NEWSLETTER May/June 2006 - VOLUME 21
INDEPENDENT CHURCH IN INDIA PO BOX 238 FREDERICKSBURG, PA 17026
website: www.indchurch.org email:info@indchurch.org
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The Remote Village of Seelapadi
Before the Lord opened the door for us to reach this village with the Gospel, a man named Accaya, and his wife Suppammal (who is mute), who both have leprosy, began attending our church service here in Dindigul. Accaya invited us to come to his village to see his house because he said it was damaged due to the flood. One day we decided to visit him. When we entered his village named Seelapadi, we saw devastating sights of extreme poverty and disease.
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At Seelapadi, this woman with a mental disorder is lying in the middle of the road.
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This lame man came to the church. He had to climb three stories on his hands and knees!
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Although Pastor Britto had preached the Gospel in over 1800 villages, this was the most poverty-stricken place he had ever seen. Three hundred people live here. We saw people with mental disorders, the blind and deaf, the mute, the lame, lepers, the homeless, and elderly and crippled people who were extremely skinny from malnutrition. One man had a swollen leg and a hideously huge foot (more than five times larger than a foot should be) from a condition known as elephantiasis.
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In addition to physical and mental problems, the village people at Seelapadi are known as low caste "untouchables" by their society, and no one will help them or go anywhere near them. Not only did they practice Hinduism, but many were in the "dark arts", which are a form of satan worship. Residents of other villages were afraid to go near them because of the evil practices that went on there.
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This man's foot is swollen from elephantiasis. His hut was nearly destroyed. He and his wife suffered from starvation.
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This elderly woman has waited a long time to hear the Gospel.
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The first time we visited the village, the people were hard and were talking loudly and making many distractions while Pastor Britto and I tried to share the Gospel. But even through this, God used the opportunity, and many of the people responded and accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. One young man asked us very seriously;"How did this woman in America come to know of this man with leprosy in this remote village?" Pastor Britto shared it was because the all-knowing God, for whom nothing is impossible, loves him and so He sent me to him.
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