“My sister told me about a church in another village,” Dinesh said. “She was not a Christian, but she heard that people were getting healed when they went to church.”
On July 23, 2021, the family visited the church and explained their situation. When church members prayed for Chandra, she sensed a battle taking place inside of her. “I felt like I wanted to run away from the church,” she recalled. “I started crying out to God, saying, ‘I have bowed before every god that I know, but none of those gods could help me. So please help me. Please heal me!’ I was crying out … because of so much pain, and I lost all my strength and fainted.”
Chandra said that while she was unconscious, she saw a vision in which demons tried to strangle her until Jesus Christ stomped on them. She said she could feel the pain and sickness leave her body as the demons were defeated.
When Chandra revived, she realized she had been released from a great oppression. “We could only acknowledge the fact that Jesus is Lord,” Dinesh said.
A week later, they moved back into the house they had abandoned. And then they returned to the church to publicly confess their faith in Jesus Christ.
A New Kind of Oppression
When Chandra was ill, their neighbors avoided them, considering them cursed. Now that they have become Christians, they are shunned and opposed for a different reason. “As soon as we became believers, that is when the opposition started,” Chandra said.
No one would hire them for a job, and local vendors either refused to do business with them or charged them higher prices. Some people have even run them off for praying in Jesus’ name.
The opposition hasn’t stopped them from sharing the gospel and praying for people in need. They travel to preach the gospel every week in villages throughout the area, and Dinesh and his family have seen people healed and have helped lead many to Christ. Their church includes people who have been freed from addiction, people who have been released from demonic oppression and people who have been excluded from their families or communities for various reasons.
With help from the global body of Christ, including Christians like you, Dinesh and Chandra acquired 11 head of dairy cows. They sell the milk to a dairy, and part of the profit is reinvested in the cattle while another part is used to support their ministry. Dinesha and Chandra’s house church has grown to 46 members. In 2022, they decided to build a chapel onto their house to accommodate the growing congregation.
“This house was known as the Ghost House,” Chandra said, “because I was filled with demons so that I didn’t know who I was. But now I know who I am as God’s child, and my neighbors know who I am, because God has changed my identity.”
You can help respond to the needs of our Christian brothers and sisters, like Dinesh and Chandra, who are opposed because of their witness for Christ. Your gift may be used to help with living expenses, vocational training, children’s educational needs and other physical or material assistance.