From the Spiritual Overseer...
2010-Year of God’s Mercy!
Dearly Beloved,
Grace, Mercy and Peace be to you from God
the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. We thank
the Lord for your support and encouragement ever
since the inception of this mission. “God is not
unjust; He will not forget your work and the love
you have shown Him as you have helped His
people and continue to help them” (Heb 6:10).
May the Lord who is rich in mercy bless you
richly in this New Year.
We are labouring in the following areas to
ensure that the church is filled with the glory of
God and the world is reached with the Gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ—
1. Revival
2. Youth/Campus Work
3. Missionary Evangelism
4. Literature
5. Social Concerns
The Lord has been blessing our efforts
abundantly. We will continue to put in more effort
on the above mentioned areas as the time is short
and the coming of the Lord Jesus is very near.
We had a key people meet in Tamilnadu for two
days to pray and plan for the year 2010. We urge
every one of you to involve in personal soul
winning and neighbourhood evangelism. The Lord
has set an open door before us now and we should
make best use of this opportunity. The time may
come wherein no one can work.
Last year we had some trouble in Orissa,
Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka.
Some of our missionaries and native workers were
beaten and worship sheds were destroyed. But
our God who is rich in mercy delivered and
protected our believers and missionaries from all
evil. To God be the glory. God heard the prayers
of His children and did mighty things in the mission
field. We request you to form new prayer cells
wherever you are and pray specifically for the
salvation of our country. Two people are enough
to start a prayer cell. God will help you. “Where
two or three come together in My name, there I
am with them” (Mt 18:20). Prayer moves the arm
of God that moves the world.
Ever since the start of the 3rd decade of BYM
in 1991, we made it a practice to declare a biblical
theme each year for a fresh emphasis. The biblical
BLESSING/ January 2010
theme for the year 2010 is “God’s Mercy.” Our
Father is the Father of mercy and compassion
(2 Cor 1:3). “He is merciful and gracious, slow to
anger and abounding in mercy. He has not dealt
with us according to our sins nor punished us
according to our iniquities. As the heavens are
high above the earth so great is His mercy towards
those who fear Him... His mercy is from
everlasting to everlasting” (Psa 103:8-11,17). We
have our merciful Saviour our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we can “approach the throne of
grace with confidence, so that we may receive
mercy and find grace to help us in our time of
need” (Heb 4:16). As we study this theme together
throughout this year, I believe that our life will be
totally transformed to this virtue of God.
Jesus said, “Be merciful, just as your Father is
merciful” (Lk 6:36).
We have been implementing several welfare
schemes for the benefit of our missionaries and
their children. From January 2010 onwards we
have planned to introduce a pension scheme for
the benefit of our missionaries. This will incur
additional expenditure every month. We have
proposed a pension fund of one crore for the
above purpose. You may support this scheme in
every possible way.
This year we have planned to hold the National
Staff Retreat during May 2010 for 5 days for
reviving and strengthening our missionaries.
Missionaries from all 14 States will be participating
in this camp along with their families. This will
provide a great boost to their spiritual life so that
with renewed vigour they may be able to do great
things for God in their field. Kindly pray for this
important programme.
The Tamilnadu branch is getting ready for
conducting Halo 2010 in Sittheri Hills during
Pongal holidays. As you know the youth are the
arrows in the hands of the warrior. Their strength
and their energy should be used for the Kingdom
of God. We need your special prayers during those
days so that the youngsters can be snatched from
the clutches of the devil.
Do all that is possible for the salvation of souls.
The Lord is coming soon with his rewards.
Your Brother
A. Lionel
2
 At a Bible Study class that I attend, we
recently studied the Ten Commandments. We
were asked, “How do you intend to keep these
commandments in the days ahead?” To me, the
question seemed irrelevant. Like the rich young
ruler of Luke 18, I thought to myself, “All these I
have kept from my youth.” But as I looked
carefully at Exodus 20:1-17 again, I started having
second thoughts.
I sat down with a pen and paper and examined
myself. I have put down the thoughts and
questions that these commandments raised in my
mind. It would be a good idea to examine
ourselves at the dawn of the New Year.
The 10 Commandments for 2010
Mrs. Haema Henry, Chennai
1. You shall have no other gods before Me (v3).
Whatever occupies the first place in my life is
my god. Is the Lord truly there at the top of my
concerns? Is the Lord my first thought in the
morning? I am often guilty of allowing sleep to
eat away a portion of my early morning quiet time.
Sleep, TV, story books, all good and beneficial by
themselves, often take away time that I should
have given for worship and communing with God.
When that happens, they become gods before
Him.
2. You shall not make any idol for yourself
(vv 4-6).
I may not bow down to any gold or silver image,
but an idol could be anything that I pour my time,
passion and energy on. My family, my children,
my work... all given by God as a blessing could
become idols if I get my priorities mixed up. I
look forward to and greatly enjoy talking to my
family members on the phone. I wonder if I look
forward as much to my prayer times!
I realized that pride is often one idol that I
pamper the most. Even when I teach the Bible, if
the intention is to be praised or acknowledged by
those around, that becomes an offering to my self-
idol. When I insist on having my way at home or
at work, I worship at the altar of self-will.
BLESSING/ January 2010
3. Do not misuse the name of God (v7).
I was particularly perturbed because this verse
comes with a solemn warning—The Lord will hold
guilty anyone who misuses His name. Of course,
I do not misuse God’s name blatantly, but very
subtly, sin creeps in. I try to use God’s name as a
wedge to get some truth from my children.
Christians are often guilty of spreading gossip
using very holy means—asking for prayer for so
and so because he/she is doing... Do I call someone
brother/sister in Christ and have no love in my
heart? Then I am misusing God’s name!
4. Honour the Lord’s day (vv 8-11).
I have heard from my parents and elders that
when they were children, they would come home
from church and spend the rest of the day
memorizing Scripture, learning the creed and so
on. But for me, Sunday has become a very busy
day—often the busiest day of the week—running
from one activity to another. Am I honouring the
Lord when I do that ?
The verse goes on to say that your man-
servant, maid-servant, ox, etc. must rest one day
a week. That would mean that we should give
our servant maid a weekly off instead of making
her work like an ox on that day too!
5. Honour your father and your mother (v12).
Now, that includes father-in-law and mother-
in-law because in God’s eyes, husband and wife
are one flesh. Do I care as much for my parents-
in-law as I do for my own? Do I care as much
for their emotional and social needs as I do about
their physical needs? Do I cut them off when they
talk old fashioned ideas?
6. You shall not murder (v13).
I have not physically murdered anyone. But I
could think of numerous occasions, when actively
or passively, I have contributed to the character
assassination of someone. After reading Psalm
3
15 one day, I looked up the meaning of ‘slander’
and ‘slur’ in the dictionary, because the Psalmist
says that those who slander or cast a slur on their
fellowmen cannot dwell in the Lord’s sanctuary.
I found that casting a slur meant passing around
some damaging information about someone, even
if it is true. So, even if I pass on some true
information with the intention of damaging
someone’s reputation, I am guilty.
Moreover, our Lord has equated anger with
murder. How often I snap and lose my temper
with my children because something else is
bothering me!
7. You shall not commit adultery (v14).
Though meaning unfaithfulness in marital
relationships, the term can be used to describe
unfaithfulness in any relationship. Wherever there
is a breach of trust, this commandment is broken.
Am I faithful to the organization I work for? Do I
scandalize my boss? Do I maintain confidentiality
when someone confides in me?
Many of the prime-time programs on popular
television channels are based on extra-marital
relationships or scheming ex-boyfriends or jealous
jilted wives planning revenge. When these
programs are viewed in my living room, am I not
being a party to the corruption brought on by such
values into our social fabric?
8. You shall not steal (v15).
I have never sneaked into anyone’s house and
made off with precious things! But how about
stuffing into the handbag a few extra tissues from
the restaurant? Deuteronomy 23:24 says, “If you
enter your neighbour’s vineyard, you may eat all
the grapes you want, but do not put any in your
basket!”
I was also reminded of times when I have been
bored or tired and so, chatted away on the phone
with a friend, not realizing that I was killing her
precious time!
9. You shall not give false testimony (v16).
So often, I have made comments or passed
judgements on people based on hear-say. Very
BLESSING/ January 2010
safely, I prefix my statement with, “I’m not sure,
but I heard that...” And to be extra cautious, I
suffix with “But anyway, don’t tell anyone else
because we don’t know for sure.” I blush at the
irony. Surely, testimony need not refer only to
statements made in a court of law!
10. You shall not covet... anything that belongs
to your neighbour (v17).
In today’s context, the commandment would
mean, Do not covet your neighbour’s big cars,
posh house, sweet spouse... an endless list that
would be. An aunty mentioned that every time
she manages to get a good domestic help (which
is quite difficult these days), her neighbour would
be at the door asking the girl if she had a sister!
We live in a flat and every time we visit someone
in an independent house with a garden, my little
daughter says, “How I wish we lived in a house
like this!” Being a child, she mouths what I don’t
openly say!
I wanted to throw up my arms in despair saying,
“Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me
from this body of sin?” But I took heart because
the great stalwart of the New Testament—the
Apostle Paul himself—struggled with this question
and came up with the answer “Thanks be to
God—through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom
7:24,25). As he points out in Romans 3:20, through
the law, we become conscious of sin. Jesus came
only because it is impossible for me to keep the
law in my own strength.
Having made me conscious of sin, He doesn’t
leave me in the quagmire. Romans 8 teaches me
that I am not controlled by the sinful nature, but
by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in me (v 9).
God’s perfect will for me is that I be transformed
into the likeness of His Son (v29). As he convicts
me, He also empowers me to eschew those very
things, move forward and take hold of that for
which Christ Jesus took hold of me (Phil 3:12).
(The author is a housewife. Mobile: 090031
31177). U
4
 How to Enjoy a New Year
ST
FIR E Mrs. Priscilla Fredrick, Tuticorin
Z
PRI
We do not read of any New Year Celebrations
in the Bible. However the beginning of certain
years brought great joy to certain groups of people.
The Lord has given His people certain commands,
which when obeyed in letter and spirit would ring
in a joyful celebration to the entire community at
the beginning of a new year.
A) Deuteronomy 14:28,29: “At the end of
every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s
produce and store it in your towns, so that the
Levites (who have no allotment of their own) and
the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live
in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied
and so that the Lord your God may bless you in
all the work of your hands.”
At the beginning of every year, we pray for
God’s blessings on the year. Here, He gives us
an idea on how to appropriate His blessings. God
said, “I will bless you and make you a blessing.”
Why stop at receiving blessings? Why not become
a blessing to God’s people and the poor by sharing
God’s blessings with them? If we set apart a
portion of the year’s blessings, whether money
or grains or clothes, we can bless many at the
turn of the year. The New Year thus becomes a
double blessing—the needy have a Happy New
Year and the giver is assured of God’s blessing.
How wonderful!
B) Deuteronomy 15:1-11: “At the end of every
seven years you must cancel debts... If there is a
poor man in any of the towns the Lord your God
is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted
toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded
and freely lend him whatever he needs. Be careful
not to harbour this wicked thought: “The seventh
year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so
that you do not show ill will toward your needy
brother and give him nothing. He may then appeal
to the Lord against you, and you will be found
guilty of sin. Give generously to him and do so
without a grudging heart; then because of this the
BLESSING/ January 2010
Lord your God will bless you in all your work and
in everything you put your hand to. There will
always be poor people in the land. Therefore I
command you to be openhanded towards your
brothers and toward the poor and needy in your
land.”
When a loan is given, it is natural to expect
interest on the amount. But here, the Lord is telling
us to release a poor man from the principal amount
itself (v2). We may think of this as a huge loss!
But God says that when we obey, He will bless
all that we do. Can we take God at His Word? Of
course, we can. So, if there is a poor brother or
sister struggling to pay back your loan, why not
cancel the debt and see how the Lord blesses
you? Let him/her celebrate a Happy New Year!
Similarly we are to lend generously to our poor
brothers and sisters.
C) Deuteronomy 15:12-14: “If a fellow
Hebrew, a man or a woman, sells himself to you
and serves you six years, in the seventh year you
must let him go free. And when you release him,
do not send him away empty-handed. Supply him
liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and
your winepress. Give to him as the Lord your God
has blessed you.”
Today the situation is different. We do not have
slaves. But this passage shows the heart of God
for the underdog. God expects us to be
compassionate to those who serve us, whether at
home or in the fields or at the office. Make this
New Year a happy one for them by your liberality.
May be we are not able to receive God’s open-
handed blessings because our fists are tightly
clasped. Why not open our arms and give out, so
that He may bless us abundantly? Then it would
truly be a Happy New Year—both for you and
those around you!
(The author is a retired teacher and grand-
mother to two grandchildren. Mobile: 098949
84199). U
5
 OND
A New Year Gift!
SEC IZE
PR Mr. John Alexander, Nagpur
We had a neighbour since many decades
living in perfect harmony with us in the Orange
City of Nagpur. Even as kids we used to go to
their home and play with their kids, and their
kids came to our home any time of the day and
we had a jolly good time. This neighbour
Patrick Joseph worked in the Railways and
soon after retirement one fine day he passed
away due to cardiac arrest.
Aunty Philomena could not bear this
irreparable loss. They had two children. The
elder one was Peter. The younger one was
Sophie, a vivacious girl good in studies and
pretty to look at. Both were good friends of
me and my sisters Veronica and Violet. Sophie
took care of her mother who was emotionally
disintegrating and which affected her already
poor health. Constant hospitalization and two
major operations of heart soon dried away
their savings.
My mother Sara was a housewife and father
Luke Harrison was employed in the Revenue
Department and we lived frugally without much
ostentatious expenditure. As neighbours both
families had no secrets and we shared everything
with one another. Our joys and sorrows were
all shared affairs. Our other neighbours always
commented that we were like blood relatives
as our relationship was so intimate.
Sophie had a burning desire to be a nurse,
because with her mother’s constant hospita-
lization and prolonged stay before and after
operations, she had developed a fancy for the
ministering angels who floated through the wards
in white apparel. Without Nurses, Hospitals
would cease to work smoothly. Who would
take care of the patients in great physical
distress and discomfort most of the time during
their hospital stay without them? And Nurses
would do it with all elan and empathy.
BLESSING/ January 2010
Sophie had seen all this at close quarters
and she confided to her mother and to my
mother and my sisters. She had applied for
admission for a two year course, but the big
stumbling-block was how to raise money. The
Administration of the Nursing School gave a
promise that for the second year course she
would get Government Scholarship, but the
problem was financing her first year.
The last date of all formalities including
payments was 31st December. Sophie confided
to my sisters that if she got a loan she would
repay the amount once she stared working.
Somehow the matter reached the ears of my
mother, and she in turn informed my father.
Lo, it was like lightning. Quick reaction was
relayed to Sophie to go ahead with her regist-
ration of application. My parents decided to
pay the money for her first year’s education.
Dad said to my mother, “Look at Sophie as
our daughter and things would not be a burden
but a blessing to us.”
When Sophie heard this, she was over-
whelmed with joy. She thanked my mother and
father profusely. Our parents told aunty Philomena
without hurting her ego or self-respect.
My Dad told Sophie, “My dear child, this is
our New Year gift to you.” Dad got in a
fortnight’s time his bonus with retrospective
effect. This was a big bonanza for us.
Sophie joined her Nursing School from 1st
January and her mother’s health improved with
this happy turn of events and there was great
joy in our families.
(The author is a retired teacher engaged in
Christian activities. E-mail: <alexander_
john123@yahoo.com>) U
6
 The Mystery of Mother Teresa
Mr. Navin Chawla, Chief Election Commissioner, India
Mother Teresa, the diminutive nun who
straddled her century as one of its most towering
personalities, was at one level a very simple person
and at another a complex enigma. In modern
management parlance, she could well be
projected as a management guru who could have
presented to the world’s best business schools,
her uniquely evolved model for success. With
4,000 nuns, she created a multinational enterprise
of service that encompassed 123 countries by the
time she died in 1997.
She would however have rejected such a
proposition because her model was not based on
material achievement, but on its spiritual quotient
that sprung from and was nurtured by her faith.
It required no banks of computers, no army of
accountants, no bureaucrats. Her Order was
rooted to a unique vow of “wholehearted free
service” to the abject poor and marginalised.
As her biographer, I found there were several
mysteries that lent themselves to no easy answers.
Mother Teresa was hardly qualified in academic
terms. She never went to university and her studies
were largely confined to the Scriptures. And yet
she set up hundreds of schools that lifted poor
children from a desolate life on the streets. She
provided a safety net for the homeless by opening
feeding centres and soup kitchens and also started
Shishu Bhawans for infants her sisters found
abandoned in the streets. There were homes for
the terminally ill, so that they were not alone when
they died. Not all these centres were in the poorer
parts of the world; many were in the affluent west
where loneliness and despair was a sickness she
likened to leprosy.
Her coming to India itself was a mystery, a
word I use in its mystical sense. Born in 1910 in
Skopje, then a small town in what was Albania at
the time, Agnes was raised in relatively frugal
circumstances by a fiercely Catholic mother, the
youngest of three children. As a young girl, her
imagination was stirred by stories of Yugoslav
Jesuit priests who worked in distant Bengal. At
the age of 14, barely a teenager, she asked her
BLESSING/ January 2010
mother for permission to
join the Church and work
in India. At 18, she had
her way and when she
bade her mother good-
bye, she was never to see
her again.
We might well
imagine Kolkata from an
Eastern Europe
standpoint in 1928. The
journey from Albania to India would itself have
seemed inconceivable to most. In those days
missionaries hardly ever returned home and India
was a world apart. To leave her tightly knit family
for a most uncertain future in a land of whose
language, customs and traditions she knew nothing
was, at the very least, foolhardy. But young Agnes
never recorded any doubts about this decision,
even in her later years.
She had learned that the only way to India
was through the Loreto Order of teaching nuns
headquartered in Kolkata. Her route however lay
through the heart of the Order in Ireland. From
Zagreb she travelled by train and ship to Dublin,
where she spent six weeks learning a smattering
of English, a language unknown to her but which
she would need in India. Her ship journey to
Mumbai would have exposed her for the first
time to peoples and climate so different from her
own. And, finally, when the Bombay Mail steamed
into Howrah station in Kolkata on a January
morning in 1929, an 18-year-old had taken a major
step that covered geography and time zones into
a world that would gradually unfold itself. But of
her decision, she was even then not in doubt.
She had said to me, as she had said to others
before, that it was a lesser wrench for her to leave
mother’s home than it was for her to leave the
Loreto Convent in Entally. In her 20 years as a
Loreto nun, first a teacher and later Principal, she
developed the discipline of an Order; in its most
simplistic sense, her life was regulated by the
7
ringing of the school bell. Here there was order
and security, but also some exposure to the dis-
advantaged, as many of her wards were orphans
and children of poor parents, with whom she could
speak in Bengali with ease.
She was happy in her work, but restless too.
The world she glimpsed from her classroom
window was made up of slums and abject poverty:
it seemed to be the real world, and she slowly
sensed that her vocation belonged there. She
began to attempt this almost impossible transition
from convent to street, but with her vows intact:
a Catholic nun within the Church order, yet outside
of it. This was inconceivable in the Church’s rigid
framework. Her Superior General of Loreto gave
her the nod to try. But the Archbishop of Kolkata
forbade it.
In these many divides of life, she resorted to
prayer that deepened her faith. I often found that
she faced dilemmas by first a retreat to prayer,
and then renewed attempts, until the object was
achieved or otherwise. Two years later,
surprisingly but perhaps not, the Vatican made its
first exception of this kind.
Her early steps too, were a mystery. What a
strange sight she would have presented on the
streets of Kolkata in 1948. A European not in a
familiar western habit, but in a cheap sari similar
to what the municipality sweepresses wore, her
feet encased in a pair of rough leather sandals: a
nun in her belief but not in appearance.
She was alone. She had no helper, no
companion and carried no money to speak of. She
stepped into a city in which she had taught long
years but of which she knew nothing. She taught
herself to beg, the ultimate humiliation for one
whose life had not been luxurious but it had been
secure. In her only diary, which I was privy to,
she wrote of her struggle between her faith and
the temptation to return to the security within
convent walls.
Between occasional bouts of tears and longing
to get back to Loreto, she set up her first school
in the very slum she saw each morning outside
her classroom. It had no classroom, no table, no
chair, no blackboard. She picked up a stick and
BLESSING/ January 2010
before a group of curious children who had never
seen the inside of a school, she began to write the
Bengali alphabet on the ground.
Within a few days, some rickety furniture
appeared; someone donated a blackboard and
chalk. Lay teachers from the Convent soon
volunteered to teach. Her little school in Motijhil
became reality. And soon there was a school in
Entally. A tiny dispensary followed, stocked with
a few basic medicines cajoled from chemists.
Bengali-speaking Teresa discovered she could
multi-task, and her disarming charm and directness
moved people to want to help her.
Her early admirers included the legendary
Chief Minister B.C. Roy’s family members. In
later years the equally legendary Jyoti Basu lent
her his shoulder. Till the end she invariably
prefixed the words ‘my friend,’ whenever she
spoke of the latter. In the years in between, the
Calcutta Statesman began to follow her activities.
Her name became known outside Kolkata when
the Indian government awarded her the Padma
Shri at a ceremony where she arrived matter-
of-factly in a van and at which she moved many
to tears.
As a Hindu, armed only with a certain
eclecticism, I found it took me longer than most
to understand that Mother Teresa was with Christ
in each conscious hour, whether at Mass or with
each of those whom she tended. It was not a
different Christ on her crucifix and a different
one who lay dying at her hospice in Kalighat.
Neither existed without the other; they were both
one. There could be no contradiction in her oft-
repeated words that—one must reach out to one’s
neighbour. For Mother Teresa, to love one’s
neighbour was to love God. This was what was
essential to her, not the size of her mission or the
power others perceived in her. She explained this
to me simply but meaningfully when she said, “We
are called upon not to be successful, but to be
faithful.” In her life, Mother Teresa exemplified
that faith: faith in prayer, in love, in service, and in
peace.
(Mr. Navin Chawla is the biographer of
Mother Teresa. This article first appeared in
The Hindu and reprinted here by permission.) U
8
 GOD’S ASSURANCES FOR THE NEW YEAR!
RD
THI E Mrs. Sarojini Sargunaraj, Bangalore
Z
PRI
Once, a ship was gliding fast through the Irish
Channel. It was a dark starless night. Dr. F. B.
Meyer stood on the deck and was amazed at the
captain’s composure and the fearless speeding
through invisibility. He said, “Captain Sir, how do
you know we are rightly heading towards Holy
Head Harbour on so dark a night as this?”
The Captain said, “Do you see the three lights
yonder? From a certain viewpoint, those three
must line up, align behind one another as a single
sparkle. When we see them as one, we know for
sure the exact position of the mouth of the
harbour.” “How wonderful!” Dr. Meyer
exclaimed, “so simple and yet, so wonderful!”
So it is, in life’s high seas. The Word of God,
the Hand of God and the Promise of God are the
beacons for us. On our weary voyage, we are
ever peering into the unknown future. Often it
may be perplexing but He who is the Bright
and Morning star, the Dayspring from on high,
sends the clear message, “This is the way. Walk
in it!”
The Word of God
To the faithful, God’s Word in our heart and
mind is the signpost pointing to the heavenly vista,
assuring us that our Father is in control of all
circumstances and all undertakings. The way
ahead may be winding uphill or sloping and
crooked with deep ravines striking terror, taking
our breath away. We may be stumbling with heavy
loads. Dark uncertain hours such as these when
we are totally stranded, are the very moments to
acknowledge His Sovereignty in all our ways and
He shall direct our path. He says, “I will even
make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the
desert” (Isa 43:19).
When we cannot see what lies before us
His Word is our Guide. He says in Isaiah 42:16,
“I will bring the blind by a way that they knew
not; I will lead them in paths they have not known.
I will make darkness light before them and crooked
things straight. These will I do to them and not
forsake them.”
The Hand of God
M. Louise Haskins speaks of implicit faith in
the unquestionable wisdom of God in all our
BLESSING/ January 2010
conflicts in life in the following poem entitled, “The
Gate of the Year.”
And I said to the man who stood at the gate of
the year—
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into
the unknown.” And he replied, “Go out into the
darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.
That shall be to you, better than light and safer
than a known way.” So, I went forth and finding
the hand of God trod gladly into the night. And
He led me towards the hills and the breaking of
the day in the lone East.
So heart, be still!
What need our little life—
Our human life to know
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low
God hideth His intention.
The Promise of God
“I will take away your reproach for I will give
you grain, wine and oil” (Joel 2:19). Underlying
these signs of prosperity, spiritual blessings are
also seen. Grain stands for the Word of God as
denoted in the parable of the sower: wine for the
redemptive blood of Christ as the Eucharist
reminds us and the oil for the anointing of the
Holy Spirit.
Just as the Israelites were brought to the
promised land—a good land, a land of brooks of
water, of fountains and depths that spring out of
valleys and hills—a land of plenty where they
would not ever face scarcity of bread nor lack
anything, so are we ushered into the heritage of
saints and the riches of Christ, year after year.
The fountains and brooks are His unfailing
mercies. With Him is the fountain of life fed by
the eternal springs of living water. He is the Bread
of Life, the hidden Manna, our divine sustenance
for the salvation of our soul.
When these three lights together shine in our
lives then we are sure to sail safely the high seas
of this New Year and reach the harbour. U
9
 The New Year Jesus Celebrated!
Dr. Mrs. Lilian Stanley
It might not have been called “New Year,” but
the year began for the Jews with the month of
Abib (Ex 13:4). Nine great miracles had been
performed by the hands of Moses and Aaron, yet
Pharaoh continued to dither. Then in the month
of Abib, when the Israelites walked out of Egypt
for good, a nation was born and the Lord said,
“This month shall be your beginning of months; it
shall be the first month of the year to you” (Ex
12:2). The month was called Abib until the exile
(Ex 13:4; 23:15; 34:28), after which it was renamed
as Nisan (Esth 3:7).
The Passover was the first important religious
feast for the Jews. It was also called the Feast of
the Unleavened Bread. It was celebrated on the
14th day of the first month of the year and
commemorated the deliverance from Egypt. It also
signified the establishment of Israel as a nation.
The feast of Unleavened Bread began on the day
after the Passover (Lev 23:5-8).
The word ‘Passover’ comes from the Hebrew
verb ‘Pasach’ which means to pass or jump or
skip over. On the eve of their departure, the
malevolent death angel who slew the firstborn of
the Egyptians, passed over the Israelites who were
marked with the blood of the lamb slaughtered
the previous evening. So this jubilee was called
the Passover; and the lamb, the Passover lamb.
The feast was celebrated from the 14th to the
21st of Abib (Nisan).
So the New Year started for the Jews in a
festive atmosphere as the lamb was to be selected
on the 10th day (Ex 12:3), just as our Christmas,
New Year exhilaration starts on the first of
December itself. The lamb would be slaughtered
on the 14th, initiating the week-long celebrations.
Pharaoh’s son, the crown prince died at midnight.
So Pharaoh got up in the night to the wail of the
Egyptians and urged Moses and Aaron to leave
that very night (12:6). The people took their dough
for the journey before it leavened. So, the day
was to be a memorial to the Jews to celebrate
throughout their generations (12:14).
BLESSING/ January 2010
The central event of the Passover was the
smearing of blood on the lintel and doorposts to
keep the destroyer out (Ex 12:21-23). “Moses
also...by faith kept the Passover and the sprinkling
of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn
should touch them” (Heb 11:28). How excitedly
the Jews would have started their New Year
reminiscing their salvation by the blood of the
lamb! How much more we, who are absolved by
the blood of the Lamb of God! God saw the blood
of Jesus Christ and passed over us! As we start
the New Year, let us remember with thanksgiving,
God who gave up His Son for us and the Son
who gave up His life for us. Just as the Israelites
walked out of Egypt and of their bondage to
freedom, we walk out of our old shackled life to
be free people in Christ.
During the week, no leaven was to be eaten.
(12:15). No leaven should be found in the
house(12:19). Every year before the celebration
the Jews would remove all leaven from the house
in preparation. Let this New Year be a holy one
for us without leaven. “Purge out the old leaven,
that you may be a new lump, since you are truly
unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover Lamb
was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the
feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of
malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor 5:7,8). The
old leaven or our old self must be transformed to
a Christ-like personality. Malice is a desire to harm
others or to see others suffer.
Passover was a time of cleansing for the Jews
and for many in the countryside, the journey to
Jerusalem started early so they could be there
before Passover started. “And the Passover of
the Jews was near, and many went from the
country up to Jerusalem before the Passover, to
purify themselves” (Jn 11:55). “Then they led
Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was
early morning. But they themselves did not go
into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled,
but that they might eat the Passover” (Jn 18:28).
Distilled hypocrisy! They were planning a murder
but would not enter a Gentile place and be defiled.
10
No wonder Jesus spoke of them as whitewashed
tombs, beautiful and decorated outside but full of
foul bones inside. As a good deed every year they
would release a prisoner at the Passover. But they
were trading a murderer and robber for the
innocent blood of Jesus. They celebrated the
Passover with so much malice and insincerity. Let
us root out all such evil desires hiding in the depth
of our hearts. Sincerity is being ourselves,
presenting no false appearance, not hypocritical
but being truthful and honest. A little leaven
leavens the whole lump. We cannot go as the
world goes. We need to lead a separated life.
Let’s examine ourselves to see if we are following
the world in any way (1 Cor 5:6).
Jesus spoke of the doctrine of the Pharisees
and the Sadducees as leaven. In these days of
multimedia, when so much of teaching and
preaching get into our ears, let us pray to God to
give us the wisdom to discern sound doctrine (Mt
16:6,12). It is in this context too that Paul says
that a little leaven leavens the whole lump (Gal
5:9). A little false teaching can destroy a person,
a church or a mission. Why not we start this year
with a Study Bible and read through all the notes
from Genesis to Revelation? It will be a bulwark
against the enemy.
Anyone who would like to keep the Passover
must be circumcised (Ex 12:48). “Circumcise
yourselves to the Lord and take away the
foreskins of your heart...” says Jeremiah (4:4).
In Christ, we “were also circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands, by putting off
the body of the sins of the flesh, by the
circumcision of Christ” (Col 2:11). New Year is a
time of taking stock of our old life and throwing
away all that God hates. “He is not a Jew who is
one outwardly nor is circumcision that which is
outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one
inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in
the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from
men but from God” (Rom 2:28,29). For once, let
us forget about what people think about us and
set our minds on receiving praise from God. Let
us not be like the rulers who loved the praise of
men more than the praise of God (Jn 12:43).
Eventhough they believed in Christ they did not
openly confess Him. Shall we make a bold decision
to proclaim Christ to anyone who is willing to
listen?
BLESSING/ January 2010
1 Corinthians 7:19 is lucid when it says,
“Circumcision is nothing as also uncircumcision,
but keeping the commandments of God is what
matters. Why not make a list of all the New
Testament commandments? Don’t look for
readymade stuff. Take a diary and start writing
down. This exercise may take a year. But by the
end of the year, you will be holier for sure.
God did not lead the Israelites by the way of
the land of the Philistines at the start of their New
Year, although that was near, for God said, “Lest
perhaps the people change their minds when they
see war, and return to Egypt. So God led the
people around by way of the wilderness of the
Red Sea”(Ex 13:17,18). God knows us better than
we know ourselves. If you encounter wilderness
this year, remember, God’s delays are not denials.
Take it easy this year. When God is leading you,
be sure that He is taking you through the safest
route. He will go before you in a pillar of cloud
and by night in a pillar of fire to give you light
(13:21). He cares for you.
The Israelites were to set apart to the Lord all
that open the womb, that is every firstborn. When
the firstborn would ask, “Why me?” the parents
were to answer, “By strength of hand the Lord
brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage. And it came to pass when Pharaoh was
stubborn about letting us go, that the Lord killed
all the firstborn” (Ex 13:12-15). The firstborn
among the Israelites who ought to have died
survived the holocaust because of the mighty hand
of God. Mary and Joseph brought eight day old
baby Jesus to Jerusalem to present Him to the
Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every
male who opens the womb shall be called holy to
the Lord”(Lk 2:22,23). When Jesus grew up, His
parents would have explained to Him that He was
consecrated to God.
I can imagine little Jesus running to His parents
and asking, “Mummy, Daddy, why do we go to
Jerusalem every year and what does all this
mean?” He grew to understand the significance
of His trips. What does New Year mean to our
children ? Is it just feasting and fireworks? Let us
teach our children the great deliverance we enjoy
in Jesus and how they are “set apart” for God.
Millions of children received very little affection
and attention last year from their whirlwind parents.
11
Let us, parents and grandparents spend more time
with children this year to inculcate spiritual values
to them.
When Jesus was twelve, just entering teenage,
as usual He went to Jerusalem for the feast with
His parents. His parents were so devout that
every year they made it to Jerusalem in the first
month of the year for the feast of Passover (Lk
2:41,42). May be they skimped and saved for this
annual trip. Did Jesus realize that He was taken
to Jerusalem as the Lamb of God?
After 21 years, at the age of 33, Jesus woke
up to the New Year in a cold sweat knowing that
in another 10 days, He would be picked up as the
Pascal Lamb to be slaughtered. “Now the Feast
of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called
Passover. And the chief priests and the scribes
sought how they might kill Him” (Lk 22:1,2). Little
did they realize that they had selected the Lamb
to be slain, that the destroyer might not touch the
chosen ones.
Jesus repeatedly told His disciples of His death
but they were insensitive to His feelings many
times. But one woman, Mary could empathize
with Him. She wanted to give a New Year gift to
Jesus and gave the best she had—a pound of very
costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus,
and wiped His feet with her hair, six days before
the Passover. She had kept it for the day of His
burial (Jn 12:1-3,7).
“Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread,
when the Passover lamb must be killed” (Lk 22:7).
It was time to face the brutal truth. So He ate the
Passover with His disciples. The time of His
gruesome massacre was drawing nigh and He
told the disciples that fateful night, “With fervent
desire I have desired to eat this Passover with
you before I suffer” (Lk 22:15).
This was the evening of the 13th day of the
first month. Therefore it appears that the disciples
assume they are preparing the upper room
primarily for the special pascal meal which they
expect to share with Jesus the following evening.
Jesus seems to explain why it is important for
Him to eat with them on the night before the actual
BLESSING/ January 2010
Passover meal. In referring to His suffering Jesus
is obviously anticipating that His own sacrificial
death will take place later that day, preventing
Him from participating in the actual Passover
supper (The Narrated Bible, page 1455).
The clock was ticking and nobody could stop
its hands. Even the plea of Jesus quoting a promise,
“Abba, Father, all things are possible for You”
could not make God stop the pirouette of the clock.
Jesus was arrested and hauled up before the
sleazy high priest by impertinent Jews. He was
shuttled from there to Pilate and then to Herod
and back. “Now it was the Preparation Day of
the Passover and about the sixth hour. And he
(Pilate) said to the Jews, “Behold your King” (Jn
19:14). Thereafter a chain of events took place
with the momentum of an avalanche. The grisliest
of murder was executed.
It seems the ram’s horn would be blown in
Jerusalem when the Passover lamb was killed, to
let the people know. The killing of the lamb and
the death of Jesus happened precisely at the
appropriate hour on that day and the horn was
blown when Jesus bowed His head and gave up
His spirit.
His abused, worn-out body hung on the cross,
stigmatised, silhouetted against the skyline with
the inscription THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE
JEWS in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. Hallelujah!
What an irony! What the religious leaders and
their henchmen would not accept or concede was
announced at the crossroads of the nations for all
to read! What the religious establishment would
not do, the Government did. So Jesus died after
three harrowing hours and rose on the third day,
in the first month Nisan to the joy that was set
before Him. His life was not cut short as everyone
thought. He awakened to eternal life. So, that was
His New Year celebration, heralding the dawn of
a new era.
As we start the New Year, all may not be rosy.
God may not fulfill all the Scriptural promises we
quote and claim. But when our prayer is, “Thy
will be done,” surely we will enjoy the joy that is
set before us (Heb12:2). What else can be a
HAPPY NEW YEAR? U
12
Tween Tweet Faith Vs. Fantasy
Mrs. Sugirtha Livingston, Missionary, Orissa
He woke up from sleep past 7’o
clock, yet feeling dozy to get out of
bed. He too mulled over the fantasies
he had as he fell asleep. A sudden
sense of guilt and shame filled
him on what had been a pleasure
to him then. This was not the first
time he felt so, yet these fantasies
kept pleasing him and later haunting
him to the extent that he got
disgusted with himself.
Fantasizing is done all through
life by all. For a ten year old, after
reading Gulliver’s Travels, doesn’t
the bedroom turn into Lilliput? How
carefully he walks through those
small streets that no Lilliputian
should get crushed under his feet?
In early teens, doesn’t she stand
before a mirror with a rolled paper
for microphone and do lip-synching
for some great singer? And which
adult would not fantasize of a huge
income, a big house and so on?
Fantasizing in itself is a creative
resource given to human beings.
Had not Orville and Wilbur Wright
fantasized flying on sky like birds,
we’ll not be flying in aeroplanes
today! Hebrews 11:1, “Faith is being
sure of what we hope for and certain
of what we do not see.” In faith,
there is something seen and trusted
by the inward eye that is not visible
to the outward eye. So faith is a
more positive and cleaner form of
fantasy that doesn’t fade away as
a castle in the air with some short
lived pleasure. In this context, I
would translate faith as the ‘God-
given dream’. The dream comple-
BLESSING/ January 2010
ments the desire and makes it a
passion; and the passion to a drive
that achieves.
Could you imagine that David
prayed for the ‘meditations of his
heart?’ (Psa 19:14). His creative
genius in music continues to surprise
the music world. Naphtali Herz Imber,
poet and writer of Israel’s national
anthem wrote: “In them one finds
the deep heart-breaking tones of a
Beethoven, as well as the smooth,
light, laughing, comic song of an
Offenbach; the silent, sweet whisper
of love’s longing, as well as the
wild galloping Hallelujahs suggestive
of Wagner’s Walküre. In the Psalms
is contained the music of the past,
present and the future. What wonder,
then, that their publisher and editor,
King David, lives, and will live, in
the grateful memories of the lovers
of the best music!”
There is a lot of positive energy
and ideas to be tapped out of this
ability to fantasize rather than letting
it cripple the youth which is full of
prospects to attempt and achieve.
Therefore, when your Pegasus races
towards unclean or perverted
fantasies, put on the bits and bridles
to bring him towards faith. U
We invite articles
and testimonies on the
“Mercy of God.”
Selected ones will be
published.
13
 NEWS FROM THE FIELDS
The Blessing Youth Mission has stationed 339
missionaries in 15 States of India, namely Andhra
Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat,
Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamilnadu, Uttar
Pradesh and West Bengal, for reviving Churches
and missionary evangelism leading to church
planting in churchless places. The news of various
fields is compiled here for PRAISE and PRAYER.
ANDHRA PRADESH
¨ The first State-wide Revival Family Camp
BLESSO 2009 was conducted in Guntur. 352
people were challenged by the theme, Thy
Kingdom Come!
¨ Srinivasa Rao, a Summer Missionary
Programme participant has joined the Andhra
Pradesh Team to serve the Lord. He is a B.Sc.,
B.Ed. graduate. He and another bachelor Samuel
are placed in Warangal.
¨ Brother R. Stanley’s messages are played in
the regular partners meet in Warangal. Participants
are greatly encouraged.
¨ Missionary kid Praveen Knox became
unconscious with high fever. Praise God, he was
healed miraculously.
¨ Kindly pray for the victims of the flood that
recently swept parts of Andhra Pradesh.
Thousands are affected. Missionary Myla John
and family had to leave the house in a hurry with
a suitcase. They lost most of their valuable things
including many Study Bibles. There was water
for 9 feet inside his house. Any help welcome.
¨ Pray for the safety of missionaries as there is
a panic over Swine flu and Dengue across the
State.
¨ A Training Programme was conducted for
missionary trainees. Missionary Saravanan was
in-charge.
¨ Pray for the healing of Caleb (mental problem),
Indira (heart disease), Vijayama (fracture hand),
Vijaya (Infertility), Koteswaramma (cancer
BLESSING/ January 2010
stomach), Seema, Dolly, Aparna, Keerthana and
Malathy (safe delivery), Prasad (kidney disease).
ASSAM
¨ God kept the missionaries safe amidst a series
of earthquakes.
¨ Missionary Saritha Somasundaram and Dolly
Joel shared the Word of God in the Iswan Prem
Baptist Church’s Ladies Fellowship on different
days. Missioanry Leence Joel shared in the Friday
Fellowship of the same Church.
¨ 21 women attend the Ladies Fasting Prayer.
¨ Missionary Somasundaram preached in the
Borbheta Baptist Church main Service.
¨ 21 youth participated in the Follow-up meeting
for the HALO participants.
¨ Lokeshwar and Indira have accepted Christ
in Manipur.
¨ Loitang and Loitang Khullen villages were
visited and gospel preached.
¨ Missionary Alexander preached in the Peace
Meeting in Chingmeirong.
¨ Please pray for the printing of Frank Answers
Volume-I in Assamese and Meitie languages.
GUJARAT
¨ A Prayer Cell has been started in Ambika
Nagar. Mr. Wilson leads.
¨ Mr. Dhason openly confessed his faith in the
Lord Jesus and attends the prayer cell regularly.
¨ New prayer cells have been started in
Ahmedabad and MTI hostel, Vadodara. Mr. Royal
Rathod leads the Vadodara Cell.
¨ Partners Meet at Nadiad was attended by 35.
Missionary Joel shared the Word.
¨ 20 attend the Cottage Prayer Meeting at
Shakthi Park Society, Nadiad.
14
¨ The Deborah Team members have started a
Cottage Prayer Meeting in Ambika Nagar,
Nadiad.
¨ Pray for the reprint of Blessing Books, How
to be Anointed with the Spirit and How to be
Saved.
¨ Anna of Bedla village and Geetha of
Cheechaliya village were delivered from demon
possession. 10 are ready to obey the Lord because
of these miracles.
¨ More than 50 are ready to openly confess their
faith and join the Church in different villages.
¨ 10 bicycles are needed for native workers.
KARNATAKA
¨ Pray for Easwari, Rani (uterus problem),
Swarna (hole in the heart), Ashwini (depression),
Gopal (demon possession), Lalitha, Mary
(backache), Putta (chest pain), Naomi (clot in the
brain).
¨ Pray for native missionary Paulose who is a
heart patient. Praise God for his wife who
delivered a girl child.
¨ Miss Veronica has joined the Alnavar office.
¨ Pray for Ashok who was mauled by a bear
and lost an eye.
¨ Pray for the needs to be met for the
construction of Pandrawal Church.
¨ Missionary Ramanathan lost his mother
Maryamma (85) on the 13th of November. She
was a prayer warrior. Pray for the breaved family.
¨ Mission Vision was conducted in Yellapur. 220
people from various denominations attended the
same. Missionary Y. Paul Dinakaran challenged
the participants.
¨ Catherine Krishnan trained 12 young girls for
children ministry.
¨ Missionary Mohanakrishnan shared the Word
to 140 Christians in Bagalkot in the one day
Revival Meet.
¨ A Bible Study has been started for nurses in a
Mission Hospital. 50 nurses attend.
¨ Praise God for the Students Prayer Cell formed
in Belgaum Medical College.
BLESSING/ January 2010
KERALA
¨ Literature worth Rs. 8000/- was avidly taken
by readers during the November convention.
¨ An offering of Rs. 52,325/- was collected last
month.
¨ Mrs. Nissi, a nurse was unemployed for a long
time. God answered our prayers and now she and
her husband found jobs in the U.K.
¨ God heard our prayers and healed the ulcer in
the leg of Mr. Philipi’s mother. She is able to walk
now.
¨ Sister Radhamani, 6 year old Ashok (Cancer),
Brother Philip (Urinary infection), 1½ year old
baby Rogin (heart surgery), D. Stanley, Vincent
(house construction to be completed).
MADHYA PRADESH
¨ HAYA 2009 was conducted in Bhopal. There
was representation from Madhya Pradesh,
Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra,
Orissa, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. 267
attended the day time sessions and 450 in the
evening. Brothers A. Lionel, E.L. Mathansingh,
Y. Paul Dinakaran, Dr. Jebasingh, Mr. Oliver
Alfred, Mr. Ronald John and Mrs. Lalitha
Mathansingh were the speakers. Many received
the Holy Spirit and were challenged for missionary
work. Mr. Oliver, Mr. Ronald John and Mr.Naveen
Tatge translated the messages to Hindi. Literature
worth Rs. 35,000/- passed on to people’s hands.
All glory to God.
¨ God blessed the fellowship gathering in Sagar.
Eight parters participated. Dr. Olivya Thirumalai
offered to help in the health check up of our native
missionaries’ children.
15
¨ A prayer cell is started in the ELC Girls Hostel.
Dr. Olivya checked up all the 17 girls in the Hostel.
¨ 55 youth participated in the Youth Retreat in
Sagar. Rose and Monica Allen shared the Word.
Many committed their lives to the Lord. 15
received the Holy Spirit. Pray for follow up.
¨ Missionary Bercy and Jason spent eight days
in Jharkand with FMPB missionaries studying their
ministry among the Malto tribes. They were
challenged by the work and learnt a lot.
¨ 10 participated in the Youth Retreat at Patharia
village and all of the responded positively to the
message of Mr. Paul David. Pray for the
opposition we face here.
¨ Praise God for the open doors in Bowthry,
Ladroni and Shahpur villages. Seeds have been
sown.
¨ Santhose Bai was healed of chest pain and
Masuk Dhadha from fits.
¨ Pray for a suitable land for construction of
Worship Shed in Jagdhar village. Estimate: Rs.
65,000/-.
¨ Four made a covenant with the Lord in
Shahgarh village.
¨ Of the 19 who participated, 15 committed their
lives to the Lord in the Seekers Meeting in three
places.
ORISSA
¨ 250 and 190 youth gathered repectively in
Katarguda and Cherka for the Youth Revival
Programmes. Missionary Elisha encouraged them
through Word and Songs.
¨ The Worship Shed was dedicated in Tentuli-
padar. Missionary Philip Bishoyi shared God’s
Word to the congregation.
¨ 13 obeyed the Lord and joined the Church.
¨ Missionaries encouraged 30 nursing students
through the Word of God.
¨ 50 attended the 3-day Fasting Prayer at
Jopapadar.
¨ 253 patients were treated through the Medical
Camps in Ramagiri and Ganjiguda.
BLESSING/ January 2010
¨ Please pray for the survey work in the Soura
area.
¨ Pray for missionaries Prakash Nag and Samuel
Hantal who lost their fathers.
¨ Missionary Snehalatha Philip has been advised
renal transplant.
¨ Pray for the healing of 18 year old Baham
suffering from arthritis.
¨ 17 of our Blessing Children Home girls will
be appearing for the matriculation exams.
¨ Many missionaries are down with malaria.
¨ 317 candidates wrote the examination in the
books Apples of Gold, Little Foxes and Five
Loaves & Two Fish. Jyotiprava Franklin
(Berhampur), Milkhala Limma (Cuttack), Sugirtha
Livingston (Bargarh), Mama Prusty (Cuttack), and
Suman Mehanand (Sambalpur) were the toppers.
Congratulations!
UTTAR PRADESH
¨ Blessing Missionary Prayer Cell is started in
Gomti Nagar. Three families gather regularly to
pray for the Nations, Churches, Ministries etc.
¨ Seven subscribers are enrolled for Blessing
magazine and literature worth Rs. 3305/- given.
¨ Missionary Anandaraj shared the Word in the
Fasting Prayer at Bethany Church in Unnao, and
in a house fellowship in Dibiyapur.
¨ Christian families in Raebach and Lucknow
were visited and the ministry introduced.
¨ One of our parters has opened his house for
Youth Bible Study. Three girls gather to learn the
Word of God.
¨ One of our child sponsors, Mr. Sandeep
Harrison lost his dear father Rev. Donald Sushil
(84). He was actively involved in ministry and was
awarded a medal for honesty by the Uttar Pradesh
Government.
RAJASTHAN
¨ 44 obeyed the Lord and confessed their faith
openly in Banswara. Shout praises!
¨ Thieves broke open the house of missionary
Dr. H.M. Vyas but God blinded their eyes so that
no precious thing was stolen.
16
¨ Missionary Grace Vyas addressed the 30
women in the Women’s Retreat arranged by CNI
St. Andrews Church, Jaipur.
¨ Praise God for the open doors in Barsi, Tikaria,
Tiwari and Kidhani villages.
¨ Youth leader Vijinder got a job in CRPF.
¨ Prithvisingh and Harseeram have joined us a
native workers.
¨ Pray for Magan Pariya (boils in left leg
preventing him from walking), Garkivan (snake
bite), Pinky (hearing problem), Rahu (bad dreams),
Raju Guwar (for protection), Shanthi and Sharmila
(evil spirit), Mahaveer (heart problem), Mamtha
and Mrs. Prem (family problems), Ashish (allergy
and pimples whole body), Banwaital (diabetes).
¨ Pray for Miss Kannika and Kiran who help us
conduct Sunday Classes.
TAMILNADU
¨ Rani, Latchumi and Ponnamma obeyed the
Lord and joined the Church.
¨ 60 gathered in Chitling to fast and pray for the
nation.
¨ 50 took part in the Bible Study in Alagur to
learn about the Second Coming of the Lord, taught
by missionary Paul.
¨ Praise God for the people healed through
prayer: Annamalai (stomach ache), Annal
(delusion), Ramasamy, Ramayi (chronic knee
pain), Vellayi (chest pain), Ponnammal (swelling
feet).
¨ Pray for the safe delivery of missionaries
Ambika, Nishanthi, Sasikala, Kokila and believers
Angel and Vijayakumari.
¨ Pray for Neela and Sivagami as they await
hysterectomy.
¨ Pray for Annakodi and Vellaimurugan as they
will be united in holy matrimony according to
Christian rights.
¨ Pray for believer life-partners for Sivagami,
Megala, Nadia, Kalaiselvi, Anna, Angel,
Unnamalai, Barathi, Swapna, Ramachandran,
Surya, Kalaiarasan, Murugan, Senthil, Mohan,
BLESSING/ January 2010
Prabu, Latchumanan, Govindan, Nagarajan,
Munian, Annappan, Kanagaraj and Yesumani.
¨ The foundation stone for the new building of
the Blessing School, Sitheri Hills was laid on the
15th of December.
¨ 10 Missionaries preached in 10 Churches in
Mettur Dam area, in the Sunday Service. It made
a great impact upon people to pray for missionary
work.
¨ 120 youth attended the Youth Meeting in
Palamalai, many were saved and filled.
¨ Missionary Julies lost his father on the 30th of
November. Pray for the breaved family.
GENERAL
¨ Missionary kid Lovina, daughter of Sathyavathi
and Ponnaiah, married Jesudian on the 13th of
November in a grand ceremony. God bless them.
Lovina is a staff nurse and Jesudian an Engineer,
serving the Lord fulltime. The greatest sacrifice
on the part of missionaries is leaving their children
in a hostel. Now God is honouring them lavishly.
¨ Missionary Deena Elisha fell down and broke
her ankle.
¨ Praise God for the Blessing Book Exhibition
that BYM held in the CMC Hospital, Vellore.
Literature worth Rs. 2.25 lakhs reached the hands
of readers. Thanks to the Medical Superintendent
and General Superintendent who granted
permission. Congratulations to missionary
Jesuraghavan who went to great lengths to
organise it.
¨ Pray for the healing of the 75 year old mother
of our partner Mrs. Ashalata, suffering from
digestive problems and diabates. U
17