Pastor Lee Yi Lun brought a team of nine members on a mission trip to India and saw how God move among His people.
The book of Acts came alive for Pastor Lee Yi Lun and her mission team when they visited India from 26 to 31 July this year.
Pastor Yi Lun (second from left) and the mission team to India
The City Harvest Church pastor brought a team of nine members, two of whom are her fellow full-time workers—Jasmine Kon and Santhi Singaram. They ministered to the members of Grace Harvest Church in Coimbatore, India, a church in The Harvest Network. The church’s senior pastor Blesson Eliyesar and his wife Fincy are graduates of CHC’s School of Theology.
Pastor Yi Lun shared the signs and wonders that happened on the mission trip.
HEALING MIRACLES
The team did home visitations in the village and ministered to the church in the main service on Sunday. They also conducted four family blessing meetings, as well as three HarvestKidz services. After each service, the team would give out a pack of groceries to every family that attended.
The children of Grace Harvest Church enjoyed a HarvestKidz session
At every service, the church was packed with members, who brought along their friends and family. The church counted 300 new friends and families that joined the meetings, out of which 130 people gave their hearts to Jesus.
“We ended every meeting praying for the sick, and we saw many of them receiving their healing,” said the pastor, adding that they also prayed for the members to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Yi Lun and her team witnessed people with back injuries and chronic knee problems receive their healing. One of them was Santhosh, a boy who was born with a blocked right nostril. He was scheduled to have an operation when he turned 15, but after the team prayed for him, he was totally healed and is now able to breathe and sleep normally.
Jothi had been bleeding for a month, a condition that left her exhausted. “After being prayed for, her bleeding stopped completely! Praise the Lord!” Pastor Yi Lun reported. Jothi has a daughter, Veni, whose lungs had been affected by the Covid-19 virus, a condition that the doctors deemed chronic. However, when the team prayed, Veni immediately felt better. She went for a scan later that week and the doctor found that her lungs had been completely healed.
At the Sunday morning service, a lady who had been experiencing great pain in her legs and back for a year received her healing. When she first came to the service, she contemplated leaving early as she could not remain seated for long periods. Pastor Yi Lun shared, “Thankfully, she stayed till the end of the service, got prayed for and was totally healed! She is now able to sit and bend her back with no pain.”
One of the most notable breakthroughs the team witnessed was of a restaurant manager, Freezo. Pastor Blesson had been reaching out to him for five years and Freezo never turned up for service. However, the morning that the mission team was leading the service, Freezo heard the voice of the Lord encouraging him to go to church.
He woke up at 8.30am for the 10am service and went to iron his shirt. Unfortunately, the shirt was damaged by the iron and Freezo felt discouraged—he thought maybe he should not attend church service that day. Yet the voice of the Lord kept urging him to go.
Freezo was prayed for and the Lord healed his wrist
The moment he stepped into the church, he felt immense joy and peace. At the end of the service, Freezo heard the call for someone who needed healing of their wrist and he realised it was him! He had broken his left wrist and it rattled and was painful. He received healing during the service and went forward to testify of his healing. He also accepted Jesus into his heart. Two days later, he visited the gym to exercise and that further confirmed his healing. Greatly touched by the Lord, Freezo shared that he would bring his family and friends to church.
This mission trip was a first for 22-year-old CHC member Dharesan. He prayed for a youth who had blurred vision. The youth’s eyes were damaged by stones that were thrown at him, and he needed to wear a special set of lenses to see. He was due to undergo an operation but after Dharesan prayed for him, the boy was completely healed and no longer needed to wear his lenses. “This boy and his family came a long way to attend this meeting and they are new to the church. It was a life-changing encounter for them indeed!” Pastor Yi Lun said.
Dharesan praying for a young boy whose eyes were damaged by stoning. The boy received healing and no longer needed surgery
POWER OF FAITH
During their mission trip, the team heard of a powerful breakthrough the church had. Grace Harvest Church had been praying and believing God for land to erect a church building in the village Kotagiri. They submitted a written resolution for the land on 25 Oct 2013, and it was approved a year later. However, no official permit for the land purchase was given despite their persistent and continual requests to the authorities.
“On the third day of our mission trip, after 10 long years of prayer, they finally received the official permit to the land,” marveled the pastor. “The building of the church can now begin! Praise the Lord!”
Pastor Yi Lun with Pastor Blesson (right) and Pastor Fincy of Grace Harvest Church
Another breakthrough happened at the family blessing meetings conducted by Pastor Yi Lun and Liang Zhi Peng, a cell group leaders in her pastoral zone.
Pastor Yi Lun explained that in India, arranged marriages and discrimination against women were not uncommon. Before the wedding, the betrothed woman and her family needed to pay a full dowry to the groom and his family. This is different from other Asian cultures where the groom would give dowry to the bride’s family.
Furthermore, if the family of the Indian bride failed to pay the full dowry six months after the wedding, the groom’s family can return the bride to her own family. In their culture, that would be the end of the girl’s future. The pastor noted, “We see many families struggling with absentee fathers, fathers struggling with addiction, womanising and violence, the wives being unable to do much as they could be sent back to their parents. And the sad part is that their parents do not want them either.”
Because of this culture, many female babies are aborted. To prevent this from happening, parents are not allowed to find out the gender of their baby until the baby is born.
The team reached out to and taught couples during family blessing nights
“At our family blessing meetings, we talked about building strong marriages and families. Zhi Peng and I went straight to the root issues and boldly reminded everyone how men and women are both created in the image and likeness of God. As Pastor Kong reminded us at CHC, the Holy Spirit came upon both men and women on the Day of Pentecost. He came to break down every barrier—social, cultural, privilege—between the rich and the poor, the young and the old,” Pastor Yi Lun said.
They reminded the congregation that in a marriage, there must be mutual submission, mutual love and mutual authority.
“We really took a step of faith to deliver such a bold word and the amazing thing was that we had around 30 pastors that came from different villages and cities who came for these family blessing meetings,” she said. “Many said they were very convicted by the message!”
All in, the team was grateful to have witnessed the power of God in India. Said Pastor Yi Lun, “This trip was a testament of the power of faith and prayer!”
