Ministry Update: Bro. Selvaraj – Ministry Among the Blind in India
Tamil Nadu
Greetings!
We are privileged and overjoyed to introduce our dear brother, Selvaraj who is doing great ministry among the blind in Kerala, India. He is visiting the US now, if in any way you could be a help, please do. It will benefit the ministry among the blind in India. Below is his testimony, you can go through and call him and encourage him.
He is staying with Brother Tharu Varghese in Chicago.
In Christ,
Bro. C. V. Vadavana
(562) 477-8372
Testimony Of Bro. Selvaraj
Beloved Brethren in Christ,
Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
My name is Selveraj. Myself is blind and my wife is also Blind. We have a daughter who can see and she is studying in the 11th [+1] standard. I was born and brought up in a Hindu family in a village called Gudimangalam in Udumalpattai, Thiruppur District of Tamil Nadu. We were five brothers and no sisters. Three of them committed suicide and my younger brother is living in Mettuppalayam in Coimbatore. When I was a baby, something happened in my both eyes. One of our neighbour woman advised to pour the mixture of salt and breast milk as a remedy. My mother done it in the same night. The very next day my parents found me with blindness in my both eyes. They took me to many temple doctors and at the end to the government doctors for treatment. Treatments were failed and I became blind. With the help of a School Inspector, I got admission in the Government School for the Blind in Poonamalle, Chennai.
I studied up to the eighth grade in the very school and underwent for the Agriculture diploma course in a specialized centre for the blind in Phansa in Gujarat. After completing the course, I got seven thousand Rupees assistance and two acres of land in a village called Erumad in Nilgiris in 1977. I planted Rubber plants in the land and it was destroyed by the neighbours within few months. Thus my money was gone and I struggled to get my daily livelihood. Therefore, I went after doing a lot of works what I can do. In the same time I joined with Marxist people and served the party and practised Atheism. I organized campaigns to promote atheism in the surrounding places like Gudallur and Sulthan Bathery. I resisted the religious people and quarrelled against the religious practices. I minded to find the faults of Jesus Christ to strengthen my way of Atheism. Therefore, I asked a Malayalam Braille Bible portion from a Christian friend and I read it seven times in my house. That was the Gospel of Mark. While I was scanning the book, I found a portion in the seventh chapter verses from 20 to 23 where we could read about the condition of our heart. “And He said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” I examined the above quoted verses and asked myself the relationship of me with these things which defile a man. I found that I am a man of guilty person and unworthy to live. Because I have done most the things in my privacy which none can know. It is very worst to mention them by words. I could not believe that the sighted people even can do. And in the chapter eight, verse 36 and 37, I read about the value of a man’s soul which more than the whole world. In chapter 10 verse 45, I read that the purpose of the incarnation of Jesus Christ was to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. In chapter 16 verse 16, I read that I could get salvation only by believing in Jesus Christ.
The same day I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour and the controller of my life. I resigned from all the activities of the Marxist party and Atheism and sat down to read the Bible and meditate upon it. In 1989 January 3, I witnessed the Lord through water Baptism and became the part of Brethren Assembly in Sulthan Bathery. In the same year I got a government job in Cordite Factory in Aruvankadu, Nilgiris under the ministry of Defence, government of India. I served them till 1994 and gave up my job and committed to serve the Lord as a full time worker among the blind which is the vision I received from my Lord. I found a Charitable Society called BEZER BLIND’S SERVING FRIEND in 1994 under the Thiruvithannkur Charitable Societies Act 1955 in Thiruvananthapuram. I started a shelter home for the blind women and taught them Braille and the word of God along with free boarding and sheltering for their life time. There are 14 candidates having fellowship with the Christian Brethren Church in Sulthan Bathery. Beside this we are organizing campaigns for the blind and distributing Braille and Audio Bibles free of cost. I married Vijayakumari from Thodupuzha, a believer and we were blessed with a daughter who can see.
We also publish a Christian monthly magazine “Cross” in Malayalam since 2004. We are praying for a Braille Press as our own to produce books and periodicals in Braille and to be sent to all Visually Handicapped people all over India. We are in the need of assistance in all possible ways to promote our services in quality and extend to more blind. Please pray for our ministry and for my family and for my daughter.
Yours in Christ,
Brother Selvaraj
(630 880 8568)
Address:
Tharu Varghese (630 910 4148)
3135, Edgewood Pkwy
Woodridge, Illinois 60517
USA
[Adelphoi News – July 23, 2015]
