Jan 23, 2020
Andy Samuels
Chief Executive Director
SDB Missionary Society
Our world has become so much smaller because of the advent of the Internet. On the Internet, a brother in Bangladesh reached out to an SDB Pastor’s wife in Cumberland, Maryland. Her name is Karen Higson. Over the next almost two years, that connection blossomed and was nurtured, so that our brother in Bangladesh, Emerson Baroi, began to boldly embrace the core tenets of Seventh Day Baptist belief and doctrine. Over the period, and all through the Internet, Emerson connected with other Seventh Day Baptists, not just in the United States, but also in the Philippines and elsewhere.
In December 2019, Pastor Wayne North and I had the privilege of traveling to Bangladesh to see and share in the ministry of Emerson and his family, including his son Jim. What we found was tremendous openness among Hindus who were being exposed to the Gospel. Emerson, working with relatives of his, who are affiliated with a couple of other evangelical churches, is reaching out to Hindu communities with the Gospel, and with the conviction to plant Seventh Day Baptist Churches in Bangladesh. Once or twice a day for several days, Pastor Wayne and I had opportunities to preach the Gospel to spiritually hungry people, watch them open their hearts to Jesus Christ, receive His healing for their souls and bodies, and manifest radiant expressions of the joy of the Lord on their faces.
So, the groundwork has been laid, the soil has been prepared, and we anticipate that in short order, the first Seventh Day Baptist Church in Bangladesh will be a reality.
For Pastor Wayne and me, our next stop was Manipur, India. Here, Pastor Pau Haang Tombing leads an SDB congregation of Zomi people, who are of Burmese descent, having crossed the border from Myanmar (formerly Burma) into the northeastern Indian state of Manipur. The congregation was warm and welcoming, and we had opportunities to share the Word with them and encourage them in the faith.
To be visited by us was sheer delight for them. And they loved on us with their food and did their best to cater to our physical needs. But most of all, even with the language barrier between us, the bond we have in and through Jesus was evident and strong. We embraced each other as family. We understood each other through smiles, through laughter, and through music.
We then moved on to the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. There are eight SDB Churches in this state, led by their Conference President, Pastor Paul Chukka. This Conference is a member of the World Federation, and through Pastor Paul’s orchestration, Pastor Wayne and I were able to visit six of the churches, sometimes preaching three times in one day. In almost every church we visited, we were showered with garlands and salvas, part of the traditional Indian welcome of special guests, where flowers are thrown at the robed honorees.
In the middle of the day, people gathered to hear the Word of God, leaving their chores undone and bringing their children along. The Word was like an oasis to them. They clung to the hope we proclaimed through Jesus Christ, embraced His grace freely given, and learned of the empowerment He offers to each of them, regardless of their present circumstances. Again we saw hearts opening to Jesus Christ, bodies healed, and faces lighting up at the power of the Gospel. It was clear that the one and only true God, was filling the vacuum in the souls of His seeking people.
Some of the church buildings, modest as they were, could be improved upon, thus providing better facilities for the congregation. As always, there are overwhelming needs in the places we visited, but we also know that our omni-resourceful God is able to provide and meet those needs.
Pastor Wayne and I were truly blessed to experience God’s demonstration of power, love, and grace in unmistakable ways among people who desperately need Him. We appreciate the prayers of all those who so interceded for us.
