AWR News

As told to AWR president
Dowell Chow

Pastor Jeyapaul Masilamony is the Tamil language producer for Adventist World Radio at the Adventist Media Center (AMC) in Pune, India, under the auspices of the Southern Asia Division. Tamil is one of 10 Indian languages currently aired by AWR. Hindi, Marathi, Panjabi, Malayalam, Kannada, English, and Telegu are produced at the AMC, while Assamese and Mizo programs are created at the AWR studio in Aizawl, in the state of Mizoram. New programs in Gujarathi and Oriya are under development.

Each year, AWR provides a small budget for each of these producers to step out of the studio and do some public evangelism, especially among their listeners. This is what Masilamony was doing when something tragic happened that eventually resulted in the conversion of a family. Here is the story he told to me.

On this particular trip, Masilamony headed to the mountain village of Chokkanalai, a small village of about a dozen houses in the state of Tamil Nadu in south India. He traveled first by truck on one of the rough roads known as “ghats” roads, and then on foot along a donkey path for another several kilometers.

Midway through his trek, he came across two men tuning an old radio and asked what they were listening to. They replied that they had been listening to some Christian programs. When he told them that he was from Adventist World Radio, which broadcast the Voice of Hope program, one of the men bowed down and held on to Masilamony in respect and gratitude for the Tamil program they enjoyed so much.

During Masilamony’s first visit to Chokkanalai, one lady asked if he was a pastor and made a very unusual request. She explained that her buffalo had not been eating or drinking for days, and she believed that it would be healed if the pastor would pray. Although this was an unexpected request for prayer, Masilamony agreed.

Masailamony positioned himself close to the animal, along with the lady and her husband, and earnestly prayed for God’s healing. While he was praying, the lady took hold of his right hand and placed it on the head of the buffalo. After praying, the pastor told her to believe that God would heal the buffalo, and that he would come back to visit her in the near future.

After some time, Masilamony returned to the village with Melchizedek, one of the technicians at the Media Center, and paid a visit to the lady. She did not speak to him and was clearly not happy about his visit. Noting that something was not right, Masilamony inquired about the buffalo, only to learn that it had died two days after he prayed over it.

Masilamony was speechless for a while; he did not know what to say or how to deal with this unexpected situation. After regaining his composure, he expressed his regrets and told her how sorry he was about the death of the buffalo.

In India and in other countries, a buffalo is a significant asset. These resilient animals not only provide milk for the family, but are also hardworking beasts that are useful for plowing fields, dragging passenger buggies or cargo carts, and much more. Even in large cities, one can see people leading herds of buffalos (and other cattle) along busy streets and boulevards. Losing the buffalo would have a large negative impact on the finances and livelihood of this family, so its healing was very important to them.

After a while, the lady’s husband joined them, and the pastor asked if they actually had had faith that the buffalo would be healed. The lady responded that she had been completely sure that God would answer the prayer to heal the buffalo. Then the husband said something to his wife that completely changed the tone of the conversation. “The pastor prayed in faith, and we also had faith that the buffalo would be healed,” he said, “but the buffalo didn’t have faith!”

Masilamony was again speechless. He just wanted to go away, and as he turned to do so, the husband touched his shoulder and said, “Why are you leaving without praying for us? Please come in to my house.” The pastor turned around and followed them into their house, bending low through the tiny doorway.

Once inside, the lady brought a bowl of water and asked the pastor to pray over the water and sprinkle it inside and outside the house so that the evil spirits would not come. Once again, Masilamony found himself in an awkward position; he had never prayed to make water holy or sprinkled it in a house to keep evil spirits out. But he agreed to bless the water, as requested. After he was done, the couple took the remaining water from the bowl and drank it, firmly believing this water would bring healing to them as well!

When Masilamony was finally about to leave, the couple made another request; this time they asked if he could give them his Bible. His first thought was, “Why do they need a Bible when neither of them can read or write?” This was the only copy of the Bible he had with him, but sensing the deep yearning in their voice for the Bible, he inquired further why they wanted the Bible so badly. They explained that they wanted to have a Bible in the house because the evil spirits would not come into the house if there was a Bible there. Masilamony gladly gave them his Bible!

A few days later, the couple came down from the hills to where Pastor Masilamony was having evangelistic meetings and asked for baptism. “We know Jesus,” they said, “and we believe in His healing, so please baptize us.” Masilamony baptized them in a tank, along with six other people.

This couple is now Seventh-day Adventist. They meet in the mountains of Tamil Nadu, as they are unable to come down often to worship with other believers due to the distance from their house. But once in a while church members travel up there to visit and encourage them.

Around ten months after their baptism, Masilamony received word that the husband had passed away with the blessed hope of the soon coming of Jesus.

“In these mountains,” Masilamony explains, “there are many groups of tribal people like this couple, living in small villages of 15 to 30 houses. These villages are surrounded by many wild buffalos, as well as tigers and other wild animals of prey. The inhabitants of these mountains are very poor, barely living off the meager produce of the land on the border of the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.”

God can use even a dead buffalo to bring someone to the knowledge of the truth! This is just one of so many examples of how the message of hope from Adventist World Radio is reaching places that are unreachable by other means.