Report - November 2009 PDF Print E-mail
Written by Jerris Bullard   
Saturday, 05 December 2009 18:27

"CANCER." That's what the doctor said. The "routine" mammogram with its accompanying "routine" recall for another test because "something is just not as clear as it ought to be" was just another test like Juanita had experienced so many times before. We had gotten used to hearing such words, not comfortable with such language, but accustomed to hearing it. This was no doubt another such annoyance. I casually said, "Let's go get this over with so that we can begin our visits to the brethren and make our reports" about another great mission with which God had blessed us. Little did we know how that routine test would change our plans and our lives. It was cancer...and it was fast growing. It had spread to the Sentinel Lymph node. The surgeon removed 28 lymph nodes, and while only one was found to be cancerous...it was in the Sentinel lymph node... the one which first spreads the disease to the rest of the body.

Treatment has been aggressive. No time could be lost. The chemotherapy was difficult ... debilitating, and finally after three months...OVER. As I write Juanita has experienced additional therapy...so far she has completed seven of thirty-three, almost daily, radiation treatments. Hopefully, by the grace of God, she will be finished with the radiation treatments on December 31st.

To some of our readers this may be news. That may be due to many factors which I hope you will understand. It has been very difficult to fully communicate with everyone due to tune constraints, numerous appointments with the oncologists, and a 5-day emergency stay in the hospital when Juanita had contracted a life threatening e-coli in her blood stream. There were also responsibilities to the numerous Indian brethren with whom I am in daily contact via Email and telephone. I regret that not everyone has been personally contacted, but I do hope that most of you have learned of our situation. Please accept our thanks to all of you for your patience as we continue to work through this terrible thing we all fear called, CANCER.

The oncologists are very optimistic and have told us they expect Juanita to be able to return to her work sooner rather than later. We have discussed our work with the doctors in great detail. They have cautioned that Juanita's full energy level may take a couple of months or even three for complete recovery. However, it is thought that she may be ready to return to India during the last week of January 2010. Of course, we will not "rush" her into the work. Juanita must first be strong and of reasonable energy which will allow her to both travel and work before we will commit to go. A final decision as to when we can return to India will likely be possible by mid-January. For now our goal of returning to India is January 27, 2010.. .right on schedule for our Winter Campaign.

CAMPAIGN RESULTS —NOVEMBER 3,2009

MEETINGS 

BAPTIZED

NEW CONGREGATIONS BEGUN

134,494   

240,233

552

AVERAGE MEETINGS

AVERAGE BAPTISMS CONDUCTED
PER DA Y

AVERAGE BAPTISMS
PER MEETING PER DAY

438.1

1.79

782.5

A DEFENSE OF OUR REPORTS

Our work has often been brought into question because of the "numbers" we report. I would like to speak to this point.

Brethren, we must be fair and honorable in our evaluation of the work of any and all evangelists. As it is said, "Let us compare apples with apples and oranges to oranges." Recently, along with Ron Clayton and others, it has been my pleasure to serve as a resource person to Erik Tryggestad, staff writer, for The Christian Chronicle. Brother Erik has written a fine article on the church in India which is to appear in the December issue. Concerning the "numbers" reported, Erik has written:

There are those who say the church in India has only 200,000 members. Others claim that there are over 3.1 million making it roughly the size of the church in America.

I would suggest the great disparity between these numbers may be explained by observing the different approaches used to determine the numbers. One group of missionaries only reports what they have actually witnessed. While the other group reports both, what they have personally witnessed as well as receiving verifiable reports from the native Indian brethren. The first group of workers numbers about 200 part-time missionaries. These part-time or short-time missionaries, for whom we are very thankful, only work an average of 6 weeks or less in India every other year.

It is reasonable that those who only work so little in India (and their sponsors) who claim that the church in India has only 200,000 members may have baptized that many. Most of the estimated 200 evangelists have gone on short-term, 6 week missions with brother Charles Scott and other leaders from about 1967 up to the present time, generally report that they baptized 200 souls. An estimated average number of 25 preachers per year have gone on such short-term missions to India over the past 42 years, with each reporting about 200 baptisms, which equals some 210,000 souls the Americans have seen baptized with their own eyes. The second group is composed of eight full-time evangelists who spend an average of 5 1A months per year on Indian soil.

The second group had its origin in 1978 and 1979. I will refer to it as "Our Team." Led by Ron Clayton and myself, "Our Team" began with about 250 native Indian preachers which over the years has now become over 23,000 native preachers who have preached in 1,200,000 Gospel Meetings. (Yes, we keep computerized records.) If we only averaged our current rate of 1.79 baptisms per meeting then the church in India would number 2,148,000 which "Our Team" (I hasten to add God's co-workers) has seen baptized. Add the two numbers, that is, from the short-term workers and our full-time team, and the total number of baptisms is 2,358,000. That is not unreasonable.

The difference in reported sizes for the church, then, may be explained by having two different types of workers. First, a small group of part-time (and short-term) evangelists who report only the work they actually "see", and who do not report the results their Indian co-workers present to them even though the Americans have sent them out to evangelize. Secondly, there is a team of full-time American evangelists working with 23,000 native Indian evangelists, whom they have converted and trained, who report not only what they personally witness, but also accept the verifiable numbers of the native Indian evangelists. Brethren, the "numbers" of the native evangelists are only accepted when reported on our "official" forms for that purpose, and are signed by the preacher at the meeting, plus the one who actually did the baptizing or another faithful member of the local church who actually saw the baptisms.

Do we dare to think that the Indian brethren, working alone—without any American supervision—may have converted additional, uncounted souls. Is it reasonable to think that in just over 30 plus years of hard work that the over 2 1A million souls we have established as a base number in this defense may have baptized another one million souls. If so, then, the church in India likely numbers over 3,000,000 brethren even after subtracting a host who have gone to be with their Lord. To an old Veteran missionary who has seen so much desire to save the lost, and an equal amount of energy expended to win every soul possible, in the whitest field in the world, I think it is reasonable. No doubt, the Lord is adding pages to the Lamb's Book of Life to record the next million baptized souls. To God be all the glory...He likes to count the numbers—please see His examples in the Book of Acts.

It all comes down to a simple matter of trust. Do we trust our native brethren to report the truth? Most of the work of evangelism has been done by our Indian brethren. This is as it should be. I appreciate Ron Clayton's "4-T" formula:
                Teach 'em, Train 'em,
                     Trust ' em,
                             and
                            Turn 'em loose.
It is their country, their people, their customs, their culture, their languages, and it is their job to do!

JANUARY 27, 2010

Our Winter Campaign, if God wills, is at hand. The time will go quickly. We need your help. As you, no doubt, have become aware we are not able to visit anyone or any congregation personally. This letter plus one or two others, in December and January must speak for us. Please respond to our appeal directly from this little epistle.
The financial budget for January through June 2010 (six months) will be presented in full detail in our next newsletter—likely about mid-December. It calls for $70, 607.00. The budget covers native Indian preacher support; campaign expenses; tools to support the campaigns; benevolence; construction of church buildings; and, all operations of Imphal School of Preaching.

Budgets are often "dry" reading material. However, our budget speaks of souls being saved, families being card for, and congregations being equipped to serve their communities. Please remember, "He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord" (Proverbs 19: 17).

IN LOVING MEMORY



June Wright

Hugh Burleson

Perryton, Texas

Precious in the sight of the Lord

Dexter, Missouri

 is the death of His saints.

Barbara Willis

 Psalms 116:15

Nihal Singh

Monet, Missouri 

Agra, India

PLEASE ACCEPT OUR APPRECIATION

We give God all the thanks, praise, and glory for what He has done in India since 1978 and for allowing us to be His co-workers, and fellow evangelists and teachers with thousands of Indian brethren. Also, without you and thousands of American brethren as partners supporting us in prayer and with sacrificial gifts of money, we could not have gone even once to India then this great story, over which angels constantly rejoice, could not be told (Romans 10: 14-15).

Grace and Peace,
 Jerris N. Bullard

P .S.
Please make your check payable to Church of Christ India Fund. An envelope for your convenience is enclosed. Thanks for helping. On behalf of the lost and those needy ones we are grateful.

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Last Updated on Saturday, 05 December 2009 18:30
 

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