Elijah Challenge (TEC) Evangelistic Healing & Feeding Event
Kahve, Amritsar District, Punjab, India | August 25-26, 2008
1,550 people accept Jesus Christ - Report of food multiplied to feed the people
A model for planting village churches in India: Evangelistic Feeding Events | Other events in India
Regional Elijah Challenge Affiliates
The village of Kahve (District of Amritsar) is in the state of Punjab
Pastor Simon Haqq & Elijah Challenge Director Joshua Gowda: "the harvest is plentiful"
Director Joshua Gowda of The Elijah Challenge Training Center India wrote:
"On August 15, 2008 I received a call from our TEC Coordinator Pastor Bahrkal Masih from Kahve, Amritsar District, State of Punjab, just nine kilometers from the city of Lahore in Pakistan. He said that after he attended the Advanced Elijah Challenge Training in Delhi last July, he went back to his village and visited 36 villages. He found six pastors among these villages and gave them TEC Training. Then he encouraged each one to bring two to three hundred Hindus to our Evangelistic feeding Event and he invited us to minister to them. We fixed the dates for the 25th and 26th of August for the Feeding Event at Kahve village. They expected more and more people. Brother Simon and I arrived on the evening of the 24th and conducted a time of prayer. During the daytime I trained fifty mature believers from the congregations of these six pastors. On the first day close to seven hundred and thirty people came. That day we just healed the sick and shared the Gospel. Hundreds of miracles took place.After the meeting the villagers went back to their villages and told about the miracles that took place in Jesus’ name. The next day we expected more people to come for our Evangelistic Feeding Event. We ran out of money, but the local pastors and believers also joined their hands with us to feed the people. An unexpected crowd of close to 1,600 non-believers from 36 villages came by tractors, mini-buses, and other smaller forms of transportation. All the believers and pastors prayed over the food so that we would have enough for everyone to eat and no one would go home hungry. The Lord blessed the food! We remembered the Lord Jesus had fed 5,000 people. We trusted God for the miracle and it happened. Praise the Lord! Our hearts are rejoicing. Close to 1,550 people gave their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. Until late at night we were feeding and healing the sick.
Please pray for the Elijah Challenge–trained pastors and believers. There is a big responsibility and challenge before them to be able to take care of these newborn believers in the Lord. We need to send more fulltime workers there. Please pray that the Lord may provide the funds to help our fulltime pastors. To support one pastor and his family we need $75 a month. We are trusting God for donors for ten such fulltime workers."
The Village
Above & below: the village of Kahve
Above: Women making "roti" (bread)
The Training of the believers
Fifty believers from six congregations in Punjab villages are trained with The Elijah Challenge. The teaching had to be translated into the Punjabi dialect from Hindi.
TEC Director Joshua Gowda teaches believers how to heal the sick as commanded by Jesus in Luke 10:9
The open-air evangelistic service: the first evening
Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ
Above & below: Hindus put their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior
The healing of the sick"Heal the sick and tell them, 'the kingdom of God is near you.'" (Luke 10:9)
Above & below: TEC-trained believers heal the sick in Jesus' name to confirm the gospel. Many are healed and testifiy from the stage. (See below.)
The testimonies of miraculous healing
...among the hundreds of miracles that took place
Manjite had suffered from continuous stomach pain for ten days. She took a lot of medication but nothing happened. When one of the TEC-trained believers ministered to her, she was touched by the power of the Lord. Here she is testifying from the stage.
Sangeeta suffered from migraine for two years. Almost the entire village knew because they could hear her screaming when the pain was severe. She was totally healed and she testified. She gave her life to Christ.
Above & below: more testimonies from the stage
According to Pastor Joshua, hundreds of miracles took place through Jesus' name
The open-air evangelistic service: the second evening
News about the miracles on the first evening spread in the villages, and many more came for the service on the second evening. They came by literal "tractor-trailer" (above & below)...
...and by bicycle rickshaw, and...
by auto rickshaw (above & below)...
...as well as by motorcycle, minibus, and various other forms of transportation.
The crowd & the gospel
A big crowd gathers from the villages to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ
Above & below: Hindus give their lives to Jesus Christ
On the second evening local Punjabi politicians came. We gave them Bibles and prayed over each one.
The Feeding Event
As Jesus fed the 5,000...
Pastor Simon Haqq, TEC Coordinator Pastor Bhalkar Masih, Pastor Joshua Gowda: reaping a bountiful harvest for the kingdom of God
Luke 10:9 "Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.’"
