Training School 
in India

January 9, 2010

Training schools are one of God’s appointed ways to finish the work in this world and we need to do all that we can to train the youth to act the part that God wants them to play. “The Lord has appointed the youth to be His helping hand.” Christian Service, 30. There are many different training schools that one could choose from here in the United States, but there are many countries in the world that do not have the privileges that we do here in the States. We should believe that it is our duty to train the youth in these other countries that do not have the same opportunities of being trained to do gospel evangelism.

“With such an army of workers as our youth, rightly trained, might furnish, how soon the message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Saviour might be carried to the whole world! How soon might the end come—the end of suffering and sorrow and sin! How soon, in place of a possession here, with its blight of sin and pain, our children might receive their inheritance where ‘the righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever;’ where ‘the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick,’ and ‘the voice of weeping shall be no more heard.’” Education, 271.

Pastor Mike with a Pentecostal pastor and his family.

If we want to see Jesus come and end the suffering and death in our world, we should be training our youth here and in other places around the world to carry forward to the world the last warning message.

One of the forsaken places of the earth with a population of more than a billion people, the majority of which have never even heard of Jesus as being a Savior but have rather been lead to believe that salvation lies in an empty religion and a round of endless ceremonies is India. More than 80% of the population in India believes in some favorite god of the Hindu religion and many of the remainder know little to nothing about the true religion of the Bible.

There are many youth in the country of India who have a desire to be ambassadors of the truth for these last days and receive training to give one-on-one Bible studies or conduct evangelistic series. I was very thankful that God gave me an opportunity to travel to India to conduct such training for the youth in Tamildo, in the southern part of India. God provided a very nice training facility in which to conduct these meetings for the youth. The Green Pastures School, hosted by Timothy and Anita Tharasingh was an ideal location to accomplish training for the youth of that country. In a rural setting, quiet and peaceful, away from the hustle and bustle of the massive cities in India, Green Pastures affords a blessed location for the youth to be trained in gospel missionary training.

Timothy and Anita had made contact with a pastor in Assam, north east region of India, who knew a few students who would like to receive training and who could assist in the gospel work. There were approximately 25 students who accepted the calling to come to training at Green Pastures. A majority of the students were not English speakers so I had a bit of a challenge to communicate my lectures on church history that I was studying with them. But the Lord is always ahead of us. God provided a young lady there to translate for me during my stay.

“Before a person is prepared to become a teacher of the truth to those who are in darkness, he must become a learner.… Whenever a special effort is to be made in an important place, a well-arranged system of labor should be established, so that those who wish to become colporteurs and canvassers, and those who are adapted to give Bible readings in families, may receive the necessary instruction.… There should be connected with our missions, training schools for those who are about to enter the field as laborers. They should feel that they must become as apprentices to learn the trade of laboring for the conversion of souls. The labor in these schools should be varied. The study of the Bible should be made of primary importance, and at the same time there should be a systematic training of the mind and manners that they may learn to approach people in the best possible way. All should learn how to labor with tact and with courtesy, and with the Spirit of Christ.” Evangelism, 107, 108. This passage from the Spirit of Prophecy continued to be impressed upon my mind while I was at the Green Pastures School. Being out in the countryside and not being anywhere near a large metropolitan area, I didn’t think there was much I could do in the way of evangelism; but the Lord worked it out, and I was able to speak at a Pentecostal church that was near the training school.

Pastor Mike taking blood pressure readings at a health screening.

I was invited to this pastor’s church to perform health screenings on all the members that wanted to have their blood pressure checked. On Sunday, several of the students and I went to meet the pastor at his church. We arrived near the end of the service and I was informed that they had a guest speaker that Sunday. We listened to the guest speaker deliver his message in the local language of Tamil. As the guest speaker was finishing his discourse, the pastor of the church came and asked me if I would say a few words to his congregation, which of course, I gladly accepted. I didn’t know what I was going to do for a translation, but the Lord had that worked out also. The guest speaker spoke fluent English and translated beautifully for me. I spoke for about 15 minutes about our bodies being the temple of the Holy Spirit and that God owns us through creation and redemption. I explained that we cannot place anything that we want in our bodies withouthaving   consequences. Isn’t it amazing how the Lord works!

After I had spoken and had finished the health screening for all the church members and had given a short discourse on the eight natural doctors, I was asked by the pastor if I could return next Sunday and take the entire church service. I was actually a bit shocked, because I was quite direct about what we should and should not put in our bodies.

Pastor Mike with his translator.

I still had the same dilemma of who was going to translate, but gladly accepted the invitation and was there on the followingSunday. God worked it out that the guest speaker who had to travel some distance to be there was at the church the next Sunday to help me translate the message about “preparing for heaven.” As I spoke about heaven and what the saints will be doing in that glorious land, all intently listened and were inspired about what the Bible had to say about this subject. Many “amen’s” of praise arose to our Father in heaven. This text seems to fit the guest speaker. “The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.” Isaiah 32:4. I pray that the truth about who will be able to enter those pearly gates in Revelation 22:14 will burn into their memories and that they will be a part of the great harvest of souls that Jesus will come and receive as His own when He returns in the clouds of heaven.

By Mike Bauler. E-mail: mike@missionspro.org Support for Green Pastures can be sent to Pacific Leadership Center, 374 SE Highland Park Dr., College Place, WA 99324. Please earmark for SALUTE Min. School.

Top: Pastor Mike taking blood pressure readings at a health screening.

Middle: Pastor Mike with a Pentecostal pastor and his family.

Bottom: Pastor Mike with his translator.