Recollections of an Indian Missionary
Dr Paul Pilai is the Founder and Director of India
Inland Mission, which plants churches among Hindus and has orphanages
and a Bible College of 600 for training evangelists and pastors.
Formerly a Hindu lawyer, Paul was converted when healed through an
Indian Christian's prayer.
We thank God for his
faithfulness in our mission work and the many signs and wonders admit
much persecution and danger. It is difficult to write about them all
because it is a story of 30 years in unknown places where churches
are established now.
One village did not have drinking
water, only salt water. We prayed for pure water and the Lord
provided pure water. The whole village came to Christ.
The
chief in another village became blind for three years. His eyes were
opened through our laying on hands and praying. The village came to
Christ (A further incredible healing from blindness follows shortly).
Another village suffered from constant attacks of a tiger
from the nearby forest. No police or gun men could spot it to shoot
it as it came at unexpected times around midnight. Some of our team
members preached the gospel in that village and went around the
village seven times and claimed the protection of the village by the
circle of the blood of Christ. Since then for over eight years the
tiger has never returned. Before that, every week someone used to be
attacked and killed. No more now.
At another place a
witch doctor had cursed a man and his animals because of enmity. The
man's seven milking buffaloes stopped giving milk. Our workers
rebuked the curse in the name of Jesus. Suddenly the buffaloes
started giving milk. Half of the villagers came to know Christ
through that.
A large gathering came to hear the gospel
in another village. A militant Hindu group organised a riot against
it and tried to stop the meeting. Our people started praying together
in the spirit. Suddenly thunder and lightning came. The leader of the
gang which attacked us became totally blinded. That stopped the riot
and the meetings continued for five days. On the fifth day the leader
of the riot who was blinded came forward for healing. Jesus healed
him and he accepted Christ and was baptised as a believer in Christ.
In one place during the monsoon season the Lord stopped
the rain for three days just in the area of our tent and surrounding
places. People were amazed at this. This was at a time when all other
places were flooding with rain. Even buildings were washed away. Our
tent meetings went on at the top of a mountain. Many were healed,
delivered from demons, and touched by the Holy Spirit. Hundreds were
convicted of their sins and accepted Christ.
In central
India a whole tribe came to Christ through our work by the simple
open door the Lord gave through a ministry of deliverance. The
daughter of the tribal chief became insane through demon possession.
The Lord used our mission team to deliver her from that. The chief
and the tribe accepted Christ as their only Lord.
A fire
broke out in a village where about 10,000 people lived in small huts
almost wall to wall with thatched rooves and mud walls. We
established a church with ten believers in that village. There was no
fire engine or help available for the villagers. Smoke filled the
whole air. The people could not see anything anywhere except thick
smoke. Our pastor and our believers called the whole village to stand
around the village to call upon God in the name of Jesus to stop the
fire. Thousands prayed. Our pastor kept shouting through the
microphone to keep calling upon the name of Jesus. The fire started
in the morning about 8.30 am. The smoke filled the village till five
that evening. All that time people were calling upon Jesus. Then the
pastor declared that the Lord would clear the smoke and that no lives
would be lost. The smoke went away. The villagers found only two huts
burnt where the fire started. The other houses were not destroyed. No
one was hurt. The village accepted Christ.
During a
pneumonic plague the whole nation was in panic. The plague started in
Surat where we had a ministry for 20 years. The people ran out of the
town in thousands. Many prominent leaders of several villages came to
our church and asked our people to pray as they heard about the power
of Jesus from us. The believers fasted and prayed. The plague was
stopped completely in that town. God's people have prayed in
thousands, and we continued to pray for the protection of the land
from the plague.
These are a few of the things I have
remembered. We never kept a record of these events. Only the Lord
keeps track of these things. The Lord continues to do many thing for
his glory. Indian Inland Mission workers all over north India see
many things like that. They work with native people who are very
simple in their faith in the living God.
'If you believe you will see the glory of God'
(John 11:40).
© Renewal Journal #9: Mission
(1997:1). Renewal: Brisbane, pp. 31-32.
http://www.pastornet.net.au/renewal
Reproduction
is allowed as long as the copyright remains intact with the text.
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