would be raised up! The Lord is leading us toward the goal.

The burden for the Gospel Feast this time is to propagate in Sector 55, 56, 57, and Suncity. The saints were formed into five teams and every day they went our for door knocking house to house, two hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon. In this way, for one month, over one thousand doors have been knocked and out of which ten homes have been solidly gained where home meetings have been conducted up to seven times in the past three weeks. In these open homes, the gospel has been preached, they believed into the Lord Jesus Christ, called upon His name, and we had prayers, hymn singing, and Bible studies, mostly from the Gospel of Mathew and John. The Lord is faithful to open the homes of the Gentiles as well as that of seeking believers. It was indeed a breakthrough and the Lord has blessed His move in Guregram.

Our goal in gospel preaching to gain thirty baptisms is also being fulfilled. Through the daily gospel preaching of the saints, till date, twenty-two baptisms have been done, and over a thousand people have been contacted and preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to, or at least a gospel tract has been given. This is a marvelous move of the Lord! And there will be no end in gospel preaching. The church will go on and continue the gospel preaching in this city.

Last night, we had a gathering together of the seeking new ones and new believers. The Lord brought a good number of the ones under shepherding, some of them for their first time to attend a Christian meeting. The time was given for saints from FTTT to testify of how the Lord saved them and their experiences of Christ. Then, two brothers released the burden on the importance of "Meetings" in a Christian's life with different kinds of meetings introduced to the new ones. After the meeting, a wonderful time of blending with love-feast followed. This meeting was also a harvest meeting of the Gospel Feast.

Behind the Gospel Feast with all the meetings, there has been a lot of prayers offered to the Lord for His move, and much physical labor was involved too. The sisters were busy in preparing the physical food for all, and the brothers were in fellowship and prayer taking the lead in following the Lord's move. Overall, the church received many blessings; the saints' functions have been renewed, the coordination, fellowship, blending, and building- up among the saints have been strengthened, and a considerable number of new believers have been added to the church!

Acts 6:7 And the word of God grew, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem multiplied greatly; and a large number of the priests obeyed the faith. 

Praise the Lord for the Gospel Feast! May our entire Christian life and the church life be a Gospel Feast! 

God's Provision: Housing

Mathew 6:25, 33 Because of this, I say to you, Do not be anxious for your life, what you should eat or what you should drink; nor for your body, what you should put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body than clothing?But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

The Lord has been faithful in taking care of my housing since the time I got married. I never imagined that I could live in a millennium metropolitan city like Gurugram where the cost of living, especially house rent, is significantly high. It has been more than twelve years now, the faithful Lord's promise of "all these things" to be added to me has been true. Sometimes, I wonder how the Lord marvelously placed me in this city and has been faithfully supplying all my needs! House rent in a posh area of a millennium city and school fees are very high for three children, and many other day to day expenses. Despite all these, I praise and worship the Lord for His timely and faithful provision.

Since all that I have are from the Lord, I also do not want to waste any of the Lord's provision. I plan wisely and consider carefully for any expense and try my best not to over expend on anything. It is such a blessing to live and limit within the Lord's supply. Whenever there is an increase in any expense, I tried my best to avoid or reduce it as much as possible.

Recently, I even wrote to the school Principal of my children to consider a concession or discounts on siblings. She was faithful to tell me that she just joined the school and since the school has no discount policy she promised to take it up to the management for consideration. To my surprise, in the new academic year, the school provides a discount of 7% for siblings. Not too sure if this was done because of my request to the school, anyway, this is how I manage the expenses.

With the turn of a new financial year, my house owner proposed an increase of 10%. I kindly requested him to keep the same rent without any further increase and expressed my feeling to him over phone call and face to face talk. Then, he reconsidered and wrote to me the reduction he made to 5%, with a calculation of 2.5% increase per annum as he did not increase the last two financial years.  When I got the proposal for increment, I really considered relocation with a lesser rent. In fact, one night I had a strong burden to pray for a permanent relief from paying house rent month by month, year by year. But to buy a house in the city of Gurugram is beyond imagination. Only if the Lord miraculously provides, that is the only possible way to own a house in this city. I simply released my burden to the Lord that if He so wills, He may provide according to what He deems best.

When this thought of relocation was filling my mind, I considered and prayed if I should go ahead. My feeling was, I did not pay any lesser rent than anyone who lives in a better house. The main reason why I am still in the same house is, the Lord placed my family here and never gave me the leading to relocate. I have tried to relocate a couple of times, but every time the Lord did not lead me to go ahead. Even this time, I seriously tried to relocate, but the Lord spoke to me clearly that "I do not have my own choice, and it is a blessing not to have my own choice." This word came as I was listening to a Life-Study Radio Broadcast with brother Ron Kangas speaking. I really did not have my own choice. I simply submit to the Lord and continue to stay in the same house with an agreement to pay an increase in house rent. I trust in the Lord's simply word, He will take care of the increment too.

On the positive side, this house has been a blessing to my family; my children have an emotional connection to this house and would not like to relocate even if it is to a better house. This house has also been useful for the church meeting especially on Lord's days when the church meeting is held on the ground floor, my house will be for children's meeting and for the saints to take rest. It is also the best option for my office work as the office is on the ground floor and my brothers can easily take care of all the office works just like taking care of a house. This is indeed the housing the Lord has provided, and I have been living here for more than ten years now. I have been learning a lot spiritually, simply by staying in this house the Lord has provided. Praise the Lord for his provision of housing! 

What a blessing to be able to live by faith and trust the Lord!

Children's Awards

Year by year, the Lord has blessed our children's study. My wife has been laboring a lot with them in their studies and in every exam they all fared well with outstanding performance, mostly A+ or A. Till last academic year, my son has been awarded academic excellence and brought home certificates and trophies. And my elder daughter has not achieved that feat of my son's. But she has done fairly well too.

This year, surprisingly, my elder daughter and younger daughter have been offered a letter each for achieving academic excellence. Of the three who used to get award missed it. My son missed it in spite of his outstanding performance in studies. The ones who never expected got an award letter and the one who expected did not receive a letter. This incident was unbearable for my son. He was used to achieving awards after awards, and this is the first time he will be missing it. But it was a good lesson for all of them.

My wife and I encouraged our son that he has done his very best, he has got a very good mark, and it really doesn't matter if he misses an award this time. We also used this experience to encourage him not to be proud of any special achievement, but rather be humbled, and continue to do his best in studies. He finds it hard to bear it and wondered if his studies were not properly rewarded. He quietly released his emotion with tears, and we stood by him to encourage him and prayed with him.  

Overall, the Lord has blessed all of them. Our prayer for them is that they all will grow up to love the Lord, reverentially fear the Lord, and serve the Lord ultimately in whichever way. We are the guardian of the Lord's children and commit them all to the Lord.

God bless our family!

Home Sweet Home

The Lord has blessed us with a house in my hometown, Imphal. Though I hardly live there, mom and dad, sister and brother lives there. As the eldest son my responsibility is to take of my parent. As I am serving the Lord here in another city, my younger brother has been bearing that responsibility of taking care of mom and dad thus far. So I deem it best to help in whatever way I can as the Lord blesses.

Recently, I have been receiving phone calls from my dad, sister, and brother about the house construction going on. With all the money they had, they have started the work of building the first floor of the house. Deep within me, I have a burden to participate in whatever way, in however much I can. So I took the matter to the Lord in prayer and also fellowshipped with my wife. We both feel good to participate in the construction work from the saving through the Lord's supply.

When my younger brother called me for the need, I took that as an opportunity to fellowship with him and pray together. I encouraged him to turn to the Lord and that he be fully recovered back to normal Christian life and normal church life. As a brother in the Lord, much more than being a brother in the flesh, I encouraged him to consider three things. First, his spiritual life be fully recovered back; second, he initiate a conference call for all the four of us, siblings; and third, he create a WhatsApp group where we can fellowship on the house construction. A week later, he heeds to the fellowship and we had our first sibling phone conference call.  

My burden to all my brother and sisters was made clear. I am serving the Lord full-time, and all that I have is the Lord's blessings. The Lord has been more than faithful to meet all my needs. It is only out of God's blessing that I can, in turn, supply the need of the family. I encouraged all of them to trust the Lord and that in everything we must work together in oneness and thereby command the Lord's blessing. Besides, through the care for one another in physical needs, the Lord may blend and build us together. And all that we do must be with the view of the Body. The house under construction now must be useful for the Body, for the meeting of the saints, and for hospitality. I even charged them to separate one entire hall for the meeting hall of the local church there. The fellowship was concluded with prayer. We thank the Lord for bringing us together online and for using physical needs to meet our spiritual needs.

The group created for our fellowship is "Home Sweet Home." May the Lord bless the house and make it a home sweet home.

Office and Church Responsibility

This month has really been very hectic, not in a negative sense, but very positively. Two important matters occur simultaneously; office and church responsibility: The five weeks propagation in Gurugram with the saints from FTTT and FTTND, and very important and urgent official works need to be accomplished before the due date. I had no choice but to attend to the official responsibility and at the same time also participate in the church propagation. I have been learning to balance my time and take care of both.

In my official service, the Lord taught me a very important lesson of trusting Him in every matter. We had to file a Share allotment as per the Board Resolution of the company. After labouring to gather all important documents for three weeks, I was told bluntly by our CA that it could not be filed. The reason given to me was absurd. The investment by Shareholders has to be within a time period of six months. I never heard of such a rule? I have even confronted the CA with my past experience of filing the same without this clause. But he squarely rejected my application with his own reason with a tag that "the company laws have been updated." I simply requested him to relook into the book of company law and do the necessary. I maintained my calm as I explained to him that I had done all the hard work according to his suggestion, and that how could he simply reject the filing? 

I left the accountant office in a state of shock. My mind was wondering how all the other board members and the brothers involved in this matter would feel after doing all the hard work and even contemplated writing an apology letter for the mistake. But deep within, I turned to the Lord to let things happen and honor the fellowship that has been done with the brothers. I had no option, but to simply pray and pray. Later, in the evening, the CA called me saying that it may be possible and they will try to file the Shares allotment. O what a sigh of relief! A few days later, I received a confirmation from the government that the filing was successful. I simply praised the Lord!   

A similar incident transpired with the updation of our company's KYC with all the existing directors' KYCs. All KYCs were done until the due date of today, the 25th April, except for a brother who is a foreign national. Things turn out to be complicated by virtue of his being a foreigner with a  directorship in India. I was pushing the CA to do things on time, but due to lack of documents, my pushing only irritated him. I turned to the Lord in prayer to handle this matter as well. The Lord just confirmed deep within that all is well and it will be well. Well, the due date has come, and the work was not done? But the miraculously the government postponed the final filing date to June 15, 2019, and gave me a breather time to finish all the works. Even, in this matter, I experienced the Lord's keeping grace.

On the propagation side, till date, the Lord has released 10 baptisms and 10 solid open homes for follow up shepherding as we prayed. Both office and church responsibility were being carried out simultaneously, and the Lord is faithful to grace me on and on.

Besides, an official letter for one of the international trainings that will happen in India for the first time and for this a lot of WhatsApp, Skype, and email fellowship have been going on. After many adjustments and exchange of emails, finally, the official mail was sent out today. This was another responsibility among others.

Experiencing the Lord's leading and blessing all these days amidst busy schedules...