PH WORK IN INDIA
It is a great delight to me and the members of the Free Evangelical Church, Welwyn Garden City to give a brief summary of how the work got started in India, beginning in the State of Andhra Pradesh, and how it has progressed in AP, and nearly all the states in India since 1999 (16 years ago).
Our church had been praying for India specifically, as the PH courses were being written (they are all documented verbatimon this site). We had received hundreds of letters from pastors and preachers in many countries of the world. But we had no clients in India! In 1998, there was a severe hurricane in AP, and by this time we were in correspondence with one Pastor, Isaac Raj, in Tuni. Although his family was of one of the higher castes, Isaac and his wife Nuthan has felt called by God to work among members of the lowest caste (the Dalits), living in a mud hut, with straw roof, and encouraging contacts to come and worship in this structure. This structure was washed away, together with many other dwellings in the hurricane of 1998. Many were forced to go and dwell in the storm shelter, including the Raj Alanka couple. When he wrote to us, stating that he had nearly lost nearly everything, our church responded by sending him a sum of money for himself and other believers of his original church. In 1999, the church sent me to Tuni to find out how the money had been used.
While there, we saw the possibility of buying an old building which could be used for the setting up of the Good Shepherd Church. It soon became full. Later, the local town Council offered half of the money needed to build a good Church, and the land was purchased for that. Since that time, many had stated, and some completed, the study of our courses, for the training of preachers and pastors. Some of these young men started fellowships of their own as pastors of these churches. They are now well-established, and all are supervised by Pastor Isaac Raj. It is amazing, due to the hard work of Isaac, so many churches are well-established, and producing off-shoots of their own.
Finally, it has been a great pleasure to visit various churches in East and West Godavari in A.P., and educational conferences have been headed by me in various other states, including Orissa and Tamil Nadu. This has meant that PH was mainly, at first, a Southern Indian work, but pastors in States in North India are studying our courses, and even some theological Colleges have included some of them in their own curriculum. One year, I was invited to visit a nearby University, and give two lectures on the subject of a Christian Contribution to the Study of Psychology, and was well-received. (This also can be found in the book library in this site).
As an educational work, producing in excess of 10 courses, this church project in India is doing a great work, where Preacher’s Help is advancing steadily throughout India under the guidance of the Rev. Dr. Isaac Raj, to whom we owe a great debt of gratitude for all his hard work over the years. We feel great gratitude to God that the PH courses have made such a vital difference in the lives of the our preachers and pastors, and consequently in the churches that are under their leadership, which remain stable and are growing.
Geoffrey Stonier.