(Sunday, January 19, 2014) We visited 2 churches today and spoke in each. Nancy shared her testimony. I preached about faith (Heb 11:1-7) and dedicated a church (Psalm 30). The first church was in the village Pastor Moses grew up in – Mellamarru, right by his old home place.
Born of a Hindu family, Polisetti Karunakar (who later added the Christian name Moses) was in a farming cast, fairly high in India’s cast system. There were no Christians in the village and no one there ever heard of Jesus. His father died of TB when he was 3 and he was the only child. When he was 7 some Dalits came and invited he and his mother to church. He went, learned about Jesus, and believed. When he was 17 he left the family farm to his uncle and went to the city for seminary training. He never returned to live in the village. His uncle and family, still Hindu’s, care for his mother, now 64 years old. He visits often and helps her financially. He says if his father had not died he would not have been a Christian but would still be a rice farmer. Romans 8:28!
After seminary he was pastoring a church when the parents of an 18 year old girl asked if he would marry her. Her family agreed. He had not spent any time getting to know her, just knew she had a reputation of a good, praying girl. So at 21 he married his wife, Krupa. Her father later became a pastor: Pastor Barnabas who is Pastor Moses’ right hand man and is someone I admire greatly. A strong love started growing between Moses and Krupa. A year after marriage they had a daughter Skehinah, who is finishing medical college, and 6 years later a son, Prabhu, just starting computer college. (A picture of his family and the church are attached.)
From there we went to the church of another pastor we sponsor, Joshua, in P P Palem near Machilipatnam. He started a church in his Dalit village in 2006 and recently built a church building for $3000. We contributed a small amount to it, so they wanted us to do the dedication. It was a pleasure and honor to be part of this special day. These people are outcasts, not even in the cast system. They can only work as day laborers and street cleaners, the very bottom of the ladder. They are fine, loving, giving people and very, very committed Christians. Pastor Joshua has 3 sons and has started another church in a nearby village where they meet in a house. (A picture Pastor Joshua and his church are attached.)
Words cannot express the blessing and privilege it is to be involved with these fine men in even the smallest way. Thanks so much to you for your prayers and finances, for without them this wouldn’t be possible. These people faithfully pray for us. I tell them at the end of every conference that I may not see them again in this life, but I will see them in heaven, and then we will have a long talk about all the Lord has done for us. You who invest in these men by your prayers or in other ways will also get to know them in heaven. What a special joy that will be!!!
3 John 3-4 It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
Spend a few moments now, and throughout the day, thinking about heaven and what it will be like for you. Think about the people you know who are there. Think about other believers you may not have met on this earth but will meet in heaven. What sort of things do you think you will talk about? You can have that fellowship now by talking about those same things with Christians you know. Start practicing you are in heaven!