Reflections on India 4

I am just returned from a 12 day trip to India where I partnered with John Marley, a teacher from my church, to hold two 3-day Bible conferences.  The first was in Madurai, or more specifically, Light of Hope Gospel Mission just outside of Madurai.  The second was in Kovilpatti, a 3 hour trip south of Madurai.  All this is in the southern tip of India.  Our host was S. J. P. Vijayakumar, or Vijay.  He has been a missionary sponsored by Central Church since the mid 90′s.  His father-in-law, the founder of Light of Hope, has been supported by Central for many more years.  They are faithful servants of the kingdom.

I found myself drawn to several of the participants and their stories and would like to share some of those with the world (or at least whoever reads this blog).

1,000 Songs in an Unknown Tongue

She was given in marriage to a 25 year old blind man when she was 9 years old.  This tells you right away that she came from a poor family and she married into an impoverished marriage.  Undoubtedly her parents thought this was the best way to take care of her.  The new marriage was so poor that she had to go to work breaking rocks.  The woman standing to her left was explaining to us that this is why her feet were in such poor condition.

Somewhere along the line she became a follower of Jesus Christ and found ways to minister to others.  I had asked, during one of our sessions in which I was teaching on the filling of the Holy Spirit, if anyone there had some experiences of being filled with the Spirit that they would like to share.  She did.  She explained that she had gone to another state in India where she did not know the language.  But miraculously she found herself able to speak it and wrote 1,000 songs in this previously unknown language.

She sang for us that day in the Tamil language, the language everyone at this conference spoke since all were from the state of Tamilnadu, where Vijay lives.  She has had a hard life, but God has transformed her life in Christ.

Related articles

• Reflections on India 1 (thimblefulloftheology.wordpress.com)
• Reflections on India 2 (thimblefulloftheology.wordpress.com)
• Reflections on India 3 (thimblefulloftheology.wordpress.com)