Mauritius Mission Report 2004

India Mission Report 2004.

I am very happy to bring this report to you about Rev. David and Sue Prosser, Joan, Roy and Jassica’s visit to India. The Lord has been so faithful to us on this trip. Glory to His name. This is their report of our visit…To the right are our host, Rev. K. Suresh Kumar.

We conducted six outreach meetings in unreached rural areas of Andhra Pradesh, South India. During the daytime we arranged visits to different churches with the team in order to encourage the work. Most of the people who attended the meetings had never heard the name of Jesus Christ and altogether about 320 people came from darkness into His marvellous light. We conducted Mercy ministries (food and clothing distribution) in Tenali and Vinukonda, blessing beggars, Aids victims, shelterless children and Old Aged people in a practical way. We also dedicated a new Church building in Vinukonda. The team visited the new site for Harvest India ministries, to contain a New Life Bible College, Christian Medical Centre and other different ministries. We were so pleased concerning this trip as the team was a great blessing to us all. In fact this has been the best trip ever! We are so thankful for the relationship between us and David and Sue. We believe that the Lord has brought us together for the purpose of marching forward as partners, to lift up His banner in India. .

We are so thankful for their foundation and faithfulness to this ministry. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. We need workers to come and bless our ministry and look forward to continuing co-operation from you in the days ahead so that we can reach the unreached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. ." - Rev. K. Suresh Kumar: India.

Sue and myself have worked alongside EARE/Harvest India for many years. We saw a small work with a mighty vision grow steadily from just a handful of participating churches in 1990 to over 500 in 2000. For most of that time we, through New Life Ministries International, were their sole sponsors, but towards the end of this period, the Lord brought other wealthier organisations and individuals along (mainly in America) to help share the burden. In 2000 we felt the Lord telling us to pull back in our involvement, and at that time we didn’t know whether the Lord would ever have us return. However we still maintained our relationship with Lalitha and her two sons and made plans earlier this year to visit as ‘Mum and Dad of the work.’ Sadly Lalitha died a couple of months ago, but the investment she has made spiritually in her eldest son, Suresh, continues to take the organisation on to greater fruitfulness. Our withdrawing when we did cut the proverbial apron strings and has enabled them to come to maturity in their own right. Today there are around 1000 churches in EARE/Harvest India, a thriving Bible School up to degree level, and several diverse works of Christian charity. As we made plans for this recent visit I felt that the Lord showed me that he wasn’t sending me ‘back’ to India, but ‘forward,’ although I didn’t know then what that meant. The last sponsorship we made for EARE/ Harvest India was to purchase a plot of land, adjacent to the orphanage in Paddapuram, which NLMI had bought a few years earlier. This purchase was made urgently (at that time) to prevent the building of a Temple so close to our orphanage, but since then the land has remained undeveloped.

During our visit I felt the Lord saying that this piece of land was waiting for me! Then, through discussion with Suresh I learned how the government was urgently seeking the assistance of charities within India to help with the Aids epidemic by developing medical facilities to help treat those with the disease. The land we purchased is too small for such a purpose, but its value has more than doubled and could be sold on for residential purposes only, enabling EARE/Harvest India to buy a plot four times the size close by and on it to build an Aids Hospice. As Paddapuram is reputedly the ‘Prostitution capital ‘ of Andhra Pradesh, such a facility would be a timely and appropriate blessing to the community—a further expression of the loving heart of our Father God. The centre would treat Aids patients and allow those who are terminally ill to die with dignity, having had the opportunity to come to faith in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. A few years ago, EARE’s drummer, Krishna, contacted Aids through visiting a roadside barber. He died, leaving a young wife and a three month old daughter. Now the mother is also dead and the baby, too, is infected. In India there are thousands, probably millions, of victims of this dreadful disease and we cannot turn our backs on any of the sufferers when it is in our power to help.

This is a burden that will not go away! Of ourselves, we can say that ‘naturally speaking’ it is way beyond our means—a hundred bed hospice will cost around £75,000—but with God all things are possible. We have not set a time for this work to be completed—it may take five years—but in faith we are planning to make a start in January. This will require a minimum of £10,000, We invite you to help pray the vision into reality. .