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LET MY PEOPLE FREE

LET MY PEOPLE FREE In my early days as part of the ministry team of distributing Gospel literature on the streets in Chennai, we handed over several hundred tracts to people unknown. I do not know how, but one such tract reached the hands of a guilty murderer undergoing his punishment in one of the state prisons in Tamil Nadu. He wrote a beautiful letter responding to the message of God’s peace and seeking to follow Jesus. As a young adult, my joy knew no bounds as I started to write back to him assuring him of God’s love and forgiveness. Some years later, he did write to me that he was now released from prison and back in his village. More than me, I knew that the angels in heaven will be rejoicing over this one sinner who repented. Often mission work has been narrowly defined as serving in a tribal area, rural village and preaching to the downtrodden. Today, mission needs have emerged in the bustling cities and our own neighbourhoods. Enabling a liberated life for children, women ...
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I GAVE MY BIBLE AWAY!

I GAVE MY BIBLE AWAY! It was Christmas day in the year 2007. We invited our neighbors who belonged to a different faith to come home for Christmas lunch. One was a conservative religious family who had left their home city due to a communal riot and now lived in Pune. The other neighbors were a group of nine university students from another country who had left their war ridden villages to pursue higher studies in Pune. We talked about food, culture, politics and common neighborhood issues and made friendship. Eventually, the conversation turned to Christmas. They asked several questions about Christmas and Jesus and we were very excited as we satisfied their curiosity. As we were talking, I noticed that one of the students took a copy of the printed Bible which was on a side table and began to browse through it. Later another student took the same Bible and began to flip the pages with curiosity. I asked him whether he would like to borrow my Bible so that he can read it at leisure....
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HOPE FOR A GROANING CREATION!

HOPE FOR A GROANING CREATION! We all have enjoyed long walks on the beach, the mountainside, gardens and parks. Some of us also walk on treadmills inside a gym or in the privacy of our bedrooms. What's the difference? The treadmill walk only exercises our physical body but the nature walks refreshes our mind and soul. No wonder that at the end of almost every creative day God saw that it was good. The final picture of the variety of life was even better! God never made a mistake when he chose to create the world, the plants, trees, animals, birds and all creatures and then entrusted the role of caring for them to human beings. Unfortunately when sin entered the world and we sinned, the consequence was that the entire creation was also affected. Paul when writing to the Romans says that the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed, for its liberation from bondage to decay and to be brought into the freedom and glory of the childrenof God. The who...
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Are We Prophets?

Are We Prophets? “It’s not fair, this is injustice” thoughts raced inside the young trainee’s mind as he sat before the factory manager who was shouting at the top of his voice with abuses. There was a problem between the workers and the management and the trainee was accused of mishandling the situation. The young trainee had no voice to defend himself. After about a year later, the tables had turned. The trainee was now sitting in the corporate head office in a senior position and the same factory manager came to meet him. He had heard that he was going to be fired from his job by the Directors and wanted the trainee to plead his case before the management. The young man did not have much influence with the senior management as presumed. Is this God’s way of providing justice? We often see injustice all around us both near and far. Some people take law into their own hands to find justice for their case. The institutions and individuals who are given authority to provide justice o...
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NEW MISSION PARADIGMS

NEW MISSION PARADIGMS Mission is “God’s big Idea”. Even through most initiatives seem to have a human founder, it is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that gives way to a new mission movement. When Interserve was founded more than 163 years ago, there were many denominational mission initiatives. However the founders strongly believed that we needed a new initiative across denominations and cultures that will take the Gospel to the neediest people. At a time, when missions were largely confined to mission compounds, literacy teachers and Bible Women walked the length and breadth of rural India to reach out to women confined in Zenanas teaching them to read and write and love Jesus. All this was done in obedience to waking in step with God and not necessarily walking with the traditions and trends. Paul Bendor Samuel, our former International Director a few months ago shared that one of the participants in an inter-agency meeting confided in him “Interserve is different; You are an ...
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MOBILIZING CHRISTIANS - 2

MOBILIZING CHRISTIANS Jesus was a ‘full time’ carpenter before he became a full time “Rabbi”. He served as a rabbi for only three years but was a carpenter probably from his teens. He started as an apprentice to his ‘father’ Joseph. He was later entrusted with the responsibility of supporting his mother, brothers and sisters through his trade. He knew the struggles of earning a livelihood. When Jesus chose his disciples, it was no surprise that they were either accomplished fishermen or tax-collectors. He found them better suited for ministry than the Pharisees and Sadducees of the day. They knew the struggles of day to day living better than the theologians and missiologists of the day. The message of the Kingdom needed to be lived out in the daily life of the market place than just repeated in the pulpits of the synagogues. Have we lost the true essence of the Great Commission by handing over the role of proclaiming the Good News, discipling the believers, pastoring the flock, lea...
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NEED IS NOT THE CALL

NEED IS NOT THE CALL “Son, what is your dream in life?” asked the father during a dinner conversation. The son replied, “I need to finish my studies, get a good job, get married and settle down. “ After many years when the son had got married, the father again asked his son, “What is your dream in life now?” The son replied, I need to raise my children, buy a home and settle down.” Again after several years, the father who has now aged asked his on, “What is your dream in life now?” The son replied, “Well, I need to see my children married, retire from my job, enjoy my grandchildren and settle down.” We all know there is more purpose to life than the various stages we seem to be living. Decades ago, a mission leader said, “Need is not the call.” We want to bring this to the forefront again. There was a time when, the tribal, the remote parts of our world, the unreached peoples were the challenges. We were all motivated when somebody spoke about needs in a people group and made an ap...
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