Girls, say "No" to Dowry

Hi friends,

I always tell my team especially young girls to pray for their wedding and to strictly say no to Dowry. Many girls suspected the thought at first and many parents mocked at me. Wedding without a Dowry, come on.It's not easy, they said so many times.

Dowry is an evil, illegal practice since centuries killing hundreds of women every day and ruining thousands of families. It is a gift demanded by the groom and his family from bride's family to marry a girl. The more the dowry, the more is the man's worth!!! (silly) It will normally be money, gold, gifts to groom's sisters and his family and house hold items. Only if the girls parents agrees to all the demands of the groom's side, the marriage will be fixed.

It is still strong in this modern age and literates, illiterates, villagers or metros, love or arranged marriage, nothing is an exception. That's why when a boy baby was born, parents will be happy 'coz he will bring Dowry during his marriage and Girls parents will be sad / upset at the time of her birth as they have to pay her a large amount of money. It's a torture. During our marriage, neither Vijay nor my in-laws asked us any Dowry. Our's is an exceptional, glorious wedding. So i always encourage girls to pray about it.

We had three marriages in our team this year, and all are without Dowry. The boys are ready but we've counselled both the parents and they agreed!!! This month was another Big miracle. we have a sister in our team who was married in her teenage to a very elderly person by her Hindu parents. He divorced her within few months after so much of torture and abuse. After an year of that incident, she was introduced to us, accepted Jesus as her personal Savior, started growing strong in the Lord.

A divorced young woman (also a widow) will never dream about re- marriage. No way. Very, very exceptional and rare. We've convinced her to pray for her wedding, first she rejected then accepted the thought. A very long story. To make it short, recently we saw a match for her. He was an Engineering Post graduate working for a very big company, earning high pay, a very good Christian. But his parents were for dowry, will never allow their son to marry a divorced woman. But we all fasted and prayed for her. God did wonders and miracles began to happen. When we talked, the groom's parents said, we don't want Dowry, no need for gifts, no need for gold, just take care of the wedding that's enough!!! And her elder brother came forward to sponsor the wedding and it was a big celebration on 24th Month!!!! Can't tell you what a big miracle it is!! God will work, God will do Miracles, God will uproot all the strong evil practices, he will give us family and husband who will say No to Dowry. Yes, He did. So thankful to the Lord for hearing our prayers, changing our situations and always ready to help. Thanks for all your faithful prayers.

Love you, always
Neeraja

Meat, Medicine and Message - beggar friends

Dear Friends,
On 3rd December, we had Feeding the Poor for our beggar friends. Menu- Vegetable rice, chicken curry (for the first time), sweet and water. They are so happy to see us again. Previously, we used to give them food once in a month. But now, we are providing food 3 to 4 times every month. Thank you Impact and all the friends that are supporting us so faithfully.

This time, we did Mobile Medical Clinic for the first time to our beggar friends from 2 p.m to 6:30p.m. We had Plenty of Medicine, one Doctor and 2 nursing staff to assist us apart from our team.The Clinic went on like this, First we asked them to line up, then to the Doctor, then Medicine, after wards it is the food and then message was preached and prayed for every individual. Some places, it is preaching first, then medicine and Message.

They are so surprised to see a Doctor coming and standing in front of them. They could not believe that Medicine was for free. Almost all of them are sick with fever, T.B, diarrhea, vomiting, arthritis, Vitamin deficiency, Mal-nutrition and so on and on. We are surprised to see lots of infants for the first time, babies from 2 weeks to 1 year, we've come across more than 50. They brought them to us may be because of the Doctor. They never heard of vaccination.
We gave enough Medicine to all.

Totally we treated 126 patients and gave food to all. Still so many are waiting and standing, but we have to leave because it became dark and it is not safe to stay after wards.

What a joy it is always to help our friends. Many are saying that they are praying regularly.

We are doing whatever we can with what ever we have. Thank you friends once again for being with us and supporting us.

Pastor's sons, This is their story

Dear Friends,

Love you and waiting to see you all.

Last Friday, we've been to a village 55 kms from our city, a very small interior village. Their small house and Church is located in the out skirts of the Village beside a small canal. The Pastor had 6 sons, 4 of them passed away with mal-nutirtion, unknown sickness and unavailability of medical services. There is no Hospital in that whole region and only a few years ago a small Government Hospital was started which is 14 kms from their village.
We had a great evening preaching, sharing testimonies and a powerful prayer time. God healed many, few are filled with Holy Spirit and started speaking in unknown tongues. The Pastors 2 sons are also Pastors working in the nearby Villages. They are very good friends of us.

His eldest son was married and i know that his wife was pregnant. So while talking to her, i enquired about her health. She looked at me and started crying. I held her arms and after some time she said that she lost her boy baby. When she had labor pains, they started taking her to the Hospital which is 14 kms away, she delivered baby on the way, but before they could reach the Hospital, the baby passed away in her arms!!!! She also faced lots of health problems after that. They did tell about her pregnancy but not about the baby's death. I prayed for her, comforted her but deeply moved hearing their story, Pastor lost his 4 sons and his son again lost his baby son just because of hospitals, the distance is so fatal.

We are having cyclone here and the Pastor called us up on Sunday, saying that because of cyclone, the nearby dam gates were lifted up and the water flooded into the village in the mid night, but because their Church and house were on the bank of that canal, they were completely drowned!!! They ran for their lives but lost all their house hold items.

Sickness, death, sudden tragedies have become so common for them. But they never complained, i never heard. They say nothing can stop them from serving God. Please do pray for this Pastor and his family.

Lots of love,
Neeraja Chris.

COUPLES NITE PRAYER

Dear friends,

We will have Couples nite for young couples in our team, once in every month at our home, mostly on Saturday's from 9 p.m to 5a.m.

We want our team and co-leaders as doers of God's word not as listeners.We face lots of cultural issues during and after marriages which are so contradictory to God's word.
For example, demanding Dowry (money), gifts, gold and other things from the bride's family before marriage, After marriage, the couple must stay with the groom's parents and the bride must live under the in-laws than with the husband, Sexual dominance by the males, Lack of privacy, no good communication, fear of society, stress in the family,
Lack of good teaching in our Churches are all adding for splitting up of our Christian couples.

God clearly guided us in this direction, started 2 and a half year ago. Approximately 10 to 13 couple attend every time with their children. It will normally start at 9 p.m and we will have fellowship till 9:30, till all will come. It's different every month. Songs, worship, discussions, sharing time, debate, God's word, confession of the sins, personal time of prayer for the couples, and so on. At the end, i.e at 2 a.m we will show them a nice movie (of course, good movies like, One night with the King(Esther), Night at the Museum, End of the spear, etc. We will give them good snacks, tea and drinks during the time.

Few High lights:

1. Once when we taught them about Sex, they were so surprised, they all confessed they never really enjoyed sex till then, always it's husband's choice. Husband's confessed they never really thought about their wives pleasure. Wow, our couples grew strong after that.

2. We taught them about Dowry system, and asked how many husbands here have taken dowry from their in-laws, again all of them lifted up their hands. They are mostly Hindu converts.We explained what Bible is telling about gifting, Jesus gave Himself for His bride and on and on. We challenged them that if they wanted to repay the money back even now, they are again surprised. They called up their in-laws and said they are sorry and wanted to give their money back, they are shocked. To our surprise almost all returned the Dowry back to their in-laws.

3. Almost all our guys are from Hindu Back ground, so we had a Christian wedding to one couple who are married for 9years. I heard them saying many times that they wish they had a Christian wedding. So we've surprised them with real decoration, garlands and wedding ceremony one night. My wife gave her the wedding saree and i gave him my wedding suit. After the wedding they were in tears.

Impacting our people for a "Life Style" and "Renewed walk' with God in all the areas of their lives.

Love and prayers,
Vijay Chris.

10th ANNIVERSARY

Hi friends,

Loads of love from our family and ministry. Today happens to be our Friends' Meet Ministries' 10th Anniversary.

It was started in the year 2000, December 1st with a handful of guys, by a strong, faithful visionary, My husband Vijay Chris. He was already in ministry for 5 years (he dedicated his life and came to full time ministry when he was 17 years old), after helping many Churches as Sunday School teacher, worship leader, youth Pastor, he found no one really encouraged him. He does not have a big banner, not from a big Church, nor from a high family. He was rejected every time and put aside. He used to go to nearby mountains to pray for days together on fasting. (his parents and friends told me). So after much struggle and prayers,God birthed in him a Vision for youth and perishing souls, for the youth leaders who are being neglected like him.

So Friends Meet Ministries was started in 2000, December 1st. Office was started in 2002, February 1st. Now we have 6 full time, faithful, committed staff with us.

Vision: Raising and Sending
Goal: Reaching the Unreached

In the beginning were just a handful of guys but now hundreds of youth were blessed and released out, they were encouraged in their own calling. Many Pastors, Missionaries, evangelists,Prophets second line leaders, worship leaders, musicians, Managers, engineers, Doctors, nurses, teachers and others were raised up and send out with The Great Commission. We have Departments from the beginning for each wing like evangelism, women, children, finances etc. Now many were added like Secular Concerts, medical camps, Feeding the Poor, Bible School and so on.
God is so faithful to us and He never, never let us down all these years. Tears roll down as I'm writing this you. I'm so blessed. I thank God every day for my Husband.

Thank you friends for everything and please continue to pray for us.

Love,
Neeraja Chris.

TRIBAL MINISTRY

Hi friends,
My heart always leaps with great joy and gratitude whenever i come forward to share my story on Impact.
I thank each one of you personally for your prayers, help and concern.

On 10th, a team of 8 members went to tribal ministry to a place called Madugula. From there, along with the local Church (16 members), we've
started off into interior tribal villages by walk. We went up and down
the mountains, on narrow rocky paths, beside small streams of waters
to reach those villages. In each village, there are about 15 to 50
families. The distance from village to village is about 2 to 3 kilometers.

We walked so fast, reached 7 small tribal villages in a single day. Preached Jesus
in every street and to every door, prayed for the sick and had children
clubs in 3 villages.
These tribal people worship nature, spirits of their fore fathers and almost every male in the family practice witch craft and sorcery.We could literally feel the power of darkness so thickly. When we look
into their eyes, we can see the depth of their sorrow, their souls
lamenting in pain for freedom and the power of their resistance to
God.


Many strictly said "no" to the Gospel, some men are angry, yelled at us and cursed us, but few responded with great enthusiasm and joy.
These women who normally will shun themselves from speaking to strangers
(especially to men), happily received Jesus into their lives and prayed
with us the prayer of Salvation. Wow!! We walked whole day happily,
enjoying the beautiful green mountains, rice fields, small water falls
and above all, with the joy of proclaiming the Gospel to our people who
lives on these mountains. Great was our joy to see people coming
forward to accept Jesus their Lord and Savior, people being healed and
delivered from the power of darkness.

Great is the need in our country, great is the cry of our people for
freedom and much greater is the urgency of the hour. Praying God to
send more and more men and women to reap the harvest and especially for YOU to join with us.

BEGGARS FEAST

Dear Friends,

On 25th November, we had Beggars Feast. Normally we give our beggar friends good amount of nutritious food, an egg and either water or butter milk packet. But this time, it was a celebration. One of our friends came forward and sponsored this time. They said, they wanted to give our friends a Big Feast. We gave them vegetable biryani, egg curry, sweet (laddu) with dry fruits, a banana and water.
When we stopped in our regular placed to give them the food, they came running towards. The people on the road came to see us as we are giving them BIG menu, the cars, bikes and by passers were surprised to see all this. Thought a marriage was going on. We heard them saying, "we never saw anyone treating the beggars so well"!!! Even our beggar friends were so happy to see the extra treat that was in their hands.

We shared Gospel to our beggar friends as well as to the crowds who stopped to see the Feast.
A big opportunity to preach the Gospel to many standing on the High way. A big smiles and greater impact in our friends.

But it is always heart breaking to see their sickness, their naked children, them being tortured by the weather and the society, many are physically and mentally challenged, it's always hard to leave them. We pray for them every single day. Thank you Friends for your love, concern and support, please keep praying for our beggar friends.