There is a difference between blind beliefs and our faith.  Blind belief is based on what ‘every body’ says.  Who is that ‘every body’?  No body knows!  For instance, if we ask a particular person who goes to a particular holy place as to why he goes there, invariably answer is “every body goes there; therefore I go”.  

Bible faith is based on what God has said in His Unchanging Word.  He said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things (material needs) will be added to you” (Mt.6:33). 

No man can live upon the face of the earth with out faith and trust.  We trust our milk man.  We trust our rail way time table.  We trust our aero plane pilots!  People who go to factories trust their owners to pay them.  Government servants trust governments to give them salary at the end of the month.  How can any one live without trusting one another?   We trust our family members that they won’t poison our food.  If we had a little doubt, how miserable would our lives be? 

Ordinary man trusts in visible things and visible people around.  We who trust in God trust in the invisible one who never changes!  People can change any time. Governments can fail any time.  Machines can fail without warning.  God of the Bible never changes and He can always be trusted.  “Those who trust in the Lord shall be like mt. Zion which changes not!” (Ps.125:1).  To His name be all glory.

Neither our son, nor we had any money in our hands.  One of the youth paid the mechanic.   But the strange thing was that while the announcement was being made in the assembly, for some unknown reason, I opened the zip on the cover of my Bible and in it there was a fifty rupee note.

 After Ibecame ill, I never carried a purse on me as I always had some one with me.  Joyce handles all money at home.  Now, who put that fifty rupee note in the cover of my Bible?  Why did I open the Bible cover during the announcement?  Those who don’t believe in God’s providence must answer these and similar questions. If that money was not found t then, we don’t know how we would have hired an auto to come back home!

We always paid him on Sundays after his duty.  Once I did not have any money to be given to him.  Of all the people, how to say ‘No’ to him who worked for the whole week for the same?  They depended on that money for the weekly provision as well.

Saturday at 10 pm.  Some stranger knocked at our house.  I welcomed him and he came and sat in the front room.  He said, “Sir, I am from so and so village.  I heard you have cow dung for sale.”  I said:  “Yes, we have it for sale.”

The stranger went on to say, “Sir, it is too late in the night for me to go and see where it is and to fix a price.  I will come tomorrow in the evening.  Will you be here?”

I said:  “Yes, I will be here tomorrow evening.  But you don’t come late.”

He said. “OK sir.  Please take Rs.100/- as advance”.  And he gave me a hundred rupee note.  Of course. I praised God for His wonderful provision and used the money to be given to our cow boy.

The strange thing is that the stranger never came back the following day or days after that!!  How can we understand the mysterious ways of God?

We had a good time at SBC.  And we had some evening meetings in an assembly in Chennai.  Every thing went on well.

But we had to buy a tyre in Chennai as one of our tyres was no more usable.  This, of course, we were not prepared for.  So when we got petrol to come back all our money was over.  We did not know how to give the wages for the driver.

As soon as we came home, Rachel, our fourth daughter came to us with a surprising question.  She said,  “Why did you keep that money in that cover in the book?”

I said,  “Which cover? What  book?”

She then went to the shelf and took a book and brought the cover with a 500 rupee note in that.  On our enquiry she said for some unknown reason she went to the shelf and took this book and opened it to find the cover with the money there.

Who put the money there in that cover?  That was a post cover.  We never bought that sort of cover in our house ever.  Then why did she go to the shelf and take the book? Our children never go to my shelf and take books for reading.   How did she pick exactly that book when I had two shelves full of books?  These are questions which must be answered by people who do not believe in God’s wonderful providence.

I was so embarrassed and I did not know what to say or how to face them.  So I just walked into my room and began to lie on bed rather thought less.  I could not even pray!
Joyce is able to manage such situation and as the line man walked into our compound she greeted him and was kind of trying to manage the situation.  But the line man is helpless if we did not pay the bill.

Before Joyce could say any thing to the line man, came the post man into our compound.  He had with him an M.O. for Rs.l000/-  and it was just sufficient to pay the EB bill.  It was around 950 or so that month!

Some times we do get some money orders.  But the amount will be smaller.  We do not ever remember getting a thousand rupees as MO any time before or after. 

The story is that a old friend of Joyce from her days before marriage, met one of our friends in Dubai.     When Joyce’s friend knew that our friend from was from  Coimbatore  and we too were in Coimbatore, she gave our friend this amount to be given to Joyce when our friend got back to India.  So the amount was sent as MO by our friend after reaching her home town in India.  That amount reached us in time for the EB bill!!
If  the bill was not paid, we would have been without electricity until it would be paid.

Praise be to God who daily bears our burden.  Amen and amen.  

That Sunday I did not go to the assembly as it was raining.  I cannot stand rain at all.  So I was all alone at home when Joyce and children went for worship. 

After the worship when Joyce and children came home, they had three other people come along in another car to visit me.  A brother had come from Mumbai to the assembly.  When he came to Coimbatore, he wanted to meet me.  Since he could not meet me at the meeting, he had come home.  We had a small chat for about 20 minutes and he had to leave as his lunch was arranged elsewhere. 

He then prayed and left out house.  On parting he gave me a cover as from him and another from another brother from Mumbai.  Then the local brother who brought the visiting brother in his car also passed on a cover to me.  After they all left, we had our lunch and we opened the covers to find that there was 6800 rupees in all along with one or two gifts Joyce had received from local friends that day.

We did not know how to thank the Lord for His meticulous care in our lives!

We decided to go to Kodai Kanal which is a hill station near Madurai.  All of us were there for two days and we had a wonderful time singing, sharing, praying and listening to messages.  On our way back all the five vehicles were coming one after another on the ghat road.  It was just getting dark in the evening. 

Our van was the second in the row.  We were five of us in the van. Rachel our daughter and her husband were at the back seat.  Johnson from Rajasthan also was there at the aback.  Ashley was driving and I was in the front seat. 

As Ashley was trying to negotiate an ‘L’ bend, he lost control of the van though the speed was just average.  The van went out of the road and it ran on to a mud wall on the side and it turned towards the side and fell on to the road.  The wheels were on one side and the car was on the road with the window panels touching the road.

Ashley had his arm fractured.  Rachel and Boaz had minor injuries.  Johnson escaped without any trouble.  But the amazing thing was that I did not fall from my seat though I did not have a seat belt on me! 

Johnson jumped out of the van and lifted me to the safety of the road from the van.  I escaped without even a scratch on the body.

In five minutes there came a Jeep which belonged to the high way department by chance.  They said two weeks back there was a similar accident near where we had ours and that car fell into a ditch which was 300’ below the road killing all eight people in it who were  members  of the same family!

How true is the Scripture   when it says, “He will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways” (Ps.91:ll)

So during one of the meetings there I told how the Lord provided Rs.50,000/-  and how the brother from Trichur obeyed the voice of God.  That evening after I went to the room where I was staying, a brother came at about 9.30 pm. and knocked at my door.  He was a close friend of mine and he apologized for disturbing me during that time.  He said that he had brought a cheque for Rs.40,000/- to be given to me. 

I said:  “Why, you could have given it to me tomorrow; I am going to be here all day tomorrow.”

The brother said:  “Tomorrow… I do not know whether I would be able to give it to you because if I thought in the night, ‘even its tithe itself is a good amount; why should I not give him only the tithe?’ ; or  I may discuss the matter with my wife and if she expressed disagreement, then I would be found guilty of disobeying God.  So please accept it now.”

Then I took the cheque from him and I put my signature behind it.  I said, “It is mine now.  You will please do me a favor.  Tomorrow take it to the bank and bring me cash.” He agreed and took it back and brought money the following day.

I said, “Now, tell me, how did you decide to give me so much money?”

He said:  “Ten years ago I lent this money to one of our close friends.  Then finding that he would not return it in the time he promised, I asked him several times about it.  But he was not in a position to give it back to me.  Five years ago, I wrote it off from my mind as money which was lost.  But yesterday, before I came to the meeting, he brought the money back apologizing for the undue delay.  When I got the money, I thought to myself: ‘why should this money come to me now.  It is money written off’ and came to meeting. There as I listened to your testimony, the Lord said, ‘This money is for Mathew Paul’.  I decided then and there to give you this money.”

I brought the money and gave it to the brother for safe keeping.  I separated tithe from it and spend a little for maintenance of the old van and the amount in safe keeping was 75,000/-  Then in a similar manner from  an unsolicited source came Rs.25.000/- which was again given for safe keeping.  The senior brother who was keeping my money said,  “Why should you run the old vehicle any more keeping so much money in hand?  Let’s get you a vehicle.  I’ll pay the balance now.  You can give it me when you get it.”

At last the van came
There was another brother in the assembly who was selling his OMNI for Rs. 1,30,000/- and we got that vehicle on the 1st of March l997.  It was a 90 model vehicle, single handed and run 40.000 kms. with a memorable number on it.

We have the same van with us now.  We renovated the engine after it had done 2.30.000 kms.  And it still serves us though it is seventeen years old.  It is difficult to use it for long trips now.  We praise God of His kindness in our lives.  I know every servant of God is not running a four wheeler!  If we had done it for the last twenty two years, it is purely by His grace.  To His name be all glory.  Amen.

During 1996 I decided I would go to places where they ask me to take classes on prayer. In the month of October I was asked by Zion assembly in Nellikkunnu to join them for a day of Seminar on Saturday and for Sunday worship. I went there on my old matador which was becoming unworthy of the road. As I was traveling on it, I was much in prayer that there should not be a break down on the road. In our experience we had found that even when there was a break down, the Lord was with us in every situation bringing in the right people to help etc.

We went right in time for meetings on Saturday morning. We parked our van in a garage and used the car of the brother with whom we were staying for going up and down for meetings there. In a prayer seminar, I usually take three classes and there would be a session for question answer. All went on well that day.

But unknown to any one, a prayer slipped out of my heart in between sessions. No one could ever imagine that I was praying as I try to be jovial when in public, especially when taking classes. My prayer that day was, “Lord, if it is your will for me to go to different places to take classes like this, make me provision to buy a good vehicle before I left this place.” This simple prayer would have come out of my heart several times that day.

In a seminar I usually ask people to make definite commitments which many did that day and I was very happy.

After Sunday worship on the following day in the after noon brethren came together for parting prayer and stood in a circle. As I stood there, I asked the Lord, “Lord, I asked you for something yesterday. You did not give me an answer for it.” Then came a brother behind me and tapped on my shoulder. He asked me, Brother, Are you praying for a car?” I said, “Why do you ask me now?” The brother responded, “The Lord is asking me to give you Rs.50,000/- for you to buy a car. I do not have that much money now. I will give it you within a month.” I was shocked to hear that.

By then some brother had started praying. But I could not control myself. I started sobbing like a little child. Prayer was over. No one understood anything. I was still weeping. Without saying any thing to any one, I got into our van and left the place.

Before the end of the month, the brother who promised the money came to my house in Coimbatore. He said, “I could have sent this money by post. But the Lord asked me to go and give it me in person. So I came.”

We had some chat in our house and I asked him, “ What did you think when you found me weeping that day before I left?” He said, “No one understood anything. We all were wondering what happened?”

I said, “You know, I was asking the Lord to make provision to buy a car before I left that place. When you told me that the Lord was asking you to give me money to buy a car, I was like Job when he said, ‘If I called him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.”(9:16). Really, it was too much for me to take that answer to prayer.

50 became 500!

Then the brother continued, “I have had experience of evangelists come to me and ask me for financial help. But to those who request, I never give. The Lord asked me to give you this money.”

I said, “Tell me how the Lord asked you. Did you guess that I was praying for a car?”

His response surprised me.

He said, “Brother, I have been a business man all my life. From the beginning of my life I had the habit of sending some gift to some evangelist some where. So once I went to the post office and got an M.O. form as I wanted to send Rs.50/- to a brother. As I started filling it, in the place amount was to be written I wrote 500/- by mistake. So I tore that form and took a second one.

“As I was filling the second form, an inner voice told me to write 500/- on it. So this time I wrote 500/- knowingly. When I went to the counter, the inner voice again said, ‘send this as TMO’. So I sent Rs. 500/- that day as Telegraphic MO to that brother instead of sending 50 by ordinary M.O.

“Then when I went back home, I was thoroughly confused. I did not know why I had sent that much amount as TMO to that brother. I was wondering what that brother would think about me as thirty years ago that was a sizable amount.”

The brother continued, “Till I got his reply on the fourth day, I was in confusion. When his reply came, I knew it was the Lord who prompted me to send that TMO.

“In his reply that brother wrote, ‘Thank you for the TMO. Last week I admitted my wife to the hospital. Doctor told me my wife needed an emergency operation and asked me to pay Rs.400/- the next day in the morning. I came home. I shed tears before the Lord for His help. I did not know of any man who could help me. So I spent the night in prayer and on the following morning I got your TMO right in time for my hospital payment’”.

The brother who brought the money to my house continued, “I have two or three experiences like this. Now when the Lord tells me something, I will not hesitate or I will not consult flesh and blood. You know, the Lord asked me to give this money and I am giving it to you in obedience to the Lord. If I do not do it I will be disobeying the Lord. So please accept the money without hesitation.”

I accepted it and thanked him for his obedience. I praised the Lord for His wonderful provision. If that brother had not come home with the money we would not have known his previous experience!

 (Read rest of the story in “Another 40, 000/-” Unforgettable Experiences post.)  NB.  Learn to pray!  Experience the wonder of God’s ways!!  Let the Holy Spirit guide you through the Bible!!!

English doctors declared that there was no cure for my disease.  Aurveda did a lot of good to me as the leanness and chillness of legs disappeared.  Every time some treatment was done, it kept me going for some time.  When weakness reappeared, I would be admitted again.
                                  
Third hospitalization in l991 Nov. in Trivandrum was the only one announced in our magazines for prayer.  All others were done within ourselves.  During these hospitalizations, I know of four who confessed Christ as Lord first time in their lives and accepted the Lord before me in prayer.  To almost every one I met, I tried to share about the love of Christ.  Where ever possible, Bibles and New Testaments were distributed.

I remember at least three miracles in the context of my hospitalizations.  First one took place in the very first hospital in Coimbatore.  Though my legs became paralyzed on the
7th of July, I would not go to hospitals as I could not imagine that I was ill due to the fact that I knew something  new was going to take place in my life from that date.  So on the 11th only, being forced by a neighbor doctor, I decided to go to hospital. 

I was taken to KG first where the doctor said further investigation was needed.  Then I was taken to Ramakrishna where there was one  Dr. Ashokan who was a good Neurophysician.  I was admitted in a general ward for ten days.

Healing on the next bed:
On the third day in the hospital, the 13th of July in the evening after supper, I was preparing to go to bed.  Before that I started reading my Bible.  On the next bed there a patient admitted for the past 20 days for some ailment on his back.  He had terrible pain and he was rolling on his bed in pain that evening.  I was disturbed and I stopped my
reading and asked his twenty year old son who was his aid, whether I could pray for him.  The boy said,  “What ever you do I don’t mind.  His pain must go.”    I found out from the boy that doctors had postponed operation several times as it was a difficult one with little hope of success.  Doctors were trying various medicines on him. 

So with the help of the boy I climbed down from my bed to his bed side and as I could not kneel down, I put my chest on to his bed sitting on a pillow on the floor and made a short prayer.  I climbed on to my bed to see the patient going to sleep immediately as though an anesthetic injection was given.  They stayed in the hospital for another two days and went home healed, without an operation!

Financial Miracle:
Sri Chithira Hospital in Trivandrum was the third hospital where I was admitted in l99l.
I was there for 30 days.  There I was a rather famous patient for various reasons.  One was that I was a friend of Prof. Ommen Philip who was known to doctors there as he trained some of them in hospital administration.  I had many visitors there as well. 

There came a patient from Calicut after I was there for more than 20 days.  He was staying in the next room.  He had a big problem.  He was a regular patient there for several years now.  Every six months he had to come for check up and take further medicines. 

This time when he came, the hospital asked him to pay Rs.l500/- for his test instead of the regular Rs.500/- which he had brought.  He had no money and to go back without the test would be difficult as he came from such a long distance.  In the night he was staying in his room and murmuring and complaining about the hospital for not informing him about the hike in charges before coming.  Then one of the nurses asked him to come and meet me in the other room where I would pray for him.

He came to me and said, “Sir, I am an atheist.  Don’t tell me about god.  If you can help me in any other way, please help me.  This is my problem” When he narrated the problem I listened very patiently.  When he finished his story, I said, “Is that your problem?  OK.  Now listen to me for some time.”  Then I began to share with him some of my prayer experiences.  I began with my three rupee experience and went on to share one or two others.  He was listening very intently.  Then I said, “Will you permit me to pray for you?”  He said OK. 

When I began to pray, he began to recite the prayer after me.  I had not expected it.  So I slowed down.  After prayer was over, I said, “I will continue to pray for you.  You please go and sleep comfortably.  God will do a miracle for you.”  He said good night and went to his room.

I continued to pray for him asking God to show Himself almighty to the patient by being gracious to him.

On the following day in the after noon he came to me with great joy on his face.  I asked him what had happened.  He said that day in the morning his problem was reported to the director and the director asked him to give a letter saying that the rest of rupees thousand would be paid when he would come next time for the test.  Then testing was done on the basis of that letter. But the surprising thing was when the result came in the after noon, the hospital gave him one thousand rupees back along with the result.  He could not understand why.  So he asked the concerned clerk why that much money was returned to him.  The clerk said that there was an instruction on the sheet saying so much should be paid to the patient.   

The patient not only got his test done freely; but 500 rupees came to him extra from the hospital.  Was it a clerical mistake? We don’t know what happened exactly.   But that day it came to us as answer to our prayer.

Another Financial Miracle:
It happened in Dec. 2005 when I was admitted in KAPL in Chennai.  I was treated in
Trivandrum during the summer that year and the doctor had asked me to get admitted again within six months if there was improvement.  There was marked improvement and I wanted to be admitted.  But I did not want to go back to Trivandrum during the Christmas break which was only for a month. 

So I went and met the doctor at KAPL where they were doing the same kind of treatment.  I had to do the booking of the room in advance as there was always a queue there.  This time I was to admitted for eight days.  But they asked me to pay Rs.10,000/- as advance.
But I had only half of that amount with me at the time of admission.

The doctor told me that he would admit me with that advance if I would be able to pay the complete amount on discharge.  I had no other money and I was not expecting any cheque to be cleared.  Trusting in the Lord alone I got admitted to the hospital.  The treatment was excellent. 
                                                                 
I told the two doctors and all the staff there, I believed in Atharva Veda as Ayurvedic treatment is a part of it.  I know if I followed the instructions in it, my body would benefit from it.  I went on to say that I got admitted in to this hospital trusting in the God of the Bible that He would hear and answer my prayers for my hospital bill.  The message of the Bible is basically about eternal salvation for human soul, but it has promises about this life also. 

Only brethren at Kilpauk knew that I was in hospital.  I promised the Lord that I would not accept a gift from them for that hospitalization.  They were very generous to us when Joyce was in the hospital the previous year for her heart problem.  So I did not want to accept any money from any one for my treatment lest some would think of us as a burden.
                                                                  
I was admitted on Saturday and on Tuesday two of the youth of the assembly visited me in the hospital.  I told them my financial situation and my decision not to accept money from Kilpauk for the present treatment.    I knew I would need a good amount on Friday when I would be discharged.  I said I needed their sincere prayers only.

While I was talking to them in the hospital, Joyce had a call from an evangelist friend of ours.    He told Joyce that he had deposited some money into our account from his home town.  Immediately Joyce took an auto and went to the ATM nearby collected the money and came to hospital.  The amount was Rs.20,000/- and the total bill for that hospitalization with medicines etc. was Rs.14,000/- only.

This brother who gave us the money had come to Chennai the previous week.  Then he came visiting us.  Thus he knew of my hospitalization.  But we never imagined that it was through him that the Lord was going to answer our prayer!  I do not know what made him donate such a big amount except it was of the Lord.

I was able to give a copy of the New Testament to all staff in the hospital including doctors asking them to trust the God of the Bible for the salvation of their souls.
One of the doctors from Brahmin background was deeply impressed about the Christian message while a staff member almost became a believer.  But I did not have the joy of seeing him commit his life to Christ.

Even when I spent one hour in meditation and prayer I found God working mightily for me.  Now when situation in the field forced me to be on my knees, I did it gladly knowing that there was going to be great reward for it.

I began to read as many books on prayer as possible.  I was greatly helped by  Dick Eastman who gave many practical tips.  His book The Hour That Changes The
World has so many practical tips.  For instance he divides one hour into 12  five minute slots.  Thus time is best spent.  Within five minutes no one looses concentration.

Bible, hymn books and a note book are essential as you go into the prayer chamber.
I usually have two hour packs when I have eight hour program.    Each two hour is divided into four or five slots.  First half hour I praise God by singing, reading and then vocally.  The next forty five minutes would be time for Bible reading, meditation and interaction with God about His will on a given situation and looking for promises for the situation.  Next forty five minutes would be time for intercession and prayer based on the knowledge received from the previous slot.  Last half hour again would be singing and praising and thanks giving.

In order not to loose concentration, singing and scripture reading is introduced every now and then while praying.  Audible prayers also help in concentration.  Secret of success in prayer is to let our mind stay upon the Lord without wandering.

After two hours I get up and go out for a wash or a drink and come back as quickly as possible for the next session.  Then the whole thing is repeated as before.

When we have special projects to pray about we will have focused prayer.  When we are convinced that something is the will of God, we need to pray till that takes place.  Dan.10 is our model for such situations.   There will be Satanic hindrance as we pray for spiritual matters.   The Spirit of God who leads us in prayer will teach us what to do when we give ourselves at His disposal.  It is He who will teach us.  No man can do it.  No man ever becomes perfect in the art of prayer.  So every time our prayer should be “Lord, teach me to pray”.  When we make that a sincere prayer and give ourselves to His will, He will do the best most wonderfully.  So it is just a matter of our committing ourselves to the Spirit of God by our will surrendered to Him. He will give us the desire.  But decision to spend time in prayer must come from us.   He is looking for many such to day to carry out His mighty intercession for our great nations.  May we give ourselves to Him.

Pose in prayer is very important.  Sitting rather relaxed on a bed or a chair is against prayer as our mind wanders easily then.  We need to gird up the loins of our mind (l Pet,l:l3) as we begin to pray.  The best pose is to kneel on the floor on a mat.    You may kneel beside your bed or near a chair keeping the Bible and note book in front of you.  Standing on knees several hours is very difficult.  So you may change your pause every two hours.  Sitting on the floor, lying flat on the floor with face down, standing against a wall in the room, walking to and fro in the room  are advisable. 

My help in the school and in kitchen was very minimal thosedays.  Some times Joyce had one person to help her either for kitchen or at the school.  Most of the times she was left on her own.  After working in the school from 9 to 3.30 Joyce never insisted that I should stay home with her to help with children or do house work with her.    She was more than willing to let me go to the prayer chamber from 4 pm without a grudge.  I came out of it only at 10 pm.  Some times even later.  I would come out for five minutes in between either for washing face or for drinking a cup of water.  Other wise I was in the room always.  She cooked food for children and fed all of them and sent to bed all by herself.  Our children too were very co-operative.  They were all well trained.  None had any obstinate nature.   By God’s grace all children were healthy as well.  I thank the Lord for Joyce and children without whose full co-operation I would never have been able to be in the presence of the Lord every day for  so many hours.

Joyce has her reward form the Lord for this.

Needs were met most miraculously, almost day by day.  During the months when I planned this construction, I made sure that I mentioned this need to nobody in the world.  In the month of April when construction was going on, I decided I would send a reply even to those who sent gifts only after the construction was over.

On an average 10 people were working daily for construction.  Of course, they all knew how I was managing things daily.  One morning mason told me, “Sir, only half a bag of cement is available.  By 11 am we need 2 bags more.”  I said, “The Lord will provide our needs.  Otherwise I will give your wages whether cement is there or not, as I called you for work this day.”  Praise be to God.  On searching I found we just had Rs.142/- at home.  With the amount a laborer went to the cement shop to see that price of one bag cement in that shop that morning was Rs.7l/- exact.

By mid April, the ground floor was over and I needed steel rods for roof the following day.  I had no money in hand.  But I still went to Kotagiri to find out whether material was available in a shop known to me.  It was available.  The man in the shop asked me when I needed the material.  I said I needed it for the following day’s work.  The man replied, “Tomorrow we are on leave.  Please take your material to-day itself.”  I said, “I did not bring any money with me.”  I could not believe his reply.  “Sir, what is there in money?  Please don’t stop your work due to lack of materials.  I will give it you.  You bring me money later on.”  That man is never known to give any thing on credit to anyone any time.  But that day I can not imagine what made him say what he said, except by the Lord.  He gave me steel worth of Rs.1400/- on credit without my asking for it.  I paid it on a later occasion.  That was the only time I took any material on loan for the building!

If steel rods were not made available that day, construction would have stopped and I would not have been able to complete the work in time for me to place the granite inscription on the building.

Four or five times during that month I had to come to Mettupalayam to get either sand or blocks for work for the following day.  I would be with workers till 5 pm and start out on our van which was running on a miracle tyre those days.  It was amazing to see how the Lord did everything right in time for the building. 

In those days we spent around six thousand rupees a month for our maintenance.  We never ever had a bank balance any time.  But during that month without any human effort or contact or influence what so ever, we spent more than ten to fifteen times our average monthly expenses!!  How can one account for it except to believe that God answers prayers.   Today that building stands there in the Nigiris as a prayer monument with the inscription on it.   Even if Lucifer we to come in person, he cannot deny God answers prayers.  May all glory be to God and to God alone.  Amen and amen.

 During the construction we saw God’s miraculous provision every day without fail.  We had direct, tangible, undeniable, unbelievable  answers to prayer every single day.  How true is the scripture when it calls God “O you who hear prayers!” Ps.65:2.

While preparation was going on outside, inside the prayer chamber I was bargaining with the Lord.   I said I was going to trust Him to finish the building in 30 days.  I also promised the Lord that if indeed the Lord helped me finish the whole construction in one month, there would be a granite inscription placed on the building saying, “This building stands witnessing the fact that God of Elijah lives.”

The Lord gave me Isa.58:9 as his promise.  “Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say ‘Here I am’”

And in the next 30 days a two storied concrete building emerged out of nothing.  As the Lord created every thing out of nothing,  now He helped his servant to complete the building when I had nothing other than His promises in my hand. 

The whole building is done in hollow blocks which has same combination of cement, sand and granite chips as ordinary concrete.  Columns and beams are done in ordinary Reinforced Cement Concrete.  Ground floor has three doors while first floor two.  Ground floor has three windows while first floor has 10 windows.  The building has a RCC beam ll0’ long, and four 8’ RCC columns, two 6’RCC columns and 4 RCC footings on which  beams rest.

Each hollow block is 15” x 8” x 8”.  Roof has pre-cast RCC beams 4” x 3” and 12’ long at every 2’.  Roofing blocks is 20” x 6” x 5”.  

Idea to build with hollow blocks came in one of those days when I was thinking about the building.  One day I was sitting on my bed looking through the window down to the place where the building would come.  As I sat there thinking about the building, unawares I
was tuning the transistor and it picked Coimbatore station.  I never ever listened to radio during day time.  But that day I did.   They had a feature on hollow blocks when I
turned it on.  They started with the history to details about how it is made and its advantage over against bricks etc.  The thing which attracted me towards it is its cost.  It works 25-30 percent cheaper than brick work, yet equally strong. 

So I went to Coimbatore which is about 70 kms. from my pace, and saw for myself a three storied building constructed with hollow blocks.  Roof too was done with same material and it had an overhead water tank on it.  I was deeply impressed about the whole thing.  Very rarely people do roofing with this.  But I decided to go for the same roofing and roofing materials will never be readily available.  So I had to place order for my needs.  Blocks for the walls were purchased from Mettupalayam which was just 30 kms. from home.

By the time we started construction on the 1st of April, half of the materials needed were already ordered and made available.  The other half was ordered during the first week of April.  On the 28th of April last load of roofing material also arrived at the construction cite by which time walls were on the finishing stage. Since we left the building without plastering, all cement work for the two stories were completed within thirty days.  Curing was done later, of course.  Doors and windows were fixed after curing only. 

The land was about 40 degree slop.  People thought I would need to spend a lot of money to level it for a building.  On the other hand, I planned it in such a way that ground floor was in two levels.  For the thirty feet long building, beam on the one end was planned to be on the ground and at the other end an 8’ room on the ground  with RCC columns would take the beam there.  In other words, part of the first floor was on the ground.

The land was in triangular shape.   The base of the triangle was about 60’ long and the tip of the triangle was about 30’.   So I planned a ‘T’ shaped building 30 x 10 one way and 10 x 10 attached on one side .   Ground floor was in ‘L’ shape due to the landscape.  Thus two floors together would make 700 sft. of building; 300sft. ground floor and 400 sft. first floor.

During the first week of February we had now Rs.20,500/- for the land.  Thinking it was sufficient any way to pay advance, I decided to take steps towards purchasing the land.  Since the land belonged to my enemy, I decided I would request one of the assembly brethren, Bro. John who was with the Electricity Board, to buy the land in his name to which he agreed.

Then I approached Mr. Y. Samuel who was a tailor and a Pentecostal believer, in whose house we stayed for two years on rent before we built our house.  He was a good friend of ours and a well wisher.  I told him all that happened and how that the Lord was going to give that land to us.  He was very excited to hear how the Lord gave this much amount just by prayer.   I requested him to act as middle man between the land owner and the purchaser.  I also asked him to ask the land for half its offered price!

So Mr. Samuel met Mr. Bokan and asked him whether his land was sold or not.  Bokan said it was not yet sold.  Tailor then told him of a party from Kotagiri who was interested in the land.  But the tailor said the party would give only Rs.3,500/- per cent.  Of the nine cents which we were planning to buy, only 4 cents belonged to Bokan.  The other 5 belonged to his brother.  The matter was discussed between the brothers and the tailor.  But the brother to whom belonged the five cents would never give it for that price as the mechanic had promised Rs.6000/- a year ago.  But some how Bokan agreed to sell his 4 cents for our price.

Now the tailor asked Bro. John to come and meet Bokan in person. When Bro. John came,  Bokan said our price was too low and we must add a little more to it.  Bro. John said he would give Rs.100/- more per cent to which Bokan agreed.  Advance was paid then and there and agreement signed.  In the next twenty days cash was ready in the bank.  We purchased 4 cents for just 14,400 rupees instead of 9 cents for 63,000.  After all, we were praying for the land where the crow sat with tumbler.  It was that bit which belonged to Bokan!  How true is the scripture.   “He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving the heritage of the nation.” Ps.111:6.

We were like those who dream when we got this land.  A few years back the same man had chased me from his land as I went in to pluck a few waste plants for rabbits. He had given me ‘last warning’ then.  Later he stoned our house when gospel meetings were going on.  On another occasion he came to our house fully drunk to create trouble. But his land was in our possession for almost half price that he demanded! 

During the first week of Jan. 1986, the Lord reminded me of my prayer last February, praying for the land where the crow sat with tumbler.  If I did not get that land within the next two months, I would not be able to tell confidently that it was the Lord who gave me the sign by crow.  So the Lord asked me to begin praying seriously for that land.

It was 9 cents of land and the owner was demanding Rs.7,000/- per cent.  I knew that my mechanic friend had offered Rs.6,000/- per cent but the land was not given to him.  So I knew I needed a minimum of Rs. 63,000/- plus registration charges to purchase the same.  I wanted to purchase the land without letting any one know about it thus to prove that we have a prayer answering God.  I knew nothing was impossible to those who believed.

During the second week of January I began to pray seriously about the land to be bought.  I said, “Lord,  give me Rs.1000/- this week so that I would know you are answering my prayers for the land.”  Once I begin to pray for a particular subject, it is my habit to take it to the Lord every now and then till I know my prayer is answered. So I continued that way even when I was out of my prayer chamber. 

During that week I received Rs. 1000/- and it confirmed my decision to continue to pray for the land. 

During the following week again I prayed for a second one thousand rupees for the land project.  I got the same from some source and I started a new bank account and deposited the money in it.  I told Joyce about what I was praying about and how the Lord was answering prayers.

The following week, as I began to pray, I did a small calculation.  If I would get one thousand rupees every week, it would take about seventy weeks for the whole amount while I needed the same in the next four weeks to prove my point.   So I doubled my target and during the 4th week of January, i.e. the third week of praying for the land, I prayed for Rs.2000/- that week.  And amazingly I got the same from three different sources over and above our daily expenses. One source was a convention where I went as speaker that week.  Of the gift they gave I separated the amount needed to fill my target.

We were all excited and we knew for sure the Lord was answering our prayers on a regular basis.

During the fourth week of praying for the land came the 1st of February and I spend the whole day, from morning till night in prayer chamber.  Usual prayer time in those days was 4 pm – 10 pm.  As I waited in the presence of the Lord  that day with singing and reading and meditating and praying, my prayer was that the Lord would give me Rs.4,000/- during that week.  As I spend the day in the presence of the Lord, staying in the prayer room for hours, the Lord gave me confidence that He was going to supply all the funds needed for the land within the following week.  I was overjoyed and I began to praise Him for His grace in our lives.

As you know by then we had Rs.4,000/- in the land account and I began praying for another Rs.4,000/- during that week, for which the Lord said He was going to provide the whole amount within the following week.  Though I could hardly believe that, I came out of the prayer chamber praising God as I knew whatever He tells me always comes true.

On the 2nd of Feb. Joyce and I had made an appointment with St.Jude’s School in Kotagiri that we would go there to distribute copies of the gospel of Luke to students there. We had received a number of pocket size gospel in English from some source.  We knew students would love it. Hence the attempt.  The school authorities gave me an opportunity to speak to the student body at their morning march past time.  It was noon by the time we came out and on the way back we had our lunch packets from hotel which we brought to our van and ate.

On going back home, I found there was no fuel in the van.  I asked Joyce for any money on her as I had nil.  She gave me some fifteen coins from her purse and we got diesel for the same.  The bunk boy asked us why all these coins to which I replied whether currency or coin, money has value. 

The devil was whispering in my ears saying such a great man who would pray for buying the land for thousands of rupees.   Does not have even a note to buy diesel!  But we were rejoicing in the Lord as we had lunch from hotel that day and had at least coins to buy diesel.  In other words, none of our needs were unmet.  Praise be to His Holy Name.

When we reached home that day we had the greatest surprise.  There was a cover which was sent from Kotagiri.  There was an open cheque for Rs.6,500/- in it.  We knew the one who sent the cheque.  But some one else gave the money to be given to us.  We do not know who that some one is to this day.  Following day I deposited the cheque to the land account. That made a total of Rs.10,500/- within four weeks, from zero.  I continued instant in prayer.  Every day my prayer time begins at 4 pm and goes up to 10 pm.   For months together I did not have supper.   If I felt special burden for prayer, I continued till 12 or even 2 in the morning which were rare.  But on occasion I did that also.

On the fifth week, by Tuesday itself the Lord provided sufficient funds for the land.  There came a letter from a friend of mine with whom I had no contact.  But now he had sent me dollars worth Rs.10,000/- to be used for what ever our need was.  That made the whole amount!(Read rest of the story in “63,000/- to 14,000/-”,” miracle building”, “miracle every day” in Unforgettable Experiences post.)

As I prayed about what to do next one or two ideas emerged.  The first idea was to plan some program for their school going children in the summer.  We therefore thought about the possibility of joining Steward Bible College as staff to come back in summer to the Nilgiris.  But the Lord clearly led us away from taking that step. 

The other possibility was to bring the Kurumba children who went to the near by government schools to give them a hostel facility where we could actually teach them in the morning and evening.

Several hours were spent in the prayer room trying to discern the mind of the Lord.
I was hesitant to start a hostel because I knew how difficult it would be by way of financial strain and labor.  But the Lord asked me whether I ever starved with my five children.  On the contrary we were sumptuously fed!  The Lord impressed upon my mind the truth that five and fifty were the same to Him.

He said,  “If I did not fail you with your five children, why can’t you trust Me for fifty?”
I was convinced in my prayer that it was easy for the Lord to do great things if I trusted Him fully.

I was reading Is.7 for meditation one of those days.  As I came to v.14, the lord spoke to me saying that He was going to give me a sign that He was about to do some great things  for me.  The phrase “the Lord Himself will give you a sign” came back again and again in my mind.

Then I said, “Lord, give me a sign by a crow and I will name my ministry ‘Cherith Children’s Home’”.  Now that I prayed that prayer, I was waiting for a sign from a crow.  I had answer to all my prayers specially those days when I spent on an average eight to ten hours in prayer.

On the third day about 7 in the morning, I was standing in front of my house brushing my teeth.  It was the 28th of Feb.l985.  Pear trees in the Nigiris fall their leaves in February.  There was a pear tree just opposite to my house below the road with no leaves on it.  As I watched there came a crow.  There was a steel tumbler on its beak.  The crow placed the tumbler on a branch there and fluttering its wings made a peculiar noise for a minute or so and then leaving the tumbler on the branch the crow flew away. 

As I was watching this behavior of the crow, the Lord said, “That is the answer to your prayer.”  To which I replied,  “Lord, I cannot accept it because the tree belongs to my enemy.”  The tree actually belonged to one Mr. Bokan who stoned our house a couple of years back when we had our public gospel meetings there. 

On the following day while we were having our family prayer, we heard a noise. Something fell on the roof of our house.  As soon as prayer was over, I climbed the roof to find a coconut shell there.  The Lord made a crow to drop it on the roof of my house itself this time! 

I took the shell from the roof first and told the Lord that I was going to take that tumbler from the pear tree as well which I did.  But to prove that it was He who made these two incidents take place, I asked the Lord to give me my enemy’s land in one year! 

Who would believe that on Feb.28, l986 we registered 4 cents of land which belonged to my enemy.  Unknown to any man any where the Lord provided funds for the same and Mr. Bokan gave the land to a brother in the assembly never knowing I was behind it all and the land was going to be used for a hostel for Kurumba children.

Planning a literacy for Kurumbas is a near impossible task as their hamlets are so small and so scattered in the Nilgiri jungles.  One has to walk two three hours into the jungles to see two or three houses there.  Again another half hour or one hour through the most difficult terrain to find the next two houses.  I had names of forty Kurumba hamlets in my list.  But they are found scattered in the border jungles of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.   How to plan literacy program for such a group was my problem.  Out of the 40 names that I had in my list, I had only visited some 10 with atmost difficulty.  There were two government settlements where they had twenty or thirty families, one near Aravenu and the other near Manjacombai. Children were either not interested in studies or others were in some government schools till they were twelve or fourteen years old.

As soon as Joyce heard about it, she went to a driver friend of ours and with his help went to that hospital and brought the patient to a good Christian hospital where doctors were friends.  The hospital had very good facilities also.  The patient was almost dying when he reached the second hospital.  Doctors admitted him because he was now our patient though they thought the patient would die soon.  But the amazing thing was that the patient recovered fully within a week.  By the time he was discharged, he had a new layer of skin as one layer had fallen off his body.  The patient was all swollen up when admitted.  I was back by his discharge time.  The doctor friend told me that he gave no other medicine than Vitamin B tablets to the patient!

On another occasion Joyce had a Kurumba lady brought to our house and made a nursing home in one of our rooms with the aid of a local medical practitioner.  The lady was given drips for two days.  But finding that she was still sinking, her relatives took her back to the village, on which way she passed away. 

The patient sat up on bed as I went near and I made a short prayer.  As soon as I finished my prayer and said ‘Amen’ I opened my eyes to see the patient sweating profusely.  Her fever had left her instantly.  I myself did not expect such an instant healing.  But it pleased the Lord to heal her immediately.  She got discharged and went home the very  same day.

Unknowingly I missed the by pass road to Madurai and got right into the city of Dindigul.  As we reached the central part of the city we had to go slowly as people were still in the streets.  Once I had to stop the vehicle.  On trying to move the vehicle, it would not move.  Engine was OK.  But the van was not moving.

When we were standing there not knowing what to do, a Muslim friend came to me and asked me what the problem was.  He had seen me in the previous place stopped for tea.  Now again when he saw us standing on the road he doubted some problem.  My van had gospel verses written all over.  That attracted the Muslim to us.  He asked us whether it was a church vehicle to which I gave a positive reply.  When he knew that the van had some problem, he looked at his watch and found it was12 midnight.  He became very concerned as he saw Joyce and five children in the van.  He said that it would be very difficult to get any help at that part of the night anywhere there.  Then suddenly he remembered a matador owner who had his own workshop.  He hired a bicycle from nearby and asked me to sit behind him and took me to that workshop.

As we reached there, the man  just closed his shop and he had one foot on his bicycle just about to leave the place.  Then I explained my situation to him and he said his van would come at 2.30 am and then he would come to toe mine to the work shop.  Believing his words we came back to our van and the Muslim friend consoled me and left the place.  So we were waiting till 2.30 in the van with much prayer for the arrival of the mechanic with his van which he did very promptly.  He toed our van to the workshop and dropped Joyce and children in the Gospel Hall and came to work on my van. 

The owner of the workshop was there at that time and he knew uncle C.V. Samuel. who was evangelist at Dindigul.  When he knew who I was and where I was going, he told his foreman not to wait till morning but to fix the vehicle and let us leave by early in the morning.  My van’s clutch had failed.  In the night he got a used clutch and by six in the
morning the work was over.  He asked me money for break fluid and I gave him the last fifty rupee note in my hand.  By 7 in the morning the van was ready to go.

As I did not have any money in my hand I gave him my wrist watch and told him that I would come back in a week and get my watch back by paying the workshop bill.  Interestingly the watch on my hand was a brand new Citizen automatic which would cost about a thousand rupees.  It came to me just the previous day.  Before that I had an electronic watch with me which was worth just one hundred rupees!

Just imagine if the Muslim had not help me, if the mechanic had already gone, if the owner was not kind hearted, if they had asked me money for spare parts before work began, and if I did not have a costly watch on me!  Even in that difficult situation the Lord was very kind to us.  We praise Him for His wonderful ways in our lives. After this incident we have used the same road several times.  Every time we had sufficient money for any emergency.

In August we went to Madurai in the van for the wedding of Joyce’s youngest brother.  We took Rajan’s family and Selvaraj’s mother with us.  From Madurai we accompanied their new car to go to Kerala for the wedding. We went via Kumali to Thiruvalla.  Road was not very smooth as they had damaged road every now and then.  I was running behind the car.  The car driver was very fast.  He would apply sudden break every now and then. I had to do the same.   By the time we reached Tiruvalla my van had a crack in the break fluid kit and I did not notice it though I took the van for a check up before starting.  After the wedding, in the afternoon we started our journey back.  We were back on the same road to Kumali to go to Madurai. 

It was around 4 pm.  The car was going in front at 70-80 kms/ph and I was just behind them.  We crossed Ponkunnam and there was a small slope.  On the left there was a car standing on the road.  Opposite came a lorry fully laden.  As the car was standing on the road there was no place for me to go through.  And I applied break.  But pedal went right down and the vehicle would not stop.  In the spur of the moment to save a collision with the car, I just turned the vehicle to my left and it went out of the road and in less than 10 feet there was a small mud hill and our van had a smooth landing on to the mud hill. The back wheel of the van was still on the tar road!  Since there was no gutter between the road and the mud hill, no one fell or was there a jerk in the van.  It stopped so smoothly as though someone had applied the break!   Rajan’s little child who was sleeping in the van did not even wake up.  No one fell from the seat.  At that speed surely the van should have toppled if God had not protected us.  If there was a pit instead, we would have fallen into it.  It was truly miracle of the first order that saved us from that break failure.

How true is the scripture when it says, “The eternal God is our dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms”(Deut. 33:27).

When our people in the car did not see us for half an hour, they came back and saw what happened and one or two got in the car and left.  Others went to Madurai by bus.  I stayed on to repair the van and took it to Madurai the following day. 

The accident took place just in front of the house of one my old seminary friends.  In fact he was watching the whole scene.  He entertained us in his house.  I had my meals from their house two or three times till the van was ready to go.

The next break failure took place several years later.  Once we went to a Kurumba village about 30 kms away.  By then we were 3000 feet below our place!  The hill road was very steep and narrow and winding.  We went there to bring children to our hostel.  The trip was smooth and successful.  On the following day I was taking the van from our shed. I slowly reversed the vehicle.  The van came out into the road. I applied break.  There was no break and the van’s rear wheels fell into the small ditch which was there in the opposite of our house.  I had to gather half a dozen people to lift the vehicle from the ditch.

If it had taken place the previous day, the ditch we would fall into would have been a 1000 feet deep in some places!

The third break failure took place a few moths later.  We were going to Coonoor from Kotagiri.  At an ‘L’ turn at 40 kms/ph, I applied break and found the speed was not getting controlled.  I knew there was no break.  So within the next one km,  I brought  the gear down from 4-3-2-0.  And when the van was at 10 kms/ph finding that there was no vehicle on the road at that time, I jumped down from the drivers seat and put a stone in front of the front wheel and stopped the vehicle.  Then I brought a mechanic and got it repaired and took the vehicle.  We knew that it was time to dispose that vehicle which we did soon after.  

We had no sources by which we could look for a four wheeler.  There were one or two possibilities for getting a cheap vehicle.  One was to go for an old model petrol car like Standard 10 or an old Morris Minor which were still found on our roads during those days.  You needed a minimum of Rs.10,000/- to buy one.  But petrol cost is very high as it might give up to eight KMs per liter of petrol in the hills. Even for running the scooter we are looking to the Lord daily.  How to think of a petrol car? 

Then to go for a diesel vehicle was another possibility.   A cheap way of doing it was to buy a petrol Jeep which in those days were available for Rs.7,000/- and to convert it into diesel.  It would cost another 7 or 8 thousand.  So we would need some fifteen thousand if we went for that.  It would require a lot of strain in locating the Jeep and then mounting the engine and RTO problem etc.  So we dropped that idea also.

A third possibility was to go for a Standard 20 diesel van which in those days were available for about Rs.20,000/-; though it as a problem vehicle, with no resources at our disposal we could think of nothing else.  We had no idea as to where to get this amount from.  But we decided if we went for a four wheeler, we would go for a Standard 20 van which could be used for school as well as for assembly out reach work.  We did not want a family car for ourselves. 

Just the day after we made this decision, we had a letter from my old friend Sam Mammen.  We were class mates in college for one year and since we both brought lunch packets we sat and ate lunch together.  Once a week we had Evangelical Union prayer meeting in the college and we both attended the same.  Only later we came to know that we both were from the assembly background.  Then we became all the more close to one another.  Until he finished his M.Sc. and was working in Bhopal we maintained our friendship.  We visited each others homes and were good friends.  From Bhopal he went to the States and I went to the mission field after my studies and we lost track of each other.  In ’84 Sam visited his home in Kerala.  That year I was one of the speakers at the annual convention of the assembly there.  When Sam heard that I had come to his home assembly, he was truly excited and he got my address from the assembly before he went back to the States. 

In his letter Sam told me how he got my address and he said he wanted to write to me for more than three months but it was not possible to do it earlier.  He enquired how we were doing and asked details of my family etc.  He was truly excited that he could contact me after all these years and that I was engaged in field work.  There was a cheque in the cover and Sam asked me to use it for whatever was my need at that time.  It was US dollars worth Rs.10,000/- 

We did not know how to thank the Lord for this wonderful provision.  We never ever had this much amount as gift in the mission field!  The largest sum received hitherto was Rs.5000/- when we were praying for the land.  Now the Lord had heard our prayers  for  a van.

When the money reached the bank, I set out tolook for a Standard 20.  I took a mechanic and went to Coonoor because I heard that a vehicle of our choice was there for sale.  But when we went there we found that it was a useless one.  Then the Lord so wonderfully led us to another place the very same day where we saw a Matador van in very good shape for Rs.40,000/- through a middle man who literally dragged me to the owner because I knew I could not buy a vehicle for that price.   But the owner agreed to give the van for Rs.25,000/- over and above my scooter. (I usually say that I got a Matador in exchange for a scooter because that’s all I had when I began to pray for a van)!   I came back home and both Selvaraj and Rajan were excited to hear that we were buying a van. We had never discussed this matter with them before.  They both decided to lent us all their savings i.e. Rs.5,000/- each without my asking for it!   The owner gave us a month time to pay the rest of the amount.   In just two days time we went and brought the van to Kotagiri where all I had to do was to buy two new tyres for the van.   It had a very good engine in it.  Actually we paid only the cost of the engine!

We witnessed three specific miracles in this particular event.   The first was how the money came from zero!  Then the next was how we were led to the owner of the Matador!!  It is a long story.  And the last but not the least was how the man agreed to give it for that price!!!  Another long story how the Lord performs miracles for those who put their trust in Him. The scripture I read the following day was Eccl.2.   And the last verse is “For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God.  This also is vanity and striving after wind.” 

Truly we had manna every day.  I know more than one assembly commented servant of God, who have their own magazines or who run institutions, who sent out appeals for buying a vehicle but could not do so.   But the Lord provided us with a good vehicle in l985 as a direct answer to prayer.   Is it only my privilege?  My Bible says that God is no respecter of persons.  

It was Bro. Ruben Karuppusamy who helped me drive the vehicle to Kotagiri for the first time.  He knew us for the past five years and he knew well our financial situation.  While bringing the van home he said it would be great if we could run the vehicle for three months!  He knew for sure that with our limited sources we would never be able to keep the vehicle for longer than that.  But may all praises be to God.  We used the very same vehicle for the next seven years.  From l985 on we have always had a running vehicle except for a few months in between when we needed to buy a different one or when the vehicle was in work shop.

Once some one came to our house requesting for prayer from Rob Roy Estate.  His wife had an attack of evil spirits and when she would get possessed she would fall down cramped and be in that position for hours.  They had two little kids.  Literally they were suffering.  She had this attack for several years and they spent a lot of money going to various people for cure.  But nothing worked.  At last in desperation he came to us, though they were Hindus,  thinking that they would get  some help from us .

During those days I was not very fluent in Tamil which was the local language there.   Any how I went there to pray.    Spirits became very angry with the family and their trouble increased all the more because they came to me.  Whenever I was with them they would not have any problem.  But as soon I came out, spirits would create havoc in their life.  This continued for about a week.  Then I went to a brother who had  some experiences with casting out evil spirits.  He told me a great secret.  When the person shows symptoms of possession, if we would catch the person by our hand, spirits cannot leave until we release our hands!  Till then I had not touched that lady.  But now with this secret known to me, I was waiting for an opportunity to take hold of the person while in actual possession.  On the following day, we spent the whole day in that house fasting and praying. There was no sign of possession at all for the whole of that day.

Evening again I went back to the house to agitate the spirits.  I had several brethren with me.  We went to the house and started singing.  In the evening as we were singing the lady began to show signs of possession.  She began to shiver and shake and her facial expressions changed.  Bro. Elango of Lalgudi was present with me and I asked him to handle the lady.  He took hold of the lady by her hand and got into conversation with the spirits.  Following conversation emerged at this first encounter.

Lady under possession:  “I am not happy here.  Let me go to the other meeting below.  I do not like the music here.  There it is good.  Let me go there. Please let me go there.” (The same evening a group from Salvation Army music band was conducting a public meeting half a km away.  The spirits might have been referring to that)

Elango: “ No.  Never.  We will never let you go there.”

Lady :  “You do not have grace to chase me.  You cannot do anything to me.”
Elango: “We have received grace upon grace through Jesus Christ.  We will chase you.”

In similar terms the conversation went on for some time.  Later the spirits agreed to leave the lady and go.  So Bro. Elango after some time rebuked the devil in the name of Christ and the spirits promised that they would leave the lady never to come back again.  The lady became normal.  We conducted the evening cottage meeting there in the house.  Prayed and committed the family and the house into the hand of the Lord before we left.  It was 11 pm by the time we finished that evening.  We all went home thinking that the problem was over.

But at  2 in the morning came the husband to our house and woke us up saying that his wife  was under very heavy possession and she was dancing on her feet with her hair let loose and threatening people with death.  By the time I went to their house nearly fifty neighbors had gathered around that house at that part of the night!  All were just frightened to see the lady doing very unusual things.

I did not have any of my friends with me this time as I did not want to disturb them at that part of the night.  As I entered the room the lady was still dancing.  I caught hold of her hair which was flying in the air.  As soon I touched her, the devils became quiet but began to shiver like leaves in heavy wind.  I saw with my own eyes how devils  literally tremble at the name of Christ (Js.2:19).   The Lord gave me great courage to handle the situation.  I made her sit on the floor and for the next two hours  I conversed with the devils. 

I said:  “Who are you?”
Lady under possession:  “We are five of us.  Our names are so and so.”

I said:  “Why do you trouble this lady?”
Lady replied: “We did not come on our own.  We were sent by some one else.”
 
I said:  “Did you not know who I was,  but still why didn’t you leave this lady till now?”
Lady replied:  “Sir, we know who you are.  We know we cannot escape from your hands.  But we have no freedom.  We are tied down here.”

Some one standing around:  “Who tied you here?”
Lady replied:  “Some one standing here has done it.  But we will not tell you who it is.  I know you will fight between each other if you know who it is.” (I thought devils sometimes have more common sense than the so called believers!)

I said:  “Don’t tell us who it is.  But leave immediately”.
Lady replied:  “Sir, please release the knot.  Only then we can go.”

By now the devils began to shiver all the more.  I had held on to her hair so tightly that the devils felt there was fire on their head.

Lady began to shout:  “Ayoo,  Fire on my head.  Fire on my head!   Please let us go.”
I said: “Nothing doing.  Unless you leave this lady permanently, I won’t let you go”

Then the lady under possession asked us to bring a shovel and dig in such and such a place in the room and then we would find the knot there.

Some one standing around: “Are you trying to cheat the poor preacher?”
Lady under possession:  “Don’t call him a poor preacher.  He is a servant of the Most High God.  I can never cheat him” ( What a tragedy.  Some times people close to us, even  some who break bread with us do not recognize this.  But devils do!  All the more our Father in Heaven who considers us as co-workers with His beloved Son!!  Servant of God, take heart and live a life acceptable to Him.)

I said:  “Nothing doing.  You must somehow go.  We can’t follow your instructions.”
Lady under possession:  “Sir, we cannot suffer your hand upon us.  Please let us go.”

After about one hour under my hand the spirits became so desperate and the lady was continuing to say,  “We can’t suffer this fire any more.   Please let us go.”

I said: “OK, You know where the knot is.  Under my hand you can go and release the knot and go from this lady permanently.  Until you do that I won’t release my hand.”

So the possessed lady went into the corner of the room and went under a cot.  All the while her hair was in my left hand tightly held.  With her bear hand she dug a shovel full of mortar from the floor and then screamed.  “It’s gone.  It’s gone.” (The suddenly we heard the noise of the door slash open!)

The house was in the estate line and the flooring was not done with cement but with lime mortar.  But it is not possible for any of us to dig down into it with our bear hands. The possessed lady did it with her bear hand with ease. 

By now the lady was profusely sweating.  It was cold sweat.
 
Crowd was watching all this all the while.  Now the lady came out from under the cot and there was a lot of relief on her face as the devils knew the knot was released.  As soon as she came out, I made her to sit down once again.

I said:  “Are you all ready to go out of this lady permanently “
Lady:  “Yes, sir. Yes, sir.”

I said:  “Will you ever come back again?”
Lady:  “No, sir. No, never.”

I said: “OK. Now, one by one come and promise me that you will never come back to this lady again.  You must do two things.  First, you must take hold of the Bible in your  hand and then you must give me promise in the name of the Father,  the Son . and the Holy Spirit that you are leaving and will never come back  again.”

Lady:  “Sir, that is fire in your hands.  We cannot take it.”
I said; “Unless you take the Bible in your hands and promise me, I won’t let you go whatever you say.”

I said: “Now, come on.  Who is coming first?”
Lady: “Sir, I am ready.”

I said:  “Who are you?”
Lady:  “My name is so and so. ” (and the lady gave me a male name.  Four spirits gave male names and one a female name).

I said: “Take hold of the Bible and say after me what I say as your promise.”
Lady: (with hesitation) took hold of the Bible.

I said: “Now say after me. OK. In the name of the Father,  the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I, so and so promise to leave this lady permanently never to come back again.”
Lady repeated after me.
I said;  “Get out, you devil in the name of the Father, the Son, and  the Holy Spirit.  Never come back again.” And the first devil left the lady. 

I repeated the process for all the five devils individually and made absolutely sure that all five devils left the lady. I did this because in the evening the devils had promised to leave the lady; yet they came back in the night with greater force.   When the last one was gone, there was a blush and a smile on the face of the lady.  Every one knew that she had become normal. She got up and washed her face immediately to live a normal life.   Under possession the whole personality changes including the face cut.   She was now healed completely and the family later became believers and the devils left her permanently.

Then at 4.30 in the morning I shared a brief word of the Gospel to the people who were standing around and some one by then had prepared a cup of tea for us.  I prayed and left the house to go home.

This particular case took so much time and struggle because some witchcraft was involved in it.  Later the man in the house told me that they had hidden some magic spelled items in various part of the house as a magician tried to remedy the situation.  So after the lady became normal, they dug three places in the house where magicians had hidden magic spelled boiled eggs.  To my surprise, boiled eggs without shell remained exactly the same after being buried there for months!

This incident made me a famous exorcist and several people came from different places with their problems and were healed almost instantaneously by a simple prayer.  But I found that there was very poor response to the gospel even from those who were healed.  There was one occasion when I failed in my attempt and I had to call on another brother to help me in prayer before the devil left.  Later I knew that the one whom I had taken along with me first was keeping some grudges against me and our prayer was not effective then.

Once when a possessed person came to our house for prayer, I gave her the Bible which she refused to accept.  But when a news paper was given the possessed held it close to the chest saying, “This I can keep.  Please, don’t give me the other”(meaning the Bible). Yes,  the devils are afraid of the name of Christ and they  shudder even to touch the Bible!!

Then struck a misfortune in the family.  She became sick of paralysis and was bed ridden for several years.  By the time we went there it was more than five years and Rajan had tried all known sources to relieve her of her sickness. All medicines failed.  So they turned to secret acts.  Nothing worked for her.  It was very pathetic to see the family in that situation.  They were in their late twenties.  She could not cover herself with a woolen blanket as the weight of the blanket would give her pain.  In Nilgiris one cannot live without blanket! Just imagine the plight.

We went there every Saturday evening for half an hour.  We will sing a song, read a portion from the Bible, say a few words and then pray as she would be just lying on her bed.  Rajan would give us a cup of tea.  We would come away.  No one imagined that a miracle was in the offing!  We continued quietly for months and slowly her pain subsided and she began to get up from her bed all by herself which she had not done for years! This happened now without any medicine as a direct answer to our humble prayers.  Before the end of the year she reached her normalcy.  No one acclaimed us as it was quiet and very slow.  In a couple of years she became pregnant and eventually became the mother of two.   Every one in the locality knew about this incident.

Rajan and his wife continued as friends and they continued to come to meetings with us. They are witnesses of other mighty works of the Lord in other lives. But tragically they never committed their lives to Christ though they knew for sure that it was the Lord who healed her.  Rajan remained a nominal Christian after twenty five years when I met him at the reception arranged for our second son, Rajan said his wife was showing symptoms of her old disease now.  What a tragedy!  Though they experienced the power of God in their lives first hand, they never let that power to transform their lives and become God’s children.  There are many like them in my experience.

One of the first contacts we had at Aravenu was Bro.Selvaraj who was from Rob Roy estate.  He approached me to learn spoken English.  Though he never learnt spoken English from me, we became good friends.  He was a baptized member from Open Bible Church.  He had so many questions about spiritual matters and I spent several hours discussing and clearing his doubts.  He became my associate as I went for evening out reach. 

Jayakrishnan was the post man at Aravenu.  Though he was from a Hindu background, he had accepted Christ and was continuing without any church affiliation.  He was very happy to see me in Aravenu as there was no other Christian worker in that Area.  He opened his house for Bible study and in six months he was ready for baptism.

Jayaprakash was another staff at Aravenu post office.  He was a young chap of about 26 years and no one would doubt any thing about him as he quietly worked in the office.  But through Jayakrishnan I came to know that he was a drunkard of the first order.  Once he was admitted in the hospital for vomiting blood.  But after getting discharged from the hospital he could not get over his habit though doctors warned him not to have any thing with alcohol any more.  By the grace of God, Jayaprakash   began to attend Bible studies in Jayakrishnan’s house and the Lord gave him grace to get over the habit slowly.  He too accepted the Lord and they both were ready for baptism at the same time. 

Selvaraj was helping me during those days and we fixed a date for baptism.   Selvaraj located a place along the brook which ran near his estate suitable for baptism.  But for some reason he changed his mind and asked permission from estate to use one of their tanks for baptism.  This meant less work as the first place located must be made ready clearing the place and making sure that water was deep enough.  We had our baptism in the estate tank and every thing went on well.  After the service was over, we came to know that there was a dead body in the brook near the estate.  Later we discovered it was exactly in the same place where we had planned our baptism.  If we had stuck on to our decision to have baptism there, who knows, we would have been the first ones who would see the body  and our baptism should have been postponed!

So we decided we would have our own school which would help also people from lower middle class who could not send their children to Kotagiri.   While we were staying in the rented house in Aravenu we hired another place to run the school.

Joyce was trained in Child Evangelism after her B.A. and when we were in Madras she attended Balar Kalvi Nilayam, one of the best schools for children below five, as an observer for over two months.  These were sufficient for her to start a school in the village.  We had twenty five to thirty children in all and Joyce would give each child personal attention while the whole class will be engaged in corporate activities like singing, drawing, reciting etc.  Occasionally Joyce had some one to help her.  Other wise she managed it all by herself. 

My role in the school was minimal; it began after l985 when we bought a school van and I was the driver.   I helped in the morning and evening with the school trips.   All our four children except the youngest did their primary school with us.  When they reached class six they were able to go to Kotagiri by themselves.

From ’82-‘86 three children were born to us in the Nigiris.  By l984 we had five children below ten years and it was a tough time looking after them along with language learning, school, and evening out reach etc. in routine.  Added to all this we had a small dairy, a poultry, rabbits and bees to look after.  All these made our life very busy.  Those were truly very exciting days indeed.

We planned a 400 sft. brick house and tiled roof with insulation as the Nilgiris would be very chill in winter.  Unknown to any man any where the house was completed by March ’82.  Our parents came visiting us then as our fourth baby was born then.  She was born 20 days before due date on the l0th of March when the unusual alignment of planets took place!   Parents were greatly surprised not only at the child, but also at the completed house waiting for plastering.  They gave us money for plastering after they went back home.

Behind the house in one corner of the land we marked an area for a Safety Tank and stared digging 12’x6’ area.  When we reached about 4 or 5 feet, I said to myself,  “Why can’t this be a well instead of a Safety Tank?”  We had faced heavy water shortage in the rented house that we were staying.    In the Nilgiris there is water shortage and people depend on government supplies or nearby brooks for their water needs.  In our place there was no government supply as our house plot was away from village and the brook nearby was not very hygienic.  So depending on the Lord and asking Him for grace, we changed our plan and began to dig down 6’x6’ below that level.  I hired a coolie and between two of us within a month we dug about 20’ deep.  Any one looking into the well can see our unprofessional work as the well is kind of zigzag in shape!  Fortunately from top to bottom it was soft brownish yellow rock under the earth and we picked bit by bit with a pickaxe as we dug down.  Though moisture was found after about l5’ we did not find any trace of any spring in the well.  So we left the work undone for a whole year.

When we opened our house in May that year, we asked the brethren from Young Men’s Evangelical Fellowship to come and stay there for two days for Bible Study and prayer.  Several joined us at the time and Bro. Yesudas of Karamadai assembly was there in the group – himself a water diviner.  He examined the unfinished well and said we could strike water in one two feet below.  He also said there were two strong streams running through the place where we dug.  We could have missed both if we had dug five feet away either way!

But we had to wait a whole year before we could muster some money to dig deeper.  By May we started living in our new house.   We used water from the nearby brook till the following March when the brook was showing sings of becoming dry.

During 1983 February there was a very heavy drought all over India.  It was so heavy that as never before government was supplying water by railway wagons to several villages. On the 1st of March we called three laborers and they went down into our well and cleared some rubbles and dug only one more foot and we struck water in our well!  By evening on the same day we were able to draw water with a bucket from our well.  I said we would not dig deeper because during this severest drought if we have so much water, this source would be more than enough for us.  Thus with just one day we stopped the work.  We stayed in that house till l99l and there was more than enough water for several families in that well. 

For our work we needed a spool tape-recorder which would help us hear the recorded matter again and again without touching button again and again.  While in England we were trained how to make tape loops for the same.  It was a part of our training program. So when we went to Nilgiris we were on the look out for one.  But we could not buy one in the market as they were no more sold in market. Cassette tape recorders had come in to voge .  But such were lying around in many houses in those days unused.  So I thought it a good idea to make my need known to brethren by the same YMEF weekly.  They obliged and they announced my need saying Bro. Mathew Paul was in need of a spool tape recorder for his language learning and as it was not available in the market any more, brother would be grateful if some one would came forward to donate one.  No one reading the weekly would miss that ad.  It was very conspicuous. I waited for a few weeks and there was no response.  Then came a letter from a brother asking me to visit him in his house.  He did not tell why he asked me to go but I fixed an appointment and went to see him in his house.  We had some friendly chat and he gave me a cup of tea and I asked him why he wanted me to come.  Then he showed me a spool tape recorder on his front table and he asked me whether that was the type needed for my work.  Yes, indeed it was the type needed.  I said, “yes”.  I was very enthused thinking that he was going to give it to me.  After a minute of silence he said,  “I just wanted to find out whether that was the type you needed.  This is not to be given to you.”  I was shocked to the core.  I said, “Thank you for showing it to me.” I returned home rather dejected.  I don’t remember now whether he gave me any gift that day or not.  I don’t think he did it either.

Any way the Lord asked me to learn a lesson from that experience.   I decided that I would never again make any of my needs known to man.  Scripture is very clear.  “Let your requests be made known to God” (Php.4:6).  I must thank the Lord for teaching me that lesson very early in my life though through a rather painful experience. ..

After admitting the child with Joyce in the hospital, Peter Grainger and I were on our way back to Wycliffe Centre.  The hospital is at St.Paul’s and we took the underground train to reach Angel station from where we had to take another train for our destination.  Underground stations are bustling with people that you are often dragged along with the crowd.  Often it is so very busy. That afternoon at Angel Station I met Mr. Robin Thomson who was one of my teachers at HBI!!  He had a personal interest in me always.  When he met me there, he was so surprised because he knew my stand about going abroad for studies.  We spent a few minutes in the station and I said I was doing an SIL course then and child was admitted for cancer.  I said I wrote my M.Th. exam and I was waiting for results.  I also said I did not know what to do for my thesis. 

From the station immediately Mr. Thomson took us to King’s College where he was a former student.  Prof. Ackroyd was known to him and we got an appointment with the professor in that very after noon.  And Prof. Ackroyd   knew me by name for he had given me admission for M.A.  in OT at King’s College through Mr. Thomson. But I did not avail that opportunity.  Now it was my turn to work with this world famous professor for my thesis.  Professor Ackroyd decided to take me as his private student as he said fees for foreign students were very high and that formalities would take time.  It was very kind of him to have given me two hours every week when I could call on him and discuss details of my thesis.

Prof. Ackroyd has liberal persuasions when it comes to authorship of the books of the Bible.  For example he would argue that the Pentateuch came to be written down and received its present shape in the exilic period.  In his book Exile and Restoration he has argued that way.  I argue for a Mosaic authorship for Pentateuch.  Like wise according to him the books of the prophets did not come from one man whose name the title has, but came to us with lots of later additions, emendations etc.  My thesis was form prophets.  I had to deal with Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel.   Critical scholars had butchered Isaiah and Daniel while Jeremiah and Ezekiel barely survived under them.  It was my turn to work with such a world renown person! 

I began by saying that biblical writings were tribal literature.  We deal with modern tribal languages and literature in present day Linguistics.  So present day Linguistics can offer a lot of help in trying to understand and analyze ancient tribal literature which is the Bible.  From Linguistics I began to show that change of tense, change of mood, change of vantage point, etc. are essential part of tribal literature and we must find the same in the Bible also.  Of course these are the very criteria used by liberal scholars to show that the text emerged from various sources.

So using present day Linguistic categories I analyzed twenty chapters in Hebrew from three prophets and sustained my argument.  Though at first he went along with me only on sympathy ground, later he accepted my view point and in one of my last interviews with Prof.Ackroyd, he said, “Mr. Paul, I am willing to be persuaded by your position”.
I thank the Lord for the generosity of that great man without which I would not have been able to finish my thesis.  To do an M.Th. from Serampore, specially in OT, one will have to sweat blood which I did and if the thesis is not accepted all efforts are in vain. 

When the letter came form SIL, I replied accepting the offer to attend the interview.  I said I would come if only the whole family would be allowed to go.  Later I found out that they were planning it for families only.  The Interview was at Danishpet in Salem.  It was for a whole month.  During that month they actually taught us what we would be learning in SIL and they wanted to take candidates who were able to do well in studies.

Time came for our interview.  It fell exactly during the first term break.  So I did not have to ask permission form the college to go for the interview.  We were selected to go to UK though we did not have a sponsor with whom we would work when we came back to India.  SIL simply trusted us when we said we would come back to work among tribals.
Missionary Max Liddle of New Zealand was there at UTC doing his M.Th.    I told him of the Lord’s leading in my life and it was he who drafted a letter to the college asking permission for me to go to UK in the middle of the course though I was a scholarship student.  The college graciously granted permission to go provided I wrote the University Exam from UK.

We went to England during the middle of February.  I had gotten permission from the  senate of Serampore that I would write my exam in April from England under the Supervision of the Reading University with which SIL is affiliated.  In April I wrote my M.Th.  exam for Serampore from England, supervised by SIL staff.  In fact they gave me exemption from attending SIL classes as exactly the same subjects were covered during the month of interview.

After the exam was over, daughter’s cancer surprised all of us.  There were students from 140 countries doing the SIL course and we were prayed for literally all over the world! Joyce had to be with the child in the hospital in London for 40 days for radium treatment. Because she was a nursing mother she was given a separate room in the hospital as the child was treated.  Otherwise no one was allowed to stay in the hospital. Neither we nor our sponsors were asked to pay anything to the hospital for treatment. So it did not incur a financial burden on any. It was one of the two places in the world where child cancer was researched.   After the 40 day radium treatment, she was brought home and we had to take the child every three weeks to the hospital.  Several friends both from SIL and High Wycombe Gospel Hall where we went for Sunday worship took turns and did this so beautifully.  We did not have to worry as to how to take the child to London every three weeks.

We had to stay in England for a whole year more to continue her treatment.  So after the summer course was over, we were given a family accommodation with all facilities. SIL who sponsored us to England found it difficult to calculate the amount needed for our stay there now because I was to do my thesis for which I had to meet my professor twice a week in London and go to library which was in Oxford three days a week along with the family expenses.  So they decided that I could go to the bursar every week and request for the amount needed for that week.   In other words we had now 50 open cheques as our allotment!  It surprised everyone when I took only the scholarship sum we availed as normal students previously.    

At HBI when I was unmarried, Dr. O.M.Samuel was there as my colleague.  Because we both of us were from assembly background, we used to be together where ever we went.  He resigned his job after one year and went back to US to do his doctoral work.  He told me to tell him when I would resign from HBI.  He said he would do everything possible to help me go for further studies. The actual words he used were, “I would do every thing for you as I would do to my own brother”.  I truly appreciate him for saying that.  He remains a very good friend of ours even today. 

But when I resigned the job I did not inform any one.  Even to OMS who made such a wonderful promise to me, I did not write.  One year after he went to US he wanted to send me a gift.  Since he did not know for sure where I was, he sent the gift to Joyce’s father and asked him to forward it to us.  It was Rs.250/- and just sufficient for a new LPG connection and a single stove.  How we praise God for His wonderful provision in our life.

Though the Lord was calling me for full time service and to live a life trusting Him alone for all my material needs, I did not have the courage to do so.   For nearly seven years the Lord has been speaking to me about accepting a life of faith.  But I did not respond positively.

Then came that day.  I was all alone in that five storied building meant for more than a hundred people.  It was the month of May.  College had closed for summer and therefore the hostel was empty.  I had to continue in the college as I had the responsibility of the registrar that summer selecting students for the following year.  There would be people in the offices in the ground floor from 9 am to5 pm.  By five all would leave the building.  My apartment was in that building as I was the warden for boys.  My wife was away  for confinement.

That evening I was particularly dejected.  I came to the room after office hours and I was reclining on bed after preparing dinner for myself.  It was 7 pm and the transistor was on at the FEBA radio station.  Various Christian programs came one after another and I was passively listening to them.  Then came a Malayalam program.   I knew the preacher as I had met him once.  It was Pastor P.D. Johnson of the Assemblies of God.  His text for that evening was 2 Cor.5:7.  “We live by faith and not by sight”.  In his characteristic way he was explaining the verse rather interestingly.  He said some thing like this.  God called Moses for a gigantic job.  Though Moses gave a lot of excuses in the beginning, at last he decided to yield to the call of God.  Moses did not sit down and calculate the amount of money needed for the task.  If he had done that, probably he would not have been able to obey God.  The preacher went on to say that many are not able to obey God because they sit down and calculate the amount needed for the work.  Then the preacher said,  “let us imagine how much money Moses would have needed if  it was to-day i.e. l975.  Remember there are 2 million people in all.  For breakfast let’s say 50p. per head.  That will be Rs.1 million for breakfast alone!  What of lunch?  That will be another 2 million.  If Moses had calculated like this, would he ever have obeyed God?  He would never have.  Then why do you calculate?  Why don’t you obey God if God is calling you for His work?”  As I was listening to the message, I knew I was reluctant to obey God because I was calculating as to how my needs would be met.  Then the preacher went on to say that God of Moses is still alive and He is still calling people for His work and if someone obey Him He will do the same thing as He did for Moses.  The preacher said God never promised Moses that He would provide manna.  But He did what He did not promise.  God of Moses is alive to day.

As I listened to the message, I knew it was for me.  The Lord told me, “All these years I have been calling you and you have been reluctant to obey.  Now this is the last time I will call you for My work.  But if you come out now, I will prove that I am alive.  I will feed you with manna.”  I could not say ‘No’ to God this time.  I got up from my bed and wrote my resignation and submitted it the following day and came out of my work.

I went to Madurai where my wife was expecting the arrival of our first baby.  I told her that I came after resigning my job.  She had no problem about it as I had told her before marriage about my call in life.  When she asked me what was the next plan.   I said the Lord would lead us.  I did not know what to do next.  I did not send out a prayer letter saying that we have come out for full time ministry.   Unknown to any man, the Lord led us the first three and a half years most miraculously.  We proved to our satisfaction that God of Moses is alive today.   We never lacked anything any time.  Everything needed was there right in time.  It was during this period I did my M.Th. and took our SIL training.   Thereafter the local assembly commended us to the service of the Lord in l979.  Yes, 32 years have passed since I resigned my job.  The Lord led us step by step thus far providing us with fresh manna every day.  (Manna means ‘what!’).  Praise be to His Holy Name.

But in Paicham we had our friend K.C.Mathai.  It was he who had actually invited us to Manipur.  We three were staying in a small mud house with thatched roof.  Two days after our arrival, we were sitting and talking after our family prayer.  It was about 9.30 in the night.  With no electricity in the village, and the sun set very early like 5.30 in the evening, 9.30 there is almost like midnight as most people go to sleep by 8pm.  We heard  unusual barking of dogs and KC opened the door to see what was happening.  He fell back screaming in to the room as he found some masked people standing with guns in their hands.  We dragged him inside and closed the door.  Pressing against the door, I began shouting “Hallellujah” again and again at the tip of my voice. Koshy too was shouting for help.  There was a big havoc there.  People outside pushed our door for some time but by then the hostel boys next door and the other residents of the campus came out with torches and sticks only to see the miscreants had escaped.  Such incidents were usual  in Manipur those days with the Naga underground threat.  Once we heard bullet shots at two O’clock in the morning and in the dawn we found two dead bodies just opposite to where we were staying.  I lived in Manipur for exactly one year and it was with great fear that I spent my days there.

I was twenty years old when I went to Manipur and I did not know how long I would be there.  Unlike in the plains of India where marriages are proposed and arranged by parents, in Manipur they almost follow western culture when it comes to marriage.  Boys and girls decide for themselves whom they will marry.  Often it is done by elopement. Tribal girls are notorious in trapping boys form the plains.  Many boys from the plains who go there get engaged with girls.  I was extremely careful not to be a victim and never allowed any girl come anywhere near me.

At first we were in Bangalore for about ten days when we had orientation and training.  Some fifty boys were there and they were all to go to different places.  There were five messages daily and I was privileged to be the translator for the whole time.  After the orientation course we were sent to different places.  Our team consisted of ten boys, all below twenty and our team leader was a foreigner in his thirties who also was the driver of our vehicle.  Our team first went to Mysore and since we were one of the best teams we were sent to Rajasthan.  In Rajasthan we made Jodhpur as our head quarters.  Assembly work had not started in Jodhpur then.  We were staying with one pastor Philip of a Pentecostal fellowship.  He was very cordial and very helpful to us.  We cooked our food and we used their place for our convenience.  As a team we were doing extremely well.  We had to sell books and meet our needs and we did not face much difficulty doing that.  There was no persecution or disturbance for our work.  Only once a crowd burnt our books and tried to throw burning books into our truck.  We had a petrol vehicle which gave 4KMs for one liter of petrol.   Petrol was Re.1 per liter.  Our vehicle looked like the present day long chassis Tempo Traveler with no seats in it.   It was Navy Blue with a big GB board in yellow.

After being in Jodhpur for more than a month and being very successful in our distribution work, the team decided to go to nearby places for distribution which we did.  We would have just sufficient money to reach the place and we would sell books buy food and continue till evening to come back to our camp.

Once we decided to go to Pali which is in the border of Pakisthan.  They said it was some 40 KMs from where we were and we would reach there in two hours and we can do distribution there and come back in the evening.  Now we know that information was wrong.  Then we were very excited and packed our truck with lots of literature and started after an early break fast to go to Pali.  As we crossed about 20 Kms we came to roads which were covered by sand due to desert winds.  There were no vehicles on road or no man to whom we might ask any thing.  With our shovel we cleared the road and proceeded our journey for the next three hours to reach a place where there was a dilapidated temple and a handful of humble huts. We saw a camel there and one or two pea hens straying around.  Our vehicle showed that we had traveled about 40KMs.  We got down from the truck and found that we had to travel another 40 KMs to reach Pali.  We had lost our way and came to a wrong place altogether! 

Just imagine the situation.  We had no money in our hands.  Petrol in the vehicle was almost over.  There was no one to buy books. From the locals we found out there was no bus service to that place either. No telephone facilities.   In the scorching heat of Rajastjan towards the end of May at noon we were literally stranded with no shade even to park our truck.  Looking all around we could only see sand, sand, and nothing but sand.  We were all hungry and tired.  We just did not know what to do.  We all knelt down in our truck and began to cry to God for help.  Only God had to help us now.  If He did not help, we did not know what to expect.  After every one prayed we all got out of the truck and washed our hands and faces with a little water.  We had a few big onions and lemons in the truck.  We cut onions into pieces and applied lemon juice on it and had it for lunch and waited there literally for help from above!

In just half an hour a miracle took place!  There came a Government Jeep.  It had a trailer with a 200 liter tank full of petrol.  The Jeep stopped there and seeing our truck the man in the Jeep enquired who we were and how we came there.  We narrated our story as students from Madras who came to sell Christian books, lost the way and stranded without petrol!  The man we found out was a doctor on duty from village health department, visiting remote villages of Rajasthan with medical help.  He always carried his trailer with petrol as he visited remote villages.  The kind doctor was very compassionate and he bought books worth Rs.15/- and gave us 12 liters of petrol and Rs. three in cash.  The books which he bought from us had Peace With God, This Way To Happiness, Pilgrim’s Progress, Ben Hur etc.  The doctor went on to say,  “This is not my regular route as no villages are near by.  But half an hour ago something prompted me to come this way.  It is your God and your prayers which brought me here.” Our joy knew no bounds.  We thanked the doctor and got back into our truck and thanked God for the miraculous provision and started our journey back to Jodhpur by 2 pm and reached the city by 6 pm; on the one hand tired and exhausted and on the other hand excited to have had such a miraculous answer to prayer.  And we never tried going to Pali again!

Who can imagine what would have happened to us if that Jeep had not come there with extra petrol and a willing man in that Jeep?

Once I came to the end of my tooth paste.  I did not know what to do.  In the morning I found it was the last bit and there was nothing left for the following I began to be concerned about it.  But I did not ask any of our other friends for help.  Instead I decided to pray.  After all, I had made good use of my pocket money to help one of my friends.  I had confidence that the Lord would answer my prayer.  In the morning session I was not listening to lessons in the class.  I was pouring my heart to God in prayer sitting in the class room.  At l0:30 post man came and I was expecting a miracle though I had already received my quota for that month!  But nothing happened.  I did not have an M.O. that day.  Then I became more intense in my prayer while in the third and fourth periods.  My problem was how would I be able to go to class the following day without brushing my teeth.  Some how the morning sessions were over and I went for lunch and rice would not go down my throat as my concern was about the tooth paste for the following day.  After lunch somehow I reached the dormitory rather heavy hearted.  I was worried about tooth paste for the following day.  I was reclining on bed rather dejected for the Lord did not answer my prayer but still continued trusting Him for a miracle. 

A little while later Bro. K.S.Varghese came into my dormitory and he was all blown up.  He called on to me and said, “Mathew, I got an M.O. for Rs.10/- from my cousin in Rajasthan.”   KS went on to say, “The coupon says, ‘give three rupees to Mathew Paul’”. He had come with the three rupees to be given to me.   My joy found no limits.  I shouted and praised God for answering my prayer and shared with him the whole situation.  This is one of the first experiences I had in prayer and from then on for small matters or for big, I learnt to trust God every day of my life.  The person who sent the M.O. was M.A.Thomas of Kota, Rajasthan.  It was through his influence that I left SIBI and joined HBI.

When I was at Kanakppalam with my grand parents where they had a big joined family,
once  I was asked by an aunt to go to the shop and get a kilo of table salt before lunch.  I got a 2 anna coin in my pocket and started running towards the shop which was about l.5 kms. away. As I reached nearer the shop, my speed  slowly came down.  By the time I reached the shop the speed was like that of a snail. 

I slowly got to the verandah of the shop and in the corner there was a post there and started standing there in the corner holding on to the post for some time.  The shop owner noticed me and he was a former student of my grand father, recognizing who I was came to me and asked me what I wanted.  He noticed a coin in my pocket and knew that I had come to purchase something.  He would try his best to find out why I came.  But I stood there with my mouth tightly closed for hours.  In between he would go and cater to the needs of other customers and come back to me when he was free.  But I stood there for more than two hours with no words coming out of my mouth!  Finally, he was fed up and gave up on me.

Eventually, the shop owner would go for his lunch and I would still stand there for some more time.  Seeing no one was watching me, I would slowly come down to the road and start my journey back to reach home to see every one at home had had their lunch and was resting.  I would quietly go to my room and come out for the four o’clock tea at which time I would have my lunch.    That’s how I purchased a kilo of table salt!

Once I felt like smoking and no workers or beedies  were available at the house.  So I made a secret plan.  I went to the garden and climbed an aracnut(a nut used instead of or along with tobacco) tree (branch less lean tall tree) and cut a whole bunch of aracnuts from the tree.  But I needed only eight or ten for my needs.  Quietly I took what I wanted and gave to my friend for our purpose and buried the rest under some sand and dry leaves.  No one knew anything of what happened.  And I never went back to that place for some time. It was a successful venture! And I forgot all about the incident.  Months later I happened to pass by the place where I had buried the rest of the aracnuts.  To my surprise I found twenty odd saplings of aracnut  tree standing one upon another in the place where I buried the seeds!  I was shocked to the core.  But no one knew how it came there and no one asked me any thing about it.  So I knew none doubted me for anything and I escaped any punishment.   But this incident taught me a great lesson.  How true are the words of our Lord in Mk.4:22 which we read, “For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was anything kept secret, but that it should come abroad”.  Surely a day is coming when every secret is going to be made public.  Let us be prepared either for rewards for good or punishment for evil! 

Every one dispersed quietly to their respective places and vallyappachen to his bed room.  He knew what he did was wrong.  But there was no one there to question him.  Later his own conscience began to smite him.  He went to bed and became sick for three, four days with very high fever.  Those days malarial fever was present there in that part of the country and every one thought it was an attack of Malaria and did every thing within their limits by way of medicines and other help.  But vallyappachen was shivering and shaking
under two heavy woolen blankets for days.  On the fourth day he called one of his grand sons and asked him to go and call the pastor whom he had chased form home while praying.  The young pastor who was only in his early twenties came home and vallyappachen  apologized to him and asked the pastor to pray for him.  Vallyappachen not only apologized to the pastor, but also declared to the pastor his decision to accept believer’s baptism.  The Lord graciously healed vallyappachen immediately and he was baptized into the fellowship of the assembly at Chethackal.    This event took place when I was a little boy.  The assembly arranged a convention and a pandal (tent) was erected for the public to attend.   I remember how in one of the evening meetings our vallyammachy got up and shared her testimony in the pandal.  She was baptized when she was only 18.  At first she had to suffer heavy persecutions form her in-laws and also from her husband.  But as days went by though vallyappachen did not trouble her any more, he remained strong in his ways until this event

Let none who reads these words think how great a man is here.   If  any one thinks that way, my purpose is defeated.  On the other hand, if some one thinks, how great and how faithful and gracious a God we have, these pages find their fulfillment.   The God of Moses, The God of Elijah, The God of the Bible is alive and active in this world to day.  He can be trusted and He must be trusted.  To His name be all glory. Amen and amen.

I had the privilege to live with my mother’s parents and grandparents part of my childhood.  My great-grandmother (vallyammachy) was one of the early disciples of KVSimon  and his reformation group. She was a mighty woman of prayer.  Almost every afternoon sisters from neighboring houses would come and spend time in prayer with vallyammachi. She lived up to a hundred years old and I saw her till I was eighteen.

Once I went to visit an old uncle of ours and he told me the following story.  It happened when our family had paddy cultivation.  In those days pesticides were not available and farmers depended on people who practiced black magic and witch craft to protect their farm from pests.  One particular year the problem of pests was so severe that farmers all around went to magicians for help and had their farms protected by magic threads.  Neighbors are all nominal Christians and they all followed suit.  But Vallyaammachy  would not let any magician come to our field.  Instead she went around her field in the morning and in the evening every day asking God to protect her farm from pests.  People used to laugh at her foolishness.

But what happened that year surprised everyone in the neighborhood.  All crops in the area failed totally due to pests except ours which was right in the middle of the rest of the farms.  Only we took crops that year!  Every one in our neighborhood knew that Vallyammachi’s God was truly a prayer answering God.