Modern Livingstone

MUKESH D
Imagine going to a church service with a death sentence on your head.  Each time you leave the house for church, there is a death threat issued to you on the phone. You complain to the Police but they are helpless.  But you just cannot hide yourself in a hut when hundreds are about to congregate to worship in another hut, far from your house.  So what do you do?  You say a quick prayer for safety, bid your family good bye and tell them that you will meet them in the service and kick start your bike to reach the worship site. Your drive takes you through lanes that pass through dangerous sections of the town where all the people know you and all of them don’t like you.  You have an appointment to keep and an assignment to do and none can stop you, even death threatening calls.  Welcome to a regular worship day in the life of Pastor Mukesh D.

In his own words, “I heard about Jesus for the first time from my older sister.  She had been going to meetings and had seen the power of God.  When she took me there, for the first time I saw the power of God at work and there was no magician or blood flowing from animals sacrificed recently.  I was hooked.  I wanted to go the next week with her too.  Soon I was praying like everyone else.  Before I knew anything, I was doing what everyone was doing and getting all the blessing.   After I finished my studies, I wanted to know more about Jesus.  So I enrolled in the one year Filadelfia Bible Training programme, and since that there has been no turning back.”

He returned to his region to start work, but it was not that easy.  People would not trust him but he kept ploughing the ground.  One miracle led to the other and one family began to bring others to the meetings.  They were coming from far and soon it was getting impossible to reach all of them.  Then Mukesh began to conduct services on Tuesday, the open market day.  This was the day they would come to buy and sell their goods.  It was perfect.  Once the people had finished their dealings, they would come to the meetings.

The first hut was hired, then the second.  But they all had to be vacated to accommodate the number of people coming.  But with growth came persecution too.  Regular complaints against him were lodged and regular visits to the police station ensued.  The work and the threats have grown consistently.

The last time I met him, he was taking two men with him to go to the meeting, in spite of all that was happening.  That was three weeks ago.  When I spoke to him two days ago, it was again a similar situation.  He was not happy to receive all these threat calls, but as he said to me, ‘the only thing that you can do is pray for me and the people.  Please go ahead and do it and if I come back, I will give you a call.”

Hundreds of young men like him are facing heavy persecution right now.  Join us in praying for their safety and for the qualitative and quantitative growth of the churches in those areas.