The Valmiki of India

The Valmiki of India
Reading by candlelight
The room was dark even when there was electricity.
GRN's equipment is designed to be used in environments without power, but the language helpers still need enought light to read!
Valmiki women

Praise God! As a result of a recent recording trip, the one hundred thousand Valmiki speakers in India will now have the chance to hear the gospel in their own heart language!

The Valmiki seem amazingly happy and content despite their simple lives and the lack of comforts that we can so easily take for granted. The family that we stayed with had no running water, no bathrooms, no toilets, no telephone and of course no internet.

Despite their lack of comforts, when we reached the village the Valmiki church immediately looked after us. Some prepared food for us, and others fetched water from a stream and carried it back to us on their heads. We were grateful for their generous hospitality.

The Recording Goals

GRN always likes us to record what the local people tell us is most important, rather than what we may assume is best. In this case our target was 15 songs and 15 messages, which we aimed to produce in two programs.

  1. The first recorded program was to be evangelistic, to be used in outreaches.
  2. The second program was planned to be a follow up / discipleship program to be used with those who had already made a commitment to Christ.

Our understanding prior to arrival was that our scripts had been translated and checked, but as is often the case, on arrival we found that only seven of the fifteen messages had been translated and no songs were available.

We have encountered this situation many times and God has shown us that He can provide the people and content that He wants to use.

God Provides

So we went out with the local pastor to find people to assist. God's hand of favour was upon us, and we found a young singer who was willing to compose and sing three songs. We then met another lady who volunteered to sing four songs. Then an expert musician offered to take time off from his work to play for our recordings. One after another we found people willing to assist as language helpers. God is faithful!

The Recording Process

As is so often the case, the recording project was challenging. Language helpers could only come when they were available. The room was dark, with no window, a low roof and no way to get light in from outside. And yet we couldn't record outside due to rain. The power supply was also very irregular with no known schedule for when the electricitiy supply would be available.

But praise God, we produced all fifteen messages and songs by candlelight! The result is that another language group will now have the opportunity to hear the gospel in their own heart language!

Praise God also for the extraordinary love for God that these people have. We look forward to watching the church grow in numbers and maturity, now that they have these resources in their own language.

The one hundred thousand Valmiki speakers in India will now have a chance to hear the gospel in their own heart language!

Please Pray For

  • A mighty impact from these recordings, and in particular that local evangelists will use them to communicate the gospel and plant churches
  • Valmiki believers to be strengthened in their faith, and to provide a bold witness in their communities
  • Deliverance for the Valmiki from fear, deception and poverty
  • The Lord to raise up evangelists, intercessors and missionaries for the Valmiki
  • Sufficient funds and the right contacts to enable us to plan for and make recordings in nearby language groups.

Related information

Global News - Latest news about the ministry and resources of the Global Recordings Network from around the world.

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India - Information about India

Kupiya language - Information about Kupiya