Tribulations Come

Without any formal schooling, the Lord taught Bro. Charles about such doctrine as the Trinity, the second coming, sanctification and the like. After 40 days of fasting, when the Lord revealed His Word to him, he started to preach and plant Churches. Once a Church had grown from just a few people to a congregation able to support itself and its pastor, Bro. Charles would move on to the next hill station and plant another. He did this for many years and was used wonderfully by God to establish four Churches. But he soon found that there was a great need for training. There were so many pastors like him who had never gone through any training at a theological institution, but they had a great zeal and a love to serve the Lord.

So, in 1992, he started a small training institution. The school, named New Life Theological College and Seminary, graduated six local students from its first class. Within a span of one year, word spread all over the country. He had to change the medium of instruction from the local dialect to the English language so that students could come from other parts of India. The school has increased in size each year, now averaging over 30 students per year. And since its opening, over 50 Churches have been planted all over India.

Bible students receive training in the Word of God to effectively preach the Gospel in their native land.

Like Bro. Charles, many of his students were thrown out of their homes once they accepted the Lord. He prayed a similar prayer as our pastor did, "Lord, send those nobody else wants." And the Lord sent them. Bro. Charles began providing food and shelter for them. And the need grew. Then the Lord placed on his heart that he should move down to the foot of the mountains which is near a city which has experienced a lot of fighting between Moslems and Hindus. He did not want to go, but he felt it was the Lord's will. So he moved the school. That same year, he received students from Burma, Nepal, Sri Lanka and other surrounding countries.

When the college was in its budding stage, he was told by the organization that was supporting him that they were no longer going to be supporting the school because they would be starting their own school. He had three months to find other means of support. Prior to opening the school, Bro. Charles had found children begging and sleeping on the streets without food or homes, and without hope of getting an education. Because of the great need he saw, he had begun an orphanage called New Life Children's Home. Now he had 60 to 70 people depending on him and no help financially.

He just began praying and crying out to God for help. The grocer nearby offered him credit for food. But as the months went by, it began to look as if he was going to have to close up the college, put a shutter on the children's home and send them to some other orphanage where they could be fit in. He didn't know what to do. So, he asked all the children and the students to pray. They started a 24-hour chain prayer-where two or three people pray together for an hour and then are relieved by two or three others round the clock. This prayer chain lasted for two months. Bro. Singh's wife, Sis. Joyce kept encouraging him to worship the Lord. "When you are sinking, start singing," she would say. But Bro. Singh started to feel that all hope was fading quickly.

Then one day his wife, who comes from a tea-picking village and has never left the region from which she was born, told him that they would be going to a strange place. "The floor is white. All I know is we are going to go there and God will do something wonderful." This seemed rather ludicrous to Bro. Singh, but together they prayed that night for God's guidance.

March 2000 graduating students, staff, and principal with Sister Joyce.

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The India Connection

• Land of India

• The People

• Many Live in Poverty

• The Hindu Religion

• A Hindu Receives Christ

• Tribulations Come

• The Lord Answers Prayer

• America: A Strange, New World

• Farewell to Our Friends

• Help for the Needy

• A Call for Help