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Priyanka Singh Celebrated her first Christmas. You may remember Priyanka received Christ through the sewing school in September, 2010 and testified that,” more than the sewing machine, more than the certificate, I got Jesus as a gift”. For thousands of people from various people group, caste and language backgrounds, this was their first Christmas program. People who never heard the gospel before were able to hear the true meaning of Christmas through TIM Christmas Outreach-2010. Many seekers who came to the Christmas outreach received Christ. Over 62,320 people were reached through the Christmas message, and Christmas Tracts distribution, and other programs held by the TIM church Planters. Praise God for the 1360 people who received Christ and who have shown interest to know about Jesus more.
Many participants invited the church planters to their home to pray for them and to hear more about Jesus. The church planters were very serious about the Christmas outreach. They evangelized from House to House. Tracts were distributed to every home, knocking on each door. The church planters used skits like “Touch me not”, “burden of sin”, and action songs, Bible stories songs and other means to communicate the gospel in their heart language, like Bhojpuri, Maghi, Maithili and Hindi. Many new believers shared their testimony of their relationship with Christ. Hindu People who hated the Christian work, who persecuted and opposed the church planters attended the Christmas meeting and asked for the Bible at the end. There were different reactions from the participants: someone said: “I am touched by the message and the Program”. An Ex- Village chief (Raj Kumar Bind) said, I have been to several programs and functions but I have not been to a program like this”. He said, “you need to come to my village and share this good news with our villagers and I will take care of all your expenses”.
Another person said, “for the first time we had the opportunity to attend the Christmas program and hear the message of love”. We received several phone calls from people who attended the meeting and received tracts asking us for more information. The villagers have shown great interest in hearing the gospel.
People from higher caste background like Brahmins, Rajputs, Bhumiyars and also from several other castes like Yadav, Koiri and Kurmi attended the meeting. Even in cold weather, the people gathered and listened to the gospel message and watched a Christian movie even up until 2 a.m.
Mr. Manoj Yadav heard the gospel thorough one of the new believers and after hearing from the believer, he wanted to meet with the church planter and wanted to know more. After meeting and hearing the gospel from the church planter, he was convinced of his sin and he began to weep. He is now ready for baptism.
The Literacy program children were greatly blessed and were very interested to hear more stories on Jesus. They loved the Christmas programs conducted for them by the church Planters and literacy teachers. Sewing school women also celebrated the Christmas program with great interest and for most of them this was their first Christmas. Literacy teachers also enjoyed their Christmas program which we organized in Patna. 13 literacy teachers received Christ. Orphanage children thoroughly enjoyed their Christmas celebration. They loved the program we organized for them. The Christmas outreach organized for the youth also went very well. Many youth came to know the true meaning of Christmas for the first time.
Our church planters were so excited by the response that they continued the Christmas program till December 31, 2010 even going to other villages they did not even plan to go to. We have been able to purchase 1000 Bibles and over 2150 New Testaments and 300,000 tracts. We also gave away the Gospel of John and other literature to the seekers who came to the programs. My sincere thanks to everyone who contributed to the Christmas outreach programs. Without your prayers and financial partnership this outreach would not have been possible. As far as I know, this was the biggest Christmas outreach held not only in Bihar but in all of India.
I told our church planters that by conducting the Christmas outreach programs, we have not done a big thing; we have just done what we were supposed to do. We should have done it much earlier. But even now it is not too late. We need to penetrate every village with the gospel.
Our church planters have already started the follow up program. They are meeting the people who made decisions to receive Christ. They are also preparing to conduct special meetings for the seekers to build relationship and disciple them.
Thank you for standing with us to reach the unreached and bring life and light to the people of Bihar. I am often reminded of the words of Jesus, ”The Harvest is truly plentiful but the laborers are few. Pray that the Lord may send the laborers in to the harvest field”. Please continue to pray for all the people who attended the Christmas outreach. It is our prayer that they will take a strong decision to follow Christ amidst of opposition and persecution from their families and society. |