The Call_GEMS Eng Mag_Feb 2019

THE CALL

FEBRUARY 2019

‌have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

2 Peter 1:4 The Call

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February 2019

GEMS School of Nursing Graduation Ceremony

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THE CALL Transforming Peoples to Transform Nations

Contents

From Bihar With Love Bro. D. Augustine Jebakumar

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Gospel Echoing Missionary Society

Annual Staff Fasting Prayer

– 14 New School Among Underprivileged – 16 in Nepal Mentors Club of Uttar & Madhya Pradesh Mission Leaders

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Lead Next: Training Towards Excellence

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GEMS School of Nursing Lamp Lighting & Graduation

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Published for 11, 13th Cross Street, New colony Chromkpet, Chennai - 44 Ph. : 044-22386031, 044-22380295

Published by GEMS Educational Media Services 14, Jeba Nagar, Vasanthapuram south, Near Vijaya Garden, Tirunelveli 627005 Ph. : 9488771655

Field office GEMS, Sikaria, Indrapuri - 821308 Rohtas Dist., Bihar , Ph. : 06184 - 234567 (Railway station & courier centre : Dehri on Sone) Website : www.gemsbihar.org

is a Christian mission organization that serves to bring about wholesome transformation in all the lives that it touches staying true to its motto ‘Transforming peoples to transform nations’. It touches the hearts of the people through the gospel of Jesus Christ and serves as a beacon of love and hope to the deprived, disadvantaged, exploited, destitute and homeless thousands fulfilling this vision through Spiritual, Educational, Medical and Humanitarian Services primarily in Bihar, other Northern States of India and beyond since 1972.

E-mail : gems@gemsbihar.org

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Beloved Prayer Partners in Christ Jesus, Greetings in the name of the LORD who reveals His heart, as He said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do”(Gen 18:17) when He met with Abraham prior to destroying Sodom and Gomorrah.

At the beginning of the New Year, many a preachers quote Amos 3:7 (“Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets”) and start prophesying. Amusingly many such prophecies have their origin in the World Wide Web (the internet)! Reading news with predictions and having the knowledge of what the Lord Jesus said about end times, they put things together and prophesy. Their utterances are a concoction of the word of the Lord and predictions from astrologers and from people of yesteryears like Nostradamus. For those of us who keep updated with day today news, current affairs, and ongoing research, it is easy to identify that these prophecies as fallacies.

From Bihar With Love

Another prominent feature of prophecies of these days is giving ‘promises’ in what is called ‘promise verse for the year’ or promises of great abundance in every area of life. Undoubtedly The Call

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God gives promises to His children and we find them all over the scriptures. For we read, ‘‘seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises’’ (2 Pet 1:3, 4a).

What is the purpose of these ‘precious and magnificent promises’? We read further in 1 Peter 3, ‘‘so that by them(promises) you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust’’ (2 Pet 3:4b). The ultimate purpose of these promises is that believers will partake in the divine nature of God, i.e. increasingly become like Christ Jesus.

Why was God revealing His heart to Abraham? So that ‘‘he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice’’ (Gen 18:19). Likewise the LORD revealed His plans to Amos knowing that he would preach about cleansing. Sadly most of the so called ‘promises’ given these days are soothing to our ears and in line with our desires!

Prophecies, Promises and Revival A W Tozer, the 20th Century Prophet said, ‘‘A prophet is one who knows his times and what God is trying tosay to the people of his times.Today we need prophetic preachers; not preachers of prophecymerely, but preachers with a gift of prophecy. The word of wisdomis missing. We need the gift of discernment again in our pulpits.It is not ability to predict what we need, but the anointed eye, thepower of spiritual The Call

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penetration and interpretation, the ability toappraise the religious scene as viewed from God’s position, andto tell us what is actually going on.’’ The main function of prophecy is to point out the true spiritual state and mind of people.

Also, we hear a great deal about these days being days of revival but what is depicted as revival is no revival at all. I am for revival and one among those who yearn for it to come. But we seem to ignore the fact that revival happens among the people of God when they recognize their true spiritual state and start repenting. No doubt true revival results in evangelization of the nation, becauserevival continues as evangelization.

How does revival begin? A true revival is always preceded by repentance and earnest desire for holiness which results in obedience to God’s word and great concern for the perishing souls. Let me briefly mention the progression towards revival from the story of revival during King Hezekiah.

Commitment to obey: This always begins with the leader before it percolates to the church. The great revival during Hezekiah began with himself committing to obey the Lord (2 Chron 29:2). If we have to see revival in our churches we need leaders who commit themselves to obey the Lord.

Confession of sins: The commitment to obey must be followed by confession of sins. This comes about when we groan about the house of God, the church which is desecrated with filth and evil (2 Chron 29:5, 6).

Cleansing the Church: Cleansing of the temple was accomplished by the very same people who once had desecrated it by being unfaithful and abandoning it (2 The Call

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Chron 29:11). The same has to be done with the church as well.

Consecration of the church: The people then proceeded to remove the filth out of the temple and carry it out and also repaired the broken places and thereby consecrated the temple (2 Chron 29:18).

Sacrifice and worship: The consecration has to be followed by offering of sacrifices and worship in the temple (2 Chron 29:23-26).

Cleansing the nation: Cleansing of the nation begins only after the church is consecrated. In Hezekiah’s revival the cleansing started with the temple and then it proceeded to reach the entire nation (2 Chron 30:9).

In all of these six steps we see two factors undergird the revival: humility (2 Chron 30:15) and prayer (2 Chron 30:18). When prayers follow humility, it results in unceasing worship, good relationships between the leaders and the people and great joy in the nation (2 Chron 30:22-27).

Results of Revival The zeal during Hezekiah’ revival resulted in the bronze serpent of Moses being brought down and broken as it had become an object of worship (2 Kings 18:4). It continued into victories over the Philistines and their leaders. They became conscious that they should not be ruled by any strange or foreign nation (2 Kings 18:7-9).

In a tough situation, Hezekiah not only ran to Prophet Isaiah but also sought the Lord alone (2 kings 19). And the people witnessed with their own eyes the Lord working in their The Call

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nation, and fighting battles on their behalf (Isa 37:36). We can note similar conditions during the times of other revivals during Uzziah, Josian and Jehosophat’s reigns. There are no differences in the way God works.

One more striking feature of this revival was that people gave to the Lord willingly and in abundance after the cleansing and consecration that preceded the revival (2 Chron 31:5).

The leader gave the best of his riches and set an example for people to follow. There are many leaders today who encourage their congregation to give. But it is doubtful if they themselves have given their part. On the contrary they have learnt to live luxuriously of what the people give. In many churches of today, the leaders have raised their standard of living from the offerings given by the poor congregation!

Those who saw their leader sacrificing learnt to give. This brought more blessings on them. The Priest said,“Since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the LORD, we have had enough to eat with plenty left over, for the LORD has blessed His people, and this great quantity is left over” (2 Chron 31:10). Caretakers were appointed o take care and oversee the offerings (2 Chron 31:12,13). Whereas these days, appointed watchmen are the reason for the offerings to disappear.

True end of Revival It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Gihon spring and channeled the water down to the west side of the City of David. He succeeded in everything he undertook (2 The Call

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Chron32:31). What lesson do we learn from this incident?

This was an effort to channel the water to the place where it was most needed. Even today millions in our country do not know the Saviour. Should not ministries channel the living waters to them so that these people may drink of the living waters? Only this can be the true end of revival. True revival will lead those who have tasted the living water to channelize it to those who haven’t. Contended life will make the lives of others content.

When, in the year 1978, I traversed across every village in the district of Rohtas, Bihar by bicycle, and when I found not a single church or place of worship for people, the Lord gave me this song: He is the Lord who will rescue; In the last days, I will pour my Spirit, said He; On all flesh.

With the great noise of great rain; Grace will multiply. for the harvest is great; Today I will shower, said He. Everyone who cares, Will see the VISION. The holy will gather, When they see the rains – the latter rains.

Those who bent on their knees, Will declare that day: The Call

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The name of Jesus Will fill every place of His work.

Every tear shed, On the Indian soul; Will rise for the holy work; The ones who gave themselves.

I pray that this song will grip us. Forty years have gone by and I see the effects of our ministry as droplets here and there. These drops don’t satisfy me, I am longing for a shower.

When ministries and people of God arise like waves, proclaim the gospel, do good works and glorify the Father in heaven, I would call it revival.My heart is yearning, wilting when looking at the current situation. With a broken heart and tear filled eyes I lament not knowing what will happen.

Recently it costed a Pentecostal church in Chennai more than one hundred crores to lay a foundation to a proposed church building. The Pastor announced that it is being built to comfortably seat 12,000 people. The strength of the church is not measured in terms of seating capacity but according to the sending capacity. I respect the workers of that church, but to me, who believes that the strength of the church is in its sending capacity, this is unacceptable. Why should all people worship in a single place? Will it not create a Bable?I would rather that 60 churches were built all around Chennai!

We have given up the values of the New Testament church. If we proclaim that Jesus is coming soon, why indulge in such a costly construction for a perishable church building? Is it for brinkmanship against the main church of The Call

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their denomination?God’s people who know the truth well lack the wisdom and are not bothered about the situation out there in the nation.

Let us pray and weep at the feet of the Lord washing His feet with our tears. Let us work that our nation may know the Lord.

Promises and Prophecies adorn our walls, Why do they not motivate us all?

To Give Jesus, the Word revealed To the world at all?

The revival’s fragrance and its desire, Why are they not lifting us to be sincere?

To tell of Him who walked, On the embers heated seven times more.

The Godly wisdom and the ways experienced, Why are they left unfollowed?

In spite of knowing that, By them godly men and leaders were led?

Time is fleeing and sun is setting, Yet our feet are refusing To be awakened for the cause, Before it becomes dusk.

On bended knees and with humility of heart, The great salvation will be proclaimed Stop not. Victory is ours when we proceed.

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In His Vineyard, D. Augustine Jebakumar February 2019 9

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Workers Fasting Prayer

December 27, 28, 29

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New Year Fellowship 2019

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Fasti

ng

Annual Fasting Prayer of GEMS was conducted in which all the staff participated as families and were encouraged & exhorted through the messages and introspected and prayed together.

Prayer Exhorts and Enables Missionaries to Expect & The Fasting Prayer was conducted in the theme ‘In His Fullness’ in Sikaria, Bihar Experience Fullness in from 27 to 29 Dec 2018 in which all the workers from various fields participated. They Christ worshipped together and listened to the message and prayed together.

In the morning devotion the General Secretary Bro. D. Augustine Jebakumar exhorted the workers to listen to the voice of the Lord. On the last day morning devotion, the Secretary of DCLM school Bro. Jeyasingh David shared and encouraged the missionaries.

Bro. JN Manokaran (Chennai) was invited as the special speaker and he shared messages on the theme of the Fasting Prayer. The messages helped the workers to introspect themselves, to deepen their commitment and were further challenged to serve God and to seek & transform people.

Every day the workers gathered together in smaller groups for Group Discussion and discussed on the messages based on questionnaire. They shared the learnt truths with each other.

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In the common sessions all were led in prayer on various issues by Dr. Ashok (Associate General Secretary), Bro. T. Emerson (Executive Director) and by other leaders.

Pray for all the missionaries and staff of GEMS that they

may continue to grow in the fullness of Christ, His word and the Holy Spirit.

Pray that the workers who participated may be reminded

by the Holy Spirit the learned truths & the decisions, so as to grow in fruitfulness.

Pray for all the ministries of GEMS to experience fullness

in the new year and to give glory to God.

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New

GEMS Nepal started a new DCC at Mamthamar in Nepal to benefit the needy children with education and basic needs.

DCC Started in Nepal to The new DCC (Day Care Centre) at Provide Mamthamar was inaugurated by the Education Associate General Secretary Dr. Ashok to UnderKumar on 21 Dec 2018. This DCC will privileged benefit 60 children and is opened by GEMS in partnership with Missions Fellowship Children ofNepal Australia.

Bro. Raju Lama pioneered this field in 2007. Bro. Silas is the field missionary of Mamthamar. Bro. Vijay (Administrator, GEMS Nepal) facilitated the inauguration of the school.

Pray for the newly opened DCC school in Mamthamar to

build

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lives of needy children of Nepal.

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P r a y

that the DCC may touch and transform the lives of the children, t h e i r families and the

community.

Pray for the leadership of the DCC and the field & church

to receive the needed strength and grace to minister, to be a blessing.

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Men

tors

The leaders of GEMS Sonebhadra Zone were mutually encouraged and exhorted through the Mentors’ Club.

Club Motivates and Moulds The Sonebhadra Zone of GEMS organized the Mission the Mentors Club program in which the Area Leaders of Leaders and Asst. Zonal Leader of the Zone Uttar and and their families participated and benefitted.

The Zonal Superintendent of Sonebhadra Zone Madhya Bro. Praveen Das organized the program along Pradesh with the Interim Regional Director of Southern

R e g i o n Bro. Arjun Karmali and the Regional DirectorDesignate Bro. Peter Jayaraj.

The program w a s conducted at Betla, Jharkhand from 3rd to 5th Dec 2018 and everyone learnt mutually through the sharing of the Word, games and group discussion.

Pray for all the leaders of Sonebhadra who participated in

the Mentors Club.

Pray

that their maybe mutual growth and development among the leaders.

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Pray that the Mentors Club may help the leaders to deepen

their commitment, relationships and effectiveness in ministry.  

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Lea

ders

The second phase of Lead Next program a training for GEMS leaders in partnership with GIFT was conducted in which 52 leaders participated.

Trained to Become Better Lead Next is a two-year program to train Leaders of GEMS leaders. The aim of this training Character program is to prepare the leaders to be and Excel- more creative, committed, confident and to lence be better communicators and delegators with right attitude. Sessions were based on interactive and creative learning pattern.

Hindi – Second Phase The second phase of Lead Next in Hindi was conducted at The Call

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AtmaDarshan, Patna from 27 Oct to 2 Nov 2018 in which 30

leaders participated.

Dr. Vijay Kanth (Founder, GIFT) took sessions on Personal Mission Statement and Goal Setting, Bro. AlokGuha took on Biblical Finance and Bro. Gitesh (IT Joint Commissioner from Raipur) took sessions on Integrity, Income Tax and Legal matters.

English – Second Phase The English group training was conducted at Ranchi from 5 to 9 Nov 2018 and 22 leaders participated.

Dr.Vijay Kanth led the sessions on God’s purpose, calling and personal mission statement and helped the candidates with The Call

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goal settings. Dr.Rajkumar (Logos Ministries, Delhi) shared on the joy of serving God, intimacy with God, blessings of trial and biblical way to handle financial difficulties. Mr.

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sessions on Organization Responsibilities and ways to delegate responsibilities and also on ministering among the present generation youths.

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The training was biblical and practical with creative methods and greatly inspired the participants to practice in their personal life and ministry.

Pray

for all the leaders who participated in the Lead Next program that they may practice the learning and also pass on to others.

Pray for the upcoming training sessions to cater to the needs of the leaders so as to truly take them towards excellence.

Pray for all the trainers, facilitators and organizers to receive more anointing and grace to conduct and lead the sessions and toimpart through their life and led by the Spirit.

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GEMS

The 13th batch Graduation and 15th batch Lamp Lighting ceremony of GEMS School of Nursing was conducted in which 26 students graduated and 26 were initiated.

Nursing School Initiates Freshers and The 13thGraduation and 15thLamp Lighting of GEMS School of Nursing Felicitates (GSON) for ANM was held on 19th January Graduates 2019, at GEMS Auditorium in Sikaria, Bihar.

The ceremony was attended by the Guest of

Honour, the General Secretary of GEMS Bro. Augustine Jebakumar, Managing Trustee Sis. Rupalekha Jebakumar, Associate Director (Institutions) Bro. Ananda Kumar and Medical Officer Dr. Joy Elizabeth and by the parents and relatives of the students.

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with flower chain by the nursing school girls and the program began with opening prayer by Sis. Rupalekha Jebakumar. Sis.

Packiyarani Stephen, the Principal of GSON welcomed the gathering.

Mrs. NitashaGuria IPS, Commandant of BMP-2, Dehri On Sone was invited as the Special Guest and in her address, she The Call

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spoke on women empowerment and encouraged the girls to achieve their goals through passion and hard work. In his speech the General Secretary exhorted the students from 1

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patients with loving attitude and to serve with smile and to be like Florence Nightingale who went to the dark places and brought light.

26 students received their provisional certificates and those who excelled in studies were rewarded. Ms. Premlata Soren received medal & certificate for obtaining 4th rank in examination conducted by MIBE board held in 2018.

The lamp lighting began with the lighting of the centre lamp by the General Secretary of GEMS and the either sides were lit by the special guest Mrs. NitashaGuria IPS and beloved managing trustee Mrs. Rupalekha Jebakumar. The students lamp was lit

by Mrs. Packiyarani Stephen and Dr. Joy Elizabeth as the choir sang ‘Carry Your Candle’.

The lamp lighting oath was given to the 15th batch by the Nursing Superintendent Mrs. Roja Nirmala and Ms. Shalini, Tutor of GEMS School of Nursing gave vote of thanks. The ceremony came to an end with their dedication prayer and benediction by the General Secretary.

Pray for all the graduated students to be effective witnesses

through their life & service.

Pray for all the freshers to commit to the attitude & aptitude to

learn by removing all distractions.

Pray for all the staff and management of the Nursing School to

continue to impart quality training with values.

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GEMS Transport Workers Meeting

A meeting for the Transport workers of GEMS was conducted on 15 January at Baulia in which 82 workers attended.

Games and activities were conducted and Bro. Sunil shared the message with his life testimony.

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