Gospel Tracts

On Monday Andrew took me out to a remote village to meet with two evangelists.  We left at about 9:30 in the morning and arrived at the place around midday.  The drive there was very hectic as it turned from a nice flat highway to a very bad bumpy road with potholes everywhere. We had to cross into a jungle area so there was a police checkpoint we crossed through.  They checked to see how many plastic bottles we had so to make sure we don't leave any behind.  There were several signs warning of elephants as they can be very dangerous, Andrew said he has only encountered them once or twice.  We then had to pass through another police checkpoint as we were crossing the boarding from the state of Kerala to Tamil Nadu.  The police were very casual and didn't seem to overly care about anything.

After several driving over several large hills the forest cleared and we saw thousands of small shrubs everywhere, it was a tea plantation as far as the eye can see covering huge rolling hills.  This was where the village was situated, about 10,000 people all of which worked on the tea plantation that was owned by a very large Indian company called TATA.  There was a large factory and hospital sitting on one of the hills, it looked very strange as it was literally in the middle of nowhere.

Picture of Nilson Samuel and Radha Krishnan overlooking the huge tea plantation 

Driving past the small village shops and seeing quite poor looking people everywhere there were two men standing on the side of the road who were smartly dressed and holding a bible.  These were the two evangelists, there names are Nilson Samuel and Radha Krishnan .  We were invited into the place where they were staying to freshen up, it was a very basic looking small room. They both have families that live quite far away and would catch the bus to see them once every month or so.  They were both very kind and could see they had such a heart for the Lord.  They have been living at this village for 6 months and very day they would go out to different parts and hand out gospel tract and witness to people.  Most of the village people have never heard about Christ so they decided to take up this task of sharing God's word.  Both of them do not have any regular financial support and are quite poor themselves but I can clearly see they rely on their faith in the Lord to provide for theirs and their families needs which is amazing.

We all got into Andrew's car and drove for about 10 minutes up the road then got out and started to go house to house handing out gospel tract.  The houses are very basic looking and as Andrew said the people would earn very little working here each day.  It was an incredible experience as it really puts faith into action.  Most people were very curious to see what we were handing out.  Some would stop and talk for a while, some were quite anti and would rip up the tract but most would take it and read it later.  However the evangelists said that most of the people don't have good reading skills so the best way is to be able to talk with them.  One family we met asked me to pray for a very sick woman which was quite the experience.  After about 3 hours of walking around the different houses we headed back.  It was quite hard being under the hot sun for that long as it was very tiring but being able to look out over the amazing view of the tea  plantation and knowing we are sharing the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ made it worth the effort. 

Handing out a gospel tract to one of the village people

It was very encouraging to see these two evangelists work, how faithful they are, and to see them have such a desire to share God's word.  They are hoping to have to opportunity to go into other villages in the jungle and work there but they are finding difficult opposition from the government.  I ask that you pray for these two faithful men as they commit their lives to the Lord's work and live day by day in faith.  If you feel the need to give some financial support I'm sure they would be very appreciative, I may be able to obtain some contact information for Andrew's assembly which could pass it onwards.

On the way back home we stopped off at a waterfall that was about half an hour from the village.  Unfortunately it was pouring with rain but we still got out and walked over to see the waterfall.  Standing on the edge looking down at this gigantic waterfall while soaking wet in the rain was quite the experience.  There were lots of people bathing in the water at the top of it and Andrew said he would come here quite often to bath as it was quite nice.  I couldn't get over how big this waterfall was and the shear volume of water pouring over the side with the loud booming sound it made.

The huge metro train bridge being built in Kerala

We finally arrived back home at about 6:30pm and then rushed outside to stand out on the main road.  The prime minister of India was driving through this area of Kerala and it was a big thing.  All the traffic was blocked off both ways for a good hour.  There were police everywhere and tons of people lining the streets.  But all we saw was a dozen or so official looking cars drive past at about 100km/hour, I couldn't even see the guy, it was quite the let down.  Tomorrow we will be visiting a Christian girls orphanage in Kerala that is being managed by a New Zealand lady.