Called to serve God

In 1954 God placed His hand on a young schoolteacher named P.M. Thomas. Although Thomas knew that he had been called to be a missionary, for many years he resisted, knowing the cost. Finally, after many sleepless nights, he asked the Lord where He would send him. "I can find many to preach in South India where life is pleasant and comfortable; but I have not been able to find anyone to go to the Himalayas," he felt the Lord telling him. Thomas's heart was pricked. He knew that the Himalayas were a little-evangelized area, where over 300 million people lived without knowing Christ.

By God's grace the small ministry started by him and his wife in a tiny mud hut in 1963 has today grown in to 12 missionary organizations spread all over India with about 4000 missionaries. Even though the other 11 groups have spread to different parts of India. But we are still concentrating on the Himalaya region only with our 270 missionaries with our moto of Reaching the Unreached and Telling the Untold. All our missionaries are supported by different churches or prayer groups or individual families.

The beginnings of a new ministry

So Thomas resigned his job and left for Kashmir with his wife, Christy, and their seven-month-old son, Santhosh. Reaching Udhampur, they spent the winter operating out of a one-room mud hut.

Eight months later the first five converts came to Christ and were baptized. They were followed by another seven, and then seven more. Shortly after that, authorities surprisingly offered Thomas a plot of land on which to build a church and construction was begun. Thus Himalaya Evangelical Mission, formerly called Kashmir Evangelical Fellowship, was born.

Conversions bring opposition

When many Hindus began to turn to Christ, the townspeople became alarmed. One day all stores and offices closed and the townspeople gathered to protest the Christians' presence. Authorities ordered Thomas to construction and vacate the property he had been given.

Thomas and Christy felt strongly that they were not to leave. They fasted, prayed and waited. During this time Thomas suffered two heart attacks, but nothing dissuaded him from following the Lord's leading. After reading Ecclesiastes 5:8, Thomas appealed to federal authorities to enforce the freedom of religion clause of the federal Constitution. They ordered local and state authorities to lift the restrictions, and HEM was able to complete its meeting hall.

As the church structure rose little by little, Thomas notes, "Practically every stone in the foundation, every brick, every door and window was a testimony of victory-won over government and municipal stays and threats from the local people."

Expanding the vision

By the ministry's 25th anniversary in 1988, more than 350 people had been baptized in Udhampur. Several schools for children had been established and a training base for missionaries set up.

Then doors opened wide for ministry in the neighboring nation of Nepal, previously closed to missionaries. In a few years, HEM missionaries started nine churches in Nepal and five at the Bhutan border. In time, God led Thomas to concentrate all of his future work in the Himalaya region.

This wider missionary vision led P.M. Thomas to relocate his headquarters to Gorakhpur in 1996, located in India's most populous Uttar Pradesh state close to the Nepal border. With gifts from abroad, buildings that existed on property were renovated and a new central church meeting hall was constructed.

The Himalaya challenge

The Himalaya region is one of the least accessible regions of the subcontinent of India, a 2500-mile stretch of mountains extending from Kashmir in the West to Myanmar (Burma) in the East, including Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan.

The Himalaya range includes some of the world's highest peaks and it is one of the most difficult mission fields. Few missionaries are able to withstand the exhausting mountain travel, severe cold, and hostility of Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims. Bhutan remains closed to the gospel. Evangelism and church building there are not allowed. HEM missionaries cross the border for outreach and to encourage and teach Bhutanese believers. In addition those who believe are brought into India and baptized.

Growth amid hardship

In 1999, HEM's more than 200 missionaries personally brought the gospel to 246,742 people through house-to-house visitation and personal witness. Through the grace of God, they saw 25,895 people make decisions to follow Christ, but due to oppositions, only 437 new believers were actually baptized.

By 2000 91 mission stations had been opened across the Himalaya region in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Nepal and Bhutan, and in 84 of these churches had been organized. In addition, about 40 of those who came to the Lord through HEM's ministry have formed 12 other missionary organizations with approximately 2000 Indian missionaries and hundreds of churches all over North India.

Perseverance amid persecution

Such growth takes place not in the warm confines of a glassed-in greenhouse but amid the harsh climate and rugged terrain of the Himalayas. Few missionaries want to brave them, and those who do face additional hostility from adamant Hindus and Buddhists as well.

SCHOOLS Children learn discipline and devotion besides receiving an education at HEM's seven schools.

Local authorities bulldozed the church building of missionary Sunil Paul in Madhya Pradesh state, citing it was "illegal," even though it had been recognized for over 30 years. When Paul constructed a makeshift shelter out of the remains, enraged authorities came and carted off the rubble, even the church sign board

In West Bengal state, Hindus surrounded the home of missionary V. A. Benny. Another HEM missionary, John Soren, was visiting him. When John left the house, the mob, thinking he was Benny, abducted him, took him to a house and beat and kicked him and left him bleeding from his mouth, nose and ears.

"Even though many of our workers have already experienced persecution, we stand ready to face the challenge and bring the gospel to each person in the Himalayan region," Thomas says

Training and sending out missionaries

At HEM's missionary training center missionary candidates study Hindi and Urdu languages; acquire strategies for ministry to Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims; and learn to adapt themselves to the harsh climate, food and customs of the Himalayan people groups.

Each year HEM trains and sends out a new batch of missionaries, including 42 in 1999. These went to Nepal, the Bhutan border, and other parts of northern India, starting seven new churches in their first year.