Report from BHW India Partnership Facilitator 

In January 2018 Bright Hope World ran a summit in Bangalore for all our Indian and Nepalese partners. This was an amazing time which almost every one of our partners attended. In total we had about 40 people from India and Nepal and another nine from New Zealand, England and the USA. 

We prayed this would be a time where our partners met one another (many for the first time), learned from each other, were encouraged in the Lord, and went home inspired to keep serving the Lord in their communities. The Lord answered our prayer. 

It was so encouraging, and inspiring, to listen to every partner share their ministry’s story. From those who have been serving in ministry for 30+ years, to those who have just started in the past 18 months, every story impacted this gathering of believers. 

Running the conference in Bangalore meant I couldn’t visit each of the partners in their own environment and so I am only able to provide a brief update from each of the partnerships. 

DEAR Ministry

Jesudoss and Paulrani joined us for the summit in Bangalore. Their story of God’s faithfulness amongst an ostracised community is inspirational. 

Following the summit, while we were still in Bangalore, we also spent a night with Jesudoss and Paulrani discussing the tailoring programme that Bright Hope World had started with them (IND16a). It became quickly apparent that this model is not working in its current form. Jesudoss and Paulrani are not naturally business people, and they are constantly busy with the ministry they are called to. The demand for the goods they are making is not strong and this is putting pressure on the profitability of the venture. We also saw that one of the key reasons for the tailoring is to provide the participants with an activity to do during the day so they would come to the shelter and connect with Jesudoss and Paulrani. There may be other ways that this can be achieved with greater success and less financial strain.

We have now begun a discussion with them about how we can partner with them going forward. It may be that in the interim period we need to simply provide funding to DEAR for the ministry work they are doing. We will work this through with them over the coming months. 

Personal Stories

They shared many stories but one story that stood out was of a man named Steven. He arrived at DEAR extremely ill. No one thought he would survive long. But Jesudoss and Paulrani did whatever it took to care for him. 

His life up to this point of sickness had been one of struggle, isolation and running from God. He grew up in a Christian family but he struggled with attraction to the opposite sex. He couldn’t find answers anywhere and was ultimately forced to marry a woman (about 17 years ago). Shortly after the wedding, his wife became pregnant and then he ran away never to return. For the past 17 years he has been estranged from his wife and son and living as a transgender. 

However, once he met Jesudoss and Paulrani, life began to change. Miraculously his health improved. He truly met Jesus and has now begun to meet with his wife and son again after 17 years (see photo). He now has a job. We met him at the DEAR shelter one evening after the conference. We asked him what it was like to be a part of DEAR. He said the Jesudoss was like his mother and he was so thankful. While he is still sick and his life expectancy is short – God has truly worked a miracle in his life. These are the people Jesudoss and Paulrani have been called to serve. These are the people they are reaching. 

Prayer points

1) Please specifically pray for wisdom as we work with DEAR to understand how we can partner best together. 

2) Pray for Jesudoss and Paulrani that they may have strength and wisdom for each day, and that others would join with their ministry.