Friday, January 1, 2010

YEAR FOUR OF GRABBING GOOGLE GEN FROM GEHENNA – A YEAR WITH GRACE GALORE!

G4 Mission Annual Report for 2009 by Evangelin Duke

Our fourth year of independent ministry!

2009 is history. It is over. It was a year in which we experienced God’s grace and favor upon our individual lives and ministry. It was the first full year in which we ministered full-time living by faith (Duke quit his job with HSBC in November 2008). It marked the completion of the fourth year of independent ministry (Duke founded Grabbing the Google Generation from Gehenna (= Hell, in Greek) Mission in Feb 2006, as the Lord lead him to). And how faithful the Lord was in meeting our needs. And how He abundantly blessed our ministry!

A Year of Prayer

Without Me, you can do nothing, Jesus told us. Fully aware of this, we decided spend time in His Presence this year. We knew ministry was just an overflow of our relationship with Jesus. So we deliberately spent time at His Feet. Almost without exception, every Tuesday and Thursday of 2009 was spent in fasting prayer till evening. In the month of May and in the month of November we spent a full week in fasting (till evening 4) celebrating His presence, reading His Word and asking Him to direct us. To be much for God, we needed to be much with God, we knew.

Highlights

Let me give you the highlights of our ministry this year before going into the details. It was an year in which Duke got to speak in three national level conferences, as God opened the door – one a corporate level conference, one a church denominational level conference, one a para-church organized conference. It was an year in which Duke spoke in four new churches in Hyderabad, as God swung the door open – churches in which he has never spoken in before. It was an year in which Duke’s articles appeared 11 times in 12 issues in the leading Christian monthly of India, as God gave him wisdom. It was an year in which we saw over 70% of the audience came forward to answer the salvation altar call that Duke gave in a college university student retreat, as the Spirit moved mightily. It was an year in which we saw over 70% of the audience came forward to answer the altar call, moved by the Spirit, for fulltime ministry that Duke gave in a student missionary camp. It was an year in which Duke preached to students of a medical college for the first ever time, as God graciously opened the door. It was an year in which Duke preached for the first time in the state of Jharkhand in North India making it the 16th Indian state Duke has preached in, in an itinerant preaching ministry that began, shortly after he completed his schooling (grade 12) in Ida Scudder School, Vellore in the year 1992.

Practical Whole Bible Book Summary Studies

Making Yahweh’s Word relevant and practical to the yahoo youth is our God-given vision in our ministry. We strove to achieve this goal and aim. We ran Bible-studies that did that in homes of Brother Christopher (till July 2009), Daniel and Magdalene (till June 2009) and moved this study finally to our office-cum-counseling centre-cum-home (from September 2009 onwards). In each of these Bible Studies, Duke took up one full book of the Bible and summarized its message practically. In the home of Brother Christopher in Dr. A. S. Rao Nagar, the books of Malachi, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, I Samuel, II Samuel and I Kings were studied. In the home of Daniel and Magdalene in Raj Bhavan Road the books of Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Ruth, I Samuel and II Samuel were studied.

April 09 - Bible Study at Daniels

In the Uncle Sathkeerthi Rao owned house in Kanajiguda we lived in, the book of II Kings was studied. In the house of Brother Paul (the Aradana TV Channel’s Owner and CEO) just behind the Kanajiguda Petrol Pump were we now stay, the books of I Chronicles and II Chronicles were studied. So far, by God’s grace, 26 different Old Testament Bible Books have been studied in this fashion, till date, since Duke began this study in the year 2007. In the month of December, in the same home, a deep Christmas Prophecy Bible Study titled, “Christmas Prophet Who Prick” was done. The crowd was not that huge in these bible studies. But they represented ‘rain-bow’ groups of people: young and old, charismatics and non-charismatics, corporates and full-time ministers of the Gospel, the educated and the simple, the AG church believers and the Methodist Church believers, corporate managers and youth still on the lookout for a job. We pray for people’s needs following these 90 minute long studies. And we have seen the Lord do miracles. For example, a young man from Goan background, who attended our study miraculously got the opportunity to work with Dubai Metro Rail.

To share the rich practical lessons he shared with a wider audience, Duke wrote the Ruth Bible Study he did in form of an article and it appeared in the last issue of The Days Of Your Youth magazine for the year. In fact, when he shared this message in the home of Daniel and Magdalene before an estimated crowd of 30 people, he audio-recorded it. This talk titled, “Ruth Romance Marriage Lessons” (a 90 minute talk) became part of the MP3 CD of Duke, titled, The Duke Sex, Love, Marriage Talks Collection.

Traveling out of Hyderabad to preach India-over

To make young people go gaga over God’s Word, a goal that God gave us, we continued to accept preaching assignments in meetings organized by various organizations/churches by traveling from our base in Hyderabad, India’s most centrally located big city. In January, we were in New Hope Church, Chilakklu, near Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, preaching to over 800 youth. Several young people were filled with the Holy Spirit.


Jan 09 - Evan speaks in Chilakallu

In February, Duke was in Trivandrum preaching in Life Fellowship, Trivandrum, challenging this influential church for witnessing and its youth in a Valentine’s Day Event. Earlier in the same month, though Duke went as a participant in a Media Leaders Seminar organized by Haggai Institute in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, Duke had the opportunity to share God’s Word in one of the devotions to an elite group. His message, Nathan, The Moving Movie Maker, touched hearts and provoked minds.

Feb 09 - Duke at Life Fellowship

In the month of May, a group of ministry-minded corporates invited Duke to make two presentations in the first-ever all India conference for corporates interested in ministry inBangalore. This event became the first of the three national-level events, Duke had an opportunity to speak in, this year. In a wedding reception in the same city, Duke made use of the opportunity he had in being the Master of Ceremonies, to make interesting biblical statements about marriage before a huge audience.

May 09 - National Corporates Conference, Bangalore

In June, we preached in the youth camp organized by The Trichy Team along with other speakers from Bangalore, in Shalom Gardems, Trichy. Students from the African continent were among those present. Duke again traveled to Chennai to preach in The Anna Nagar ACA House of David Church and in the The Kodambakkam Ruah Revival Church. The senior pastor of that Ruah Church, Pastor Allwyn Thomas remarked that Duke’s Jonah-based message sparked a little revival in that church with folks ready to join full-time ministry immediately.

June 09 - Kodambakkam Ruah Church

June 09 - I speak, Duke translates into Tamil

June 09 - African students at Trichy Camp where we ministered

In August, both of us preached in Hanamkonda, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh in the 3000-strong Centenary Baptist Church there.

Aug 09 - At Hanamkonda

In September, we shared God’s Word in Coimbatore in the Karunya University (at one time to a total audience of 7000). Duke sat down and answered student questions on a wide range of topics “live”, there. Again in the month of September, Duke traveled to Srikakulam, near Vizag, Andhra Pradesh, to preach in an Indian Evangelical Mission’s Youth Convention there.

Sept 09 - Commitment Time at Karunya


Sept 09 - At IEM Youth Missionary Camp

In the month of October, we traveled to Airoli, Navi Mumbai to speak in the BTCYF Conference where over 400 youth gathered. In the same month, Duke was lovingly invited by Pastor Valson Varghese to speak in the National Youth Conference of the AG Church in the largest church in India – the New Life AG Church, Chennai – along with other eminent speakers. Over 1300 youth from all over India were there. Duke preached a soul-stirring message on inner purity. He outlined in a talk that was simultaneously into Tamil and Hindi, seven Bs to beat temptation and keep inner purity. At the end of that message, the young people ran to the altar to surrender their bodies for holy living. One of Duke’s most satisfying moments of this year was when Pastor D. Mohan, the founding pastor of this huge church, and Dr. David Balasingh, Duke’s Bible College Preaching Teacher, appreciated him, following this message of his. Pastor Younus Samuel, who has listened to Duke preach from the year 2002, messaged Duke on his mobile to state that was Duke’s best ever message he had heard till date. It was the Lord who enabled Duke to share that message with unction and anointing and to lift up his preaching level for a big audience in a National-level event.

Oct 09 - At YFC National Discipleship Camp With Top Speakers

In the month of
November, Duke traveled to North India to speak in an Engage India-organised Student Missionary Conference in which 400 youth from all over Jharkhand gathered in Madhupur. 75% of the audience committed their lives for fulltime ministry following Duke’s book of Amos-based missionary challenge fighting back the tears. The organizer told Duke the program’s goal was achieved following what happened that memorable night. Duke also had the opportunity to speak on how to preach to today’s youth to the student body of Southern Asia Bible College, Bangalore, in the same month.

Nov 09 - At Jharkhand

In the month of December, we traveled to the town of Kurnool. Duke presented the Gospel, beginning with the story of Yuvraj Singh’s birthday bash in a setting where over 700 medical students/professors gathered in a Government auditorium, there.

Dec 09 - Kurnool Medical College Christmas Meeting

Ministry With In Hyderabad

Within the City of Hyderabad, Duke had many an opportunity to share God’s Word. In January, the students of Andhra Pradesh Bible College, heard Duke during their Mission Conference. In the month of February, Duke shared God’s Word in the wedding reception of Ravi and Nisha – a practical message that later reached out to a world wide audience through Youtube. In March, about 800 youth were blessed by Duke’s eye-opening message, The ‘Diamond’ Blood in the Youth Alive Saturday Evening Service of the New Life AG Church. Duke also preached to the core group of Calvary Temple, Kukatpally, Hyderabad in a camp. More than 50% of them committed for fulltime ministry following his mission challenge titled, “Do You Have It In You?”

March 09 - Commitment

In the next month, the month of April, the founding pastor of this church, TV Speaker, Dr. Sathish Kumar, invited Duke to share the Word in the Sunday Evening Easter Service in which 3000 people were present. During the Good Friday Week in April, Duke was invited to speak in a Gospel Evening by the Infosys Fellowship. His talk, “Seven Sense Making Statements,” given in a candle-lit setting (no power because of violent thunderstorms) shone the Gospel light in the hearts of his corporate company employed hearers! In April, in the New Life AG Church, Duke had the opportunity to preach to the National Leaders of the Youth Ministry of the AG Church, a message titled, “Sleeping or Speeding?”. Young leaders, youth pastors of the AG Church, from all over India were present. Again, in the same month, Pastor Chaitanya Gera, Duke’s Bible College Room Mate had Duke over in His Church to preach in his church at Hitec City. Duke’s message blessed his church full of corporate company employed youth.

April 09 - Corporates Good Friday Outreach

In the month of May, in an event called Summer For Jesus, Duke preached to about 1000 youth a mission-challenge message titled, Have You Heard This Joe’s Go? Several youth surrendered their lives for full-time ministry. One African Student wanted to publicly confess the sin he was repenting from, the sin of porn-watching, after this message. Earlier on, in the same camp, Duke lead a workshop in which he talked about pornography, masturbation, homosexuality, living-in, divorce, etc, in biblical light, holding back nothing that would benefit the youth. Again, the venue was New Life AG Church. In the same month, Duke shared a stirring Gospel message in the Azaadi, Dil Kiyouth camp of Youth For Christ after which young people gave their hearts to Christ.

May 09 - After Jonah's Go Nah message in NLAG

In the month of July, Duke preached in a youth convention in the CSI Church at Musheerabad in an event organized by an Australian-Indian.

July 09 - Praying with youth

In the month of August, Duke spoke in a Campus Crusade organized meeting for students after which several students made a public commitment to Christ. There were students from the African continent in this meeting, as well. In the same month, Duke daringly preached on What Will Save and What Won’t Save in the All Saints CSI Church, Tirumalgiri.

In the month of September, Duke preached two messages to the teens of the same church in a camp for them in the outskirts of Hyderabad. Young teens decided to read and study the Bible regularly following Duke’s second message. In the same month, the month of September, Duke preached in the youth convention of the Mennonite Bretheren Church. Duke’s messages on death, sex and witnessing, wooed and wowed the youth who gathered.

Sept 09 - Duke spoke to these of the Google Gen at Hyd of NLAG Church

In the month of October, Duke preached in the Youth Sunday of the Millennium Methodist Church, a message titled, When Jesus Met Young People. Earlier in the same month, Duke lead a workshop on preaching to today’s youth to eager participants from all over India in the Youth For Christ National Discipleship Camp in Hyderabad.

In the month of December, Duke was invited to preach in the Christmas Bash of the ITC Company to a crowd of about 400 in the terrace of that company’s premises. The Vice-president of that company present appreciated Duke’s Gospel-presenting talk that began with a reference to Shah Rukh Khan’s latest movie,The Name is Khan on that occasion. Several non-Christians of great influence heard the Gospel.

Sharing God’s Word in Special Home Settings

Duke also shared God’s Word in settings such as these in Hyderabad: the first anniversary of a couple who had gotten married after Duke proposed the boy to the girl; the special prayer meeting organized to send off an Indian student to study in the United States; healing service in a home for a cancer-affected patient; a gathering for seekers from the Roman Catholic Faith; a birthday party for a little girl in which non-Christians were present; in a church care-cell meeting; second anniversary of a house church in Somajiguda. In such settings, Duke made it a point to preach what the crowd needed to hear, rather than what they wanted to hear. For example, in the healing service, Duke made it a point to share instances in the Bible when God did not choose to heal. Incidentally, the cancer-affected man passed away and Duke’s message went a long way in preparing the young widow he left behind and her family for this sad departure. In the meeting for Roman Catholics, he outlined without mincing with words, the several places where the historic Roman Catholic Faith departs from the sound biblical teachings. He later uploaded the audio version of this talk onto www.dukejeyaraj.mypodcast.com to make it available for the worldwide Roman Catholic community. Preaching to prepare the ground for the second invitation – Duke, powered by the Spirit of Boldness, never does that.

Preaching Alongside Duke

It was a year in which I too had an opportunity to preach God’s Word. I preached messages along with Duke in Chillakallu (January), Trichy (June), Hanamkonda (August), Coimbatore (September) and Mumbai (October). It is a privilege to partner with Duke in ministry the way Priscilla partnered with Acquila. I was exclusively invited to preach to the youth of Centenary Methodist Church in Abids, Hyderabad this February and in a Women’s Fellowship Meeting in Saket, Hyderabad this November on how to face a crisis situation. I could not take up some preaching invitations because of family commitments (We have two small hyper-active children to rear!).

Testing Times

When we traveled and preached, this year, there were some testing times. The Devil won’t suck his thumb and sleep when he sees a preaching couple, working hard to plunder hell and to populate heaven, in action, would he? On Day One, during the youth camp we preached in at Navi Mumbai, our little daughter, Datasha, split her lips in an accident while she played. Both of us were about to preach simultaneously in two different workshops. Duke held her in his lap even as she was still bleeding in her lips, spoke to the youth. And after we completed our messages we immediately rushed her to the nearby hospital. When Duke went to North India for ministry, this November, Datasha started wheezing very badly. But by God’s grace, she became alright after I took her to the doctor who put her on medication.

CD Messages Ministry

By creating new CD messages we were able to distribute to hungry hearts, world over, Bible Truths wrapped around contemporary events this year. Here are some of the newly-released CDs featuring Duke’s messages: In the MP3 format – Duke Youth Talk Collection – II, The Duke Sex, Love, Marriage Talks Collection, Meaty Messages – II, The Apt Word for the Corporate World (Updated); Honey for the Hotmail Generation (Updated). Each of these audio MP3 CDs have about 10 messages in each of them. In the DVD format – The Diamond Blood/Sleeping or Speeding/Have You Heard This Joe’s Go?! (3 messages in one DVD); Jonah’s Go Nah (English To Tamil format); The Bible on Death/ Bible Characters and Temptation/ Why Missions/ The urgency of Missionary Work and Evangelism/ How To Witness – these five messages went into one new English to Telugu DVD; The Greatest Friend Ever / The Greatest of the Greatest / Getting Hooked To The Greatest Book – this became an updated DVD with three messages; The Bible on Death / Suddenly Dead, Because Killed By God – these two messages given directly in English went into one DVD; The Bible Character Who Got Killed in An Accident / Close Shave With Dave – these two messages went into one DVD; Getting Hooked To The Greatest Book / The Longest Poem on the Greatest Book – two messages in one DVD; Permanent Prisoner to Freed Forever / The Bible on Sex / Spiritual Swine Flu / The Message They Missed - Four messages in the English to Telugu format in a single DVD; All About The Holy Spirit / Questions and Answers/ Relationships With The Opposite Sex / Paul’s Missionary Call – Four Talks in One DVD, English To Tamil format; The Sad Story of A Beauty / Chain-free and Happy – Two Messages in One DVD; Paul, the Google Generation Gospel Presenter / The Bible on Work-Life Balance / If Daniel Were In Dell… (Three Presentations for Corporates in One DVD). A look at these message titles tells one about our balanced emphasis and creative, practical approach. Some of these messages were given in the previous years and they were combined with messages given this year. We had a very good response when we put up these CDs along with our old CDs (we now have about 15 DVDs and atleast 5 MP3 CDs) for sale in meetings Duke preached in. On an average about 20 to 30 CDs are sold in each meeting. We continue to receive testimonies from young people who listen to these CD messages. There was this young man, a Indian student living in Australia, who left a Facebook message to Duke about how the message, The Nathan You Never Knew, blessed him! Duke, incidentally preached this message in a church in Chromepet, Chennai, the being year 2005! Duke gives a clean chit for people to copy his CDs and distribute them in their world. The students at Karunya University took this very seriously. They uploaded onto their Local Area Network (LAN) Duke’s messages!

A Volunteer-Driven Ministry

Ruby Chandrasekar, who lives in New Jersey with her husband, did a bulk of the CD cover design voluntarily as did Navamani Kingsley who works for Delloitte. G4 Mission, our ministry, continues to be a volunteer-driven ministry rather than a staff-driven ministry. Solomon Paul, working for a corporate in Bangalore, voluntarily took up a new task this year – that of sending messages and updates from the web on behalf of Duke that would appear as text messages in the mobile phones of our contacts.

One of the 2009 Message CD Covers designed by Ruby

Book Publishing Ministry

Duke’s three books – Straight Talk on Hushed Up Subject Without Beating About The Bush, If Daniel Were in Dell and The Google News For The Google Generation – in the photocopy, spiral bound format, were sold briskly this year in our meetings. The Good News For The Google Generation, which had only about 25 Gospel presentation articles of Duke last year-end, has 45 of them by the end of this year! The book, If Daniel Were In Dell, so impressed a Pastor in a City (a pastor Duke has never met) that he started sending a sizable monthly offering for our ministry, month after month. A lady living in the far away land of United States of America ordered for the book, The Good news for the Google Generation. God willing, by next year end, we would have printed our best-selling book, STRAIGHT TALK… This book wraps Bible Truths around hot topics of interest to youth.

New Book Ideas

Duke also has new book ideas he is pregnant with. One such idea is to write as articles his Whole Bible Book Practical Summary Outlines (done in acronym style). There would be one article for each of the 66 books of the Bible. These articles would come together in a book. This is a project of a lifetime. Another book, that Duke is planning is titled, GRIPPING YOUTH BIBLE CHAPTERS. This book would be an practical exposition on the great youth truth chapters of the Bible such as Genesis 39, Proverbs 7, Genesis 24, Ezekiel 16, etc. Duke has already preached messages that have pricked the hearts of his hearers from these chapters. But, he has to take time out to write them as articles, in the coming years. Writing remains one of Duke’s primary calls.

Ministry Through The Internet

We continue to use the World Wide Web to share the messages that were born during the sweat of our personal Bible meditation for the benefit of a larger, world-wide audience. Our mission’s name is Grabbing the Google Generation from Gehenna Mission. Our audience is the Google Generation. And they live all over the world from Copenhagen to Chennai to Canberra. From Chicago to Cairo to Colombo. To serve such hip youth we set up websites. Our main website,TheDaysOfYourYouth.com has now over 115,000 hits! Google reports that those hits come from many parts of the globe from countries such as Poland, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Australia, China, Indonesia, Canada, etc. The December Hits Reports said that the hits came from 97 countries/territories. There were people who opened this site when they search Google.com under, “How To Defeat Sexual Temptation”, this report from Google Analytics said. Encouraged by this, we have opened our second website, g4mission.org, through the company of Santhosh William, our volunteer who works with Haggai International. While TheDaysofYourYouth.com is a article oriented website featuring Duke’s articles that wrap Bible Truth around contemporary events, this new website will feature ministry news with photos and ministry products like CDs. We continue to have our blog presence – thanks to volunteers, Fenella Prince and Florussel Sathya. Our blog, G-4Mission.blogspot.com features our ministry news with photographs while the sitePurposeSpot.Blogspot.com hosts Duke’s creative Gospel presentations. We were thrilled to see this last-mentioned blog tagged in other blogs of other writers as well. Not only that. Duke’s audio messages were uploaded onto two sites – www.duke.mypodcast.comandwww.dukejeyaraj.mypodcast.com. Again, this was Santhosh William’s creative initiative. To top this all, we have our youtube.com uploads featuring Duke’s message clips on hot topics. The hit video among this lot of over 10 video clips is titled, “Sex outside of marriage – Preity Zinta Vs The Bible”. This video has over 4700 hits. In the second position is yet another Duke video titled, “Kate Winslet Vs The Bible When It Comes to Nudity and Porn Watching!” (a video with over 2500 hits). This year, Duke split up his mission challenge message, “Do You Have It In You?” and “Why God Created Marriage”, into different parts and uploaded them onto Youtube.com. Among this fresh lot, the clip, “Jesus’ Uniqueness, Harsha Bhogle and Missions,” has seen the maximum number of hits. We have recently roped in a youtube upload volunteer from Karunya University for more such provocative uploads that would give an opportunity for the google generation to go gaga over God’s world! Via popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Orkut we let our partners and friends know what we were upto, regularly. Their prayers kept following us, wherever we went!

Ministry Through Tracts-Distribution

We are a ministry to modern youth. Yes, indeed. But we believe in employing age-old ministry methods too, to get the message across, because we know there are methods which never get out of date. I am talking about the method of tracts distribution. We continued distributing the Gospel tract written first by Duke in the year 2001, Bubbly Outside, Yet Empty Inside, a tract that begins with an Ashwariya Rai Quote, in various places, this year. In Kacheguda Railway Station in Hyderabad alone, we have done this a multiple times (especially to the book-reading Bangalore bound passengers). On two occasions, this year, we had the joyous privilege of praying the sinner’s prayer with our co-passengers who read our tract. We have distributed this tract discreetly in the most modern shopping mall in Hyderabad, GVK1, too. On World AIDS Day, 1 December, we gave out copies of our magazine with the lead article, “Shah Rukh In DDLJ Wouldn’t Do It Even In A Dream!” – an AIDS awareness article by Duke with the Gospel wrapped around it, to interested youth in Neredmet area of Secunderabad. One young person, who has seen us distributing tracts, planned for a similar distribution when she went to Poland on a work related visit! Even we holidayed in Lonawala, we passed out a few tracts to interested people in the streets. We make it a point to pass this tract to interested co-passengers in our train journeys and even flight journeys. At least a handful of airhostesses have received this tract from us during our ministry flight trips.

Counseling Youth

Counseling youth – we made time for this ministry this year, despite challenging schedules we had to keep with two hyper-active kids in tow (a son, 6 years old and a daughter, 2 years old). Young people, either landed up in our home, or talked to us on the phone. We gave them frank, biblical counsel, each time. These sessions took time. I remember, there was a time when Duke was on the phone for 40 minutes talking to one troubled young person, this year. I recall one particular incident with regard to this, very well. I noticed a young girl in tears talking to two young boys right in front of our Kanajiguda home, recently. I walked up to them and invited them home. We let them use our pent-house in which Duke works so that they could sit there and talk. Later, we joined them and prayed with them. The girl who was in tears repeatedly thanked us for this gesture.

We emailed counsel to youth who asked for it as well. There was this lady who wrote to us talking about her marital problems, just to mention one example. That was this boy who was struggling with the habit of masturbation coupled with porn-watching, just to cite another example. There are now over 1500 folks who receive our mass emails. And some among this huge worldwide audience write to us for counsel and we offer it to them.

Helping Youth Find Life Partners

The most common issue for which young people come to us for counseling is on the subject of life partner choice. We strongly counsel young people against marrying non-believers. We have taken up the ministry of helping young people find their life partner by prayerfully connecting them with potential life partner candidates via mass emails to Christian Leaders scattered across the World who in turn could help them. In the coming years, we look to doing this in an organized manner. We are praying and thinking of setting up a matrimonial blog on behalf of our ministry.

The Magazine Ministry

The Days of Your Youth magazine, the magazine that wraps Bible Truth around contemporary events, which Duke started using his first month call centre job salary in March 2006, continued to have impact. We published five issues this year (Issue 16 to Issue 20). This year, each issue asked the readers the following searching questions, on their respective covers: What is your excuse?; How Do You Balance Life with Work?; Is Being Gay, Okay?; What Are You Most Passionate About?; Remember Your Most Romantic Moment? The first issue’s cover was designed by the very creative Supriya Balasundaram of Mumbai and the rest by sharp-witted Eugene Pandian of Bangalore. The contents were edited by this team: Shruthi Joy, Steve Jothiraj, Bro. Christopher Tharalla and Magdalene Daniel. The photos that appeared alongside the articles were picked up from the web by Ravi Alamothu, Florussel Sathya, Gideon Gnanasekaran and Duke. The inside page layout for the magazine was deftly done by Ravi Alamothu living in Malaysia in most of the issues. We praise God for each of these persons without whose help our mag would have never seen the light of day. We print 1000 copies. We send about 400 copies by post to our subscribers. And the rest, we distribute in the meetings that Duke preaches in, freely. This mag has gained the reputation of being a “different”, “daring” magazine which is read equal interest by believers and non-believers, alike. The last page usually has a very basic message or a Gospel presentation. Here is the list of the articles that appeared in the last page, designed to attract the attention of non-Christians: Lovely, Yet Lonely?, Michael Jackson Was Right…, When the desires of Usain Bolt Met With God’s, Another One Like Sehwag? Another One Like Jesus?, That Stinging Line From FakeIPLPlayer.blogspot.com & The Truth. We continue to receive oral comments, emails, smses, orkut scraps, facebook wall posts about how this magazine is a such a great blessing from people as diverse as College professors, Doctors and Corporate Company Leaders. Preparing this magazine takes time and so Duke has to say ‘no’ to some preaching assignments to concentrate on this work. What we write will live long after what we preach, correct?

One mag cover of this year designed by Eugene

Writing for other publications

In India’s leading Christian Monthly magazine, Light of Life (www.lightoflife-india.com) Duke continued to contribute articles. In fact, this year, his articles appeared in 11 out of the 12 issues. And when we think that stalwarts in ministry like Bro. Zac Poonen write regularly for this magazine, we are humbled! This magazine goes to about 15,000 people all across India and the world. Some of the articles that Duke wrote for this magazine were titled this way: Just Three Words To Witness For Jesus!/ Remember Gately!/ Was Dr. Reddy, Ready?/ God’s Twitter Update/ The Hole In Nicole’s Heart Which Porn Could Not Fill!, etc. The newsletter of Compassion International, one of the World’s leading compassion ministries catering to the needs of kids, published the testimony of ours with pictures, this year. We (Duke and I) were both Compassion Sponsored Kids as School Children!

TV Interviews/Talk-Shows

This year, the Lord enabled us to foray into television media via programs other ministries sponsored and hosted to propagate Bible truths. In February, Alethia Ministries had Duke over in their studios in Trivandrum to answer questions of youth from the Bible on sex, love and marriage in a Youth Talk Show. Duke did this in a frank and forthright manner. This program was telecast later in a TV Channel that reaches audiences as far out as the Arabian Gulf. In the month of August, Mrs Nirmala Abraham, interviewed Duke on the subject of marriage and life partner choice in a program for Aradana TV, a Hyderabad-based TV Channel reaching audiences world-over. Shruti Joy, one of our most vibrant volunteers connected Duke with Mrs. Nirmala Abraham. The Lord has been burdening our hearts of late to use the air-waves to propagate the message he has given us through programs of our own. We are praying about this. We look to start with a FM radio program aimed at targeting corporate youth who drive in cabs to work – a huge audience that needs to hear the Gospel put in their context.

Visiting Partners

We were able to meet some of our partners in person this year. In the month of June, after one of our meetings, we met with Ruby and Daniel, our partners who live in Chennai. Duke first met this couple when he went Adiaman College of Engineering in Hosur to preach in 1998. They were student ministry leaders of this college, then. It was such a joy!

Developing Other Young Leaders

We try to consciously develop young people in the ministerial path. This year, Duke turned down number of preaching invitations that came to him and recommended to the organizers names of others who could be invited instead of Him. And these young friends who went instead of Duke to preach, gathered rich experiences – experiences that made them grow. In our magazine too, we consistently published articles of other upcoming writers. This was another way by which we offered opportunities for young people we are in touch with, to grow in their God-given skills. The stories of unknown Corporate Company Working who witnessed for Christ in their workplace was published in our mag. In the last issue of the year we had the story of a young woman who made a difference in Google’s office in Hyderabad before stepping into fulltime ministry. We are bubbling with a plan to start and run a School for Modern Youth Preaching, someday. Duke shared a message on how to preach to modern youth in a National-Level Youth For Christ Discipleship Camp, this year.

Duke Joins Doctoral Program

We know, we have miles to go and have plenty of scope for improvement. Keeping this mind, Duke joined the Doctor of Ministry program in Southern Asia Bible College, Bangalore, this year, following the loving invitation of Dr. Jacob Cherian, to further deepen and hone his ministry skills. We thank God for one dear annan and acca who have graciously come forward to sponsor Duke for this four-year long doctoral course in Christian Leadership. The good thing about this doctoral program is that Duke can continue to do his ministry even as he does this. Duke has to be in Bangalore for three weeks in a year to do this course apart from taking time-out to do the related-assignments. When I had to manage almost 10 straight days our home without Duke, who first went to North India for ministry and thereafter went to Bangalore for his doctoral program contact classes, my 70-year old grandmother traveled 14 hours by train, just to be with me. Thank God for such unsung heroines.

Family Outings

All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy, we’ve read. All ministry and no family time, makes life dull and dreary. And, going about life like that, it not biblical too (Duke would emphasize this in his Work-Life Balance messages). So, we make it a point to spend quality time together as a family. We went for a day of sightseeing in Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu just before the youth camp in Trichy in the month of June as a family. We spent three days in the YWAM base in Lonavala this October as a family. Duke did not preach a single message during this stay. It was just a time of family togetherness. In the month of June and in the month of December, this year, we spent a few days in the interior river-side village home of two old sisters, both in their 70s. We were refreshed and recharged even as we prayed and played in that scenic setting. Duke says ‘no’ to some preaching invitations to strike the fine balance between family and ministry responsibilities.

Prophecies through five special people

God gave us specific words of prophecy, that greatly encouraged us, this year through five special persons – Dr. David Balasingh (Prophetic Evangelist and my Bible College teacher-mentor), Acca Jaya Abraham (a corporate company Vice President who lives in Mumbai, we met up in God@Work Conference, Bangalore), Mrs. Regina Samandham (a house wife who leads a women’s fellowship in Saket, Hyderabad), Bro. Hari Rao Power (a young dynamic preacher with whom we had the privilege of ministering along with in a youth camp in Trichy), and Dr. Aneesh Sundar (the Head of the Department of the Department of Value Education, Karunya University, Coimbatore). What was more – their prophecies merged and complimented each other. Some parts of these prophecies were already fulfilled in our lives and ministries this year!

They went out of the way to help us

God brought several individuals into our lives to light it up, this year. To make our day, this year. These individuals are not the types on which stadium arc-lights would shine. They are ordinary, everyday folk. They went out of their way to help us. Let me introduce such folk. There was this particular teens camp Duke had to preach in, this year, for which I could not accompany him as I had to be in Vellore with my mother-in-law. Duke took our children, Dale, 6 years, and Datasha, 2 years for this meeting. When Duke preached it was Arpana and Deepak, two young people of the New Life AG Church, Secunderabad, who entertained and engaged our children, with great creativity! We thank God for them! When Duke and I went to visit a young person we know, one dear brother was at home taking care of our kids. At that time, our two-year old daughter decided to empty her bowels. And without any hesitation, and without making any phone call to us, he cleaned up our little daughter squeaky clean! Life is lot easier because of people of such individuals. A young man named Sherlyn, when given Duke’s message outline minutes before he started preaching to 1300 youth in the National Youth Conference of the AG Church in Chennai, developed a superb, attention-grabbing power-point presentation based on that. Uday, Senora and Albert brought their respective cars to help us move from house no.2 to house no.3, this year. Brother Chitti along with Brother Christopher were always there to help us in the posting work of our magazine. We are deeply touched by such little gestures. Great will be the reward of such little-known folks. This list, by no means is exhaustive.

No Church Hopping!

We attend the New Life AG Church, Secunderabad, which meets at Millennium Gardens, on a given Sunday Morning when we are not preaching else-where. Yes, this church remains our local church. Our son Dale Nathan attends Sunday School here. This year, he was part of the Sunday School Program during Christmas. We were thrilled to see him go, “Y is for the Year Christ was born” before an audience of over 7000 folks. We thank God for the godly and very encouraging pastoral team there. Rev. Arlene Stubbs, Rev. Valson Varghese and Pastor Younus Samuel are a big blessing to us. We have received rich spiritual food from them whenever we went there. It is true that our ministry is not confined to one church. It is true that ours is an inter-church ministry. But that does not mean we do church hopping just to see what is happening in other churches on a Sunday Morning! On a Sunday morning, if we visit other churches in Hyderabad, it would be only because we are preaching there.

New Equipment Added

This year the Lord gave us a good Panasonic handy cam for our ministry use. Now Duke’s messages can be video shot and distributed even more effectively. This also was the year in which we got ourselves a wireless internet connection, which helps us keep in touch with young people we minister to and our partners.

Duke’s Purse Lost

This year, as Duke was about to leave for Chennai to preach to over 1300 youth in the National AG Youth conference, his purse was lost with about Rs.5000 cash inside, his driving license original inside, bank cards inside, PAN Card inside. We knew it was because of his carelessness. But we also felt the Devil’s hand in this to discourage him before a major program. So we knelt down and gave thanks to God in this difficult circumstance. Duke prayed, “Thank you Lord that I was the one robbed – I was not the robber!” But despite all of this, all our needs were met this year as the next para will show.

Every Bill Paid

In the month of June we had our board meeting in Chennai. Our ministry and finances report for the year 2008-09 were submitted. After the board’s approval, a qualified auditor audited the ministry accounts and the resultant papers were submitted to the Government. We received Rs.2,92,932 from God’s people during this time. Each and every paisa of this amount came from Indians who believe in the vision of this ministry, who gave voluntarily, moved by the Spirit. Every bill we had to pay was paid in time with the total ministry expenses coming to Rs.2,87,904. Even though, we don’t run a church (that’s not our call) from where we could collect offerings, week after week, the Lord has so graciously met our needs. We are grateful to God. Yes, God’s work done in God’s way, will not lack God’s support. The folk who support our ministry are people like you – people who have heard us preach or people who have read our articles. By supporting us, they know they are supporting multiple ministries because we minister cutting across denominational or organizational barriers. By the grace of God, we have never ever taken a loan in the eight years of marriage and we don’t possess a credit card, till date. We have learnt to live cheerfully with what God has already given us.

Supporting Other Ministries

Even this year, we continued to bless other ministries from what God graciously gave us. This year out, we could give, by the grace of God, to a missionary organization based in Gujarat and to a Bible Translating Couple, to our local church’s missions program and to others. As the Lord moved us, we bought a gadget that we do not possess till date and gifted it to a family doing fulltime ministry. Freely you have received, freely give – that is what our Lord said.

Our Needs

Yes, we do have certain needs even as 2009 comes to an end. Our policy is to plainly mention our needs to our readers and leave the rest to the Lord and them. Jesus sent his disciples to a villager, so that, they could fetch a young donkey that He could use to ride on, didn’t He?

Please allow me to mention our present, pressing needs: the need for an owned place in Hyderabad to run our Practical Bible Book Summary Studies, to counsel youth and for us to live and operate; the need for a car to move here and there in Hyderabad with freedom (at present, we have a two-wheeled Activa on which the four of us mount on, to move!); the need for a business cell-phone (a cell-phone which has a qwerty typepad with which we could type and send SMSs, the easiest and cheapest way we can keep in touch with our ministry contacts, really quick, and check our ever busy email inbox using 3G Technology); the need for a light weight, mini-laptop to carry around with ease and type articles; the need to employ a full-time assistant for us – especially the do help us packing and posting message CD, Book Orders we receive; the need for enough funds to have produce and run a weekly TV program in which HONEST TRUTHS, from the Bible, will be presented for the google generation on HOT TOPICS; the need to print 1000 copies of our best-selling book still in the photo-copy spiral bound format, NO BEATING ABOUT THE BUSH STRAIGHT TALK ON HUSHED UP SUBJECTS; the need for a zoom digital camera (with atleast 10x zoom) to freeze unforgettable ministry moments; a DVD Duplicator to copy our DVD messages and distribute them. So pray about these needs of ours. And if the Lord leads you to give, please get in touch with us using the following:emailduke@gmail.com; +91-9441352433;

God bless you! Thank you for taking time to read this report! Praise God with us! Continue to pray for us!