The Session of CERC sent a delegation to Kolkata, India, from March 19-25. Back in December I wrote about Emmanuel Singh and his wife Sonali. This delegation was sent to them, to see Emmanuel's work in Kolkata and the surrounding villages and determine CERC's future with this work. The delegation was made up of my husband and Elder Leong Fai Chong. Another man from church, Ishu Mahtani, joined them (and provided me with all of the following pictures!).
Kolkata and the surrounding area is 78% Hindu and 20% Muslim. Christians and Buddhists each make up less than 1% of the population there. Emmanuel and Sonali live on the southern edge of Kolkata.
Emmanuel & Sonali's home
Emmanuel holding a copy of the book that brought him to the Reformed faith
View from Emmanuel's house
Another view from his house
Each Sunday a small group of believers gathers on the top level of Emmanuel & Sonali's home for worship.
The way into the church's meeting room
Inside the meeting room--The chairs were added recently
so that the people no longer have to sit on the floor.
The main part of the work on this visit was a two-day conference with the theme "Seminar on Bible Doctrines." The speeches Saturday were on Bible doctrine itself, God's sovereignty, free will vs. God's sovereignty, and God's covenant. On Sunday there was a sermon on John 3:16 and two additional speeches, those two on God's Church and an introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism. There was also one question and answer session scheduled--but they ended up with four! The people are so new to the Reformed faith that they have many, many questions, ranging from the Trinity to God's love to whether we may worship the Virgin Mary. My husband gave the speeches and preached the sermon, and Elder Leong and Emmanuel joined him for the Q&A sessions.
The visitors from Singapore received the traditional
Indian greeting of garlands of flowers.
Abhijit, one of the other emerging leaders of
the group in Kolkata, opening the seminar
Another man from the Kolkata fellowship, Anup, just finished translating
the Heidelberg Catechism into Bengali, and he and Emmanuel are excited
to be able share it with the people there. This is why one of the speeches
was an introduction to the Catechism.
Very few of the people spoke English, but Abhijit did a
great job translating throughout the whole conference.
A break during the conference
Ishu Mahtani (on right) with two of the conference attendees
Mealtime
Sonali (wearing green) with her mother, niece, and sister
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Group photo of conference attendees
About 15 of the people in the group photo above are contacts of Emmanuel from Kolkata. About five others are from Moyna, a farming village about three hours away from Kolkata. Another five are from the village of Pachua Khali, about two hours from Kolkata. More on that town next time. The remaining few are people who had heard about the conference and decided to come, even though they'd had no previous contact with Emmanuel. This was the first time all these people had met each other. They know so few other Christians and were so overjoyed to be with fellow believers that some of the women only slept an hour or two during the two-day conference--they wanted to spend all their time visiting.
Some of us may have wondered when reading Acts 20 how the Christians in Troas could listen to Paul preaching until midnight. Surely they would have been tired hours before! My husband says that after seeing the people in India, he understands. The saints are so thirsty for knowledge and so eager to receive the Word of God and the Reformed faith, that they can sit for hours listening to the Word and asking questions about it. Please pray for these new Christians, that they may continue to grow in their faith and knowledge of God; and pray for Emmanuel, Abhijit, and Anup as they bring the gospel to these people.
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