POOR MAN’S RELIGION?

“Rev & Mrs Yanao Steward”

Locating India is relatively easy for most of us when we consult our World Atlas. It is directly south of Tibet and Nepal and a southeastern neighbor to the Stans, as we call the former Baltic Soviet territories. Most of us, however, overlook the most remote region of India, located to the far northeast and separated from the main body of the country by Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. Here you’ll find the Indian States of Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, and furthest northeast, Arunachal Pradesh. It is here Rev Yanao Steward is toiling for the Lord.

Rev Steward attended the Haggai Institute in 2000. Correspondence brought his first letter to us in January 2001. “I am very thankful to you for writing to me about your ministry and desire to share through the audiovisual tools available. We operate a village ministry. Most of the people are very innocent and also illiterate. Our work is verbal, but it is very hard to communicate the Gospel to these souls. They require much explanation and are very hard to convince. When I received the audiovisual training, I was very much impressed about the power of seeing and hearing. I realized the need of doing village evangelism through audiovisual methods. With movies we can attract the entire population of a village to hear our message. So I humbly request you to help us by providing needed audiovisual tools. We will use them for our village evangelism where thousands are living without the knowledge of Jesus Christ. I strongly believe many will come to know Christ through AVangelism, and this will ONLY happen through the help of InterComm..”

What a joy is ours to respond to such genuine humility.

                                                                              “Torch Kit in use”

“Can you send me the Torch Kit with Filmstrips? It would be very helpful. For example, we travel to the China/Myanmar borders, and in these places there are not even any roads or electricity. Here we work among the Bori and Bokar Tribes. We find these people receptive to the Gospel. I believe the Torch Kit will be very effective there.”

By late 2001, our package arrived safely, and it included extra video material in the Hindi Language. “People are very much blessed by the Torch Kit ministry. Our people are even more interested in the African stories than the India stories. Even though we are part of India, we are known as Mongolian Indian. Yet, even here, the Hindus recently burned down 3 of our churches. Please pray for us.”

Rev. Steward’s first Report arrived in November 2002. We were so excited to see 9 souls had been won to Christ. He remains one of our most faithful AVangelists to date. We regularly receive 2 Reports each year on which he has recorded 106 showings to 4,723 persons with 124 decisions for Jesus Christ. Many showings take place among churches and the stories, presenting Biblical concepts, are a great encouragement and faith builder.

                              “Newly Baptized Converts from Rev Steward’s AVangelism Ministry.”
 

“In the village now, non-Christians are becoming afraid of their society. They are reluctant to respond to the invitation, as it can mean rejection from the family or even death. We must pray for them, as we live in an anti-conversion state in India. We often walk as much as 10 Km (6 miles) to reach some of the villages. Recently we went to Kangku Village. It has been very resistant to the preaching, but through the Torch Kit many were willing to come, see, and hear the Gospel stories. Many young people want to accept Christ, yet are afraid. Please pray for their courage to follow Christ. We work in villages, churches, schools, and prisons. As many of the Christians in our State are among the lower economic level people in Arunachal Pradesh, it is common for some to see Christianity as a poor man’s religion. I believe God’s Word will not return empty. We will continue on with our AVangelism and with the Apostle Paul, by all means win some. Please continue to provide us with your wonderful prayer support.”

Rev Myint Nwe, our Project Leader for the Burmese Language Recording work, recently made a ministry trip to China where many groups of Burmese people and Burmese speakers currently reside. For the sake of security, we will not mention the specific cities, but he mentioned he traveled 17 hours by train, another 8 hours by car, and then an additional 7 hours by car before switching to a bus for another 6 hours before reaching some of his destinations. Many of the Christian pastors he met were greatly encouraged when they watched our film, JOURNEY TO THE SKY, the story of India’s most famous Christian, Sadhu Sundar Singh. Most of these men had become Christians because of the testimony of this man’s life.

“It is very difficult to do ministry in these areas because such ministry is heavily restricted. Even so, I had 5 separate showings of our Myanmar videos and Torch Kit presentations. In every place there were wonderful indications of people’s hearts being touched by the message with many people showing tears of repentance, tears of peace and joy. I not only used the Torch Kit, but I trained the Evangelists in how to use it, and I left one behind as well as copies of our Burmese Language videos. These men are fully committed to take forward the work of evangelism into all the areas of China where Burmese speakers were known to exist. Later I returned to China to meet with these Evangelists again. They shared with me amazing stories. They said, ‘The Holy Spirit dwells in the stories of the videos and slide films, because during the presentations many people wept, repented, and committed their lives to the Lord, as their personal Savior.’ Evangelists themselves could not fully understand what was happening, but they are absolutely certain that God is using these Burmese video translations and the Torch Kit stories to powerfully transform the lives of people in their region. Now we have had the honor to train Chinese Christian leaders to be good AVangelists. The Burmese videos and drama Torch Kit stories are now fully active with the Chinese Evangelists in their own country. Praise God!”

FOLLOW UP CLASSES

Evangelists Temitope Omolere of Nigeria recently held video and Torch Kit showings from which 76 people gave their lives to Jesus Christ. He wrote:

“We had a wonderful 6 days. In the first 3 days, I showed the presentations and many people gave their lives to Christ. In the following 3 days, I used the Torch Kit films, and many of these new souls in God were greatly blessed. It really helped the new converts feel prepared to move into the church and to participate in additional follow up classes. I thank God for the Torch Kit ministry.”

THE TOOL KIT

Rev James Arikosi of Uganda writes:

“The Tool Kit (He meant Torch Kit.) showings have been extremely encouraging. The stories in fact have been very challenging to the people, who have sensed conviction upon their very souls, and their lives have changed. The films are also educative, and our explanations have helped the people better understand these stories. I’m very pleased to send you this Report, as pertaining to the ministry of the Tool Kit. The Tool Kit is now doing very well. May the almighty God continue His rich blessings upon your kind work.”

HEARTBEAT
by Ken Anderson

(For a period of time, InterComm will be sharing Heartbeats from the Ken Anderson Films era.)

“Happy Old Year!” So greets a friend of mine, who pointed out that the end of the year is a good time to renew the resolutions broken at the first of the year. Something to think about anyway. Seasons of the year, take birthdays, for example, do serve to remind one how quickly time passes. Years that seem as months. Months as weeks. Weeks as days, and days as hours. Need I add that hours often pass like minutes?

Perhaps the best resolution one can make would be determination to renew the effort of making everyday count. How wonderful it would be if 2008 became the year when time ceases for God’s children, when we are lifted beyond the clouds to begin the reality of eternal time.
 

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PROJECT UPDATES   Vietnamese Language Recording Project - 4 Films to be Recorded in early 2008 in country. Plans are now underway to set dates.     DONATE NOW>>    Transfer to VCD or DVD - $125@     DONATE NOW>>    Video/Disks for National Leaders - $10@.    DONATE NOW>>    Torch Kits - $300 or $25 per month for 1 year.    DONATE NOW>>    Save the Torch Kit Fund - Funding still needed for Filmstrips and Projector inventory.    DONATE NOW>>    InterComm Home Office Roof Replacement Seriously Needed      DONATE NOW>>    General Fund - Always needed.    DONATE NOW>>       “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Jesus Christ.” - Philippians 4:19

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