India (MNN) — This Sunday, June 19th, several countries are celebrating Father’s Day. What better way to honor your dad than by giving a gift in his name to spiritually support other fathers through Mission India!
One Indian father, Danesh, is a day laborer and he noticed many of his coworkers had an alcohol addiction. At first, he didn’t join their excessive drinking. But eventually, Danesh gave in to alcoholism and his life spiraled out of control from there.
(Photo representative, courtesy of Mission India)
Erik* with Mission India says, “He ended up spending a lot of what he earned on alcohol, leaving little for his wife and his son. Unfortunately, he would just get drunk to the point where he would fall asleep whenever he fell. He was drunk to the point he didn’t know where he was when he would pass out.
“That would also heap shame onto his family’s name. Obviously, drunkenness is a sin, and it really heaps shame on his wife and his son and on himself to a point where his wife didn’t feel like they could actually go out in public.”
A church planter with Mission India named Vimesh began building a relationship with Danesh.
“Vimesh over time asked to meet with him, and Vimesh just continued to encourage him to give up alcohol. Vimesh prayed over him and for him [and] he shared the Gospel,” Erik says.
“Over time, Jesus freed Danesh from that addiction and recently he received Jesus as his Savior.”
This father went from being an alcoholic who shamed his family to a spiritual leader pointing his family to Jesus.
“Now his family attends a church, they pray together, and they can go out in public and not be embarrassed. So just that [life change] of Danesh now is also [impacting] his family.”
This father went from being an alcoholic who shamed his family to a spiritual leader pointing his family to Jesus.
An Adult Literacy Class with Mission India. (Photo courtesy of Mission India via Facebook)
“We as an organization love working with fathers and encouraging fathers to come to know Jesus and be changed by the love of Jesus,” Erik says. “Through that change, those fathers then are changing the lives of their kids, the lives of their families, and really, in some cases, changing the entire direction of the family name going forward for generations. So it is quite powerful to see.”
To give a gift to Mission India in honor of your own father, grandfather, or a father figure in your life, click here!
Your gift will help advance the Gospel among dads in India and lead to new Christ-following legacies that can be passed down for generations.
Erik says, “You can pick any of the programs. I would recommend Adult Literacy Classes or Church Planter Training as those are two programs that deal specifically with adults. Go give a gift of any amount and write, ‘In honor of my father’ in the comment section, and then let your dad know or your granddad know that you’ve done that — that you supported a potential life change of a father or father-to-be in India.”
*Last name omitted for security purposes.
