"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15)

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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Feeding the Poorest of the Poor

In Seelapadi, most of the people have to eat the cheapest kind of rice because of their poverty. A few weeks after we had started visiting Seelapadi, we decided that we wanted to take some rice to the whole village to show them the love of Christ. Still, many of the people were very cold and hard due to their Hinduism and witchcraft practices. Our team gathered everyone to the main street.

ICII built a hut for this family in Seelapadi because their hut was destroyed by the flood. This poor family will only get to eat if the father finds work each day.

Shortly after the team began to distribute the rice, many of the people who already received rice began arguing among themselves and causing a big uproar. Those who had to wait for the rice began fussing at the ones that already got rice. Even though we told them there was enough for everyone, the commotion got louder and louder until the team had to put the rice back in the van and leave. Our team came back an hour later and delivered the rice to each house instead. Overall, this went a lot better, even though many of the people still appeared to be only worried that someone else might get more than they had gotten. But during this outreach, many hearts were touched and we prayed for over fifty people that came to us for prayer.

This woman is very happy to
receive rice for her family.

We quickly discovered the problem: These people simply did not know how to respond to an act of kindness because they had never known it before. Some of the village people shared that no one had ever given the whole village rice before and many appreciated what was done in the name of Jesus. After the rice outreach more people from Seelapadi came to our Dindigul church service the following week. A man who could not walk came, his legs as thin as a skinny person's arms. The room we are now renting for our services is on the third floor.
Pastor Britto praying for the people at Seelapadi.

It was such an encouraging thing to us that this lame man went to so much trouble to travel that far and then to climb all those stairs to attend. When I first saw this man in the village one night, it was in the dark, and I was startled when in the shadows of the dimly lit street I saw someone crawling towards me in a way that reminded me of a snake. But this is the way this man gets around, by scuttling along the ground with his arms. Since that first rice outreach, we have taken more rice back to some of the extremely poor people we had seen.

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