P.M.Thomas, an apostle of India

 

 

Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg, an apostle in India, accomplished great things for God in a short time!

 

Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg, the great missionary of South India, was born in Saxony in 1682.  He studied at the University of Balle, then the center for the Pietistic movement in the Lutheran Church.  He responded to an appeal from the King of Denmark for missionaries, and in September 1706, he and Heinrich Plueshau arrived in Tranguebar (anglicized form of Tharangambadi in Tamil language), a very small Danish colony on the east coast, close to Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu, on the southeast coast of India, as the first Protestant missionaries in that country.

 

Ziegenbalg began his life in Tranquebar first with the help of interpreters and translators.  However, he was determined to learn the local language Tamil, and mastered it in such a way that he would be able to use it for the translation of the Bible and to communicate with the natives in their own language.  He and Heinrich persevered in their efforts.

 

They began preaching and baptized their first converts about ten months later.  Their work was opposed both by militant Hindus and by the local Danish authorities.  In 1707/08, Ziegenbalg spent four months in prison on a charge that by converting the natives, he was encouraging rebellion.

 

More than the opposition, he had to cope with the climatic conditions in India.  Ziegenbalg wrote: “My skin was like a red cloth.  The heat here is very great, especially during April, May and June, in which season the wind blows from the inland so strongly that it seems as if the heat comes straight out of the oven”.

 

Ziegenbalg began to learn write Tamil letters immediately after his arrival.  The missionaries invited the local Tamil Pandit (teacher) to come and stay with them and to run his school from their house.  Ziegenbalg would sit with the young children in this school on the floor and practice writing the letters in the sand, a very traditional practice that was in vogue even in early 1650s in Tamil Nadu villages.

 

Following was an account of his hard work to master the Malabar (Tamil) language:

 

From 7 to 8 a.m, he would repeat the vocabularies and phrases that he had previously learnt and written down. From 8 a.m. to 12 noon, he would read only Malabar language books which he had not previously read.  He did this in the presence of an old poet and a writer who immediately wrote down all new words and expressions. The poet had to explain the text and in the case of linguistically complicated poetry, the poet put what had been read into colloquial language.  At first, Ziegenbalg had also used the translator, namely, Aleppa, whom he later gave to one of his colleagues. Even while eating, he had someone read to him.  From 3 to 5 p.m., he would read some more Tamil books.  In the evening from 7 to 8 p.m, someone would read to him from Tamil literature in order to avoid strain on his eyes.  He preferred authors whose style he could imitate in his own speaking and writing.

 

He soon set up a printing press, and published studies of the Tamil language and of Indian religion and culture.  His translation of the New Testament into Tamil in 1715, and the church building that he and his associates constructed in 1718, are still in use today. 

 

He married in 1716, and about that time, a new and friendly governor arrived, and he was able to establish a seminary for the training of native clergy.  He died on 23 February 1719 at the age of 37 when he left a Tamil translation of the New Testament and of Genesis through Ruth, many brief writings in Tamil, two church buildings, the seminary, and 250 baptized Christians.  Ziegenbalg accomplished great things for God in the prime of his youth and that too, in an alien country, despite the inclement climatic conditions and the hostile attitude of the local people to the preaching of the gospel.

 

(Courtesy: Friends Focus – Sept.2003)

 

P.M.Thomas, an apostle of India

It was 40 years ago November 17 that P.M. Thomas, his young wife, 

Christy, and their seven-month old son, Santhosh, arrived in Udhampur. 

It was the beginning of a long and cold winter for the missionary who 

had been an effective convention speaker and teacher for 10 years in 

warm South India. It was also the beginning of an arduous ministry in 

Kashmir that eventually saw the establishment of the first evangelical 

church in that region, elementary schools for children, a missionary 

training institute and more than a dozen daughter churches planted.

Working out of a one-room mud hut, the Thomases gathered a growing team 

of co-workers who lived by faith--but the work almost came to a halt in 

1971. Originally given land and a permit to build from the local 

government, Thomas began constructing a two-story church and mission 

headquarters. Suddenly local opposition mounted and Thomas was ordered to halt

construction and tear down the structure. 

In defiance of the stay orders, Thomas covered the structure--then at 

window level--with a tent and continued to build under cover, one row of brick 

at a time. He eventually completed the walls to roof level and 

was about to cover the first floor with a temporary roof when he was 

smitten with two heart attacks.

He was taken to the local army hospital, where he had an unusual 

visitation from Christ and emerged a healed and changed man, an even bolder 

evangelist, and filled with the Holy Spirit. 

While yet in the hospital, he penned a letter to then then Prime Minister 

Indira Gandhi asking if the guarantees of freedom of religion in the federal 

constitution were still in effect. Shortly after that the chief official of the

district told Thomas he would have no more trouble. The deputy officer who so 

vehemently opposed Thomas was suspended pending investigation on corruption charges 

and soon died of a heart attack.

After that the ministry flourished. The work was organized as Kashmir 

Evangelical Fellowship in 1973, and the headquarters building was 

extended to two floors in 1975. 

Scores of missionaries came and went, and at least a dozen left the 

organization to start their own works. Today their combined efforts 

have more than 3000 missionaries on the fields of North India and 

neighboring Himalayan countries. 

To be more centrally located to his growing work, Thomas relocated to 

Gorakhpur in 1996 and renamed the ministry Himalaya Evangelical Mission. 

Since 1963, missionaries working with KEF/HEM have visited 775,383 houses, 

contacted 4,020,795 individuals, recorded 165,950 salvation decisions, and 

baptized 8,263 committed believers. Today HEM has 276 co-workers in 13 

Indian states and neighboring countries. 

HEM celebrated the 50 years of Thomas's ministry with a convention 

attended by 500 people November 4-9. The story is one of the chapters in 

John Lindner's book, "God's Special Agents," available without charge 

at www.christianaid.org. A full-length book on Thomas's life and ministry, 

"The Mountains Shall Sing," also written by John Lindner, was printed in India 

and is expected to be available in limited quantity in the U.S. 

in the near future. Those desiring a copy may write 

insider@christianaid.org and put MI-446 660-HEM-Book on the subject 

line to receive details.