Investing in Leaders in India: Manoj’s Story

Manoj and his family were some of the only Christians in their village in India. Despite there not being a large faith community around him, ReFrame’s staff in India knew that Manoj’s faith was strong. Then his faith was put to the test. 

Manoj has been listening to audio programs from ReFrame’s Hindi ministry partners on his smartphone for years. When he heard about a leadership training event led by ReFrame’s partners in March 2022 near his village, he was eager to attend. 

The event was a new way for ReFrame to connect with listeners in person, focusing especially on leaders and lay pastors in remote settings. 

“Manoj’s village is surrounded by forest and mountains. It takes hours to reach it from the nearest city,” ReFrame’s partners shared. “Still, almost 30 participants from remote places such as this attended the training. All the pastors and leaders were originally from other faith traditions and had never attended this type of training before.”

At the event, Manoj came away with new tools for sharing his faith, including devotionals and other literature from ReFrame’s team. He was eager to share the good news with others back home. That proved to be more difficult than he expected.

A few weeks later, ReFrame’s partner received this message from Manoj: 

“Please pray for the people of my village, because they object to me sharing the Word of God and your devotionals with others,” Manoj shared. “Whenever I talk to anyone in my village, people look at me with suspicion. They stop me from talking and persecute me. They do not allow my family to take water from the village hand pump. Please pray for them.”

For the next several months, ReFrame’s partners and Manoj continued to pray for the situation. They asked God to soften the hearts of those in his village and for the safety of Manoj’s family. In July, Manoj sent another message. 

“The people in my village are no longer creating problems,” Manoj said. “For this, I thank God the Father and all of you too. Please keep praying for us.”

Although Manoj’s plans didn’t go exactly as expected, he hopes to attend more events led by ReFrame in the future. He said the audio programs and encouraging messages from ReFrame’s partners helped him through the difficult time that he and his family experienced. Please pray for young leaders like Manoj as they minister in difficult places.