P.M.Thomas, an apostle of India
It was 40 years ago November 17 that P.M. Thomas, his young wife, Christy, and their seven-month old son, Santhosh, arrived in Udhampur. It was the beginning of a long and cold winter for the missionary who had been an effective convention speaker and teacher for 10 years in warm South India. It was also the beginning of an arduous ministry in Kashmir that eventually saw the establishment of the first evangelical church in that region, elementary schools for children, a missionary training institute and more than a dozen daughter churches planted.
Working out of a one-room mud hut, the Thomases gathered a growing team of co-workers who lived by faith--but the work almost came to a halt in 1971. Originally given land and a permit to build from the local government, Thomas began constructing a two-story church and mission headquarters. Suddenly local opposition mounted and Thomas was ordered to halt construction and tear down the structure. In defiance of the stay orders, Thomas covered the structure--then at window level--with a tent and continued to build under cover, one row of brick at a time. He eventually completed the walls to roof level and was about to cover the first floor with a temporary roof when he was smitten with two heart attacks. He was taken to the local army hospital, where he had an unusualvisitation from Christ and emerged a healed and changed man, an even bolder evangelist, and filled with the Holy Spirit.
While yet in the hospital, he penned a letter to then then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asking if the guarantees of freedom of religion in the federal constitution were still in effect. Shortly after that the chief official of the district told Thomas he would have no more trouble. The deputy officer who so vehemently opposed Thomas was suspended pending investigation on corruption charges and soon died of a heart attack. After that the ministry flourished. The work was organized as Kashmir Evangelical Fellowship in 1973, and the headquarters building was extended to two floors in 1975.
Scores of missionaries came and went, and at least a dozen left the organization to start their own works. Today their combined efforts have more than 3000 missionaries on the fields of North India and neighboring Himalayan countries.
To be more centrally located to his growing work, Thomas relocated to Gorakhpur in 1996 and renamed the ministry Himalaya Evangelical Mission.
Since 1963, missionaries working with KEF/HEM have visited 775,383 houses, contacted 4,020,795 individuals, recorded 165,950 salvation decisions, and baptized 8,263 committed believers. Today HEM has 276 co-workers in 13 Indian states and neighboring countries.
HEM celebrated the 50 years of Thomas's ministry with a convention attended by 500 people November 4-9. The story is one of the chapters in John Lindner's book, "God's Special Agents," available without charge at www.christianaid.org. A full-length book on Thomas's life and ministry, "The Mountains Shall Sing," also written by John Lindner, was printed in India and was expected to be available in limited quantity in the U.S. in the near future. Those desiring a copy may write insider@christianaid.org and put MI-446 660-HEM-Book on the subject line to receive details.