Global Assembly Testimony

A Publication of Brethren Gospel Ministries, India

The aim of GAT is to bring news and reports of Gods work among New Testament Pattern assemblies worldwide. In addition, expository, apologetic, and other matters that edify Gods children will also be present as space allows. GAT is distributed to 50,000 readers globally via four mailing lists of BGM. There is NO charge for receiving this news-magazine. Kindly encourage your friends to join the totally free mailing list. Please send news and photographs for publication to GlobalAssemblyTestimony@gmail.com. News should be one to two paragraph long. Ministry reports up to two pages are welcome. Please do send plenty of photographs as it is easy to publish photographs in electronic media. What is more, the large number of people who access this publication on their mobile and tablet devices are easily able see and enjoy full-color photographs. Instead of multiple columns, this publication is purposely designed in single column at the request of our esteemed readers who fine it easier to read single-column publications more easily on their tablet and mobile devices.

Editors: Chief Editor: Dr. Johnson C. Philip Managing Editor: Dr. Saneesh Cherian Editors: P.E. Samkutty, Scaria Varghese, Alexander Koshy International Coordinator: Abraham Thomas, Kochi National Coordinator: Ranjit Kumar Bagh

International Board: Dr. KM Samuel, Kenya Dr. Sunny Ezhumattoor, USA Noel Daniel, USA John Abraham, UAE Published by - Brethren Gospel Ministries, India Global Assembly Testimony Copyright: 2013 by Brethren Gospel Ministries Cochin University PO, India Typeset And Designed by: Logos Media, Maneed, Kerala, India Postal Address: Anand Villa, Cochin University PO, Kochi, Kerala, India 682022 MOB: 0999 519 8690

Editorial
Who Are You? Everyone knows how fast the value-system of people has been degenerating, so that theft, corruption, and other questionable actions are increasingly finding acceptance by societies worldwide. But what should shock every Christian is the result of Surveys conducted around the world among born-again Christians. These surveys have shown that the value-system of the born-again Christians has been degenerating so fast that within the next decade the two value systems (that of the world and that of the born again Christians) will become identical -- unless it is arrested NOW. That will be a time like the time of Noah. However, the main aim of this editorial is not to predict or even show the direction in which we are moving, but to call each of you back to the place where we were before this slide started. The slide started twice, first when in the 1880s and 1890s when some evangelical Christians decided that the infallibility and inerrancy of the Scriptures need to be questioned. The second one started in the 1960s and 1970s when many evangelical parents decided that they are not parents and shepherds of their children but that they are only facilitators. A facilitator, in this particular case, is not someone who shows the correct direction to children but rather a person who helps children to discover their own direction, values, and ethical system. This is an outlook totally contrary to Train the child in the way he should walk and our generation has started witnessing the results. When parents abdicate their solemn responsibility, the children and grandchildren bring for the result. In many ways this affects the present generations commitment to evangelism, and support of evangelists. However, it is still not too late. Rather than leaving our next generation for self-discovery of who they are, we need to nurture them in solid Biblical values.

Dr. Saneesh Cherian

Emerging Missions

Missions To North Indians In South India

A GAT Report On An Emerging Mission Field The gospel came to the southern tip of India in AD 50 when St. Thomas the disciple reached the shores of the state today known as Kerala. A substantial community of Christians have existed in the southern tip of India, known today as Kerala and Tamil Nadu states. However, the penetration of the gospel to the northern parts of India was slow. The number of Christians in remaining 26 states taken together has never approached the number of Christians in the two southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. As a result, the people of Kerala have always viewed North India as a Mission Field. Today Hundreds of thousands of people from Kerala (all churches combined) work in the North as evangelists, pastors, mission-office workers, etc. in specifically missionoriented jobs. North India became a pioneer missions field for people of Kerala in the post-independence era and, barring exceptions, most places in the North offered good reception to the gospel. Things started changing with the rise of anti-evangelism sentiments in the north. Orissa became the first to pass what is called an anti-conversion law in 1967. Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat followed with similar laws. Eventually the trend caught up and in 2007 even the Congress-party-ruled Himachal Pradesh passed such a rule. A hardening stance can now be discerned all over India. Open-air preaching has become difficult, and numerous churches have been vandalized, destroyed, or burnt. Christians workers are routinely beaten up, at home, at work, and during open-air preaching. Many cases of brutal beating have been reported. Arrest, imprisonment on false charges, and criminal-cases are also becoming frequent. Picture: Graham Stains with family before 3 of them were brutally burnt to death While UM Dorairaj was the first Indian to be martyred for the gospel, Graham Stains an Australian missionary became the second. He and two of his children were brutally burnt and murdered in the night of 22 January
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Emerging Missions
1999 in the van in which they were sleeping. A desire to obliterate many more is reportedly deep in the hearts of many anti-Christian elements, if reports are to be believed. If anything similar to the brutal murder of Sikhs ever breaks out in India, tens of thousands of Christians might be murdered in North India in less than 24 hours such is the aggressive sentiment seen these days. Picture: A recent news-paper report of 700 Christians who recently went back into Hinduism It is against this background that a new opportunity is opening up in Kerala, a state with a 20% Christian population and 2000 years of Christian history. Young people from Kerala have been migrating to North India, the Middle East, and North America for almost half a century and this has created a chronic shortage of manpower. The recent explosive growth of the Building Industry and the proliferation of High Rise Buildings has only intensified this shortage. This has in turn brought an increasing migration of unskilled laborers and semi-skilled stone-masons from North India to Kerala. Today there are an estimated 2.5 million North Indians in Kerala who live mostly as singles, with their families back in their North Indian villages. Lonely, and away from their state, these people are totally open to gospel literature. Many brothers and assemblies have risen to the occasion to share the gospel with these Hindi-speaking migrant laborers from North India. Hindi Gospel Team is one such ministry. Started by Dr. Saneesh Cherian and Dr. Johnson C. Philip, they have already thousands of copies of a gospel booklet. Several tracts plus a Life of Christ in simple Hindi are under preparation and will be available soon. Requests for this material has started pouring in from assemblies and evangelists all over Kerala. Hindi Gospel Team work started in Ernakulam, but very soon the Trustees of the Brethren Theological College based in Kallisseri (Kerala) felt that BTC students would be able to do such a ministry very effectively, seeing the majority of them have Hindi as their native language. The started a ministry in the Chengannur area with this min mind and BTC students have been very successful in distributing gospel literature and also in personally sharing the gospel. Since Kerala is a land totally alien to them, these Hindi-speaking laborers accept gospel literature willingly and without opposing it, even if they hail from the most rabidly anti Christian state. In this way the Lord has opened a way to share the gospel of salvation with North Indians in South India. Kindly keep praying for this strategic ministry.

Global News

News From Around The World

Monika Harper: We are currently finishing the school in Kabul started by Dr Howard Harper. Currently we have 350 children from the Hazara minority group from the ages of five to fifteen. There's a lot going on and prayer is appreciated. Progress on the school building going well and the whole village involved. The children have been winning national prizes for academic excellence and many of them girls. Please pray for safety as our New Zealand engineer goes out next week to oversee the work. [GC3 Econnect] Greerton Bible Church: The Elders of Greerton Bible Church have commended Howard & Averil Robinson to work with MMM in the role of New Zealand Director. This is a full time position that primarily focuses on leading the MMM ministry (Howard) and Adminstration/Pastoral support (Averil). [GC3 Econnect] Westchurch: Westchurch is happy to commend Dean and Kaylene Yeoman to serve the Lord in South Africa and Mozambique. They are going under SIM NZ and Mercy Air. Dean will work as a helicopter pilot and engineer and Kaylene as a school teacher and in the role of developing a rural education program. [GC3 Econnect] Biometric Database Of All Adult Americans Hidden In Immigration Reform: The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S., in what privacy groups fear could be the first step to a ubiquitous national identification system. Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named photo tool, a massive federal database administered by the Department of Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a drivers license or other state-issued photo ID. [http://www.prophecynewswatch.com]

Support The Lords Work India

Support for the Lords work in India (general support or designated gift for a ministry or an individual) can be sent via the Gospel Missions of India, based in the USA. Gospel Missions of India (GMI) is an IRS approved 501(c)(3) non-profit, tax exempt, religious organization based in Michigan, USA to support Christian workers and ministries in India associated with the Brethren assemblies. It is an approved member of the ECFA.

Culture Shock

Christian Witness And Culture

A GAT Special Feature I worked as a School (Junior College) lecturer in one of the large Indian towns a few years ago. There used to be an annual Science Exhibition, and in one year our school became the venue for this exhibition, and I was made in-charge of the exhibition. Almost 50 schools sent exhibits and volunteers to man the exhibits, and three to five thousand students visited the exhibition every day for an entire week. I had a group of 50 volunteers from my school and I controlled them from a room from where I could see everyone and everyone could see me. I had a Corning flask full of hot steaming black coffee on my table, and poured a bit of it into a special cup that was presented to me by one of the students. The very first morning a senior teacher, who had taught me when I was a student in the same institution a few years ago, dashed into my room and angrily asked me to move that Corning flask and the glass cup away from public view. He then gave me a steel tumbler and asked me to drink only from it. Having a great love and respect for him I complied and waited till the evening when everyone was free. When I asked him for his surprising outburst he said, You South Indians do not know the way North Indians think. All our North Indian movies depict Christians as compulsive drunkards, and alcoholism as part of the Christian culture. Unlike you South Indians, nobody drinks black-coffee in North India, people immediately think that you a Christian is drinking alcohol in a public place like this. This would have tarnished both your image as well as the image of this institution. I was shocked! India is just one country, but there is so much difference in the language and culture of people from place to place that just an innocent act on my part would have given me a very bad name. Cross-cultural Evangelism was a buzz-word worldwide in the 1970s and after. However, a good amount of the cross-cultural evangelism jargon was plain wrong. People are strongly attached to their cultures worldwide, except maybe in a few western nations where individualism reigns. Culture, family, and customs have a strong hold upon individuals in the rest of the world. When a person from an alien culture shares the gospel, it often results in hostility. That is why missionaries need to learn the language and culture of local people before they try to share the gospel. This is also the reason why in a multi-cultural country like India, gospel-workers need to understand the cultural differences that can prevent the spread of the gospel or that can convey a wrong message. India is not one, but rather a thousand nations and thousand cultures in one. Great caution is needed to share the gospel in such a nation.
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An Urgent Need!

Bengal Bible Training Institute

Jamtara, Jharkhand, India Greetings to you from. In the present Bible School batch of BBTI we have 17 brothers from 7 North Indian states and including one from Nepal. Over the years, more than 110 native brethren studied in BBTI and are now fruitfully serving the Lord in different parts of North India. Picture: The incomplete building of Womens Bible School We as a family are serving the Lord here in Jamtara, Jharkhand. The Lord brought me to this place in 2000. Since then I was assisting in various ministries of BBTI. The Lord is using me here among the sisters, teaching them and encouraging them in the word. Jharkhand and West Bengal is highly populated with Santhal Tribe and hundreds of other people groups. Since 2003 we have been having special training program for women. As a result, we have been praying for a separate Sisters Bible Institute, where they can be trained and equipped. Here in the Northern part of India, we do not have any facility or opportunity for our Sisters to be trained and we feel a great need of it. Picture: Leaders of a recent Womens Camp A Sisters Bible Training Institute in North India will be a giant step in the evangelization effort among women in the North. An institution of this type could be instrumental in transforming ordinary girls into women of God with commitment and vision and this could in turn impact the society at large in many cultures and in many language groups. The Lord has to provide the resources for the building (Class room, hostel and Kitchen etc By faith we started the construction in January 2012. We are also planning with the Bible Training program some self-help or tent making training also for these needy sisters and we want to shelter sisters who are sent out of homes for the sake of the Gospel . Thank you for all the help in the past. Yours in His service,
Mrs. Rinu S Thomas, (Co-ordinator) ALL CORRESPONDENCE TO SBTC Manager, BBTI, Bena, Jamtara, Jharkhand, India - 815 351, sbtcjamtara@gmail.com 8 +91-9939342748

News From India

For Prayer And Thanksgiving

Hisar Brethren Fellowship: We are planning to have three days VBS on 27,28,29 may 2013 at assembly hall. We expect 75 children and 15 leaders. Please pray for good climate, teachers, students, financial needs etc. Also we will have three days of Gospel meetings. Lord's servants from North India will minister the word of God. Please do pray for blessings. For the Assembly, Samuel Kutty MC, Evg. Biju T Abraham, Vijay Kumar, [Hisar Brethren Fellowship, House No:5,C-II Block, New Model Town,Hisar-125 005, Haryana. Mob.94167 80320] Kirubanandan Shanmugam: I belong to Saligramam Christian assembly. I came to Canada for my studies. Please pray for me to get smooth in doing things and I am grateful to you for your prayer support. A Report Of the Australian Brethren Family Conference 2013: The three days of the Australian Indian Brethren Family Conference from April 04 to 07, 2013, with the theme from Col 2:7 Rooted and built up in Christ," went well by the grace of God.

Believers from Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and different parts of Melbourne, attended, and the unity of the believers were very evident throughout the conference. It was a time of ministry from the Word, fellowship and prayer. Bro. Thomson B Thomas from India, Bro. Gordon Liddle and Bro. Rajan Varghese from Melbourne, ministered from the Word. The morning meditations from Philemon 1-25 and Jude 1-25 were very edifying. Sunday's worship session was well-attended, and all were inspired and encouraged by the message shared by Bro. Thomson B Thomas, The believers of the Melbourne Indian Brethren Assembly, with
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one mind and heart , came forward to put together their efforts to make the conference a success and a source of blessing. At this conference, it was brought to the hearts of the brethren to have such a gathering be known from now onwards as the Australian Indian Brethren Fellowship (AIBF). A committee also formed, Bro Rajan Varghese (President), Bro Joseph John (vice President), Bro Johny (Secretary) Bro Daniel K Theophil (Joint Secretary) Bro Bibin Abraham (Treasurer) Bro Jogi Mathew (National coordinator). Same time state representatives also sleeted from Bro Ciby Sam (Melbourne), Bro Jemin Benjamin (Adelaide), Bro James K Samuel (Sydney), Bro Sajeev Mathew (Brisbane), and Bro Boben TG. (Perth). Australian Indian Brethren Fellowship. Email: aibfausi@yahoo.com Web: http://aibf.org.au

FIBA 3013 Conference, Texas

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Indian Brethren Fellowship Family Conference 2013

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Thiruvalla Medical Mission Hospital, Kerala, India:

We Seek Your Help!

Global Assembly Testimony would love to connect evangelists, assemblies, and ministries of New Testament Patten with its 50,000 subscribers worldwide. Please send news, reports (up to 2 pages per report), testimonies, photographs, and matters for publication to GlobalAssemblyTestimony@Gmail.com We welcome news from around the world. We also seek help from people who wish to help us as news-reporters from countries around the world. Please contact us if you are able to help us. We accept books for review. Books, magazines, journals, etc. for review can be sent to Global Assembly Testimony, 143 Maveli Nagar, Cochin University PO, 682022, Kochi, India, MPB: 0999 519 8690 Please do forward a copy of this publication to your friends!! You are also welcome to distribute electronic or printed copies, without alternation!
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The Southwestern Brethren Conference, 2013

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