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The
People Living In Darkness have Seen a Great Light
A report of my
journey to witness the work of Brother Esudas Bontha in
Narasaraopet, Andra Pradesh, India from June 7-9, 2013
Sam Adams,
elder, Rutherford church of Christ 1399 Union Rd,
Rutherfordton, NC USA 28139
(Download PDF of this report) |
The purpose of this report is to bear witness to the
things I have seen and heard of the mighty works of God
being done through our brother Esudas Bontha and his
family among the poorest people of the lowest caste of
Indian society.
First let me introduce myself. My name is Sam Adams and
I am 54 years old. I have been a Christian since 1980
and currently serve the Lord as an elder for the
Rutherford church of Christ in Rutherfordton, NC. I have
been actively involved in leading, supporting, managing
and overseeing foreign mission work for around 18 years,
primarily in Honduras and Cuba. My congregation
currently provides the sole support for Anael Cardona, a
full time evangelist and missionary in Manto, Olancho,
Honduras. We also support several workers and preaching
students in Chad and Congo, and we have been supporting
Esudas Bontha’s work in India for the past 3 years,
including completing several church buildings and
purchasing a bus for the school.Professionally, I am
a technical executive working for IBM Research as an IBM
Distinguished Engineer, and it was because of this I had
the opportunity to visit India in June of 2013. Since my
business obligations required me to stay in India over
the weekend of June 7-9, I decided to use my personal
time to travel to Narasaraopet in Andra Pradesh, about a
5-6 hour journey by car southeast from Hyderabad. I
arrived in Hyderabad on the morning of Friday, June 7,
as was met by Brother Bontha at the airport and
delivered to him the PowerPoint projector I had brought
for use in the school. |
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The next three days were packed with driving, preaching,
teaching, driving, opening two new church buildings,
driving, baptizing souls into Christ, debating and
challenging 82 local preachers to be of one mind and
teach the same thing, driving, teaching Jesus Loves Me
to 50 orphans, dealing with traveler’s sickness and the
105 degree heat, worship and singing, much prayer, more
driving, and visiting the future site for the Indian
Christian School, for which I plead for your financial
and spiritual support. |
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Our first stop on the way to Esudas’ home in
Narasaraopet was the village of Kanchargunta. This
congregation is only 2 years old, and is located about
as far from the main highway and you can be and still
have a path to drive on. The occasion for this visit was
for me to preach at the celebration for the opening of
their first church building, which replaces a thatched
shelter. The congregation here was started with the
conversion of a man and his family, and through the work
of Esudas and this man 10-20 Christians now meet here,
along with about 20 Hindus who are regularly attending
to hear the gospel. Most of these people are illiterate,
and their hunger for the Word of God puts most of us to
shame here in the US, where literacy is taken for
granted and Bibles lay stacked on dusty shelves in our
homes. The building itself is a simple concrete block
building, raised about 3-4 feet on a concrete foundation
to protect from flooding. A tent had been erected for
protection from the intense heat, and a large meal of
rice and curry had been prepared for the celebration. |
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After prayer, I cut the ribbon and opened this facility
for the work of the Lord, preaching and encouraging the
people from Ephesians chapter 4, that even in the India,
the land of many gods and many religions, there was
truly only One God, One Lord, One Spirit, One Hope, One
Baptism, One Faith, One Church, One Truth and One Way.
There was one man who responded to the gospel call for
baptism. One point of interest here was that in this
village with fewer than 300 people within walking
distance, the War against the Truth was in full swing.
Not 50 yards from the new church building was a half
completed Hindu temple, and I was shown a marker not 20
yards from the new church building where another Hindu
temple was to be constructed in the near future,
attempting to surround and intimidate those Christians
who have just escaped from the fires of idolatry. |
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| At this point I was too sick and
overcome by the heat to continue to the two other
locations we had planned to visit that day, so we
proceeded to Brother Bontha’s home, where his wife
Vijaya, son and daughters live along with about 50
orphans that carpet his home to sleep every evening.
Vijaya went to great lengths to make me as comfortable
as possible. I should note here that when it came time
for dinner, I was shown into the bedroom of Esudas and
his wife, where there was a fan and a wall-mounted air
conditioner. Vijaya then brought what appeared to be a
small stool to where I was sitting and covered it with a
towel and placed a simple meal before me. Esudas
explained that they do not have even a table to take
their meals on, and apologized to me for the
inconvenience. Esudas and his family, along with all the
orphans, sat on beds and the floor wherever they could,
each with their meal of rice and curry. After a
difficult night of heat and sickness at a local hotel,
with Esudas and his wife staying in the next room for
security, I returned to their home for breakfast. After
some rest, I met with the orphans and other students of
the Indian Christian School in the courtyard, where I
taught them to sing Jesus Loves Me and told them the
story of David and Goliath, and the mystery of the five
smooth stones (hint: Goliath had 4 relatives, possibly
brothers, all giants!). |
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| We all then traveled to the proposed
site for the new Indian Christian School, with the
children traveling using the school’s bus in two trips.
The land is located just outside of town in an area
currently used for rice cultivation. It is level land
adjacent to the state highway, and electricity is
readily available. We had the children surround the
borders of the land, and Esudas’s family, the
schoolteachers and myself stood in the middle of the
land for a photo. Also present was a Hindu man, a local
police officer, who is working to help establish the
school out of concern for the many poor children in this
area. May God grant him time and opportunity to obey the
Gospel. |
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We then travelled to another village about an hour’s
drive away, Ganesupalem thanda. Here I also opened a new
church building for a recently planted congregation,
preached and encouraged the people, with one young
mother responding. I was privileged to baptize this soul
in a nearby pond, after borrowing clothes and sandals
from a local brother. One thing that impressed me about
these people was their intense interest in spiritual
things. The look on their faces as I preached and
Brother Bontha translated was very telling. These are
not “rice bowl” conversions, but honest souls drinking
in the pure milk of the Word. |
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| Our next appointment proved to be one
of the highlights of my service in God’s kingdom. Esudas
had sent out a call to all the local preachers from
every denomination to meet in a large open warehouse
near the Maseed manya congregation. Eighty-two men were
present, mostly preachers and teachers from the Baptist,
Lutheran, Apostolic, and other denominations. About 12
members of the Lord’s church were also in attendance,
leaders of local congregations and men engaged in
Esudas’ program to train preachers. We began the event
with an impromptu debate and lectureship on the question
of whether or not baptism was essential for salvation. I
lead the group through the following study:
1. That the gospel is God’s power of salvation (Romans
1:16-17)
2. That the saving gospel is the Death, Burial and
Resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-5)
3. That we are saved through whole-hearted obedience to
that form (pattern) of teaching (Romans 6:16-18)
4. That obedience to the gospel pattern is accomplished
only in baptism (Romans 6:1-11)
The main proponent of “faith-only” salvation without
baptism was silenced by these scriptures, and proceeded
to try to change the subject to his belief in modern-day
miracles, but the group would not have it.
Then another question arose, one that Esudas tells me is
a constant point of argument, whether or not someone
needed to be baptized again to join the Lord’s church if
they had been baptized to join a denomination. There
were many heated statements made by the Baptists that
there was no need to rebaptize, but I took them to Acts
19 and the account of the 12 men of Ephesus who had been
baptized unto John’s baptism but Paul rebaptized into
the name of Christ. This surprised them as if they had
not read this account before. Then another preacher, who
professed to be Baptist, said that he did indeed teach
and practice baptism for the remission of sins, and that
as such his people were saved as the scriptures taught
and did not need to be rebaptized. This triggered a
disruption among the Baptists, but I stopped the
arguments with this statement, that I, in fact, agreed
with this man. The group was surprised, some applauding
as if I was retracting my former stand. But I then
proceeded to explain that if indeed a man was taught and
baptized for the remission of sins, to be saved, and not
because he was already saved, then his baptism was valid
from the scriptures and that he did not need to be
rebaptized. But, if he was taught that he was already a
saved, forgiven man, by faith only or any other means,
and that he if he was baptized to join a local body or
denomination and not for salvation, then his baptism was
not valid, he remained in his sins, and that he had yet
to obey the gospel. There were many nods of
acknowledgement among the crowd.
At this point we closed the debate and I preached to the
assembled men. I first prayed and thanked God for all
their desires to please Him and to study and obey His
Will. Then I proceeded to challenge them all from the
Word with the following lesson:
1. That the carnal mind is enmity against God (Romans
8:6-7)
2. That division, strife and following men was carnal (1
Corinthians 3:1-4)
3. That we are commanded to have no divisions, be of one
mind and speak the same thing (1 Corinthians 1:10-13)
4. That our previous debate proved that they were
carnal, walked as men and crippled the gospel of Christ
because of their division.
I then challenged them all to seek only God’s truth and
abandon the doctrines of men, to be of one mind and one
voice for the cause of Christ. I closed the meeting with
a prayer, and many men thanked me for the lesson, again
as if that were the first time they had been confronted
with those scriptures. Brother Bontha has told me since
that several of the denominational preachers have
requested him to come and preach to their congregations
and share these thoughts. In my experience I have never
seen such opportunity to confront division head-on, and
with such an open-minded response. May God be glorified! |
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| After a more restful night, we drove
for an hour to worship with the brethren at the
Subbaiahpalem church of Christ. I preached here again on
the Oneness of God, Christ and the church, and we shared
the Lord’s Supper with these brethren, with Esudas’ son
presiding. After praying for many of the sick and
distressed here, and naming a new baby girl (Hannah,
after my daughter), we continued for another hour to the
village of Makkenavaripalem, to the home of Vijaya’s
parents and the largest congregation in the area, where
Esudas began his work as an evangelist many years ago. |
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| We met in the building we helped
complete last year, with a large number of Christians as
well as visitors, all eager to hear the word of God.
After preaching and encouraging the people, I was
honored to meet 4 older women, all “high caste” women,
as Esduas would say, who had converted from Hinduism
years ago. These sisters each made a special
contribution and gave it to me, as Esudas said they do
regularly, to help continue the preaching of the gospel
here. I will always treasure those few rupees as a
reminder of the power of the gospel in a pagan land and
the fact that God’s Word is always working out His Will
for the salvation of mankind. |
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It is worth mentioning here that each
of these congregations seems able to support its own
upkeep to some degree, at least in existing facilities
with some small support for preachers. Most of the
preachers and teachers here work full-time in secular
efforts to support themselves, and while the
congregations are very poor by Western standards, they
are willing givers of what they can share.
We then proceeded to Ramanjenyapuram, to the
congregation we had planned to visit Friday but were
prevented because of my illness, and met with some of
the members there, praying and encouraging them. They
also meet in a building we helped complete last year. |
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After returning to Esudas’ home to
prepare to leave, I shared with the orphans a collection
of drawings made by the children of my congregation for
them. I asked each of them to draw a picture for me to
take back to America and share with my congregation, and
they obliged me with a large stack of beautiful
drawings. These I delivered to the children of my
congregation on my return, with each child selecting a
picture to take home and the rest to adorn our
classrooms.
After another 5 hours of driving, we returned to
Hyderabad and I said farewell to Esudas and Vijaya, and
returned to the hotel where IBM had me staying,
re-entering what I now see clearly as the world of the
ultra wealthy.
I hope you will indulge me a few words more to explain
why I strongly believe the best way to support this work
is the purchase of the land and construction of the new
Indian Christian School. The school currently meets in
Esudas’ home, which has been extended with several
classrooms and supports over 170 students and 5
teachers. None of these children pay tuition to attend
the school, being orphans or children of the poorest
families. Esudas uses his own support to pay for the
teachers, supplies and uniforms for them. The goal is to
develop the school to the point that it will attract
children from wealthier families who can pay tuition,
and offering advanced degrees will ensure that trend.
There are constant requests to serve more children, but
the current facility will not allow it, and there is no
room for expansion. Land is very expensive in India, a
land roughly 1/3 the size of the US with nearly 3 times
the population. In addition, because Esudas and the
children he serves are Sudra people, the lowest and
poorest racial caste in India, there is great reluctance
by higher caste people to sell land for a lower caste
school. In fact the only reason that the current land is
available is because the Hindu doctor who owns it is
willing to sell it so that “many people will be fed”.
Without education, the Sudra people are doomed to an
illiterate life of manual labor. Without literacy, they
may hear and obey the gospel, but they cannot grow to
maturity in Christ, being blocked from studying His Word
for themselves. This makes them vulnerable to false
teachers and weak in their faith, making them easier
prey to the false religions all around them. The school
makes sense in both these areas, since the children are
not only taught to read, but they are exposed to New
Testament Christianity as well, seeing the faith and
sacrifice of Brother Bontha and his family every day.
Through his work with the children, Esudas contacts the
parents and reaches them with the Gospel. Now that the
school is officially accredited by the Indian
government, growing the school means the promise of
government aid as well as offering higher level courses
and eventually professional degrees and certifications.
This will not only make the school self-supporting, but
it will greatly expand the influence and impact of the
evangelistic efforts that Brother Bontha constantly
weaves into every daily activity.
It is very expensive to buy land in India. Even in this
rural area, an acre of land costs up to $90,000. Esudas
recently raised over $11,000 from many of you to use as
security for starting the process of buying the land. He
is willing to mortgage his own home for this effort, and
believes that will add about $40,000 to toward the goal.
The problem with borrowing money in India is that the
lowest available interest rates are around 18% APR. What
is needed, and it is needed soon, is at least $40,000 in
support to complete the sale of the land. There is a
deadline of August 11, 2013 to close this sale, or else
the security deposit will be forfeited and the
opportunity lost. More will prevent excessive amounts
lost to interest payments.
I have seen and bear witness before Almighty God the
honest and intense effort of Brother Esudas Bontha as he
strives to lift his people from the darkness of sin and
ignorance into the glorious light of Christ. I encourage
you to visit him as I did, and guarantee that he will
literally wear you out in the service of God. We, the
citizens of the United States, are so incredibly wealthy
and materially blessed that we are nearly blind to the
reality of these people and most of those like them
around the world. We are the ultra-rich. Even the
poorest of us would be a wealthy man in Narasaraopet.
Can we sit on our luxuries and ignore this great work?
Can we watch as our ever bigger barns overflow with
stuff while our brothers in Christ struggle mightily
against ignorance and error in poverty and great need?
1 John 3:16-18
By this we know love, because He laid down His life for
us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees
his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him,
how does the love of God abide in him? My little
children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in
deed and in truth.
Consider these verses and act on them, my brethren. This
is my prayer to God. |
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Indian Mission
Powerpoint Presentation |
Bontha
Esudas Indian Mission