An International Ministry  -  An Indispensable Message

    Lee Ann Williamson traveled to southern India in 1988 with a group of men from Georgia and North Carolina.  Several other women were scheduled to make the mission, but at the last minute, all of them had to drop out.   Lee Ann met the team in Singapore because she had been in Japan for several days, visiting family.  From there, they flew to Madras, where they overnighted for two days, giving them time to recover a bit from the long journey and spend some time in prayer and fellowship.

    The next leg of the journey was an overnight train ride from Madras to Tirunelveli, where they boarded a mini-bus for the village of Sattankulam, in the most southern tip of India.  Even in the month of January, the daily temperature was over 100 degrees fahrenheit, and there was little relief from the sun.  Every day, the team traveled to several locations for ministry, seeing over 6000 people come to Christ in a 2-week period.  It was an exciting time, but very difficult for Lee Ann, as the only woman on the team in a patriarchal society.  While the men on the U.S. team and the Indian pastors were all cordial and helpful, and the accommodations were certainly acceptable, Lee Ann came home from that journey with no desire to return to India.

In 1991, Lori joined Grace & Gladness, and during their first ministry tour together that spring, Lee Ann sensed that God was calling them to return to India.  When they arrived home, they had three letters of invitation from different ministries in India, the first and only communication Lee Ann had received from India since the mission in 1988.  There was no mistake that God was working in their hearts to prepare them for work in India, but they did not believe that any of those invitations was the right place or the right time.  They served simply to confirm the call of God on their hearts.  So Lee Ann & Lori began to seek God's plans for India.

Sometime within the next couple of years, another evangelist challenged L & L to adopt a country.  In Psalm 2:8, the Lord says to all his people, "Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance."  So, Lori and Lee Ann began to pray that God would give them a country.  At the same time, God impressed them to pray for a country where his witness was present, but dim.  They wanted to work in a place where there were indigenous believers to support, not just missionaries, but they wanted a country that was still, for the most part, un-Christian, a place where the message of the Gospel was/is greatly needed.

India certainly fits that requirement -- with less than 3% of the total population claiming to be Christian, the witness was definitely present, but just as surely dim. 

The girls continued to pray for their country, waiting for God to make his plans clear.  In the fall of 1995, they were conducting a series of renewal services in the Union Center United Methodist Church in Endicott, New York.  Pastor Brown Naik just happens to be Indian born and reared.  He had met his American wife, Alice, while she was on a student exchange program in the mid-1970's.  After their marriage, they moved back to the United States, where he obtained U.S. citizenship and has had a fruitful ministry in the local church.  They also have four beautiful daughters, and he was planning to take his entire family back to India for the first time since their marriage.  They invited Lee Ann & Lori to go along.

Immediately, both Lee Ann & Lori sensed that this was the door God was opening for them.  So, in July of 1996, they joined the Naik family for 3 weeks in the state of Orissa, on the eastern border of India.  The Naik family home was high in the mountains of the region of Phulbani, in a small fishing village called Muklingia.  Rainy season began while they were there, and the 5 mile road from town to the village became a treacherous mud-slide.  Often, they had to leave the jeep, wearing rubber farm boots, and hike through the deep mud until the jeep could negotiate the next hair-pin turn.

The Naik home was a lovely place, complete with electricity and a pump for the well.  They even had hot water for bathing, since the women of the house were thoughtful enough to boil pots of ice-cold well water for them over the open fire.   Their beds were woven cots with a mattress of feather ticking, and the toilet facility was just out the back door.  Meals were delicious Indian fare, prepared not quite as spicy as usual for tender American palates. 

The area was absolutely beautiful.  From the Naik yard, you could look out over beautiful valleys, freshly planted with rice, and in the distance, range after range of mountains faded from dark green to pale gray.  In the evenings, with all the electricity turned off, the sky seemed to glow with the millions of stars that were suddenly visible, their sparkle unhindered by any artificial light.  Entire mountainsides were covered with 6-8 foot bushes of lantana, the tough shrub with multi-colored flowers.  And ant-hills looked more like red sky-scrapers, as they rose from the ground in 5 foot pinnacles.

The countryside blessed them, but the people there won their hearts.   Among their hosts was a pastor/evangelist named Hemant Tandi, Brown Naik's brother-in-law.  Shortly after meeting him, Lee Ann & Lori knew that he was a man of God and began to wonder if this was the place, the man, the country, that God was going to have them "adopt."  For three weeks, they ministered alongside Hemant, from village to village, in churches, open-air arbors, schools, and homes.  They watched as people of all ages and stations in life came to Hemant for encouragement and counsel.  Though young, Hemant surely had the favor of even the elders of the village.   This was a man touched by God and gifted for leadership in God's kingdom.

Hemant's father had also been a pastor, but when Hemant was only 2 years old, his father was murdered when several Christian brothers contracted with a Hindu man to poison him.  Hemant's mother, pregnant with her only daughter, took over the ministry of her husband and reared her 3 children on her own.  Hemant learned from an early age what the cost of following Christ could be, and even though life was filled with obstacles to overcome, he pressed on to become a fine man of God.

As a teenager, he felt compelled to journey from village to village, praying for the sick in the name of Christ.  Taking with him the only two friends who would join him -- a liar and a drunkard, by his description -- they began to share the love of God.  Over and over again, when they prayed, people were miraculously healed.   When villagers asked for more information about "this Jesus," Hemant had to reply, "I don't know what to tell you now, but I will find out and I will come back!"  In that way, a powerful evangelist started his life-long passion to serve Christ.

Hemant excelled in school, catching the eye of professors and church leaders.  They saw to it that he had the opportunity to attend college, and when he excelled there and felt called into ministry, they helped him on through Union Theological Seminary in India.  After graduation, Hemant became a pastor with the Church of North India, once again excelling in his work for the Lord.  He was asked to take the leadership of the youth evangelism movement in a province in the far northwest part of India, but his own bishop preferred that he stay in Orissa, and in that way, God began to confirm the direction of his life's work among his own people.

In the early 1990's, Hemant, his wife, Saibalini, and a number of their pastor friends, experienced the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, which gave them a new joy in their walk with God and a new passion for the lost.  This experience was not common among pastors of the Church of North India, and soon, the leadership of the church began to object to their new-found, unrestrained faith.  Desiring to be true to the work of God in their hearts, this group of evangelical, Charismatic pastors and evangelists left the denomination and joined an independent Protestant ministry called Zion Fellowship.   Through Zion, Hemant came to the U.S. and attended Bible College in New York State.   While in the States, he was accepted for studies at Princeton University, but after prayer, concluded that God was calling him to return to minister among his own people in India.

Their ministry with Zion had some success, but the Indian pastors did not always agree with the methods employed by the Zion leadership, so once again, they left this ministry to follow God's call on their lives.  They had been working independently, with no outside support, for about 18 months when Lori and Lee Ann made the mission to India in 1996.  As Hemant stated in one of his early reports to the Grace & Gladness board of directors, "At just the right time, when we were desperate, God in his mercy, sent Sis Lee and Sis Lori to us.  They recognized our great need and extended a hand to help us." 

Indeed, during that mission trip, Lee Ann & Lori asked Hemant how they might be of assistance to his ministry, if their board gave approval.  His proposal in July of 1996 was for 3 areas of ministry:  support of 22 pastors and lay evangelists, 10 orphan girls, and refurbishment of a leprosy hospital/residence facility.   All began to pray, and 6 months later, during the 10th Anniversary meeting of Grace & Gladness Ministries, International, the board gave approval for support of all three projects.

Lee Ann & Lori had recently worked through the Bible study, "Experiencing God," and were learning to pray the prayer, "God, what are you doing in the world that you want us to be a part of?"  It seemed that all of their prayers through the years -- to inherit a nation, one where his witness was present but dim -- were finally being answered in the region of Phulbani, the state of Orissa, India.  That first commitment to India meant an increase to the ministry budget from $96,000 to $126,000, with $35,000 going for missions in India and the Philippines.

They had no idea how God was going to supply, but they sensed his calling, and knew that He who called would be faithful.  One month later, when the first support check for India was due, the ladies made a commitment to God.  Each month, regardless of what funds seemed available, they would send the support to India first, trusting God to provide for their salaries and other ministry expenses in due time.   And God has honored that prayer -- not once since they began to follow that policy has God failed to meet every need.  The financial figures alone are staggering:

 YEAR        BUDGET             MISSIONS PORTION         MISSIONS PERCENTAGE

'96            $96,000                 $22,500                                 24%

'97             $126,000               $42,000                                 34%

'98             $256,000               $115,000                               46%

'99             $332,000               $191,000                               58%

In January of 1999, Grace & Gladness Ministries in India consisted of 28 pastors and lay evangelists, the leprosy hospital, 6 medical clinics, 8 schools, and 65 orphans in a brand new, permanent home, and a total staff of about 65 workers.  And the work continues to grow.  A team of 10 Americans traveled to minister with the Indian workers of GGI in January, and all were blessed, even overwhelmed, to see all that God has done, simply because believers have given their all to do His work.

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Copyright © 1999 Grace & Gladness Ministries
Last modified: August 20, 2004