2010 October: Fires without and fire within
Dear Reader,
Fires without and fire within: Excerpts from an article by Dr. Alex Philip, Bihar India (Used and abridged with permission)
| Mahinder Yadav was a worried man. As one of the elders of Kurlahi village, he had spent sleepless nights over two weeks as mysterious and spontaneous fires burned down bamboo huts in his village. The flames consumed small huts and always it seemed that there was no reason for the fire to have started. The villagers were scared. "Were mysterious evil powers at work?" was the unuttered question on everyone's lips. |
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| * Figure 1 Mahinder Yadav - a once worried man of Madhepura |
Figure 1
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Tantric and magic men were called in to halt the fires. Nothing seemed to be work. Chanting started from morning to dusk. As they chanted, additional fires would burn up homes. It was then that NIEA Pastor Shambunath and his team of Church planters heard this terrifying story through friends of the neighboring village. The villagers pleaded with the team "please do something!" The entire team of about twelve church planters started to fast and prays and seeks God's grace. Shortly afterwards, Shambu felt a leading to tackle this challenge.
When he entered the village, there were about fifty magic men with their wares chanting and in a trance. They wanted to know what he was doing there! There was mayhem everywhere as disenchanted villagers grumbled about their uncertain future in Angika their heart language. Along with his wife, Shambunath spent half a day in the village praying in the name of Jesus Christ, and speaking peace in the place of fear. He challenged them to recognize that Jesus' name is above all and that HE had the power to stop this evil and destructive influence. The husband-wife team implored the Lord to show mercy and demonstrate His redemptive power among the hapless villagers of Kurlahi. The fire-cycle stopped immediately.
For Mahinder Yadav this was his tryst with destiny – the power of Jesus Christ and his love for sinful man was explained to him. Within a few days, he gave his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was visibly moved, as tears ran down his checks and as the Light dawned on him. Two months later he was baptized. Discipleship teams started visiting the village and sharing the Gospel with other eager folks. Daneshwar Sah, another indigenous worker along with others started discipling Mahinder. Mahinder started discipling his fellow villagers in turn asking them to consider Jesus Christ as Lord. God blessed the efforts of this young and new believer with amazing results.
Today about 80 men and women regularly meet for worship and prayer in Kurlahi and the group is growing. This group certainly has their hearts on fire! Only now this is a different kind of fire. The flame of the Holy Spirit, which has been kindled in their hearts, has opened their minds as well to see and receive the Gospel message. The challenge is discipling these non-reading new believers. Being a typical Bihari village, over 70% of the population is illiterate (among women literacy is even lower). With no relevance for printed media, Mahinder and his fellow new believers need to rely on audio and video formats for their growth in Christ. How do such new churches grow where oral communication methods are the only option?
God's unexpected solution: It was just about eight months ago that 25 Bible stories were crafted and recorded on listening devices called Proclaimers. These machines are solar powered, heard by groups of up to 100 at a time and the content is in the heart language. A 2nd device is now being made available, where recently 10 Angika worship songs (the first ever!) were recorded and transferred on to a smaller mobile phone sized device called the AudiBible. As believers within an oral context learn and engage with God's Word through story and song, their lives are being transformed. Dr. Alex Philip (Sept. 2010)
| Please pray for the ongoing work in 68 locations across Bihar state where Bible stories on Proclaimers have been distributed already, accelerating impact on the ground. Pray too as another 20 hours of audio content in each of six heart languages of Bihar is readied. The additional content - to be distributed on AudiBible™ players - will consist of Biblical material (10 hours) and community development content (10 hours), including health, education, agriculture and specific context related needs.. |
 Figure 2 |
| * Figure 2 A trial test run with the AudiBible solar powered listening device where 10 Angika and Magahi songs have been crafted and put to music along with the entire NT in Hindi! |
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In Faith,
David
David Swarr, Dr.
President & CEO
Davar Partners International
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