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

Christian & Messianic Graphics

Over a thousand graphics to freely use on your website, church bulletins, outreach activities; etc. Beautiful Scripture graphics, evangelistic banners, buttons, backgrounds, animated scriptures; etc.

Yours free for a gift of $50 dollars or more donated to "Independent Church In India".

Stricken with a deadly disease that literally rots away the flesh. A Biblical disease most have thought has been long extinct. In India, there are millions of people that have the dreaded disease of leprosy. Help us help those in desperate need today and change a life before it is too late.
CLICK HERE!

NEWSLETTER March/April 2004 - VOLUME FIVE
INDEPENDENT CHURCH IN INDIA PO BOX 238 FREDERICKSBURG, PA 17026
website: www.indchurch.org email:info@indchurch.org

PAGE 2

Pastor Britto’s Testimony: A Man After God’s Own Heart

The founder of Independent Church in India is a man after God’s own heart, Pastor Britto Joseph. From a very young age, Pastor Britto has given his whole heart as a humble servant of God to fulfill the call upon his life. Being raised from a childhood of extreme hardship and sorrow in a remote village, he has experienced the intense suffering and hopelessness of the tough village life. Not only that, but he has had many sorrowful and bitter experiences in his family life. But now, by the grace of God, he is desperately reaching out, with the love and compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the lost and hopeless around him. He is determined to not let any obstacles or discouragements stop him. Being strong in faith, the Lord is using him to reach masses of people through open Gospel preaching and personal evangelism.

Pastor Britto sharing the Gospel
and handing out tracts to people
at a remote village.

Before God blessed Pastor Britto’s ministry with a vehicle in 2002, he would walk or ride his bike many long distances to reach remote villages with the Gospel in the intensely hot climate. Because of his dedication and burden to fulfill the will of God he has been used to lead thousands of lost souls to a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He has personally reached around 1500 remote villages in his life and the Lord has used him to touch many lives with His hope and salvation.

Pastor Britto shares his incredible life-changing testimony of how the Lord revealed Himself and saved him:

Pastor Britto’s Testimony

“I grew up in a Roman Catholic background. Following this path, I had found no peace in my heart and I felt so much emptiness in my life. Through my life I had many bitter and sorrowful experiences in my family and my personal life. Some of these experiences were due to witchcraft being placed on my family by some of our jealous relatives. My Dad was bedridden when I was very young and my mom totally neglected me and never showed me any love due to her many responsibilities and being heavily oppressed by witchcraft. She would cry constantly and many times take her frustrations out on me by violent abuse. The person that I loved most in this life was my older sister, but because of the heavy oppression of witchcraft placed on her and on my family, she died of a mental disorder. I lived in a remote village and, at the age of six, I had to work very hard to help my mom provide for the family because of my father being bedridden. Many times I would ask, “Who is God”? But since my father and mother had a Roman Catholic background, my dad had taught me to say repetitious prayers. Often, I would repeat these prayers over and over, but I never had any peace when I did this. I had a little knowledge of who Jesus was, but I had not had a life changing experience.

Pastor Britto sharing with a new
believer how to read the Bible.

At the age of nine, I was desperately seeking God. One day I knelt down and prayed in desperation, “I do not know who you are, Jesus, but I really need to have peace in my mind”. As I was crying out to Him, I felt His presence so strong and He began revealing himself to me. I realized that I was a sinner, that I must become different, and my sins were preventing me from getting this peace with God that I desired. I realized that I was unqualified to stand before God in my sins. Right then I began asking Jesus to forgive me and then I committed myself to Him and asked Him to be my Lord and Savior.

“When I asked Jesus Christ to cleanse me from all my sins, this is when I got this true peace in my mind. ”
...Pastor Britto
When I asked Jesus Christ to cleanse me from all my sins, this is when I got this true peace in my mind. I began crying and telling Him that I loved Him and immediately I felt the peace and joy I had been seeking for so long. Christ had filled my heart with His love. The very next day I began sharing my experience and my changed life with a friend. After this, I began growing in the Lord as I attended a church and received discipleship from my pastor.

My pastor encouraged me to go into the ministry and gave me many opportunities to preach even at my very young age. In 1993, I attended Bible School at Madurai, India. The first year of school the Lord used me to plant a church at Vadipatti with the help from other students. I graduated from school in 1996 with my B.TH. After my graduation, I felt called by God and I committed my life to do ministry in Vadipatti, which is a very hard place. About a year and a half ago I was feeling depressed because I was getting discouraged in the ministry, but God was so faithful to me.

Pastor Britto praying for a sick
child at a remote village.

One day, as I went to an internet center to use the computer, I felt God inspire me to type “Fill The Void Ministries” in the Google search engine. Even though I didn’t know the meaning of the word “void”, I typed it in and found a ministry called by that same exact name. So I felt inspired to write to them about my ministry. Shortly after, Fill The Void Ministries (a husband and wife team from the US) responded to my mail and began sending me Gospel tracts to share in India.

Pastor Britto leading these girls in prayer to
accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

A few months after this, I was handing out these tracts and sharing the Gospel at a bus station when some of those in the RSS cult beat me violently. I was taken to the hospital and the doctors told me I would not walk again, but in about three weeks, the Lord healed me and allowed me to go out and preach his Gospel again. Shortly after this, I felt like losing hope because of the many discouragments in the ministry, but at that same time God led Fill The Void Ministries to work with us as a team and share our vision in the US. Through our fellowship together, God is providing many of the needs for the ministry.

God has again assured me that He has a great plan for this ministry and I am believing that thousands and thousands of souls will be added to the kingdom. My main goals for this ministry are to reach lost souls, to establish churches throughout all of India, and to raise up and equip more laborers and missionaries by having Bible training schools. I have a burden and a desire to start an orphanage for street children and a home for homeless elderly people. I am ready to fulfill God’s will in my life and even die for His Gospel...