Cry to God -
By Dr. Iris G. R. Paul
Rabaguda centre is 70 km south east of Malkangiri and it takes by jeep two and half to three hours to reach. Part of the way we had to travel on very rough, uneven mud road and then missionary John and I had to walk through the jungle path for 25 minutes to reach our centre at Rabaguda, a Koya tribal village. Does walking through the jungle path frighten me even after staying here for 36 years, with His Help? Yes, Of course it does. What do I do? I keep non-stop praying till I reach the village as in the forests there are all varieties of poisonous snakes and the bears too. When I get frightened I think of Jesus on the Cross and then tears fill my eyes to realize that the creator of galaxies died a cruel death on the cross to save me, who is not even a speck in His entire creation.
At Rabaguda centre our missionary Dilip and Niranjan live. Niranjan’s wife
Prabhathi and their 1 year 3 month son Prince now live in a near by town Nowrangapur with the parents, as Prince is under treatment for chronic malaria, anemia and fits.
Due to illness of most of our missionaries the pond digging work could not be started in February. Only a few days ago the work started and so naturally I was keen to see first hand what was happening. The climate is burning hot around 45 degrees centigrade. As I neared the centre I saw a man lying motionless in the hot sun – in this area, I do see men lying motionless, fully drunk – but every time I see, I pray and then go slowly as there are reported
incidents of ambush and also murder – I stopped for a few minutes to see whether the man was breathing – I noted his chest movements and then went and brought our missionaries Dilip and Niranjan and we found out that he was having high fever and was feeling very cold and so was sleeping in the hot striking direct sun light!. We helped him to a shade and bathed his head with water and gave him medicines – Praise the Lord with in an hour he was feeling O K.
In many areas we have trained the local people to handle medical cases. But the need is still immense
Medical need in these interior villages is indeed very great so please Cry to God to bring doctors who will move into the interior villages and bring healing touch to many suffering like this young Koya man, who is a special creation of God.
I move on to the pond digging area and again I am very much moved to see 20 men and women working in the hot burning sun so that their area will have some water collection during the rainy season, which will see them and their cattle through the burning hot summer days. I stood and watched for an hour encouraging them by talking to them. I had an umbrella to hold but they had non and they were willing just as Jesus taught to struggle to make their community a little better. The transformation in some of them is awesome. Pray that they will get the boldness to go and take a court affidavit and take
baptism openly and stand for Him alone forgoing all government privileges as here the anti conversion law is in force.
Please Cry to God as often as you can that people like these who are living in jungle hidden villages will be given the strength to stand boldly for Jesus and many more missionaries will join this area to live with them and transform the community. We need 4 more graduate missionaries who are from a Tribal community or Oriya speaking community.
May God be with you as you read this and move you to action.
Love and Prayers,
Dr. Iris G. R. Paul