Ministry Trip to India – February 2025
It had been three years since Barb and I last visited our friends and their social projects in the states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. During that time, my friend and contact in Tamil Nadu, Edwin Devadas, had experienced kidney failure and is now on dialysis twice each week. His son, Robin, has taken over the leadership of Joya Children’s Home, which is presently functioning as an English speaking elementary school for poor children in the surrounding area. My first stop was to see the Devadas family and the Fermont elementary school, located 40 miles west of Chennai. They were having a special event day with dances and sports. Since my last visit they have built a stage for various performance and events and a wall around the main staff and guest quarters.
My second stop was in Andhra Pradesh to visit Samuel Motupalli, his administrator Saila and the Little Lights Children’s Home. There are presently 500 children at Little Lights in the elementary school, high school and vocational school. Many of the older girls are in the nursing program at the vocational school which enables them to attain the level of degree nurse. Both in the school in Tamil Nadu and in Andhra Pradesh the children are happy and well-fed.
Robin had arranged church meetings for me in north India in Delhi and in Patiala, Punjab, so from Andhra Pradesh I flew to Delhi to meet Robin and his wife, Sunita. We went on an outing on Saturday February 8th to Taj Mahal and on Sunday I preached at the Fellowship of Believers Church in Delhi, where I had preached on a previous visit. The pastor, Suman Girdhar, has an amazing history. She had been a Hindu but became a follower of Jesus after becoming terminally sick with cancer. The doctors told her that she only had a day or two left to live. After she heard that news, she cried out to Jesus, was born again and immediately healed of cancer! Since then she has an amazing healing ministry with many scores of people being healed through her prayers. Before I left Delhi, I asked Suman to pray for me that I would receive the gift of healing. It didn’t take long to see the results of her prayer. Monday evening after arriving in Patiala, Punjab, I preached at a special evening meeting in the home of a retired army commander. After the sermon I prayed for several people with long-term health issues like pain in their stomachs, appendix, knees and feet. In every case where the healing could be tested, the pain was gone. In one case, a man showed me a photo on his cell phone of his paralyzed brother. I laid hands on the cell phone and prayed for his brother’s healing. Tuesday evening he came back and showed me a video on his phone of his brother turning in his bed. Previously he had not been able to do that. I also asked for testimonies from those who had been healed on Monday evening. Several came forward and told how their issues were now gone. On Wednesday the man with the paralyzed brother brought him to an afternoon meeting in a wheelchair. I prayed for him again and he was able to rotate his hands. All in all, it was quite an amazing time there in Patiala and a productive trip visiting the two social projects – Fermont School and Little Lights Children’s Home.
