Funeral - a good opportunity to preach the gospel to Hindus

We recently received this grievous news concerning pastor Stephen in India (you may wish to read the earlier report and prayer request regarding him). Please, please remember this dear brother in your prayers. May the Lord make him and his children a monument of His grace and provision and promises-kept in the midst of their monumental loss.

In spite of the sudden death of his wife, he and others took advantage of the occasion of her funeral to exalt the name of Jesus Christ in an otherwise Hindu village. What better place to speak of the greatness of God, the desperate condition of man, and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ? As pastor Guna says, it is "a good opportunity to preach the gospel"...

Dear Friends,

Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God - 2 Corinthians 1:4

Greetings to you all in the precious name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

What a sad news it is to tell you that Sis.Gracy (Bro.Stephen's wife) has passed away. She has gone to be with the Lord in eternity today's(12th May, 2008) early morning. I have preached in her funeral service this afternoon and the body was buried in Regadahalli at 3.00PM. Stephen and his two children need your prayers very much.

Just last week, I have sent a mail about the persecution of Stephen whose heart was broken after the bad attack made by the local mob. Even before get recovered from such a bad attack, the sudden demise of his beloved wife caused him more grief.

On the May 10th, 2008 Stephen and his wife Gracy were returning back to home by Motore-cycle after visiting his parents-in-law. It was about 7.00PM while riding the bike, there was a heavy rain. As there is no place to find shelter for rain, he kept on riding the bike. All of a sudden, his bike run over a stone hidden in water on the High Way and both of them were fallen down. Gracy had a bad head injury and immediatly became unconsious. Stpehen is sustained with minor injuries. For more than a half an hour, they were lying on the road in the rain without any one else help. Finally, a stranger took them to his house and called Abulance to send them to Salem.

When Stephen gained consious, he informed us all about the accident and then they were taken to Salem Medical College Hospital. Till Sunday evening Gracy was on a ventilator. As the result of the CT Scan was worse, the Doctors advised us to take her back to home instead of spending huge amount for the ventilator and medicines because of the deterioration of her health. After discharged from the expensive Hospital, there was a little breathing found in her. And so once again she was brought back to Hospital in the same ambulance and the treatment was resumed by the Doctors with no hope. But within an hour, she breathed her last.

Then the body was kept in the Church building for the people to pay last homage. All our preachers and Church members were were present for the funeral.

This had been a good opportunity to preach the gospel to the Hindus even on this sad occasion. The funeral service was started at 2.00PM and the body was buried at 3.00PM.

We all kept on singing and preaching the Word to the non-christians till the burial time.

At the time of burial, there was another problem we faced by the local villagers. In the Regadhalli village this is the first Christian burial ever had before. The problem was, our church does not possess any burial ground for the Christians. So, the Hindus did not allow us to bury the body in thier burial place. After a long argument, a small place was allocated for the burial with a condition to not use their burial ground any more in future. finally we agreed to purchase a piece of burial ground for the church for the future use.

Things happened to Bro.Stephen is very very sad. It is very hard to understand why these things happened to His child. But the only answer to the question is simply trusting in the Sovereignity of God.

With kind regards,

Your fellow-Servant in the Lord,

A. Gunasekaran