BYM ONLINE DESK Blessing February 2019 English Emagazine | страница 12

february 2019 | bymonline.org
page 12
Candles In The Night
(Testimonies of Native Missionaries)
GopiBagh was born in a remote village in
Odisha. He was born out of second wedlock of his
mother. Even before his birth his life took a
miserable turn. His mother was not even given
proper food. Many times, she used to sleep with an
empty stomach. One day when Gopi was still in his
mother's womb, his father beat his mother and
kicked her in the stomach. He left her in the jungles.
Miraculously the fetus survived. Gopi's mother did
not have a choice. She had no one to turn to. She
returned home in spite of all this ill-treatment. She
wanted the child and it was her only hope. Christ. Missionary Ponnusamy encouraged him and
taught many things from the Bible and about God's
ministry. He started visiting interior villages along
with the other workers like HironKhosla and
Dhaneshwar Jena. God attested the ministry of this
humble servant by performing signs and miracles.
Gopi was blessed with the gift of healing. Whenever
he used to pray for the sick, they were healed. Village
after village, he made inroads so that God's work was
spreading like a wild fire. God honoured his labour
and today there are more than ten churches
established because of his ministry.
Gopi was born in such a tumultuous situation.
He wanted to go to school. But poverty stopped him.
He grew up as a child labourer just to make a
survival. He was married to a girl named Subarna
Nag at a very young age. Gopi did not have peace of
heart and his life seemed meaningless. So he
resorted to drinking. But his mind was restless. Since he was a native worker, financial help
from the Mission was minimal. But God who has
called him is faithful. He did not even have a proper
house to stay but through the mercies of God, he
secured help from the Government Housing
Scheme. God has blessed Gopi with three children.
The elder son, Arun studied in the Blessing Children
Home at Ramagiri and finished his Higher
Secondary. He is in the God's work and is married.
His daughter, Martha is also married to a God's
servant. The other girl, Marium is also married. His
mother who had seen the rough side of life died at the
age of 80.
Finally he decided to take his life. He planned
to kill himself by hanging on a tree. On that very
particular day, while he was going to kill himself, an
old friend of him named Tularam met him on the
way. He was going to a prayer meeting in a particular
village. Tularam encouraged Gopi to come to that
meeting. Gopi reluctantly agreed. Once they reached
the village, there was a prayer meeting going on.
Missionary M.C. Ponniah was sharing from God's
Word. He was speaking about life, death, Heaven
and Hell. These strange teachings inspired Gopi. He
started to know more about Jesus Christ. Gopi
accepted Jesus as his personal Saviour. He passed on
from death to life. Hallelujah!
Later on, his mother also accepted the Lord and
they found that the life in Jesus was a blessed one. In
the year 1997, Gopi decided to work for the Lord and
tell his friends and relatives about the Lord Jesus
Gopi still serves the Lord with minimum
facilities. For him, the only job that he knew is to
serve the Lord. Even now, he visits not less than three
villages a day. God sometimes takes him to rare
people groups because of his gifts. He also
distributes tracts in the market place. He was once
beaten up in a village for preaching the Gospel. But
like, Paul, he moves on.
“I am sure of this, that he who began a good
work in you will bring it to completion
at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6).