When we were visiting AP in India we met with Sundar Paul. He came to Christ about 13 years ago. At once he started to go to the surrounding villages to bring them the good news of the Kingdom of God. He is now an elderly man who loves the Lord and serves him with great fervour. He told us some incredible miracle stories.
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In Kathmandu we met Rakesh. He was one of the disciples that Henry brought to meet us. Rakes was brought up in a Buddhist family with five other brothers. His father was a teacher in Buddhism. Rakesh took training to become a Buddhist priest. He started to meditate for seventeen days to qualify as a Buddhist priest, but the Buddhist teaching could not give him peace. Instead he got ill with high fever and much pain. He went to many witch-doctors, but they could not help him. He asked his father how to find peace and he said peace would only come through full meditation.
Rakesh went into the occult, but he found no peace. He was in great pain in his body and without peace in his heart. He spent all his money on medical treatment in hospitals. Then he eventually met a believer who shared the good news to him and told him that if he believed in Jesus Christ he would be completely healed and all his problems would be solved. His father warned him strongly against believing in Jesus. But eventually he received Jesus Christ as his Saviour and Lord. Immediately he was healed and filled with peace in his heart. "I received new life! Everything changed!"
But his entire family rejected him and created many problems for him in the village. Eventually he was forced to leave the village. In spite of this painful experience Rakesh is full of joy and confidence. "Now I have eternal life! I thank God for sending Henry to help me and teach me. Together we will bring the good news to my village and see a covenant community establish there!"
Yesterday we arrived safely at home in Bergen! We have totally enjoyed our visit to Nepal and India for six weeks. We are grateful to all our friends for prayer support. We have had a blessed time. I have not been able to connect to Internet as often as I would have liked, but I plan to share more of our experiences in days to come. At the moment we enjoy being home, but we were taken by surprise by the short days we are having with the sun rising late and going down early!
Today we have had the privilege to spend time with about 12 disciples from some very remote areas of Nepal. Brother Henry has brought all these disciples with him to spend time with us. It was such a great joy to see Henry after a long time and to meet all the new disciples he brought with him.
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We have just finished our visit to Jaipur in Rajasthan and Kalimpong in West Bengal. Knut and Elisabeth Osland joined us for two weeks and we had a wonderful time together.
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In a previous post I copied an article on leadership from the House Church Blog. Now, I do it again. I found an article by Mike Steele on "The Apostle Who Is A Father" that really is worth reading. I wonder what my friends think of his view?
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When we were visiting Andra Pradesh a few days ago I had a wonderful time with Raju. I have met him before but only briefly. This time we were able to have some good time of fellowship. He also took us to the two house churches he is leading. Normally there will be 6 to 9 families in a house church, while a cell-group here consists of 3 families.
Raju is so excited: “God is doing great things in our town! Some time ago I went to Rada, a relative of mine, to share the gospel message with him and his family. I left my telephone number with them, in case they wanted to learn more about Jesus. These people were idol worshippers. They even had their own room for the idols.”
A full year passed by and Raju did not hear anything from them. Then Rada, the husband in nthe family, turned crazy. He became absolutely mad and created many problems for his family. He was taken to a Hindu healing centre, but he didn’t get well. They had to bind him with strong ropes to prevent him to hurt himself and others. When they had tried so many things, and nothing helped, they sent for Raju to come and see them. He took his friend Elajah with him and went home to the troubled family.
“Again we shared the good news of the Kingdom of God with the entire family and Rada, the mad husband. Then he said: I will come with you! He was still doing so many strange things, but he wanted to come with us. We were praying all the time while we were observing all the strange tings he did. As we were praying the Spirit of God came upon him and set him free! He came to his own senses. He became totally normal in just a few seconds! It was awesome. When the wife saw what happened to her husband, she too wanted to receive Jesus. They threw out the idols. They emptied the entire room. All the family believed in Jesus and were baptised to Christ.”
“As a result we started a cell-group in their house. Many people came to Christ because of the miracle that happened to Rada. They knew of his terrible condition and were amazed to see him totally normal by the power of Jesus. The group of believers has kept on growing and has now become a house church. Last Sunday we saw a new family accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. They threw out the idols and were baptised to Christ.”
Raju and his friends are using a very simple method. They visit their relatives and share the good news for them and heal the sick. The new believers share their testimony with their friends and relatives and in this way the numbers of believers keep on growing. Their strategy is to multiply disciples that multiply disciples, and to start new cell-groups that will multiply in to house churches that will multiply house churches by repeating the same process.
Solveig and I had the joy to share our testimonies with the two house churches. In the first place two people that came for the first time received Christ. In the next house church they had turned the entire street into a meeting place. 100 to 200 people were gathered that evening to hear the good news. Rada gave his testimony and several other new believers told what the Lord had done for them. At the end the entire congregation lifted their hand to signify that they wanted to receive forgiveness and new life through Jesus Christ. Many of them were already believers, but many new people also wanted to receive. We spent at least one hour in praying for people at the end and we saw many healings take place.
While we were with Rao at the coastal area of Andra Pradesh he took us to some of the villages where his organisation were helping to start Self Help Groups to better the living conditions of the people. Especially the women have been benefiting from this activity.
Everywhere we were received very well and garland with beautiful flowers. Proudly the women showed us their saving books and their buffalos financed through this micro finance system of the Self Help Groups. They were so happy for the help they had received which enabled them to help themselves.
In all villages we were asked to bring greetings which we gladly did. In one village the grace of God was upon Solveig in a special way. After sharing her story how she grew up as a farmer’s girl, she gave them the Word of God. When she gave an invitation and opportunity for people to respond, the entire group of at least fifty people wanted to receive forgiveness and salvation through Jesus Christ. We were all taken by surprise by this overwhelming response. Solveig led them in prayer and pronounced the blessing of God upon them. Rao and his co-workers will do follow up work among these precious people thirsty for God.