Working with the poorest of the poor / Ps  Paul Silvanus

In the little town of Puzhal in the Chennai district Prabhu lived with his family. His father was a stone mason but he was also an alcoholic and they lived in dire poverty. Prabhu’s father Sekar worked very hard but to ease the tiredness and aches in his body from the physical hard work he drank and eventually found every excuse to drink. Desperate for her family, Prabhu’s mother went out to work as a daily paid labourer, carrying sand and cement bags at a construction site. Eventually Prabhu as the eldest son stopped schooling and started working to help support his family.  While these obstacles shaped Prabhu’s life and circumstances, they taught him that, “poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.” This was the simple and brutal realities of his life, and the lives of all the Indians around him.

The abuse of alcohol finally took its toll on Sekar’s body and he fell very ill. Having no money he could only afford the illicit alcohol sold illegally and this burnt his intestines and he was in constant pain, unable to eat. The whole family suffered and it was a dark time for them. One day a Christian family friend came to visit them and he brought with him Ps John Jaya Singh who shared the Gospel with the family and came daily to pray for Prabhu’s father. After a few weeks, Prabhu and his family began to notice that his father was looking better and he was not in constant pain. As the days passed, he began to get stronger and could eat. After a few months Sekar was completely healed and he never went back to drinking alcohol again. There was great rejoicing and the whole family of 5 accepted Jesus and received water baptism.  

One day while praying with the family Ps John turned to Prabhu and told him that Prabhu had a calling on his life to serve God and after praying earnestly he resigned from his job as a mason and he joined a mission training centre. After he graduated he served in the Kanchipuran District and the Lord blessed him with a wife, Jeba Priyam who shared his passion and love for serving the Lord. After serving a year there, he and his wife moved to the Teynampet city slum and started their ministry there. By God’s grace he planted churches in the Teynampet Slum and in the villages of Velcherry and Semmancheri.

 Ps Prabhu and his wife worked in the Slum  Daycare Centres, reaching out to the Dalit children and their families. After school the children come to the centres where they receive help with their school work. The children go to the welfare schools where the standards are far below the normal government schools and the teachers are quiet indifferent to the students because they are Dalit(The outcaste or lowest caste in India’s caste system). There Jeba cooks them a meal, for many their only meal for the day and they are also taught moral and hygiene issues. The parents in the slums are happy to send their children as this keeps them of the streets and from roaming around picking up bad habits and mixing with bad company getting involved in drugs, prostitution and alcohol, a real threat in the slums.

The slums are not an easy place to work. People there live in extreme poverty and are suspicious of everyone believing that no one really cares about them. Life there is a daily fight for survival. They live in some of the most dilapidated conditions in the world, unfit for human habitation by reasons of dilapidation, overcrowding, lack of ventilation or sanitation facility and having drinking water facilities in unhygienic conditions. This is where Ps Prabhu and Jeba chose to serve God and His people.

They have faced many challenges but they have remained steadfast in their love and commitment to the Lord. They have shown love to these unfortunate people going out of their way to lend a hand, asking nothing in return for themselves. This has touched the hearts of the people there and many have been saved through the Gospel, even the most hardened hearts.  Below are some of the testomonies of God’s love through the people who have not only felt but seen God working in their lives.

Saravanan, a high school student, started coming to the Sunday school with his friends and as Ps Prabhu shared the Gospel Saravanan’s heart was changed and he gave his heart to Jesus and accepted Christ. His family is Hindu so he has to remain a secret believer but he has not wavered and remains steadfast.

Muniamma’s husband fell ill and she sought the Hindu mediums for help but none could heal him. Desperate she came to Ps Prabhu to pray for him and God healed him. Today this family has accepted Jesus and been baptised. Miss Sandhya came to work at the Day Care centre as a part time teacher. She experienced the love of God as she worked with Ps Pabhu ans Jeba in the centre and she has been saved.

Ezumalai was a hired killer who had been sent to prison for murder. On his release after serving for many years he had come to live in the slums. The many fights he had in prison had taken a toll on his body and he had come out of prison unable to walk. A Christian friend in the slum began to minister to him urging him to come to church and eventually he agreed to go. There God touched him and transformed him. He repented of his sins and accepted Christ and then God healed him and he was able to stand up and walk- He became a new creation in Christ. What laws and punishment could not achieve the power of Jesus alone did. 

God is using Ps Prabhu and his wife powerfully in the slums and so many lives have been touched and transformed because this couple went where God had called them to go. They did not look at the squalor and dirt all around but what they saw were God’s people hungry for Him and in need of saving.

Romans 10:14-15 “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?  And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

Prayer points.

1. Pray for every citizen to be blessed with equal rights and opportunities, not an India which is divided and discriminates on religion, region, caste, class, gender and income.

2. Pray with Christians in India for God’s provision and protection as they preach the gospel in places with anti-conversion laws.

3. Pray for restoration in the relationship of Indian slum dwellers with God, other people and their societies to bring them hope and renewal;