Trip to India: 90 Percent Is More Than 100 Percent

By Jim Franks

On Sunday morning, Jan. 12, at 6:15 a.m., Dave Baker and I took a flight from Hyderabad back to New Delhi. In order to make the flight, we had to arrive at the airport by 4 a.m. We arrived safely in New Delhi around 9 a.m. This gave us a full day to look around Delhi before driving to Moradabad on Monday morning.

There are a lot of impressive sites in the Delhi area. According to archaeological discoveries, India has been inhabited for more than 5,000 years, and there are known civilizations dating back to 500 B.C.

Moradabad

On Monday, Jan. 13, our driver, Jasbir, drove us the five hours from New Delhi to Moradabad. We went through many villages and small cities, as well as some rather large cities. There was never any lack of people. While there were some open areas as we drove across the countryside, most of the time we were dodging cars and people.

If you look at a map of India, you will find that Moradabad is almost due east of New Delhi. It is located less than 100 miles from Nepal and the Himalaya Mountains, which have the highest mountain peaks in the world. This area had very cold weather. It was in the 30s Fahrenheit for most of the time we were in Moradabad.

The city of Moradabad is mostly Muslim, the religion brought to India by the Mughal emperors. Interestingly, this city contains our largest group of members. And as you might imagine, living in a city of almost 1 million people where a large percentage are Muslim can be dangerous for Christians. It certainly adds an extra layer of complexity to the isolation our members already feel.

First contact

It was back in 1968 that Robinson Yusuf came across an ad in the Indian edition of the Reader’s Digest. The ad was from the Worldwide Church of God. Robinson was very interested in the space race, and that was the topic of the booklet being advertised. He sent off for the booklet and later subscribed to The Plain Truth.

After a few years of reading the literature and being convinced that this was the truth that he should follow, he wrote and asked for a visit. With so few interested people in India and no ministers, the Worldwide Church of God decided to send a minister who was living in Israel to visit them. Robinson and his friend, Mr. Dachland, traveled the long distance to New Delhi; but unfortunately, the minister did not show up for the visit. Only after they returned home were they informed that the minister would not be there. They were disappointed but not deterred.

It was not until several years later that Robinson actually met a minister, but meanwhile he continued to practice the new religion he had learned. He was keeping the Sabbath and not eating unclean food. He was basically alone during this time period, with the exception of his family and a few others who were also interested in the Church.

Finally in 1978, Robinson was baptized by a minister from the Worldwide Church of God. Robinson and his wife, Dayamani, had two children, Eugene and Rachel. Eugene actually carries the name “Eugene Kumar.” In many parts of India, surnames are not always passed on to the children. Often parents will give their children a Christian name and an Indian name. In the case of their son Eugene, Robinson and his wife gave him the Indian name of Kumar, which is a common name in India.

Even though there was never a WCG congregation in Moradabad and the only time Robinson’s family could attend services was when they traveled to New Delhi or during the Feast of Tabernacles, they remained faithful to the truth they had learned through the Church. As a teenager, Eugene attended the WCG-sponsored SEP (Summer Educational Program) camp in Sri Lanka, which was directed by Dave Baker. This was in 1988.

When 1995 came and the doctrinal changes began to be taught in India, Robinson, his family and close friends in Moradabad chose to disassociate themselves from the Worldwide Church of God. They were not willing to give up the Sabbath, the holy days, tithing or clean and unclean meats. They continued to get together as family with a few friends to worship as they had done for more than 20 years.

By this time, the family was running a private school in Moradabad in a large house they had built. Today the family members all live in the same house, with the school connected to their home. They have a total of 300, mostly Muslim, students. In spite of some persecution from the Muslim community, they continue to teach. They have been running the school now for 25 years; and each morning before classes begin, all the students and teachers (also mostly Muslim) gather in the courtyard in front of the classrooms to sing “Blessed and Happy Is the Man” from our Church hymnal.

Bible study for 15

After arriving in Moradabad on Monday morning, Dave and I drove over to the home/school where Eugene; his wife, Deepti; their two children, Jennifer and Rex; Robinson and his wife; and Rachel all live.

That evening we had 15 people for a Bible study, along with a couple of others who came later. It was a wonderful group, and they were very attentive and so appreciative to have us in their home. With the exception of Dave Baker’s regular visits, this was the first time they had been visited in their home by a Church of God minister.

Eugene is very outgoing and often breaks into a big smile whenever he is talking with you. He has a great sense of humor that lightens up every conversation. During our visit and following the Bible study, Eugene gave Dave Baker an envelope that contained their tithes. Others present during the study did the same. Eugene made the statement that he had learned while growing up in WCG that “90 percent is more than 100 percent.” What he meant by this is that if you pay the tithe, God will provide more than the original amount through blessings.

Eugene also told me that after the doctrinal changes that caused them to disassociate from WCG, they had no place to send their tithes. So they opened a local bank account, and for the next eight years they paid their tithes to this local account. It wasn’t until they made contact with Dave Baker again in 2004 that they had a way to give their tithes again. And each visit that Dave Baker makes, they give him their current tithes along with some additional funds from the tithe account they established at the bank years earlier.

The important lesson of being faithful in little things wasn’t lost on Eugene, Robinson and their families when they disassociated from WCG. Even though they were alone for eight years, they practiced the principle found in Luke 16:10: “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.”

They truly believe that God has blessed them and their school, in spite of the persecution from the Muslim community, primarily because of their willingness to do what God said, including paying their tithes.

It was hard to believe how the entire family survived intact spiritually for the eight years they were not part of any group. They met together on the Sabbath, studied their Bibles and had a meal. Their group consisted of 12 to 17 at various times over the years.

After our Bible study, we had a wonderful meal with the family and then we did some video recording, which you will see on In Accord. We also had the rare privilege of blessing Eugene and Deepti’s five-month-old daughter Jennifer. It was a special evening that I won’t soon forget.

The next day we drove over to Anil Dachland’s home and visited with his family before leaving Moradabad. Anil’s father was the friend who traveled with Robinson to New Delhi on their first attempt to meet a minister of the Worldwide Church of God in the early 1970s. Anil’s father died recently, but he had continued to meet with Robinson and Eugene and their families until he was unable to do so because of his health.

Taj Mahal

On Tuesday, Jan. 14, we took a day off and drove a few hours south to see the sites around Agra. This city has numerous ruins related to the Mughal period in northern India. The Mughals were descendants of Genghis Khan and the Mongols from the steppes of China and Mongolia. They ruled this part of India for more than 200 years and built some of the most impressive buildings that you will see anywhere in the world, including the Taj Mahal, which was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to hold the tomb of his “favorite” wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

The Taj Mahal (which also contains the tomb of Shah Jahan) is the third most viewed site in the world, with more than 50,000 visitors every day. The Taj is more impressive in person than any picture I had ever seen. It is amazing that such a project could be built in the 17th century. The building is an incredible example of symmetry and also contains numerous optical illusions that were built into it.

From here, Dave Baker and I drive back to New Delhi and then fly to Chennai, which is at the southern tip of India. After a night and day in Chennai, we’ll conclude our time in India and fly on to Sri Lanka on Friday, Jan. 17.

It has been an amazing, sobering and inspiring 10 days (we arrived in India on Jan. 7). My next update will be about our visit to Sri Lanka.

From Agra, India,

Jim Franks