A transformed life...

Guraviah was an alcohol addict for more than 20 years. Half his life was spent in drinking and dwindling away the money. He caused a lot of disturbance in the neighborhood and regularly beat up his wife and children. The family, unable to bear the humiliation and torture would go into hiding very often. He caused a lot of embarrassment to his family and was always found lying on the streets without proper clothing.

One day Guraviah stepped into INEC church accidentally and had an opportunity to listen to the word of God. What a transformation! The word of God, like a two edged sword went straight to his heart and a drastic change was witnessed. He was no longer the same man, his self died and he became a new creation in the Lord.

The family and the neighbor hood were astonished at the makeover and glorified God. Now he and his family are active participants in the ministry and are growing in the Lord. Praise the Lord!

TRANSFORMATION OF PAPPAYA...

Pappaya was tied to a tree, as he was possessed by demons. He was throwing knives and utensils on his family members. His family members were hurt physically and emotionally. When the parents brought Pappaya to the church, the church members took that as a challenge and prayed for him. Today he is totally healed and six families accepted Christ after witnessing the miracle at Bangarujalu and a church was planted in the very same place.

A village priest turns to Jesus Christ...

Recently one of the village church planters targeted a new village in the state of Orissa and shared the gospel. By hearing the gospel the village leader’s son accepted Christ as his personal Savior and was baptized too. The village leader is a high caste Hindu and he was working as the chief priest in the village temple. The priest was so angry because his son became a Christian and brought a huge shame to his family. He threatened the church planter and argued that the goddess he was worshipping was more powerful than Jesus Christ. He verbally abused the village church planter for his son becoming a Christian and strictly told him not to enter the village again.

The temple priest tried a lot of witch craft against the church planter and told the village people that the church planter would die in a week. The village waited to see whether the church planter would die because of all the witch craft done by the temple priest. Nothing happened for a month and they were amazed to see the church planter in good health. Then one day the priest told the church planter, "Your Jesus is the true and living God and I want to follow Him"

Radio ministry transforms a young life...

Vinod was a worshipper of a Hindu God called "Ganesh". Every morning without fail, he performed "pooja" (worship) to his God. Vinod thought that he was a faithful follower of his god and wanted to live a holy and peaceful life but his poojas did not help him to achieve this goal. To add to his agony, his parents started to quarrel with each other and almost seemed that they were going to break their relationship. This brought much sorrow to Vinod and he thought that he would end his life. That morning at 7.15 a.m. when it was time for him to do pooja, he just turned on the radio. Suddenly he heard someone talking about Jesus as the only Savior and hope for this world. The person who spoke in his language continued to share that Jesus could give peace and joy that are eternal. The program ended within 15 minutes. Vinod was very interested to know more about Jesus and wrote a letter to our Radio ministry at HBI expressing his desire to know more about this life giving Jesus.

The follow up section of the Evangelism department continued to correspond with Vinod helping him to know more about Christ and discipling him to Christ. He became a regular listener and got convinced that Jesus is the true and living God. Within six months, one day Vinod sent a letter informing that God touched his life and he accepted Christ as His personal savior and Lord. Vinod did not stop there; he shared about Christ to his parents and introduced them to the Radio program and they also accepted Christ as their God.

One day when Vinod was reading Matthew 28:19,20, God convicted him to be part of the great commission. Initially he did not know how to share the Gospel, so he came up with an idea. He called his friends and relatives and made them to listen to "Premvani" 15 minutes radio program every week. Today, he has 50 people listening to the radio program and many of them have accepted Christ.

Lives are transformed because simple grass root church planters are willing to take the risk and present Christ even to temple priests.

"Mari, you destroyed the temple and now you see the consequences. The cobra that you worshipped has bitten you and you are going to die in few minutes" was the cry of the leadership of the village as they waited to see Mari die. Did Mari die?

N.pakkam is a small village in Tamil Nadu, a village mostly inhabited by a Hindu community. Edward, a church planter working in the village was one day approached by a woman asking him to come and help her because her husband was dieing, there was no doctor to help nor there was anyone to take him to the hospital. Edward immediately went to the home and prayed for her husband Mari. God miraculously touched him and he was healed. Both Mari and his wife started attending the church regularly.

Mari was a temple priest and his god was cobra. Next to his house was a cobra hill where the cobra was worshipped by the village. Moved by the Word of God and the process of discipleship that Edward was taking Mari to, he one day decided to stop performing pooja (a hindu ritual) to the cobra and determined to demolish the cobra hill.

One day while Mari was returning to his village, he saw the cobra in front of his house and it turned and struck him. Mari fell unconscious. Immediately the people told his wife because they demolished the cobra hill and stopped the worship to the cobra, their god was angry at them and Mari was going to die. Now the village people was not only angry at Mari and his wife but pastor Edward who had been serving them for years caring for their children through a day care center, discipling other people in the village, bringing medical care to the community and demonstrating the love of Christ.

Edward was fearless and knew that God had to do a miracle, prayed to God and rushed him to the hospital. The doctors gave up hope and were certain that Mari would die. Mari’s wife pleaded with the Lord to save her husband. Edward prayed and asked God to glorify Himself in the midst of this village. God did another miracle and Mari opened his eyes and the doctors were very surprised.

When the village people saw Mari return on his feet, they were marveled to know that he was still alive. Mari was so glad that the God he believes is so powerful. The following Sunday Mari came to church and testified God’s goodness and God’s miracle in his life. Mari told Edward "I want to be a priest for Christ". Praise the Lord!

A woman discipled to Christ bring her family to Christ

Our women’s team met Hemalatha, a young Hindu woman in one of the colonies. She shared that she was feeling very lonely because she lost her mother. Our team prayed with her, Hemalatha asked them not to come to her house when her husband and father are at home because they are staunch Hindus and would not even allow her to talk to any Christians.

Our team regularly met her and prayed with her and taught her from the Word. One day she expressed that she wanted to worship only the Lord Jesus Christ and asked our team to pray for her family’s salvation. Hemalatha’s father and husband saw a change in her as she was so joyful and peaceful.

This opened the door for her share with them about our team and invited the team to her house when both were at home. They started to listen to the Word of God and participated in the prayer time. Hemalatha and her daughter started to attend the Tamil service on HBI campus. After a few weeks, her husband also started to attend the church and were baptized too.

An orthodox Nepali... becomes a pastor

I, Rasaily, was born in an orthodox Nepali family and my father taught me all the Hindu slogans. Every day we conducted pooja and offered sacrifices to our god, whom we built a small temple next to our house. When I was growing up, I started to feel very empty within me, so I increased my pooja to get peace. When I found out the poojas that I performed did not succeed, I turned my attention to worldly pleasure. I became a drunkard and a chain smoker. I found temporary pleasure and happiness but did not have peace.

One of my friends told me about Jesus Christ and His love for me, but I was so angry at him and picked up a quarrel with him. I told him, "I already have 33 million gods and goddess and why should I consider one more god. I don’t want this foreign God". That day when I came home, I found myself so miserable, confused and frustrated in living.

Again my friend approached me and pleaded with me to come to a place where they would have some good singing. I reluctantly accepted his invitation because I was desperately seeking for peace. When I went there, I found that it was a church. I went in and heard a man speak about Jesus who said, "come unto me all who are heavy burden, I will give you peace". These words immediately caught my attention and I told Jesus to come into my heart. Immediately I felt a great calmness within me. Even after a few days the peace that I experience did not go away from me. I started to attend church regularly.

During this time, I was working in a private company and felt the call of God in my life. But it took 10 years before I came for full time ministry. Since the time I started a church in Jaigaon, I wanted to study in a Bible college but I did not get any opportunity. I longed to study and prayed to God for several years. Praise God! God did answer my prayer in the month of February 2007. God used HBI to start an evening college right in my town so that I could study God’s word. My desire is to study and train others to work in Bhutan and Nepal."

A Government employee of Bhutan... Now trained for His mission

I, Bimal, belonged to a Hindu family from Southern Bhutan. My father was a Hindu and my mother was from a tribal community so I did not follow any particular religion. I was working as statistical officer with Royal Government of Bhutan for 13 years. Since there was a lot of political agitation, I resigned my job and started a business. But the business failed miserably and I became bankrupt.

During this terrible period of pain and poverty, one of the pastors in West Bengal met me and listened to my whole story. He was willing to admit my children into his school and provide free education. That truly brought a great relief to me and I started to become a friend of this pastor.

One day the pastor invited me for a prayer meeting and there to my surprise I saw about 20 people praying for me, my family and for my well being. This was a shock to me because I never knew people will pray to God for others. I became so emotional and started to cry. The pastor shared about Jesus’ love for me. That very day I accepted Jesus as my savior and Lord. In a few days, God gave me a job again with the Royal Government of Bhutan.

Since the time I accepted Christ, I wanted to learn more about the Bible and wanted to go a Bible school. Because of my job and there was no Bible school in my area, I could not join in any course. I was praying to the Lord to open a door for me to be equipped.

I could not believe my ears when I heard that HBI has opened an evening Bible college near Bhutan. Immediately I enrolled myself and I praise God that He brought the Bible college at our door step"

Child Development centers are transforming lives of children...

I am Pandian, living in Neduvaram village. I was born and brought up in a staunch Hindu family. My parents never wanted me to attend Sunday school that was conducted in my village. But the songs and stories attracted me and I started to attend Sunday school without my parents’ knowledge.

One day the pastor of the church informed the families in our village that they were starting a Child development center. The purpose was to teach all children, conduct special tutorial classes and to help with our schoolwork. When my parents heard this, they allowed me to be enrolled in CDC program.

I was regular and the teachers helped me to study. My parents noticed the change. Soon, I started to attend the service and prayed that God will speak to my parents and they too will attend the church. The pastor and teachers started to visit the families of the children and prayed for them. They came to our house also and surprisingly my parents accepted them. CDC also conducted parent-teacher meet where my parents participated and understood that the church is there to serve the community and help all the children to come up in life.

I completed my 12th grade exam and got very good grades, good enough to be admitted to do A Bachelor of Law. My parents were so happy and I reinforced only Jesus helped me to get good marks and admission. They realized the investment in my life. They started attending church. Recently, they accepted Christ as savior and we are a very happy family.

I am so grateful to the Child development center and the church’s investment in my life. I decided that I will express my gratitude to them. So every evening after I come back from my college, I go to the CDC center to help children in their home work and also teach them various subjects. My desire is that every child in our village should be given opportunity to study and come up in life to serve the nation. After completing my studies and getting a job, I want to financially support the CDC as it truly serves the community.

A transformed life amazes the whole village...

Kanthamma, is from a Koya people group. One of our village church planters shared the gospel in her village and she was the only one who responded to the Gospel. When the village knew that she became a follower of Jesus Christ, they told her that she cannot take water from the village well because she has become a Christian. But Kanthamma, determined to follow Christ in spite of the basic privilege was withdrawn.

She was wondering how would she survive without water and knew she had to walk 2 kms to draw water from a common well outside her village. She prayed to Jesus and told him, "Lord I want you to help me and show these people that you care for me". That night it started to rain heavily and all her pots that were kept outside her house were filled with water. She was so thankful that the Lord answered her prayers. The next three days, it rained in the evening and her pots got filled. The village people were stunned because the village never had rain in the month of May in the last 20 years. Kanthamma told them it was Jesus that she believes, sent the rain because she was refused water from her village. God honored the faith of this simple woman and showed the entire village that He cares for His children. Today, Kanthamma walks boldly to her village well to draw water because the village saw the hand of God in her life.