Koya Wilderness Outreach

Friday began early as our team of five left Kazipet to travel into the wilderness interior of India. At first the roads were passable, but the more we traveled, the more we were met with rock-strewn "tracks", pitted with pot-holes (some big enough to swallow a cow with just it's head and shoulders showing). Several times we traveled for a few miles at no faster than 5 mph.

This is where the Koya villages are. The Koya are a virtually unreached people group that are beginning to hear about Jesus. Dirt floor houses with thatched roofs, some with only one or two brick walls, a single strand of power line to service the entire village stretched beween twisted, weathered poles. Dust two inches thick covering the roads that dissected the villages. An open-sided, thatched roofed structure that served as the church building. (Pictured. The pastor is a member of the first graduating class of the Bible School. His daughter shown in white is a member of the recently gracuated 10th class.)

Reaching these people and those like them is the heart of Pastor Daniel. That is why Immanuel's Bible Training Center in India exists: to raise up, train and release young men and women to go into places the Gospel has never been heard, and to make disciples of Jesus.

One of our team members was Dr. Joshua from Pastor Daniel's church. He served as the chief physician for medical camps that were inpromptutly set up at each of the three Koya villages where we stopped. (I had partnered with Dr. Joshua last May when we traveled to Jamu-Kashmir to hold medical camps among the poor village people there.) Here he patiently and lovingly saw the people who waited, giving a quick examination, dispensing pills or an injection, and then sending them to me to pray for them.

At two of the villages we conducted meetings where I was able to preach the Gospel to the lost, and encourage the believers. Then I would pray for the people individually, asking God to meet their physical and spiritual needs. Many gathered, many heard the Word of God, and many were touched by His power!

Fourteen hours, many kilometers, three villages, three medical camps, three ministry stations, two messages, and one powerful day!