Three Years of God’s Faithfulness

We are approaching a three year milestone in the unfolding story of Open Doors Lucknow. It was almost three years ago on Oct 5, 2018, that we had a prayer at our home in Gomtinagar Extension where our senior Pastor, Reverend Pappy Mathai, prayed and blessed the beginning of a new chapter in new Lucknow.

Since then, we began meeting. Beginning with three families – Nitin & Bindiya, Beilsy & Hazel and Jan and I, along with our kids, we began the journey together. I am personally grateful for these friends who joined us along in the journey. And this blog is a small testament to God’s faithfulness through the years.

We began meeting on Sunday evenings to pray at our home. Sometimes it would be just 2 or three of us. I remember the Sunday after that first prayer – our first gathering since the opening, one of our friends Ashraye, brought home one of his friends visiting from the UK. As she worshipped with us, she had a word from God about what OpenDoors was destined to be. She shared that she saw OpenDoors being like an oasis of life through which God’s life will flow into the city. We thanked God that in our first gathering, coincidentally (from our point of view), we were able to have a word from God affirming our steps forward.

For me, to be honest, it was an nervous time. Moving away from something that was established to starting something from scratch. And wondering how things are going to unfold. We really didn’t have any plans beyond meeting to pray and thinking through the word.

In 2019, we decided to start meeting on Sunday mornings and became more regular in our gatherings. By then we began to collectively think about what it means to be followers of Jesus in relation to our lives in world we live in. What it means to people part of the Kingdom of God – people ruled by God. We began to quickly discover that we could no longer view our human makeup in parts – spirit, soul and body. Those terms are good for understandings sake. But that we are one whole being. As such, God’s purpose for every one of the relationships we share is seen right from the beginning of the Bible. God putting us in relationship with himself, ourselves, each other, and creation. But human rebellion and the brokenness of sin is felt in every part of our human makeup. So we further began to collectively affirm that Jesus’ work on the cross was to redeem every part of our human make up – spirit, soul and body. Spiritually to be reconciled with God and begin a relationship with Him, In our Soul – where our emotions and will – experience the transformation that comes from the power of God’s Spirit dwelling in us everyday. And Physically – God leading us to do the works that he would do in the world we live in. We also felt that as a Church, if this is God’s heart, then we have a role to play wherever the brokenness of sin is felt. Be it relational, spiritual, emotional, physical – poverty of all kinds.

This is why we adopted as our missions – To Bring wholeness to the Human Makeup.

That’s when in 2019, we began to think about how to use our gifts to begin to love and help people around us. By mid-2019, Alish and Shrishti who had joined us began to have conversations with us about being more involved. Alish wanted to be more involved in people’s lives. Shrishti had a heart for the kids. With Shrishti, we started God’s Champions – Our Kids Ministry. And she has been such an ardent cheerleader of that ministry. Investing in the kids. With Alish, we began to have conversations about fitness. Rohan Cherian, another fitness fanatic, was with us at that time. And we began to think about how we could help people in that area. It required a paradigm shift in our thinking in all of us as we decided not to be a church that meets to huddle every week, but is active in the community that we are in, adding value to people’s lives, giving them a glimpse of what life in the Kingdom of God looks like. This is a tall order. But we are still on this journey.

Miraculously, we met some friends who decided to back us in this endeavor. Even though we were a small group, we saw God provide in very significant ways for us as a community. Making us a blessing to the poor and those who were struggling. And so we began operations on the counseling and fitness services from April 2020. Right in the middle of the Pandemic. We didn’t think Janet would be involved last year especially with a new baby in the house. But seeing the tremendous need for mental health last year, Jan decided to start and do whatever she could. It was a stressful time for us, navigating through trying to parent well, keeping up the house, and working. But God’s grace was sufficient everyday.

https://www.zoefit.co/

By February 2021, Jan and I decided to move to Sushant Golf City, a place that is central to New Lucknow sprouting up before our eyes. We started meeting in our home. And we had the joy of having our first baptism service with Abhishek around Easter. Post that, almost all of us fell sick with symptoms of either the flu and Covid. Some of us were tested positive as well. Yolanda was very sick and had to be admitted. Beilsy and family, Rajender, Gaurav and family were severely affected as well. But we thank God for the strength that he gave us to support each other and come through by his grace. Through that tough time, we have become closer as a community.

Our team has begun to grow. Tina has been helping us with many of our initiatives right from the beginning. Joining us on the journey of wanting to know God more and see his glory revealed in us and through us. Lately we have had the joy of Blesson joining on the team especially with our youth outreach. Both he and Sneha add such joy and value to the ministry. We also are grateful to have Shiny to join as an additional trainer and counselor in our desire to bless the city.

These have been small beginnings. And I’m grateful to God for opening doors for us to journey along with precious ones in this place. We are truly blessed and we never want to forget that. Thank you for journeying with us, praying for us and encouraging us through this whole process. We thank God for you.

God’s placed us here in the city for a reason. To show off His greatness, to be conduits of his love to the world around us. May Open Doors continue to be that

Please say a prayer for the work here as you read this.

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