Category: G4 Mission Real Life Stories

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Saturday, MAY 14, 1988 – The Unforgettable Day I Committed For Full-Time Ministry As A 13-Year Old / Duke Jeyaraj

It was May 14, 1988, a Saturday. I was in Danishpet, Salem, in the center of Tamil Nadu. I was a 13-year-old kid. I was in a Blessing Youth Mission (BYM) Annual Camp along with hundreds from different parts of Tamil Nadu. In a session that night, Uncle R. Stanley, the ministry’s founder gave a missionary challenge with my dad, Mr. A. Jeyaraj, interpreting into Tamil. He is known to preach peppery, passionate messages that have a memorable outline. But I have no memory of the outline he used that night. But what I do remember is this: when he gave the call for full-time ministry specifically, I walked forward to the front. When the call for salvation was given, in a BYM Meeting in a CSI Church in Ranipet, North Tamil Nadu, two years earlier, by uncle A. Lionel, I did not walk forward. I accepted Jesus as my Savior, right where I was. I confessed my sins and prayed the sinner’s prayer, right where I was. But that night – May 14, 1988 – I had to walk forward. Little did I know what kind of ministry I would do. But I still went forward. I had no blue-print of my ministry future, but I still went forward. The fact that I was baptised in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues for the first time, the previous day in the same camp (in a session led by Uncle A. Lionel), perhaps prepared me to commit my life for full-time ministry that night as the Holy Spirit is the one who ultimately ‘sets-apart’ people for specific ministry tasks (including full-time ministry) and gives them the courage to be bold witnesses of Jesus (Acts 13:2; Acts 1:8).

I was a student of Ida Scudder School then. I had just finished my grade 8 and was about to move to grade 9. Did I quit my school following this commitment? No. I continued to study. But I never forgot the commitment I made. I recall that Mr. Vincent Jeyakaran, my Chemistry Teacher in Scudder School, Vellore, asked me what I wanted to become after this event of 14 May 1988. I instantly replied: “I have committed for full-time ministry sir. I want to serve Jesus full-time!”

I got more active in the Lord’s Work post this commitment. I started a fellowship for boys post that BYM Camp. I called that fellowship, Friends for Jesus. What I knew from the Bible, I taught the small group of boys who would gather either under a tree outside the CSI Church near my home or in the home of Ben Suresh. We also went for outreach with tracts in different parts of Vellore. I taught Sunday School in a Village in Vellore along with Arumugham annan. Our mode of transport was the bicycles!

Uncle Silas, who worked in Christian Medical College and Hospital then, took me various boys hostels across Vellore District and had me preach the Gospel. As I preached in English, He would interpret for me into Tamil. He did this, not because he could not preach. He was a good preacher, himself. I still remember one of the messages Uncle Silas preached to us, teens of Friends for Jesus, from Proverbs 7, about a flirty aunty who had an affair with a naughty boy. I continue to preach from that very passage inspired by Uncle Silas. I did that even in a Assemblies of God National Youth Conference in 2012. Silas uncle wanted to prepare me to be an itinerant minister of the Gospel. He wanted to mentor me. My Dad gifted me, my first copy of any sort of Study Bible – the NIV Study Bible – in the year 1991 (I was 17). I preached my first sermon from Stage in Ida Scudder School to a crowd of about 400-500 in the Captain’s Assembly. School Captain, Shameen, asked me, the Lincoln House Captain, to preach. I preached a message on hell, inspired by American Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart’s video-tape message, Hell is no Joke (a tape which my uncle, A. Gnanasekaran had given us – he also gave me a nice NIV Bible at that time – which became the first Bible I read regularly, underlining phrases and words that spoke to me, writing out devotional thoughts in the side margins). After my first stage sermon in Ida Scudder on August 9, 1991, a girl in the audience fainted. One young man who who would serve God full-time down the line, had an unforgettable encounter with Jesus. I was encouraged to keep preaching.

Eventually I landed in Allahabad Agricultural Institute (SHIATS now) in the month of March in 1993. I remember that I shared about Jesus to one of my co-passengers during that 36-hour journey in the train to Allahabad. Giving tracts in the train became a regular ministry in the train since then. I do it even now. In Allahabad, I picked up my first ever Theology Book – a damaged copy of a Systematic Theology book by J. Rodman Williams (again, my dad’s gift). I led Bible Studies from that book (sometimes just to one person in the boys hostel). I made the first presentation of what the Bible teaches on Sex, Love, Marriage to a group of boys I gathered in the lawns outside the Chemistry Department during my college years (1993-97). I made apologetics-inspired Gospel presentations in Ewing Christian College. I led Bible Studies in Motilal Nehru Regional Engineering College in Allahabad. My Evangelical Union Fellowship senior, John Joe kept giving me these opportunities. I attended a 10-day training by the EU in Kotagiri (Committee Members Training Camp) in 1993.

I worked briefly in Chennai during late 1997 and early 1998. That’s when Pastor Daniel Navakumar, a Sri Lankan Tamil Pastor who lived in Germany, who had read my article for youth from the life of Absalom, invited me to preach to the youth of his churches in Botrop, Germany and other cities in Germany. I quit my job, so that I could prepare to preach in my first ever youth camp. Uncle R. Stanley again helped me with my outlines (as he did as I preached for the first time to a crowd of over 1000 boys, in Halo 1998 in Sitteri Hills). The eight messages I preached in Germany in 1998 to youth in the English to German were video recorded. The Question and Answer session I did at the end of the youth camp was also video recorded. Those are the oldest video message recordings of mine presently available. You can listen to those presentations even now via Youtube by following this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5DR3RjcgKY&list=PL2z1uBimIney9juybE93o0RFp9UBG1XWA

After I returned from that very successful youth camp in Germany, I went straight to Bible College – Southern Asia Bible College (now CGLD), in Bangalore. It was June 1998 when my pre-theology courses started with Mrs. Felicia Praveenkumar teaching us English! The rest is history. I started my own ministry, Grabbing the Google Generation from Gehenna Mission, in 2006, as my wife and I landed in Hyderabad from Jabalpur along with 1-year old Dale.

It has been my privilege now to give missionary calls/fulltime ministry calls in several of my meetings across India. To see young people come forward with tears has given me immense satisfaction.

I do not say, “Full-time ministry is the only way or the best way to serve Jesus!” Far from it! I worked in the years 2006-2008 as a tent-making missionary when I founded G4 Mission. I worked in call-centers, raising money for the ministry God moved my wife and I to start. I was an active witness in those call-centers as well (I led in breaktime, three minute fellowships). But then people moved by the Holy Spirit – all Indians – started to send offerings for our newly-started ministry. I also could not do both – work a full-time secular job and do the ministry. Encouraged by my wife, I quit my HSBC Global Resourcing job in November 2008. I have been fulltime with G4 Mission, my own ministry ever since (as has been my wife). This journey of faith is so awesome!

Have you made a commitment to the Lord? Do not delay in fulfilling it! “When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow!” (Eccl. 5:4). I am glad I could honor the vow I made to come to fulltime ministry!

(Duke Jeyaraj is the founder of Grabbing the Google Generation from Gehenna Mission, the G4 Mission. Find out more at http://www.dukev.org. Watch his message videos at http://www.youtube.com/c/visitduke).

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EVAN DUKE – HER LOVELY LIFE AND TERRIFIC TIMES

A summary by Duke Jeyaraj (her hubby dear)


A Summary of Evan Duke's life as she celebrates her 45th birthday!

As my wifey dear, Evan Duke, completes four and half decades of existence on God’s green earth, here is a summary of her lovely life and terrific times:


1) HOSTEL-DWELLER EVAN (0-10, 1976-85)


Since her parents, Mr. P. Selvam and Mrs. Esther Selvam, were missionaries to interior areas of Tamil Nadu first (Sitteri Hills) and Odisha later (including the area in which the Dr. Staines served), Evan lived in hostel even before she turned five. She was a protective elder sister to her two younger brothers – Solbrekken and Revivan.


2) HAND-RAISING & HIDING-GOD’S-WORD-IN-HEART EVAN (1986-1995)


When Missionary Mon Singh gave an altar call in Santhosha Vidhyalaya, Dohnavur, Tirunelveli District, Evan raised her hand to commit for fulltime ministry. She memorized the entire book of Philippians and recited it in  Sunabeda Public School in Odisha – a school in which she became School Captain down the line.


3) HEART-BEAT OF DUKE, EVAN (1996-2001)


At the age of 25, she became the heart-beat of Duke Jeyaraj, a young engineer turned itinerant evangelist and settled to live with a guy whose salary was Rs.3000 a month!


4) HERO OF DALE, EVAN & HYDERABAD HEADING EVAN (2002 – 2005)
She became the proud mom of Dale Nathan in 2003. Till date, he remains mummy’s biggest fan! A few hours ago Dale dished out an acronym-choreographed appreciation of his ‘shero’! She clearly heard God’s voice to Duke and herself asking them to move to Hyderabad after stints as Blessing Youth Mission Missionaries in Trivandrum and Jabalpur. And She encouraged her hubby dear to obey this voice and landed in Hyderabad on October 30, 2005 with little Dale in tow.


5) HUSBAND-PUSHING-FORWARD EVAN & HOME-FORTRESS MANAGING EVAN (2006-2015)


She prodded her hubby to take up the invitation of Center of Global Leadership Development – Southern Asia Bible College to join a Doctor of Ministry program and helped him focus on that. She stayed back home and managed the home even as Duke got his doctoral degree in 2014. She did nappy-changing happily for little Datasha (born in 2007) even as Duke preached in North West Bengal (Darjeeling) to South Tamil Nadu (Madurai), from West India (Mumbai) to East India (Vizag)! She co-founded the Grabbing the Google Generation (G4 Mission base) from Gehenna Mission with her husband, actively influencing him to say ‘no’ to other ministry job opportunities with other reputed churches and organisations. She encouraged Duke to quit his job with HSBC in 2008 and since then both she and Duke work fulltime with G4 Mission.


6) HEALING-CHANNEL EVAN (2016-2020)


She was the brain behind the Fountain of Tears Against Mountain of Fears Fasting prayer – an intercession event which was held every month at the G4 Mission base. As she led in prayer for the needs of the people who came to this meeting, God graciously moved and did miracles and healings. Cancer gone. Babies born. Marriages became joyous. Life Partners were found. 


No – Evan is not perfect. But she is the perfect life-partner and ministry-companion for me!

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Duke Jeyaraj Life Story G4 Mission History G4 Mission Real Life Stories

My Life’s Important Moments Meshed Around The Most Watched World Event As It Has Happened Over the Last Three Decades – The World Cup Football Finals (1986-2018)!!! – Duke Jeyaraj

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The World Cup Football finals is the most watched event in the world each time it is played! One out of nine people in the World watch it! Today – July 15, 2018 – we have another one: Croatia V France! I am rooting for Croatia! I have been doing almost-daily devotions starting from World Cup 2018 Football games via Facebook, Google Plus and WordPress!

I recall my earliest TV watching experience to the Football World Cup. In the year 1986, as a 11 year old I recall going to the home of our neighbor in Vellore Town, Uncle Wilson (my friend Ben Suresh’s dad, now with Jesus), to watch the World Cup Football Final 1986 between Argentina and West Germany. Earlier that year, I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior in a Blessing Youth Mission retreat in Ranipet. Though Cricket has been my fave game all through, I still haven’t forgotten the closing minutes of that 1986 Final – a final dubbed as the most exciting World Cup Football final ever – which Argentina won under Deigo Maradona, 3-2.I remember talking about this final when I made a point from the Word of God when I preached in the Youth Service of the Full Gospel Assembly of God, Indira Nagar, Bangalore, years later.

I was still in Ida Scudder School when West Germany won the Final of 1990 World Cup by beating Argentina through a late Brehme penalty. In Scudder school where I was a student for 9 long years (4th to 12th), I wrote in the Kaleidoscope, our School mag, about his final. I recall writing a poem on the 1990 World Cup. One line went this way: “As Brehme drove home the late penalty/There was joy among the Beckenbauer bombers, aplenty!” In Scudder school I preached my first sermon from stage and also was part of a lunchtime fellowship. Those were the early stages of my life when God would mold me to wrap Bible Truth around interesting sports events.

I was in Allahabad Agricultural Instistue as a B. Tech. student during the 1994 World Cup Final. I wrote a long poem on the final and sent to our the local newspaper, The Hitavada. I was thrilled to see that poem published. I don’t even have a copy of that hand-written poem now! The paper cutting was filed in a dark brown file and that file is now missing! It had over 50 Letters to the Editor of mine published by newspapers like The Hindu and magazines like The Sportstar over the years! In Agricultural Institute I led Bible Studies for fellow students in hostel rooms and went along with my seniors to do the same in other colleges in the town of Allahabad in eastern Uttar Pradesh. I recall talking about Roberto Baggio’s heart-breaking penalty kick miss in the Cup Final 1994 and how the Bible never missed it, when it came to predictions regarding the future. My days in Agricultural Institute. were the days during which God was impressing upon my heart to wrap Bible Truth around contemporary events of interest. I saw Billy Graham do it in his book, World Aflame, a book I read in New Hostel Room No. 45 in Agricultural Institute!

I recall watching the 1998 World Cup Final which France won in the home uncle Charles (now with Jesus) in Bangalore. I was a Bible College student in Southern Asia Bible College then and had gone to his house that weekend to stay back and watch the Final. Zidane scored two headed goals in that game which gave France its first World Cup win. “I was so hungry to score one goal in the World Cup Final, that I made it two!” So said Zidane. That has repeatedly served as an illustration when I talk about hunger for the things of God we must have! During my Bible College days I discovered that Apostle Paul wrapped basic truths of Scripture even around quotes of pagan writers (in Acts 17 in his speech at Athens). So I resolved that it was something I would also do. And the World Cup history provided me with lots of interesting events to wrap Bible Truth around!

I watched the 2002 World Cup Final with my wife in Trivandrum where we were missionaries with Blessing Youth Mission. It was then that I wrote an article titled, “Bible Lessons from the Football World Cup,” for the mag I edited for Blessing Youth Mission, “Missionary Kids” (which later became Arrows). Oliver Kahn (the Man of the 2002 Cup) carried Germany to that World Cup Final, I recall. Post that Cup, there were news reports about his affair with a Bar girl when his wife was pregnant. “Double life with a disco girl” – that was one headline. Then Kahn said, “I myself know how dumb and stupid what I have done is.” I have used this story as an illustration to promote purity when I preached to the Google Generation.

I watched the 2006 Cup Final in Hyderabad the city I landed up in to start Grabbing De Google Generation 4m Gehenna Mission (G4 Mission) while also working for a certain call centre to support myself and my little family. I recall writing an article for the G4 Mission magazine, The Days of Your Youth, based on the exciting semifinal between Germany and Italy – the most exciting game of that edition of World Cup. Late in that game, the Italian coach made a flurry of substitutions which ensured Italy won that game in extra-time without the game going into the penalty shootouts, a thing Italy was wary of. After mentioning that I went on to talk about the greatest substitution ever – that of Jesus Christ on the Cross for your sins and mine. I was inspired to write the poem on Zidane head-butting Materazzi with the gospel at the end which is now part of my book, The Good News for the Google Generation, then. That book can be read online here: http://www.scribd.com/


…/The-Good-News-For-The-Google-Genera…
(on page 129 is the Zidane poem). During December 2005 I stood in Cyber Gateway in Hitec city to speak to a bunch of young professionals (call centre folk) in an informal setting as part an outreach effort of the NLAG Hyderabad’s Youth Alive. I began my Gospel presentation to that boisterous crowd with a story about Germany’s coach of 2006 Cup team who initially tried to coach Germany staying in the USA and how God came near during the first Christmas and that caught their attention.

When I watched the 2010 World Cup Final I was back to ‘fulltime’ ministry, having quit my job with the HSBC GSC, as the Lord was gracious to raise Indians to support our ministry to the Google Generation. Post that Final I wrote a poem that started with a certain “Jesus” who played for Spain in that final as a Substitute. That was fodder for yet another poem that wrapped the Gospel around a World Cup Final. That poem is also found in my book, The Goodnews for the Google Generation (a book I talked about earlier in this post)! In fact I wrote an article, “Bible Lessons from the Unforgettable Moments of the 2010 World Cup” and that article which had a anti-porn point starting with a story of a Paraguay female fan who wanted to strip if the team she supported won. I have used the Luis Suarez Hand of God injury-time incident in the Ghana-Uruguay Quarter Final from that World Cup at the end of many of my Gospel messages where I have called youth to come to Jesus shunning procrastination.

In the year 2014 when the Finals moved to Brazil, I watched it with my son, Dale Nathan, then 10 year old, teaching his nuances of Football, the way I taught him nuances of Cricket watching the 2011 Cricket World Cup Finals with him. Through this event I ran devotions on Facebook which started with interesting events from this World Cup including the Luis Suarez biting event which is here: https://www.facebook.com/…/a.420280954711…/687270011345873/…). 2014 was the year when I wrapped up my Doctoral program in Southern Asia Bible College by God’s grace.

Before we go to bed, we need to do self-examination, my spiritual mentors have taught me. But we also need to do an eagle-eye self-examination of our life’s progress. Evaluating our growth, once in four years, is a good exercise that will spur us to greater heights God has for us.

(Duke Jeyaraj, an Engineer turned Doctor of Ministry grad, is the founder of Grabbing the Google Generation from Gehenna Mission. This is a ministry to presentday people funded by Indians blessed by Duke’s writings and messages. Find out more by liking www.facebook.com/googleduke or visiting www.dukev.org


and www.dukewords.wordpress.com

)

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Duke Jeyaraj Life Story G4 Mission History G4 Mission Real Life Stories

HOW I MET AND MARRIED MY WIFE – DUKE JEYARAJ

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HOW I MET AND MARRIED MY WIFE – Duke Jeyaraj

Often times, young people and even some pastors I get to speak to ask me how I met my wife. I would consider that very question a compliment. Well. Well. Well. I met my wife Evan for the first time (as far as my memory goes) at a camp meeting in Vellore called Ministry Efficiency Program for missionaries of Blessing Youth Mission, the year being 1987. I was 12 years old and she 10. Both of our parents were missionaries with Blessing Youth Mission (BYM). I distinctly remember how skinny and how stunning she looked even at that time! Another time I bumped into Evan even before I started thinking along the lines of being married to her was in the year 1993 at the BYM Missionary Kids Camp at Sitteri Hills in Tamil Nadu. Evan had just finished her grade 12 and was preparing for her Medical College Entrance Examinations, then. I was bathing near a hand-pump in Sitteri Hills along with a few boys when she climbed uphill from the Sitteri Bus stop, to arrive one day later than all of us. I cut short my bath and ran in! I did not have an Arnold Schwarznegger body to show her, you see!

BUTTERFLIES IN MY STOMACH ON SEEING A PAIR OF SANDALS….

After I finished my B. Tech. Agricultural Engineering from Allahabad Agricultural Institute in 1997, I briefly worked at Chennai. Evan, too was at Chennai then, working in the Madras Medical Mission – a famed heart hospital. We met at the English Students of Jesus (ESFJ) at the home of Mr. S. C. Vedasironmani, that almost kissed the Numkambakkam Railway Station. I recall how once I reached late to ESFJ meeting and saw a pair of footwear outside Mr. Vedasironmani’s home – a pair of footwear I recognized to be Evan’s! I told myself, “She is in there!” and had butterflies in my stomach! After one meeting I distributed the MISSIONARY KIDS magazine with my lead article, BEATING SEXUAL TEMPTATIONS, fresh from the press to those at ESFJ. Again, Evan, was there to receive it! Little did I know then that she would be the woman with whom I would have short accounts with in order to beat sexual temptation!

THE GUITAR STRUMMING GIRL

An important development then was that I got to know about Evan’s ministry involvement. She did not go ballistic about Blessing Youth Mission (BYM) as I did. But quietly she did ministry in her style: strumming the guitar in the prayer cell at Working Women’s Hostel, Vepery, Chennai, India – a hostel that housed some of most hip girls in Chennai; taking interested girls to the church she attended, the Apostolic Christian Assembly(ACA), India’s largest church when we take to count the number of people who sat for one service at that time (the late 1990s), for water baptism.

NOT A DUMBHEADED, HEAD-NODDER!

I also recall how Evan did not simply nod her head to whatever I said – a quality about her that I secretly admired. When I made a negative remark about a famous revival preacher who left BYM to start his own ministry she was not pleased and told me that she wasn’t, in no uncertain terms! The Prophetess in her probably told her then, that I too would do the same thing one fine day! And I did (in 2006)! When she told me that she had committed her life for the ministry during one of the special meetings in Santhosha Vidhyalaya, Dhonavur, the School she studied in for the best part of her life, since her parents were missionaries in Orissa, I took special note, for, I was looking for a life partner who had done that before meeting me! On one occasion, she recited Isaiah 6, while walking down the road with me! She had learnt by memory this passage and such passages as a kid! Here was a girl who had the Word in her heart and slowly and surely winning a place in my heart! Here was a girl who had the qualities I was looking forward to, in my life partner! [Even these days when Evan makes references to Bible passages while sharing God’s Word, she often recites the required Bible portion in entirety spontaneously, thanks to her astounding God-given memory. This has created ripples among the spell-bound audience].

YELLOW SALWAR

From June 1998 I was at Southern Asia Bible College, Bangalore, studying for my M. Div. I started getting proposals for marriage from well-meaning family and ministry friends through my parents. It was at this time I rushed to the jungles opposite to the Bible College and started praying about my life partner very seriously. At the end of those seasons of supplication God wrote in my heart that Evan was His chosen girl for me! Before knowing that, I made sure she fulfilled some of the criterions I had for the girl I would marry: a believer, involved in the ministry, part of the Google generation – the generation I was trying to reach, but outside my caste, a caste so notorious in Tamil Nadu for marrying only within itself! The first time I met Evan after I knew I would marry her was at the Chennai Central Railway Station. When I let her know over a STD call from Bangalore that I would be arriving one fine morning, she came to the Station with her friend, Christy (she would not meet me alone even in a public place, you see!). She wore an Yellow salwar that dream day and my heart skipped a beat!

And to cut the long story short – we got married at Gudiyattam on the 9 July 2001 – in the presence of our beloved missionary parents along with 800 people. “Evan is the greatest thing that has happened to me, apart from the Lord Jesus,” I told the crowd. That was the first time she heard me speak in public, though I had been preaching for 10 years at that point in time! Yes, she did listen to me once on tape – a missionary challenge from Amos I gave to students in Santhosha Vidhayala. But she had never listened to speak live, till then.

BUBBLY EXTROVERT

After marriage we moved to New Delhi to work with the Assemblies of God there. I was the youth pastor cum Bible College Teacher. Soon we had modern youth coming up to us and opening their lives to us so that we could counsel them from the Bible. One reason why that happened was this: they saw Evan, a bubbly, extrovert next to their thoughtful, fiercely introvertish youth pastor. The first ever youth camp, Evan and I addressed together was at the Mark Buntain Memorial AG Church at Kolkota in October 2001 – just three months after we got married. I still remember how Evan’s moving solo, “He touched me!” touched the young people after my first message during that youth camp – a gospel message.

It was at New Delhi Evan started sharing the Gospel with Auto Drivers. She picked up Hindi just to be able to do this. Her testimony about how she did it was published in the Blessing magazine. Talking about magazines I must talk about how Evan edited almost everything I had written during the initial years of our marriage (before edit-volunteers took over that role) so that my writings would graduate from crass to crisp, elongate to elegance.

“SHE PREACHES BETTER THAN YOU!”

After we joined Blessing Youth Mission, the first town we preached in together was at Miraj, Maharashtra. It was a town with lot of youth who were HIV positive. Some youth from a church there had died of AIDS. Therefore, we were asked to speak on subjects that were relevant to that grim situation. Evan’s salvation message with a AIDS backdrop saw a lot of youth commit their lives to the Lord. One missionary aunty who was present remarked that she preached better than me in that meeting. I could not be prouder when I heard that, for I had spent several hours in training my wife who hadn’t been formally theologically-trained, in the art of preaching! Later during that trip, she stood before a packed hall full of youth of various churches in Kohlapur, Maharashtra, and taught them how to choose their life partner. The youth were all ears.

PREGNANT AND PREACHING!

I also recall how we preached in tandem in Lady Doak College, Madurai, Bishop Heber College, Tirchy (South India), Tell The World Youth Camp, Siligury (North East India) and New Life Fellowship All Karnataka Youth Camp, Bangalore. Each time Evan spoke the Lord opened the hearts of the young people to grasp truth He wanted them to hear from the Word. When she preached to the youth of Hyderabad Methodist Church at Karigari in May 2003 she was not only pregnant with the Word of God, she was pregnant with our first son, Dale Nathan! One young man blessed by the preaching of the Word in that camp would become a fulltime minister with Gideon’s International!

HER IMPACT ON GENPACT YOUTH

Her message “Sinking Ship Not Called Titanic” (on relationships) preached to 500 youth of the New Life Assembly of Church, Secunderabad, was video-recorded. That video was brought briskly in the meetings we addressed during the days we distributed CDs of our messages! Once I was stopped by a girl who then worked for Genpact in Hyderabad, in the early part of 2006. She stopped, just to tell me, “I still remember the message your wife preached on relationships in that youth camp. It was a big blessing!”

NAPPY CHANGING AND CHEERING FROM FAR!


She was invited again by the same church – the New Life AG Church, Secunderabad – to do a workshop on March 8 – World Women’s Day. That day, she made a compelling presentation titled, “Single and Despondent to Single and Confident” for the over 200 single girls. As I edit these lines on Women’s Day 2018, I must mention that only yesterday, a young woman who was part of this meeting told me over the phone about how much of a blessing that meeting was. On that day, my job was simple: nappy-changing and cheering-from-afar (it’s an all-women’s meet, that’s why).

POEMS FOR MY WIFE

From time to time I have written poem/short prose to express my love for this great girl called Evan God gave me. May I share one such poem I recently wrote:
Thank you, Evan, for sharing with me, your skin,
Thank you for pointing out in me, sin!
Thank you for paving the way for me to win,
Thank you for training me in matters like tomatoes, Face Creams and ‘Rin’!
And one time, I picked up my pen and wrote, “You are one Woman, I’ll gladly walk life’s road, even if that road is as long as Nile!”

It is not that we never fight or have disagreements. When we do, I tell Evan that I would be her roommate even in Heaven and so she better put up with me!
Now, there is a new woman in my life (post November 7, 2007). Shocked?! Don’t be – I am talking about my little daughter Datasha. When she smiles at me I float in thin air, mile high! When she calls me “Dad-dha” I am over the moon. I thank God for these two women in my life. I did not deserve them, yet God gave them to me! And I am so grateful to God.

POST-SCRIPT:

On our 10th wedding anniversary (July 9, 2011), I recall with gratitude that Evan could have said ‘no’ when my marriage proposal came to her, but she still did not.

She could have said ‘no’ on the account of the SALARY I was earning. It was quite low considering the fact I was already in fulltime ministry. When I mentioned my salary to one of my friends at the time Evan married me this is what he said: “With the salary you are drawing you cannot even repair a pair of shoes in this city!”

She could have said, ‘no’ on the account of my ABILITY. My ability to do ‘romance-laced’ talk was almost nil. I would make 1-minute phone calls to her most of the time. I would say the matter and hang up during our courtship days. This was absolutely unimpressive when one is talking to the fairer sex that always want to hear extra words, loving words, caring words, etc.

She could have said, ‘no’ on the account of my FAMILY BACKGROUND. Both of us did not belong to the same caste and people of my caste were known to marry stubbornly within their caste and were hostile in general to those who did not belong to them when it came to marriage alliances (though there were exceptions).

Do not say ‘no’ to marriage proposals based on mere worldly, unbiblical reasons.

But she still said ‘yes’. And I am so glad and cannot thank God enough for Evan – the greatest thing to have happened to me apart from the Lord Jesus.

SECOND POST-SCRIPT: This article is for those who are working and in the age bracket to be married. But if you still studying, please concentrate on your studies and be friends with everyone in your class instead of spending all your time with a boyfriend or girlfriend; student days are not the best times for romantic love; there is time for everything! (Eccl 3). Falling in love during your student days could potentially drill two holes into your system, one, in your heart, and, another, in your purse!

ANNOUNCEMENT – Duke Jeyaraj has written a book titled, NO BEATING ABOUT THE BUSH STRAIGHT TALK ON SEX, LOVE, MARRIAGE, PORN AND MORE, published by Word of Christ publishers. This book has chapters that bring frank Bible teaching on how to wisely choose one’s life partner, postponement of marriage, marrying younger boy as a girl, finding God’s Will when it comes to life partner choice, apart from chapters on other hot topics. This book is available on http://www.Amazon.in. Search ‘Duke Jeyaraj Straight Talk’. Or get in touch with us via +91-8886040605 or via emailduke@gmail.com and we will help you buy this book for Rs.125/- plus actual courier charges. It is also available in Word of Christ stores in India (www.wordofchrist.org).

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Hear Duke speak about how he chose Evan as his wife in this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqyo4stiy74