| Word of Life Ministries’ commitment to missions began
in 1982 when it’s founder, Winsome Capener, was invited
to teach in the Faith Centre College of International Outreach
in India. As a part of her duties, Win coordinated visiting
missionary and ministry groups and remained with the College
until December, 1987 - by which time it was staffed entirely
by Indians.
During the time Win spent at the College, she developed a
great burden for the tribal peoples of India - maintaining
contact with many of the young people who had been her students
as they studied for the ministry. Among them was a young man
named Premchand who had commenced work in Nutakki in 1988
and wanted ‘Mummy Win’ (as he called her) to come
and help. This she did and, before long, Word of Life Ministries
was born.
The strategy then, as now, has always been to train Indian
nationals to evangelize their own people - village by village.
There are tens of thousands of these villages in India - all
with very large numbers of people. The need is so great, in
fact, that despite all of the hard work put in by hundreds
of committed people over the last 15 years, we seem to have
only scratched the surface.
The work has many debilitating obstacles to overcome, not
the least of which is persistent government and religious
opposition. In addition, food is scarce, water quality is
poor, disease is rife and wild animals pose a constant threat.
Transportation is difficult (push bikes and rickshaws are
the most common means of getting from village to village)
and the caste system (supported by both law and superstition)
is an all pervasive fact of life.
In addition to all of that, it is impossible to ignore the
hundreds of orphan children (who are always at risk of being
killed for their body parts), elderly people with no support
networks and the large numbers of lepers - none of whom get
any governmental assistance at all.
Despite all of these difficulties (which understandably make
it very difficult for Westerners at the best of times), the
work has gone ahead and expanded into all of the highly populated
eastern states. In the southern Tamil Nadu state, for example,
the ministry team - led by Kevin and Deborah Kamalraj - has
made encouraging inroads into the villages and towns around
Chenai (formerly Madras).
In Andhra Pradesh (one the largest of the Eastern States),
the work has spread from Nutakki (where the ministry began)
into Tenali, Chirala, Ponnur and Guntur in the south and further
north into Vijayawada, Rajahmundy and especially around the
capital, Hyderabad. The work in this state has benefited from
the strong leadership of men such as John Kishore and Kongala
Gabriel- both of whom have put together strong teams of totally
committed young Christians.
The northernmost State in which Word of Life Ministries operates
is Orissa. This state, with its 30 million people, is a particularly
difficult place to live and work even by Indian standards.
The harsh landscape makes travel very difficult and exacting
- especially in the outback regions where large numbers of
tribal peoples live in extreme poverty. Not only are these
people isolated and almost untouched by the Gospel, but the
State is not open to normal missionary activity and (as do
many other states) enforces strict anti-conversion laws.
Those who have accepted the Gospel live in almost complete
isolation - with little or no outside help at all. The work
in this state is headed by Raju and his wife, Sheba who operate
out of their home base in Jeypore.
Each of the leaders mentioned above have many dedicated co-workers
to assist them in their work. All of them operate in difficult,
hostile and sometimes dangerous conditions as they bring the
Gospel to tens of thousands of people who have never had the
opportunity of hearing the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
At the same time and under very trying conditions, they also
try to take care of the many hundreds of orphans, lepers and
elderly believers who have no other means of support.
Departments...
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