Dear friends in Mission,

I wanted to share this story of healing with you for your encouragement in Christ. It ties together a Hindu family, a Christian pastor and a Jewish American surgeon. Each is touched by God and acknowledges his sovereignty as the story unfolds.I have just met Pastor Kris Govender, who related to me this testimony.He is one of the Baptist pastors of the Baptist Mission of South Africa, our partners in mission.

The Healing of a Hindu Youth

Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God,
The Lord is one.

In 1973, Kris Govender was dying. He was debilitated by a wasting disease, which made him deaf in the left ear and disrupted his balance. He had missed three months of school and failed the all-important matriculation exam, the culmination of a high school career and path to further employment or education. This seventeen-year-old Hindu youth lived in the slum of Merebank, between the oil refineries and the Durban airport. In vain, his family could not discover what was wrong with him, and after taking him to several Hindu temples for prayer, did not receive any healing for their son. Three medical doctors visited him in his home as well, and could not discern the diagnosis.

One night, Kris' situation became desperate and he began to have seizures. Near death, somebody suggested that a Christian pastor be called.For his father, it seemed that all other options had been tried, and so this was done. At two in the morning, the pastor arrived and began to pray to Jesus for the boy's life. Kris' convulsions stopped abruptly. The following morning, the pastor returned in his car, and took Kris to the hospital after convincing Mr. Govender that this was needed to save the boy's life.Young Kris Govender required emergency surgery to remove diseased and infected bone from his skull behind the left ear. He remained in the hospital for one month after the surgery, receiving antibiotics, nutrition, and rehabilitation for his balance and hearing. His weight came up, he stopped stumbling around, and his hearing returned to its former acuity. Upon his discharge from the hospital, his American Jewish ear nose and throat surgeon Dr. Lionel Wolff told him that he could thank God and his pastor for the miraculous recovery from his infection, and his restored hearing and balance.

Jeremiah 17:14 Heal Me, O Lord, and I will be healed;
Save me and I will be saved
For you are the one I praise

In January 2002, Pastor Kris Govender, aged 47 sits across from his wife Neeru and colleague Pastor Julian. I asked him how he came to know Jesus. He smiled and pulled on his left ear. Then he related the above story. He continues his story. After his healing, his family decides that he is to be handed over to the church. At the time this happens, it is unique, as there are no Indian Christians in his neighborhood. He passes his high school exam. He marries Neeru, a woman from his same township. He goes on to study the scriptures and begins what has now been thirty years of service before the Cross, sharing the Gospel with many others of the Hindu tradition. Pastor Govender tells us "First I was healed, and then I was Saved," echoing Jeremiah above. "My healing began the moment the pastor prayed and my convulsions left".

Two of the pastor's six sisters have come to Christ in recent years, yet not all of his nine siblings. "You cannot talk with a Hindu about the gospel as you might talk with a white person. God will have to make a sign or a miracle for a Hindu person to come to Jesus. Words or rationale won't do, only God's direct action will."

Proverbs 2:1-2 My Son, if you accept my word,
And store up my commands within you
Turning your ear to wisdomAnd apply your heart to understanding……

5Then you will understand the fear of the Lord
And find the Knowledge of God…………….

9Then you will understand what is right and just
And fair- every good path.

Pastor Kris turned his ear to wisdom and applied his heart to understanding. He has found the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. Today he leads the congregation at the Christian Worship Tabernacle in Phoenix. This city has the largest concentration of Indian people outside of India. He says that in recent years the Hindu people have really increased the number of temples as a response to the large number of young persons who have become Christians. There is also a new emphasis on the study of Sanskrit and the preservation of traditional Hindu culture. Please pray with us that the Lord God will teach us how we are to use health care training to complement the ministries of the Christian Worship Tabernacle. Please pray that we can walk with Hindus and others in every good path, walking toward Jesus.

Shalom,

Rick Gutierrez