October 2020 PAGES 56 ` 20/- International Girl Child Day Vol. 49 / No. 10 AIM Annual Subscription for India, Nepal & Bhutan Rs. 200/- (Other countries $ 20) A monthly publication of EFI Publication Trust Editorial Taking Care of our old parents Rev. Vijayesh Lal .......................................4 Dr. Sanjay Avinash Mall ....................................31 Pandemic What the Bible says to the Old Mr. Chacko Thomas .........................................07 Generation Rev. Dr. Duke Jeyaraj .......................................36 Growing in Biblical Faith Rev. Dr. David Mende .......................................14 The Fruit of the Holy Spirit Rev. Richard Masih ..........................................42 A warrior for Non-Violence Dr. Shantanu Dutta ..........................................17 Elders Mr. Hanraj Jain ................................................46 Tea Garden churches (Part 2) Rev. Dr. Takatemjen Ao ....................................20 Prayer ..............................................................50 When one monk lost his cool Rev. Kuruvilla Chandy ......................................24 ADVERTISEMENT RATE Editorial Committee Centre Spread (Color) : Rs. 7000/- Rev. Vijayesh Lal : Hon. Editor-in-Chief Back Cover (Color) : Rs. 5000/- Front Inside (Color) : Rs. 4000/- Mrs. Sara Chonghoikim : Associate Editor Back Inside Page (Color): Rs. 4000/- Dr. John Dayal : Editorial Consultant Ordinary Page (B&W) : Rs. 2000/- Mr. Manish Walter : Design Consultant Half Page (B&W) : Rs. 1200/- Mr. Hansraj Jain : Nagpur One third Page (B&W) : Rs. 900/- Quarter Page (B&W) : Rs. 500/- Mrs. Sonia Daniel : New Delhi For subscription query call us: 011-26431133; Tele/Fax: 011-26285350, E-mail: [email protected], website: www.efionline.org THE TREASURER, EFI PUBLICATION TRUST, 805/92, Deepali, Nehru Place, New Delhi - 110019. Please Note: No article in AIM should be reproduced /translated without Editor’s written permission. Editor’s Note: Each Author is responsible for the point of view presented, which does not necessarily represent the view of Evangelical Fellowship of India. 3 October 2020/AIM Editorial Rev. Vijayesh Lal September 2020 has been quite ailing Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj eventful. From the announcement on once again denied bail. day one of the negative quarterly And meanwhile, our TV sets GDP, an important index of the numbed us to the reality of the nation national economy’s health, to the or to the pain of the people around us stormy session of Parliament that as high-pitched and high paid saw Question Hour being dropped, anchors led us to believe that all that the railroading of critical bills that mattered in life was gossip presented will go against the interests of India’s as expose of the film fraternity’s crores of farmers, and as a last straw, flirtation with the dark side. In the slamming through amendments to process, some of the media’s new the already draconian FCRA which favourites were given security will starve civil society groups of reserved for top politicians, while funding they need to help the needy the objects of their hate campaigns and the marginalised. were arrested on hearsay. Activists Kafeel Khan and We had a few losses as well in public Devangana Kalita were finally life. Swami Agnivesh and singing granted bail while scholar Dr. Umar maestro S. P. Balasubrahmanyam. Khalid was arrested, Professor India also lost Harley the Bike, while Apoorvanand targeted, and the Amnesty the Human Rights 4 October 2020/AIM Advocacy group was forced to shut of September. Her family carried the down operations. Religious body home, but policemen did not let minorities were targeted both in the them. Media showed visuals of villages of Kondagaon and Simdega policemen forming a human chain to as well as from the floor of keep people away from the burning Parliament. It was in the august pyre they had made for the body. chamber of the Lok Sabha that a Another month in the history of a former police officer turned nation, and a civilisation. politician sought to besmirch the memory of a martyr and his young India, along with other nations will sons burnt alive 21 years ago while observe the ‘International Day of the serving the poorest of India’s poor. Girl Child’ on October 11. Let the observance move from mere The month ended with the tokenism to a firm resolve to tackle heartrending news of the police in the menace of gender violence in our Uttar Pradesh allegedly forcibly nation. cremating the broken body of a rape victim, a 19-year-old Dalit woman, The Church in India must lead this who was tortured, and gang raped by cause, both within and outside and four high caste men in the State’s for good reason. Hathras district. This was one of many similar crimes in that state and God created men and women equal others. She had been found on 14th and in His own likeness and image September, naked and bleeding from (Genesis 1:27). He blessed the her mouth, neck and eye, in woman and gave her authority along Bhoolgarhi village in the district. with the man over other living things Her tongue was cut, eyes were (Genesis 1: 28 – 30). bulging out and she had multiple The Old Testament is full of fractures. The courts have examples of women who were questioned the police for their laxity. leaders and used by God to fulfil His Civil society said the police sided eternal purposes. Whether it be with the powerful caste of the Deborah, or Miriam or Ruth or village. Esther, God’s plan included both The young woman died on the 29th women and men. In the New 5 October 2020/AIM Testament, we find Mary, the mother seen as a counterculture community of Jesus, and the Prophet Anna, who in a nation that is saturated with spoke about Jesus “to all who were patriarchy and structures that keep looking forward to the redemption of the women subjugated. Jerusalem.” (Luke 2:36-38). God is prejudiced in favour of the Women were among the disciples of marginalized and the oppressed and Jesus and when He was crucified and identifies with them. The Church in His closest disciples had deserted India must follow the lead and him, the women stayed. The early challenge unjust power structures Church had women as leaders and in and work with Him, armed with His this the Church was markedly love and compassion to bring about different from the culture around justice and transformation, starting them. with our own homes. The Church in India too needs to be Rev. Vijayesh Lal 6 October 2020/AIM PANDEMIC! Mr. Chacko Thomas I am not talking about the Corona valuing of boy-children. There are virus, the Covid 19. about 500 mentions of “children” in the Bible. Children, obviously, Pope Francis called Gossip, “a includes girls and boys. Girls are pandemic worse than Corona Virus.” specifically mentioned when God gave the Commandment about I wonder if he would call the “Girl REST, the fourth of the Ten Child” issues, a pandemic as well. Commandments. He knows well the Sadly, there are dozens more such human heart. He knew that we would Pandemics in our culture, claiming discriminate against the girls. So, the millions of lives annually. fourth Commandment is the longest of all Commandments and note what International Girl Child Day: The it says about the females and fact that the UN has to set aside an refugees. International Day for it tells us that the pandemic is not just an Indian Exodus 20:8-11: 8 “Remember the Plague, it is more wide-spread, sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six affecting billions of lives. Like days you shall labor and do all your gossip, it is neither recent nor is there work, 10 but the seventh day is a a vaccine against it. sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or The Good News first. The good your son or your daughter, your male news is that God is not for our under- or your female servant or your cattle valuing of girl-children and over- or your sojourner who stays with 7 October 2020/AIM you. 11 For in six days the LORD Consider the fact that just as our made the heavens and the earth, the Lord went out of his way into Jericho sea and all that is in them, and rested to save a man, Zacchaeus He also on the seventh day; therefore the went through the forbidden land of LORD blessed the sabbath day and Samaria to save a woman, an outcast made it holy. (NASB. Underline is at that, the woman of Samaria. mine) Again, just as our Lord raised a man, Lazarus from the dead He also raised Did our Lord Jesus value girls? girl, back to life. Matthew 18:1-6 tells us about who is the greatest in the Kingdom of A book “Lost Women of the Bible” Heaven. A “child”, “children” or is a study of nine women in the Bible, “little ones” appears five time in this with the tenth chapter being a study passage. Then in verse 6, The Lord of a group of women in Philippi. Jesus said, “but whoever causes one Among Carolyn Custis James' line of these little ones who believe in Me up of women are Noah's wife whom to stumble, it would be better for him she calls “The Unknown Soldier”. to have a heavy millstone hung Sara is titled “Life in the Margin.” around his neck, and to be drowned Hagar, the Egyptian slave is the in the depth of the sea.” “Invisible Woman”, Tamar is “Missing in Action”, Esther is If ever we doubted the value the Lord “Sleeping Beauty”, Mary the mother placed on a child, (girl or boy) this of our Lord is “The First Disciple”, verse (18:6) should settle it.