Dear friends and family,
Praise the Lord for the year 2014. It will
be a great year in the Lord. It was in 1914 the World War 1 started where over
9 million in Europe died. The World War came to an end in November, 1918. It
was in 1793 that William Carey, the father of modern Missions traveled to India
to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ our Lord. He labored in Calcutta,
India for over 7 years, having never seen a single convert. It was after seven
years that one man came to trust the Lord as his personal Lord Savior. His name
was Ram Pal. From that small and fragile beginning of the work of the Gospel in
Calcutta by William Carey, the Gospel eventually traveled to Orissa, and reached
the area where I was born in the early 1900's. Under the work of pioneer
missionaries from England in our area, where several of them died, Five Hindu
Converts were baptized on Easter Sunday, 1914. The Gospel had come to our
area.
Soon after that my grandfather accepted
Christ. Then I came to trust Christ as young boy of 3 years. The church has
grown since those days of early beginnings. In recent times, the church went
through a great persecution by militant Hindus. It was in 2008 that over 100
Christians were murdered. It was in 1999 that Graham Stains, missionary from
Australia, was burned to death along with his two young sons. In spite of the
severe persecution the Church in Phulbani has grown miraculously. There are now
over 500,000 Christians who live in the area.
The church in Phulbani, Orissa will
be observing the centennial celebration of the first Hindu Converts who were
baptized on Easter Sunday, 1914 (April 14,1914). It will be held April 11-14,
2014. I have been invited as the preacher for the event. Laureen will be
joining me along with Andy and 10 others from Washington, DC. A missionary from
here named David Coles, who has been serving in Indonesia for the last 24 years,
will be joining us in India. They are expecting over 20,000 people for this
event. Please keep us in prayer. I will be in India for a month, and I will be
preaching in India on Easter.
Each short term missionary is paying for
his or her expenses. The church in Phulbani is raising the funds to organize
the centennial celebration. They have asked us to come alongside in prayerful
and financial support. We are trusting the Lord for $10,000 (Ten Thousand to
help finance the costs of the conference. We are also planning to organize a
pastors' conference while we are there. These funds will enable us to help with
a two day pastors conference and the four day centennial celebration. I am
writing this prayerfully that you might prayerfully consider to invest joyfully
in this mission endeavor. Whatever the amount the Lord will multiply
it.
You can make checks to "Union Center
United Methodist Church" and mail them to the church at 128 Maple Drive,
Endicott, NY 13760. Memo: Orissa Mission Fund. Thank
you.
I am asking you to join us in praying for
this mission trip.
With much gratitude,
Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment