India Report #14, Nov. 5 (Sabbath) at 2:17 A.M. from Lawgntlei, Mizoram
I woke up at 2 and decided to write a little until I get sleepy again. The beds make it easy to stay up for a while before facing them again.
On the way down here on Thursday, we were able to visit more with Biaka in between his brief naps. Naps are humorous to observe because of the heads bobbing all over the place between wakefulness and sleep. Biaka told us more of his story, escaping the murderous wrath of his father when Biaka and his sisters were baptized SDA. We stopped at the village where he was born and I climbed the narrow path to the mountain height where the cabin still exists. Now it is in very bad condition and is inhabited only by one lonely old man with their permission. Biaka showed how he used to climb to the top of that mountain three times a day to pray for guidance from God as to his future. He felt the burden to preach the message that means so much to him, even though he had very little education at that time. Shortly after that, Biaka began to preach without money or backing. The Lord blessed and everywhere he went there arose a little SDA Church in that place.
Seeing the jungle where Biaka and his 2 sisters walked for 3 days to Aizawl and refuge from that Satanic insane father also made a vivid impression. The father later asked him to return but SDA leaders urged Biaka to wait for 3 years first to give time for reconsideration. Biaka did wait for one year before returning to a now friendly father who seemed so repentant for his previous murder attempts. But a while later when Biaka remained faithful to Sabbath against the father’s will, his father once more chased him into the jungle with that long knife, intending to kill him after all. It reminded me so much of the Bible stories of King Saul chasing David. Only the Lord’s protection saved Biaka. The father ended up becoming SDA but not baptized. He lived with Biaka during his late 90’s after the mother had died. Since he had been baptized by immersion by Baptists, he did not think it necessary to do it again. But he believed and expressed it freely, just what SDA believe and teach.
This is our 6th trip to Mizoram. Our coming to India began in 1998 conducting the evangelistic series in the Maubawk district of Aizawl. We have told that story before and won’t repeat it now. But we continue to see results of that first trip where the Maubawk church was raised up from our meetings. Now, down here in Lawngtlei we met one of the workers who told me that he remembered us from Maubawk when he was just a young man. Now he is serving also. He may be an evangelist.
In 1998 Biaka was just returning from studies at Spicer College in Pune and we did not meet him. But later he was our translator and we became very well acquainted. By the way, we have been praying for his voice problem and now he is well again and preaching with great voice quality and volume. So that prayer was dramatically answered.
Somewhere along the way he asked if he could be our son since his own parents were now both dead. We complied (minus the paperwork) and it has been that way for several years now.
We have left our video projector with him twice. The second one last year enabled the giving of the first one to the Tlangsang school where they use it a lot. Biaka told how those projectors have won many to the Lord via the meetings he holds. Since his baptism at age 17 (he is now 56) he has baptized about 2,000 people.
On one of our trips he asked for my sermons. He had bought a laptop computer on time and the projector gave him a functioning unit. I had put Mizo Bible verses into the sermons for our meetings here at that time. He has been using them in all his meetings since then and received so much appreciation for his sermons. People want to copy them and preach them also. Even non SDA pastors want the slides and sermons to preach also, but Biaka won’t let them have them until they believe all the message, not just part of it. This year alone Biaka has baptized 77 out of those (my) sermons. What a thrill to realize that our influence has been multiplied so many times even while we were not here to do the preaching. We know it is the Holy Spirit who does the work, but he uses available helpers.
Sabbath is the name of one young evangelist. He lives here and his wife prepared our noon meal yesterday. We won’t need one today because the whole team is having fasting and prayer that the attendance will pick up in spite of all the problems against it. Last night also another died in this village which has kept some from the meetings. On one of our trips we gave Sabbath money to buy a sound system for his evangelism. We also shared our budget on one trip so he could hold meetings at the town near the Aizawl airport. (Lengpui). We also shared money earned in Korea teaching English, so that they built a nice little church there. We have told about that also previously and won’t repeat all the details.
Sabbath was a driver for the car at the Adventist Hospital in Aizawl when we met him. But he had a burning desire to preach and has since then become an effective evangelist. Our gift of the sound system put him on the road. Just this last year he has also baptized more than 50 people in the villages near here. He and his wife have started a school here teaching English with about 40 students this first year. There are many more who want to come and he is hoping for funds to build more to accommodate that. I asked about it being on ground he does not own. But he has thought that through also. If the landlord should ask them to move, the construction would be such that it could be dismantled and moved elsewhere without loss of the materials. I don’t have the $5000 it would take to do that (estimate via a bona fide architect who is SDA in Aizawl), but the Lord is able to open doors if it is to be.
The meeting last night started late because we were waiting for the arrival of the town magistrates who were to welcome us. They did come by 7:10 and gave a strong welcome in Mizo which we did not understand, but understood how positive it was by the applause greeting him at the end. He also made a financial contribution to our meetings and endorsed them. When they get their dead buried and properly mourned, we should pick up in attendance dramatically. About half of the people there last night were not SDA.
Equipment adjustments also consumed time last night. The SDA television team from Aizawl is taping the meetings for release later on nation TV here. So we have to combine our equipment with theirs so they can have the slides for those programs. If that works out well, the influence will be greatly multiplied once again.
The magistrates stayed for the health talk and sermon and seemed to appreciate both in spite of the initial technical delays. We trust things will go more smoothly tonight and hereafter.
This morning we need to be ready at 9 to attend the small church here. I am to preach the sermon. Then the team will be visiting door to door and inviting the people personally once more to attend our meetings. We will be able to get some rest (hopefully) and prepare more for the evening meeting.
All are much impressed with the very clear pictures on the Rear Projection screen we brought and plan to leave. Now, it seems best that we leave it with the Conference Audio-Visual department to be used only in the large meetings, like in Vanna hall in Aizawl where we held a city-wide series in 2001 that resulted in 200 plus baptisms. The small meetings in the villages by various pastors and evangelists would soon destroy the screen and it would be of no use to anyone anyway. We are glad to go along with that suggestion. Most places would not have sufficient space for the projector to be behind the screen.
We are still working on getting a video projector for Sabbath and his evangelism. We don’t plan to leave the one we have now because it takes so much to replace it each time. There may be churches now using mounted projectors who have an older one they could donate. The Lord knows all about that.
Well, sleepiness is once more descending (at 3:02 A.M.) and I’ll try for some more before arising time.
Yesterday, after getting things set up at the auditorium, we did manage to get our new sim card for the phone so we can use it here. Also we were able to get the Internet connection we bought at Sangareddy to work here. It did not work in Calcutta. So we are good until November 20 and will have to work something out then or just wait until we get back home December 7.
Mary Alice is now using the electrical outlet (second shift) to heat our pour water, so it is time to close for sure.
With love,
Dad and Mom (Glenn and Mary Alice)