Latest News
Clothing to be sent to India
A box of pillowcase dresses and shorts will be sent to Pastor KK Alavi’s son, Abdul, during the first week of July.
He and his wife go to the mountains of India to bring medical help to the poorest of the poor. While there, they also bring the Gospel to the mountain tribes.
Abdul mentioned that gently used children’s sweaters would be most appreciated as well. If you have pillowcase dresses, shorts or sweaters, please leave them at the church office. Thank you for your generous gifts.
Missionary from India to visit Faith Lutheran
In Kerala, India, there is a pastor who reaches out to about six million Muslims. He works with a Bible college in the area and uses students as outreach workers. He also has three Muslim converts and their families working with him to establish new locations for teaching and contact.
Faith Lutheran and NHMS will welcome this pastor from India and his son on Sun. April 21 during worship services at 8 and 10:10am, between services at 9:15am, and at a noon potluck lunch. We invite you to experience the powerful witness this pastor brings for Christ to the Muslim people of southern India. If you have never had the privilege to hear from this man of God, he will be preaching at Faith Lutheran (date to be determined), speaking at the Augustana District Convention on Sat. April 27.
This pastor is a converted Muslim who has found ways to present Jesus Christ to Muslims in India. To even explore the Christian faith in public can be life threatening in India. His journey to faith has placed his life at great risk. Today he must still count the cost of discipleship. We at Faith Lutheran Church deem it a privilege to work with the New Hope Mission Society (NHMS) and be among this pastor’s partners in mission.
NHMS was formed in 2005 in response to a presentation by Dr. Roland Miller at a Mission Sunday Forum at Faith Lutheran. Dr. Miller, a long-time missionary in India, had brought this Indian man to Christ and on that day told a riveting story of the witness of this little but bold man to his fellow Muslims. Faith’s congregation was so moved by what they heard that they soon decided not only to support this evangelical witness as a congregation but to create a network of support. This led to the formation of NHMS. In the past few years, numerous congregations and individuals have found common cause and have together been giving generous support to this mission endeavor. NHMS provides funds to evangelists who demonstrate a record of seeing Muslims respond to the good news. NHMS also supports missionaries in Nigeria and the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
Knowing the cost personally, this Indian pastor, an ordained Lutheran minister, has found the use of literature that can be mailed and studied in private a first effective step in introducing Muslims to Christ. His first contact with Indian Muslims is through evangelistic booklets called tracts. To Americans, tracts sound ineffective. Not so for this evangelist. Recipients of the tracts make contact. The contact leads to a correspondence course which has resulted in hundreds of Muslims accepting the love of Christ.
Because of a need for new believers to have a safe place to gather, stay for a time, and explore the Christian faith, this pastor developed a Christian teaching center for visitors from around the world to stay as they seek to understand this ministry and support its future development. Ministries of caring to the surrounding community also go out from the center.
Four to six training seminars each year are held at the center. In October 2011, the pastor held a study seminar for 47 students and five teachers. In November 2011, he held a study meeting exclusively for Christian ministers. This was attended by 53 pastors and three teachers. It was such a productive meeting that participants requested that study meetings should be held three times a year. The seminar was partially sponsored by the eligible congregations. From December 23-31, 2011, 50 converts and Christian friends met at the center. The time was spent with worship and study.
It is the very effectiveness of this pastor’s witness that has called the New Hope Mission Society and Faith Lutheran to expand his ministry over the years.
The pastor also writes evangelistic and informational books for Muslims. He also has written and developed several Bible correspondence courses. In 2012, he received 2,370 new letters inquiring about Jesus. These inquiries were mailed informational booklets.
From February through May of 2012, 12 Bible College students distributed Christian materials to Muslim homes, shops and individuals. The outreach teams have been able to canvas most of the city of Manjeri, Kerala. Because of threats from radical Muslims, the students are fearful to leave the Manjeri area and go to other areas. As of May 9, 2012, the teams have distributed 60,700 pieces of literature. About 95% of the Muslim homes accept the offered literature. Genuine seekers are increasing. The pastor has had serious discussions with Muslim Maulawis and Musliyars (leaders of different Muslim denominations) with very encouraging results.
The pastor and his family and his family are still receiving threats from radical Muslims. His adult son was fired from his job because of his father’s work in evangelism. Thanks be to God, he has again found work about an hour away from home.
Pillowcase Dress Update
The women of Faith Lutheran were asked to sew and donate pillowcase dresses this fall to be donated to missions projects in Africa. The dresses for little girls (and t-shirts, which were sent along for little boys) have been received in Nigeria.
Pastor Titus, who works with the New Hope Mission Society in Nigeria, recently sent Faith Lutheran member Dorothy Desens a thank you letter, in which he expressed his thanks. Also, Titus asked for prayers for his community as labor unions intend to protest against the removal of oil subsidies in his county. He also asked we pray for the Christian leaders in Nigeria, as they “are being hunted by the men of [the] underworld. Even last night, Deeper Life Church was attacked during the evening Bible sudies leaving six people dead, and many wounded in [the] Gombe state.”
Prayers and support are needed, and God has provided us with a way to support Pastor Titus and those around him, even from half a world away.
Christ’s Love in Saudi Arabia
This story was taken from a recent prayer letter sent to members of the New Hope Mission Society, a mission-based organization with its roots from Faith Lutheran Church. Read and reflect about what a difference just one disciple of Christ can make in this world.
A few weeks ago in a small group Bible study with grad students, a young lady from Iran, Hediyeh, told us part of her story. As I heard this story it sent some tingles up and down my spine and some major encouragement to my heart.
Hediyeh grew up in a Christian family in Tehran. Her parents came to Christ out of a Muslim background. Her parents heard the good news of Jesus from two cousins. Those two cousins had gone to the USA for graduate school back in the 70s, which is where their lives were transformed by the Gospel of Jesus. Guess what those two did after that? They went home to Iran and started passing on this Gospel news to all who would listen. (And they are still doing that!)
Hediyeh’s whole family became members of Jesus’ family. The church in her city has been growing ever since. Could this story be repeated? Look at these young men in the picture below…
They are a bunch of guys mostly from Saudi Arabia who are here in Minnesota. Are there two guys in this group who will hear and believe the Good News and become Christ’s ambassadors to their family and country? We know God has been doing this sort of thing throughout history and continues to this day. Can you see it with your mind’s eye? 25 years from now you meet a young lady from Saudi Arabia who tells you she grew up with parents who loved Jesus and that the church in her town is growing. Her dad could be in this picture… amazing.
I hope this story moves you to marvel at how God allows us to be partners with HIM!
Click Here for more information about the New Hope Mission Society.
