Jossy Chacko

Students' notebooks from the whole year study and precious graduation gift packs were all burnt by the anti-Christian mob as the students were beaten and forced to watch the destruction. All this happened just days before their graduation.

Thank you to the thousands of partners who have been praying for our brothers from the Training centre in Chattisgarh. It is with joy that I can tell you the three imprisoned brothers have finally been released on bail! (Read the background story here.)

After enduring harsh beatings – and hospitalisation for some – these three brothers spent 10 long days in jail under false accusations. Our first application for bail was refused and finally, after two days in a higher court, the brothers have been given bail.

This is not the end of their ordeal as on ongoing case will now ensue. Under guidance of a Christian lawyer a case has been lodge to counter the allegations against our students. Although the initial case has failed, further legal action will be required to seek justice and clear the students. In the meantime the brothers’ bail conditions require them to report to court once a month.

Please continue to pray:

• for healing for the students – physically and emotionally
• for ongoing protection and safety of  the students and property
• for our leaders who are still in hiding for their own safety (amidst reports that this anti-Christian group is still looking for them)

I am currently in India with our brothers. They asked me to pass this message on: “Thank you for your earnest prayers and concern. Surely we needed your prayers and moral support. Once again our God has proved that He is a living God and even though the entire world may stand against us HE never fails us. And those who hope in Him will never be ashamed.”

Your partnership is invaluable to me and to each of these precious brothers. Their determination to continue to serve God and unreached people is inspiring. Please continue to pray – in eternity you will be so glad you did!

Brothers and sisters, I’ve spent the last few days in Singapore, meeting with business leaders and motivating them to lead a life of significance… it’s impressive, probably one of the most organised and cleanest cities in the world. 

Then the contrast – today I’ve woken in Lucknow, North India, it’s noisy, polluted, and it’s SO hot. There’s no air conditioning, but my hotel is still better than 90% of the homes in India.  I pick up the newspaper and its headline grabs me at the throat – “Not Enough Food… So Children Learn To Eat Mud.”

 The mud is laced with silica, it fills their distended bellies so for a brief moment, they imagine they are full. I think of my own four children, especially Joshua and Jasmine, aged 3 and 5. As a parent, how would it feel to watch your children eat mud because they are starving? You are helpless because you cannot feed yourself.

 Yet this is what is happening in one of the fastest growing economies in the world, a country with more millionaires than the entire population of Australia.  The song, “What a Wonderful World’, enters my mind but it’s an irony. How can we live in a world of such contrasts, a world with riches and excess and success, while one billion of our children live, and die in poverty? That’s one out of every two.  Asia, alongside Africa, accounts for the majority of underweight or stunted children. 

This is a huge problem. But not too huge that we cannot offer solutions.  There’s more than enough money in the world to solve all of the problems of poverty and health. But is there enough political and moral will?  Are there enough people willing to share their wealth? It made me think, if I had a billion dollars, what would I do?  Where would I spend it first? Who was most needy? It still wouldn’t be enough… the problems are insurmountable.  It’s all too hard…

But then I realised I was doing what we all do – getting stuck on the big problem, on the macro. We think about the big problem and become trapped… so we reach the conclusion that we can do nothing. The solutions required for such a huge problem are exactly that, HUGE.

Instead, we should be asking, what do I have, and what can I do?

 Today, through Empart’s initiatives, more than 3,500 children are cared for, given education, food and hope. And that’s because there are so many individuals who haven’t been overawed by the bigger problem. Instead they care to give and share what they have, rather than being paralysed by what they don’t have.

 So here’s what I can do – I can ask you for help – for the children who have to eat dirt. Go on, do a stock take of what you have? Take a chance – decided to use your skills, your gifts, your passion to change the world.  Could you tell me now, via this blog, commit in writing, what you’re willing to risk?  With this image of a little girl eating a handful of mud in your mind, what will you do?

Log onto www.empart.org and learn how your skills and your passion can help immediately.  In eternity you’ll be so glad you did.

People, I really need you to pray. My friends, our Bibles have been burned, our lessons destroyed, our training centre in Chattisgarh in India has been targeted.
It was the phone call I never wanted to receive, at 1.30 in the morning, the sort of call when you’re still asleep and you hear the phone ringing, you feel immediate fear. And the voice of my old friend sobbing, “They attacked us… Prebhu is seriously injured… the police have arrested three students. What should we do?”

I’m in Melbourne, thousands of kilometres away. What could I do? At first I felt helpless. But I placed my trust in God – Hindu militants may have taken a torch to our training centre in Chattisgarh, but they haven’t extinguished the flame for the Lord in our hearts.

I didn’t have to see the carnage to feel the pain. Our students were attacked and beaten, the angry mob threw all of our materials on a massive pile and set them alight, our students forced to watch. Their own possessions, their uniforms, their study books – all gathered together and burnt.

And then the militants discovered our store room. Every Bible, every tract, every text was added to the flames, and our students, bleeding, wounded, made to sit in silence and watch, or receive further beatings. Our leaders were harassed for the personal details of other believers, and when they refused to give them up, the assaults resumed.

When the victims were admitted to hospital, they were turned away – the hospital feared being attacked as well. The wounded were forced to travel on public transport to hospitals in nearby towns. My heart is heavy for these men, and their families, who have given everything for their love of the Lord. I’m receiving regular updates, and I’ll keep you in the loop but Prebu, the local Empart leader remains in intensive care. The three students accused of defacing the Indian flag remain in custody.

I need you to pray. Please pray for our brothers and sisters who are risking their lives to share the gospel. Pray for a strength of faith among our students who are so close to graduation, so close to stepping out in faith and starting their own ministries. Pray that somehow, we’ll replace those Bibles for with these, we can continue to share the Gospel with millions of people throughout Asia. Log onto empart.org for full details.

In India, more than 750 million people live in enforced slavery, by dint of their caste. They are known as ‘the untouchables’ – and 70% of Indians fall into these castes. Eighty percent of them are illiterate, they earn approximately 50 cents a day.

They live with no hope, and resigned to their fate of eking out a living performing menial tasks for the higher castes.  By law, caste discrimination is illegal but it rules every aspect of society. Millions of our brothers and sisters are trapped, and cannot find a way out. Watch my video – it will change how you think.

Empart worker, Kusulia has been faithfully serving the Lord in his tribal village in Orissa, not only sharing the gospel but helping the community with health education and teaching children to read and write.

The people he is reaching live in incredible poverty – only less than 10% of the people are literate. On 29th January Kusulia was traveling by bus to attend our local monthly meeting. But as he got off the bus, he was confronted by the police. “Are you Kusulia?” they asked. As soon as he responded “Yes”, they arrested him and threw him in a police vehicle.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked again and again, explaining he was a Christian worker and showing them his Bible. “We know you are a terrorist… keep quiet,” an officer commanded. 
In recent times, anti-Christian groups have made false accusations against Christians by using new government terrorist laws to persecute them. Once a person is accused of being a terrorist, they have few legal privileges and are treated very badly. Most lawyers are unwilling to help a “terrorist”. The emotional suffering it causes to the accused is long-lasting.



When Kusulia failed to attend the monthly workers’ meeting, Empart leaders realised that something was terribly wrong. None of the workers would ever miss an opportunity to train and worship together and support each other, unless they were in serious situation. They soon learned that someone had filed a false report with the police, claiming that Kusulia was a member of a terrorist group called Naxalite (an Indian Maoist group). They marched into the police station and made every effort to prove that Kusulia was not a terrorist, but the police are refusing to accept their evidence.

Kusulia is still in custody. Emaprt leaders don’t know what they should do next.  Please pray for:
-

Kusulia that he will be filled with the peace of God during this difficult time, that he will be physically and emotionally protected.


The little tribal church members, and for Kusulia’s family that they will know God’s presence and comfort


The police that they will treat Kusulia with respect and dignity and not harm him.


Kusulia to be freed and not harmed
.

Empart leaders to know what they should do and also for other Empart workers, that they will be protected from such false allegations and persecution and that they will be bold and strong in their faith.



Would you please forward this to all your friends and ask them to pray? Please read Acts 4 while you pray for this.
 Also, Empart needs to create a fund to fight these allegations. Last year we had to help fight seven such accusations against our workers. While our brothers and sisters are innocent, the legal cost of trying to prove their innocence is high. I ask that you make a one time gift of $20 or $50 towards helping these precious brothers and sisters in their darkest hour. Please visit www.empart.org and www.empartusa.org (in USA) and make a donation to show your support, or call an Empart office near to you. (Visit www.empart.org/contacts for the phone number and visit our websites for updates of stories like this.) 



Thank you for your love for the Lord and care for your brothers and sisters – whatever you did for the least of these my brothers you did it for me…



For the Lord and the persecuted brothers in Asia

Jossy Chacko




Stay connected with Jossy on Facebook, Twitter or visit his blog www.jossychacko.org


There IS hope for Europe. God has not abandoned Europe. I’ve been speaking at a conference in Switzerland this past week, attended by people from France, Belgium and Switzerland. I’ve also attended a youth conference in Germany and I’ve felt in my spirit, again and again, that God IS there, waiting…

Nor has everyone in Europe abandoned God! There is a group of people, small though they may be, who are in passionate love for Jesus. They want to follow Him and to be His disciples, just as much as He wants them to follow.

I used to accept the popular thinking that the church in Europe is dead. But from the passion and enthusiasm I have witnessed over the past two weeks, I’ve had to change my attitude. And here’s why.


1. Jesus is the founder of the Church – He will not allow what He started to die.


2. Jesus IS building the church – in the present tense, it’s is an ongoing project. While Jesus continues building in Europe, it’s as if some of His workers have gone on an extended ‘holiday’, are having a snooze, or just haven’t shown up to work yet. But that doesn’t mean the project is dead! I’ve already sensed that a group of workers is coming: some young, some old, who are passionate to see this project get moving again. Please pray for them.


3. Jesus is the head of the church. He will not and cannot be the head of a dead body. His body is very much alive… it’s just sleeping!


4 – Jesus is coming back for His church. He will have a beautiful bride in Europe, not a dead one! According to Revelation, people from every tribe, tongue and nation will be there and that definitely includes people from Europe. 



Our challenge is to wake up the church. I love Geoff in the Wiggles, one of Australia’s most famous children’s entertainers. He falls asleep at the most unusual times – when the other Wiggles are singing or dancing or acting up a storm. Children in the audience are encouraged to shout, “Wake Up Geoff”, and he wakes up refreshed, renewed, and joins in the fun again. As Christians, that’s now our challenge.

Here are our tasks:
- to pray for the church in Europe to wake up;
- to encourage European Christians that you meet to be on fire for God;
- to challenge European church leaders and believers to wake up and get their first love and priorities back;
- to strategically help the church and believers to become effective in bringing Europe back to God;

- to continue to speak hope and life over Europe rather than death!



So to all European believers and church leaders – WAKE UP. I’m really looking forward to continuing to do my part to wake up the church here.


Pastor Suraj and the believers were getting ready to celebrate Christmas. For most of them this was going to be their first ‘real’ Christmas as they are new believers. But one evening their preparations were interrupted by 30 members of the Hindu militant group, along with several local officials. “Where is the idol? You people do not fear idols, so it must be you who has stolen ‘hanuman murti‘ (an idol of the monkey god) from our temple…we are not going to spare you…” The group made many threats to Suraj and demanded that they return the idol or give them the money to replace their god – otherwise the situation would be serious.

Suraj explained they had nothing to do with the disappearance and pleaded for their understanding. He asked each of the believers and they were equally stunned by the allegation and insisted they would never do such a thing. None of the militant group seemed to believe them and they left with further threats, ‘Stop all your activities! Give back our idol and get out of our village. If not you will be sorry!’

The idol was made of stone and was on display for worshippers inside the local Hindu temple. When it had been reported that the idol was missing a week earlier, the local believers never anticipated that the disappearance would be used against them!

This happened in a large village with more than 6000 people. No one knew about Jesus until Suraj went there in 2007 after graduating from an Empart Training Centre. God has been at work and in this short time 25 families have decided to follow Christ; many of them have seen the miracle-working power of Jesus through healings and deliverance from demon possession.

People from all around the region had been coming to Pastor Suraj for prayer to be free from witchcraft and black magic and God was working among them. Subsequently, Suraj and church have developed respect and good relationships with people in the region. Now it seems that the church’s growth and miracles has attracted unwanted attention from the local Hindu militants.

Suraj sent a message saying, “Situation is getting worse every day; we need to see the Almighty moving for us in this village, we are praying this may be a good opportunity for the people to realize the truth and know that we love them and that God loves them too. Please pray for us and also for them.”

I haven’t yet heard how the situation will be resolved. What do you think? Should the church stand by their innocence plea but offer to replace the idol for the Hindu worshippers? What would you do in your context?

Thank you for caring, praying and supporting these courageous heroes of the faith.
Blessings
For the Lord and the lost
Jossy Chacko

If you ever wondered how those annoying Indian telemarketing phone calls come to you – here is the answer!

India has become the leading computer, software and call centre country in the world with this technology – imagine what we will be able to do when we upgrade!

Thank God it is not so complex to connect with Him. Thanks for your partnership in taking His love the some of the most unreached people, in India.

Blessings
Jossy

After a break I am back!  A good friend David Cheah has been helping me learn about blogs, twitter etc. during this time also changed from PC to Mac!! I have been learning a lot and lot more to go!

I am getting ready to preach 4 services this weekend at Crossway – a great church planting church in Melbourne. Also getting ready to be on the road – Israel, Canada and USA. I hope to stay connected with you through the blog and keep you updated as much as possible with thoughts, events and other things.

You can also follow me on twitter – search for jossychacko

Thanks for your ongoing prayers

Blessings – jc

Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope that you will find this blog useful and challenges the way you think about church planting and missions. 

Please feel free to drop me a comment or email me.

Blessings,

Jossy