Jesus 4 Asia Now

Expanding The Kingdom

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

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Series Code: JFAN

Program Code: JFAN000046A


00:22 Hello, and welcome to Jesus for Asia Now.
00:24 I'm Natalie Wood
00:25 and today my husband Jon and I want to talk to you again
00:28 about some of our Bible worker stories.
00:30 Hello, love. Hi, darling, you look lovely.
00:32 Oh, thank you.
00:33 Our story today is about a Bible worker now,
00:38 but it starts with a disobedient housewife.
00:42 It goes way back, back in 2006
00:45 we were looking around this area,
00:47 we found a several different churches that had been built
00:50 but were locked
00:51 because there weren't any pastors or Bible workers
00:54 to take care of them.
00:55 The local unit, the local conference at that time
00:58 didn't have the manpower to keep them going
01:01 so they've been locked.
01:02 And the villagers were complaining,
01:04 says, this church is here, but it's never opened.
01:07 And so we thought, you know what,
01:08 we're gonna do evangelistic series.
01:11 Why go to place that we'd have to build a new church
01:14 when we can just come and start the churches
01:16 that are already built.
01:17 So we brought six teams
01:19 and we did evangelistic series in six different churches.
01:23 Right.
01:24 And the thing is so that this was all around
01:26 one main town Udumalpet.
01:28 In that town there was no church.
01:31 So the president of the conference came to us
01:35 and says, "Can we please do something
01:37 for the main city of Udumalpet?"
01:40 So we added an effort in the town area
01:43 and so we all took turns to speaking there and...
01:48 And it was in a big marriage hall,
01:49 rented hall, and a lot of people came.
01:51 One of our Bible workers that had been with us
01:54 from the very, very beginning,
01:56 she used to be a Muslim
01:57 but she had married a Christian,
01:59 but the Christian in order to marry her
02:01 had to become Muslim,
02:02 so he converted to Muslim
02:04 but he told her a little bit about Christianity,
02:06 and then he kind of went crazy
02:09 and came at her and stabbed her with the machete,
02:12 hacked her up.
02:14 And they carried her to the hospital,
02:16 you know, pieces of flesh and stuff like that.
02:19 She only knew one promise,
02:21 and she claimed that promise over and over again,
02:23 and the doctor says you will die in three hours,
02:26 three days later she walks out of the hospital.
02:28 Yeah, God is good. And then she became our...
02:31 Bible worker. Yeah. So she went out...
02:33 She and her daughters went and knocked on this one,
02:36 in the houses in the neighborhood,
02:37 and this one house she knocked on,
02:39 she met Jennifer.
02:42 And she invited them to the meetings.
02:44 Yes.
02:45 But Thomas, Jennifer's husband said,
02:47 "No way, we're not going."
02:48 That's right.
02:50 They had their faith
02:51 and that was good enough for them, but she...
02:53 They were Christian, right? Yes.
02:55 Of another faith. Right.
02:56 He used to be a Hindu priest and converted to Christianity
03:01 but a different faith.
03:02 And so she started coming to the meetings...
03:04 She was sneaking out. Sneaking out at night.
03:06 She wasn't coming when he knew.
03:07 Right.
03:08 And then she got so excited about it,
03:10 she started sharing with him
03:13 what she was learning and his heart was softened.
03:17 And so they started coming as a family.
03:19 And at the end of those meetings...
03:21 They were baptized. Yes.
03:25 And I remember the pastor saying this is a special couple
03:30 because they're from a caste that is very unusual,
03:34 very few of them actually have become...
03:37 And there's many, many castes,
03:38 like 2,000 unreached people groups in India
03:41 and that's because there are so many different castes,
03:44 and so many different castes
03:45 that have not heard the gospel yet.
03:46 Right, and things don't cross caste barrier very well.
03:49 No.
03:50 So they were converted,
03:53 and then they learned more and more of the truth.
03:57 And, of course, the church that came out of those meetings,
04:02 we had to continue renting a marriage hall,
04:04 and even to this day
04:06 we're still praying for funds to build a church.
04:09 So back to their story... Yes.
04:11 They learn more and more of the gospel
04:15 and they loved it more and more.
04:17 And now, then they became...
04:19 Bible workers. Yes.
04:20 They both quit their good jobs. Yeah.
04:22 And became Bible workers.
04:24 Now, we're gonna show you some of the stuff
04:26 that he does as a Bible worker.
04:35 I go in the morning, I buy vegetables
04:38 like carrot, beet root, tomato, onion,
04:43 brinjal, and then also cabbage.
05:48 And then I go to the grocery shop
05:50 to buy needed groceries like dahl
05:55 and then powders, coriander powder, chili powder,
05:58 sambar powder, turmeric powder for the cooking,
06:04 and various items like that, and then these vegetables also,
06:08 so that is what I take to the evening school.
06:34 For the evening schools
06:35 weekly, once, I buy all these things
06:38 and take it on my bike
06:39 and put it in 4 or 5 evening schools.
06:44 This is what I'm doing regularly.
07:04 So how did you like his transport vehicle?
07:07 It looks like he has to be very careful
07:09 to keep everything on there with him when he is going.
07:13 Yeah, you notice the big motorbike
07:15 wasn't as efficient as the little motorbike.
07:18 The little motorbike is actually stronger,
07:20 its frame is stronger, he can carry more with it.
07:23 Right, and the seat is more square,
07:24 it's not so rounded,
07:26 so the boxes like didn't fall off.
07:27 And there is dip in front of him so he can...
07:28 Yeah.
07:29 But that's how he delivers to all six evening schools.
07:33 So not only does he have the churches that he cares for,
07:36 he has all these evening schools that he oversees.
07:39 He also make sure that they have
07:40 proper spiritual oversight as well.
07:45 So he's like the principal
07:47 and make sure everything runs smoothly
07:49 and the teachers are teaching and all that,
07:52 so, he's got a lot of work on his hands.
07:55 And all this came from having those,
07:57 that evangelistic series.
07:59 Yeah. That's awesome.
08:00 I wonder how many more workers out there like him
08:04 would come into the truth
08:05 if we did more evangelistic series.
08:08 But now the country is starting to close up
08:10 to that kind of thing,
08:12 so we need to pray harder.
08:14 Yeah. Yeah.
08:15 This next video shows
08:16 what an evening school looks like.
08:18 Okay, awesome.
08:34 These children, they have the mark of their Hindu gods
08:39 on their forehead,
08:40 but when you see they kneel
08:42 and they pray to the living God
08:44 with their god's mark on their forehead.
08:48 They recite memory verses.
08:50 They tell these stories
08:53 which they have heard before through their parents!
08:58 It's so amazing that God is doing a miraculous thing!
09:01 And these children are being taught
09:04 that for everything they have to go
09:06 pray to the living Lord Jesus Christ.
09:10 When they lose something like a pencil or a pen or an eraser,
09:15 they immediately pray:
09:17 "Oh, Lord, I've lost my thing, please give."
09:19 And the mighty thing is God is answering
09:22 those little things for these children.
09:24 So their faith has been growing day by day.
09:28 I thank the Lord for that.
09:30 Even if the teacher forgets to pray,
09:31 the children will remind the teacher
09:33 to pray before the food,
09:35 you know, because they have been taught that way,
09:37 and it is blessing to have these programs,
09:40 and it has brought a big impact on the children
09:44 who attend these evening schools.
09:46 There were a couple of people from the society,
09:50 from the community came and told the teacher
09:53 that the children who come to the evening school
09:56 are better than the children
09:58 who don't come to the evening school.
10:01 God is doing mighty things.
10:03 He is working through these young people.
10:06 Our intention is the coming generation will be a generation
10:12 which fears the living Lord, which serves the living God.
10:54 I love our evening schools. Yeah.
10:56 They're so precious, those kids.
10:58 I love to hear them sing.
11:00 I sit there and you could see me looking
11:02 'cause I'm trying to catch any Tamil words that I know
11:05 when they're sharing their memory verses.
11:08 And sometimes you can tell,
11:10 you know, the name of whoever the memory verse is about
11:13 will be in there or something.
11:15 And so, you'll be able to tell what the story is
11:17 but many times I just have to say,
11:20 they must have done a good job.
11:23 Everybody seems to be smiling so it must be good.
11:26 Yeah, you know, so Jennifer is helping
11:29 with the coordinating worships and things like that
11:31 for the evening school as well so...
11:33 Right. Yeah.
11:34 So they're both fully involved. Very busy.
11:36 Very busy people, yeah.
11:38 Their daughters are going through high school
11:40 and so they're very busy
11:41 preparing for their exams and everything,
11:44 but God has blessed their family
11:46 because they've been faithful.
11:47 And we trust Thomas with large responsibility
11:51 and with the funding,
11:52 and he's always been faithful which is huge.
11:55 Very, very honest.
11:56 Impeccably honest which is great.
11:58 Yeah, So this next couple of videos
12:00 is going to be talking about
12:02 some of the challenges that they had in the house
12:05 that they had to move into
12:06 in which they lived for quite a number of years
12:09 when they took the pay cut
12:10 as to become Bible workers to work for God.
12:14 And so they took the pay cut,
12:16 I mean, they took the new job as Bible workers
12:18 not because they wanted to get ahead in life
12:21 or have a better life
12:23 because they really were wanting to serve God.
12:26 And, you know, they saw
12:27 the leadership of Jesus for Asia
12:29 that we were doing this by faith,
12:31 that we weren't wealthy,
12:33 you know, businessmen that had deep pockets
12:35 and just give them the money whenever,
12:38 you know, they need it.
12:39 They saw that we were sacrificing to do this also,
12:42 gladly, happily
12:43 because the payoff, the return on...
12:45 I mean, Christ has already paid all of our salaries
12:48 way more than we could ever pay Him back
12:51 so that was enough.
12:53 And so that Spirit of Christ was in them and they took that,
12:57 but this is kind of describing some of the things
12:59 that they went through.
13:00 Okay, so this next video is of their old house.
13:03 Yes.
13:04 This is the place where they were staying for 10 long years
13:08 and they had all the snake experience,
13:11 all these bad experience in their life in this house.
13:16 Right now what we see is
13:18 where they wash the clothes here,
13:20 and this is the toilet and bathroom.
13:25 This is the only place where the children used to take bath,
13:28 you know, just a wall 4 feet
13:32 and above that there is nothing to cover.
13:35 And this is a kind of small kitchen here
13:39 where they used to grind their things for the food.
13:44 And this is the entrance for the house.
13:48 This is the living room,
13:50 plus bedroom where they had a cot here
13:54 where the children used to sleep
13:56 and they had a cupboard here
13:58 where they had all their clothes
13:59 and two, three chairs.
14:02 And this is where they used to sleep in the night.
14:04 And this is the kitchen room where they cooked food here,
14:08 and this is where they kept their kitchen things.
14:12 So this house consists of just two rooms,
14:16 one is the living room which is also the bedroom
14:19 and the kitchen room where they cooked.
14:21 You can see the roof just broken.
14:23 During the rainy time it used to pour down
14:27 and when it rains,
14:28 she says that they used to carry the children
14:31 to this spot.
14:32 If it is dripping down here, they will change to there.
14:36 The whole night they are without sleep
14:39 during the rainy time
14:40 because it pours down, leaks inside.
14:43 And God answered
14:44 Sister Jennifer and Brother Thomas' prayer.
14:47 After 10 years He has given them
14:49 a nice, beautiful house.
14:51 And this is where Sister Jennifer used to pray,
14:54 started her fasting and praying ministry here,
14:58 and God has answered all their prayers thus far.
15:02 And so after all of her prayers...
15:03 And I loved what she says, "I kept praying for my needs,
15:07 and I complained to my husband,"
15:08 and my husband says,
15:09 "Hey, I'm the servant of God, you talk to Him."
15:16 And so she started talking to God
15:18 and asking and God moved them into a beautiful new apartment.
15:24 And we're going to look a little bit about
15:26 some of the challenges
15:27 that they had in this old house.
15:29 Okay. Right now.
15:31 She came inside, she was singing songs
15:34 and lifted up yesterday's food and when she...
15:37 She could hear the rats running here and there,
15:40 it was an unusual thing.
15:42 And then she just came here, she saw...
15:45 They had a big bureau, an old bureau here,
15:49 you know, a cot, a bureau
15:51 where they used to keep their clothes
15:54 and all those things.
15:56 And she just saw a big snake coming down the bureau
16:02 and it was just coming.
16:04 She just screamed "Jesus Christ!"
16:07 And then, because he was there,
16:10 she shouted, "Please come, I need your help!
16:13 A big snake is here!"
16:15 She said, "I want you to hit the snake,
16:18 kill the snake.
16:20 Don't call anyone."
16:21 Because previously, when they called some people
16:24 to help them to kill the snake, they started speaking like
16:28 "See you people are going to church
16:30 and you people, your house...
16:32 Are you feeding snake, is the snake growing here,
16:35 you should go to a river bring water, sprinkle."
16:39 They used to say those things.
16:40 So having that in her mind,
16:42 he was searching for nearly one hour,
16:45 where is the snake?
16:46 The snake went somewhere,
16:48 and because they had so many books
16:50 and so many things were here.
16:52 He saw the snake just crawled
16:54 in the corner of that place there
16:56 when they removed those things,
16:58 you know, the books and everything.
16:59 God only kept the snake without moving anywhere.
17:02 As he was talking to me,
17:04 he said: "Even I am scared of snake,
17:07 I was really scared that time.
17:08 If the snake would have moved, I would have run outside."
17:12 But God made the snake just sit idly.
17:15 Then he hit the snake and killed the snake.
17:17 The length of the snake is more than six feet.
17:21 Such a big hefty snake.
17:23 Was it a poisonous snake?
17:31 It didn't open the head but it was a poisonous snake
17:36 because it was dark black in color.
17:38 Three times a snake have come inside.
17:45 She's very thankful to the Lord for helping them,
17:49 for supporting them, for keeping them,
17:52 preserving them from all these dangerous things,
17:55 and also she thanks the Jesus for Asia ministry
17:58 for their support, and for their prayers,
18:01 and for their help.
18:05 Amazing. Yeah.
18:06 So they lived in that place for 10 years.
18:10 Yeah. Yeah.
18:11 Why would we want to live with the snakes either.
18:13 No. Yeah.
18:14 And so they prayed a lot that the Lord would help them,
18:18 not only with the snakes, but that He would help them
18:20 to be able to live somewhere else.
18:22 But they kept living there
18:23 and they kept doing that kind of work
18:24 just because they believed in it
18:26 and they wanted to serve God.
18:28 Then they were allowed by the Lord to move
18:30 into a different apartment.
18:31 Yes. And this place was pretty new.
18:34 We went there to visit them.
18:36 Yeah, and this is a video of the new place.
18:38 Yes.
20:36 That was an apartment complex.
20:37 They don't own that whole place
20:39 and they don't live in that whole place,
20:41 they just have one small unit, yeah.
20:44 But it's definitely safer,
20:46 and that unit has an indoor bathroom.
20:49 Right, that's a blessing.
20:51 And she doesn't have a washing machine,
20:53 but you noticed,
20:54 she had to rinse the clothes by hand
20:55 and then hang them to dry
20:57 which can be a challenge during rainy season.
21:00 But it's still, that's still a lot better
21:02 than the other place where they were.
21:04 And now she's praying for others that she knows, yes.
21:08 And also is a testament to those people
21:10 that would come and say, "Oh, the snake is here,
21:12 and you're having all this trouble
21:14 because you're going to church"
21:15 is a testament to them that their God is a good God
21:18 and can take care of them.
21:19 The other thing we want to talk about today
21:21 is one of his churches
21:23 and that is the Udumalpet town church
21:25 like we were talking about that has been
21:27 in rented facilities until recently.
21:30 And now they've bought a property
21:32 and it has a building on it but it's a house.
21:35 Yes. It's not a church.
21:36 And there's not very much room in there
21:38 for a large congregation
21:39 that should be for a large city like that.
21:41 Right. Right.
21:43 So we were there and we visited
21:45 and they asked us to share the need
21:47 for a church building.
21:53 We're here in the town of Udumalpet,
21:56 which is not a large city in India.
21:59 It's only 500,000 people here or so.
22:02 And what happened in 2007?
22:05 Well, we came and did the evangelistic series here
22:07 in the surrounding villages.
22:10 And then after we had started the series,
22:12 we had six of them going.
22:14 They said, "But wait,
22:15 there's no church in the city itself"
22:17 so we're going to all these villages.
22:19 So then we started another series
22:21 that was going on at the same time
22:24 in the town center.
22:26 In the city of Udumalpet proper.
22:28 And what was the result of those efforts?
22:32 A church was planted. Yes.
22:34 About 40 people were baptized. Yeah.
22:38 And so there is a desire to build a church here
22:40 in Udumalpet in 2007.
22:43 Yeah.
22:44 And was that dream ever accomplished?
22:47 No, it wasn't.
22:49 Actually, we had fundraised for it
22:51 and the region here was trying to get money together
22:54 so that they could do it, but there just wasn't enough.
22:57 Yeah, it's very expensive.
22:58 And so they've looked for property,
22:59 and they've looked at this property,
23:01 and they actually had a dedication
23:02 last time we were here
23:03 on a different piece of property.
23:05 But then the Lord showed them this piece.
23:07 Yes.
23:08 And this place has a house on it
23:10 and an empty spot in the back.
23:13 And so they are now, this church is now meeting
23:16 in the living room of this house.
23:19 And as you saw this morning it'd be very packed
23:21 on regular church service.
23:23 I think you can fit maybe 20 people in that room,
23:26 but the original church was 40.
23:29 And so there's a lot more
23:30 possibility for growth in this area
23:33 and it's limited by this facility.
23:35 Right.
23:36 So we're praying and the leaders here,
23:39 and the Bible workers here are all praying
23:41 that we can build an actual church building here.
23:44 We'll have to take down the house,
23:46 but they'll build an actual church building
23:48 that would seek to people.
23:49 Well, there's two options.
23:50 One is to build one in the back
23:52 and the other one is to just take down this house
23:54 and build a big church
23:56 that would cover the whole property.
23:57 I'm praying for the second option
24:00 because I would love to see, you know, it's a big city,
24:03 we should have a big church that could...
24:06 We're exploring on it. And fill it, right.
24:07 Yeah, absolutely.
24:09 So this is the Udumalpet church.
24:12 I know that's kind of a challenge to say,
24:16 took me a bunch of times to start with,
24:18 but pray for this church.
24:21 Yeah, so that is a big burden
24:23 on our hearts for the last 10 years
24:25 is to see a new church there that glorifies God
24:29 and His representative for that large city,
24:31 I mean, in India it's a small city
24:33 but for us it's a large city.
24:35 Yeah.
24:36 Yeah, and you notice in some of those shots
24:39 inside the building.
24:40 Some of the shots people were in chairs
24:43 and that was a Bible worker meeting
24:44 when we were there.
24:45 And then the other shot,
24:46 people were sitting on the floor,
24:47 that was church,
24:49 and that way they sit on the floor
24:51 so that more people can crowd in.
24:52 Yeah.
24:53 But God is good and He's been providing for them.
24:56 And we just really are amazed to see
24:58 how He's working in people's lives in that area
25:01 and how He's enabling these Bible workers
25:03 and the evening schools to continue in.
25:06 And He gave them this property
25:08 and so we know that He has a plan.
25:10 And we just have to continue to work
25:13 and we will see His plan fulfilled.
25:14 So there's a lot of stories in that area.
25:16 Yeah.
25:17 Lot of unfinished stories as well.
25:19 Right.
25:20 And a lot more stories because remember,
25:22 this is an area with 6 million people,
25:26 35 churches for 6 million people.
25:29 And was it nine pastors, and 20 Bible workers
25:34 for six million people.
25:36 So this is just one little part.
25:38 There's, I mean, we could theoretically cover,
25:41 and we want to double the workforce in this area
25:44 in the next few years
25:45 because there's so many more needs,
25:48 so many more and more than double.
25:50 Whatever the Lord provides,
25:51 we just want to see this really go.
25:53 Yeah.
25:54 Because the people are worth it in God's eyes.
25:57 Right, and that's awesome because, you know,
25:59 we've been told by church leadership
26:01 that at least 60% of the growth
26:04 in the last 8 to 10 years has been
26:06 because of these JFA Bible workers.
26:08 Yes.
26:09 So we just praise the Lord for what that means.
26:12 And these Bible workers,
26:13 you know, they're not trained pastors,
26:16 but they're doing the work that many pastors are doing.
26:18 Yeah, and it's a blessing for those
26:20 that are giving to support these Bible workers
26:23 because, you know, we can't go over there and do that,
26:25 at least not to the effectiveness
26:27 of what they're doing,
26:29 and so we can provide the funds for them
26:31 to focus on this full time
26:33 and then that grows our future inheritance,
26:36 you know, we can like send it on before us.
26:38 We can exchange our material wealth,
26:40 our earthly wealth for heavenly wealth
26:43 which we will then enjoy for all of eternity.
26:45 Right. It'll be awesome.
26:47 I can't wait to get to heaven and meet people
26:49 that we've never met here but...
26:51 I know.
26:52 Our small part has been
26:54 a part of changing them for eternity.
26:55 It's awesome.
26:57 It's a huge privilege... Yes.
26:59 And an awesome responsibility, very humbling,
27:03 but, you know, it's going to be worth it.
27:06 Absolutely.
27:07 It's going to be worth everything
27:08 that we could ever have gone through.
27:11 Yes.
27:12 And we're very thankful to play a small part in that.
27:16 You know, I was thinking about it the other day
27:19 and when we go to heaven,
27:22 we're going to get newly made bodies.
27:25 We're gonna all be fresh and new with nice skin
27:30 and Jesus is going to keep the scars from the cross.
27:35 And for eternity we will see those proofs
27:38 of His love for us.
27:41 If you would like to be a part of enabling
27:43 these Bible workers to reach the least of Jesus,
27:46 brethren, you can send your tax deductible love gift
27:49 to Jesus for Asia,
27:51 PO Box 1221, Collegedale, Tennessee 37315.
27:56 Call us at 423-413-7321,
28:01 or visit our website at Jesus4Asia.org.
28:06 May God richly bless you
28:07 until we see you again next time
28:09 on Jesus for Asia Now.


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Revised 2018-03-22