ONE Prayer Update: India

Crew!  Here's another ONE Prayer update.  This one is from India and from the mouth (erm...keyboard) of our brother Raj  about one of the ONE Prayer church planters in Tamilnadu! -sj

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Brother Jeyapaul was born deaf to a poor Hindu family. As a result, he was not allowed to study beyond 4th grade. In order to survive, he found all sorts of odd-jobs serving in restaurants, agriculture and road work, all of which were paid on daily wage basis. Many times, he did not get any job.

Because of his low status and physical disability, no girl was willing to marry him. As a result, he married an orphan girl from the nearby state of Kerala. She was a professional witch, and each week, as many as 70 people would come to her to ask her to solve their various problems through her ability to manipulate evil spirits. Later, when Jeyapaul and his wife had a daughter, they found that she was born mute. Until at the age of six, she could not speak even a single word. At that time, Jeyapaul himself became sick and bed ridden. His wife tried to heal him using all her spiritist means, but every thing was in vain. It was also during this time that a group of Christians came to that village to do open air evangelism. When Jeyapaul and his family heard that Jesus can heal any sickness, they invited the Christians to pray for him. He was miraculously healed! Then after joining the local church, they began to pray for his daughter. Immediately she started speaking as well! After that, his wife decided to follow this powerful God, and as a family they started sharing their testimony, which brought many people to Christ.

When God called Jeyapaul to do His ministry, he sold all his tools at half rate in order to acquire a little initial capital for books and supplies. He approached different organization to get an opportunity to learn to pastor and plant churches, but all of them rejected him because he was not educated either in secular college or in seminary. He asked his wife to help him. He said he wanted to study the Bible and pray for3 years, so that he will know the word of God to teach others. His wife decided to help him, and by hiring herself out as a day laborer, was able to acquire about 75 cent per day for the work she did (all the while honoring God by giving a tithe of about 7 cents). One day, when he was praying, his daughter asked for a few cents to buy some toffee. Since he did not have the money, he was feeling so bad and asked God if he would help him to provide something kind and compassionate for his daughter. After he finished praying, his daughter came to him holding some sweets in her little hands. When he asked where she had acquired the candy, the little girl pointed to a raven perching on a branch nearby. The raven left, and then came back with more candy for the little girl. This continued for three days, during which time, Jeyapaul came across the passage in 1Kings 17 where Elijah was fed by ravens in the wilderness. He was so shocked that he began to call people to him, instructing them about this God who can feed his children, even from the mouths of the birds of the air. As a result, more than 27 people came to Christ during this period.

Later, the Lord directed Jeyapaul to go to a small village called Kodimangalam. This village has 4,000 houses. There are 28 temples and 32 priests serving in those temples. There are 4 Hindu spiritists (witch-doctors) functioning in this village. There are also 17 prostitutes living in the area. When he came to do ministry in this village, no one would provide him with a house. As a result, the first day, he had to sleep on the road with his wife’s old saree wrapped around him. The next day, he found a house for $3 rent per month. When he started sharing Christ, the head of the village man, Palanisamy, chased him out of the village. He was there out in the village for 12 days, without any food. Then one man from that village who opposes Palanisamy gave his cow shed. Jeyapaul started staying there and doing ministry, and while he continues to meet significant opposition, threats and persecution, God is doing great things in the village as he seeks to plant a church there, and also in a village nearby

When Jeyapaul heard that we are training Church planters, he rushed to us and begged to be allowed to participate in the training program. Through the ONE Prayer movement, we are so happy to say that Jeyapaul is being trained to do ministry more effectively, and that he is proceeding through the training curriculum with great enthusiasm. He told us recently, that “I am so thrilled [to be receiving this training] and now have confidence and tools that will help me to plant a Church with 1000 people in it some day!”