Dear fellow travellers in the Jesus Narrow Way,
We wish you all a breakthrough-happening, blessed 2009!
2008 is history. It's done and dusted. We won, this year out, many a battle in ministry and family, because in Him we trusted! The way the Lord lead us this year - year number three of independent ministry to modern youth from Hyderabad, this - is simply wonderful. It cannot be counted in mere words! "This is the Lord's doing! We rub our eyes! We can hardly believe it!" So let us start with some pictures. Some photos!
Have a look at the photos attached to get a glimpse what God did thro' us - as tiny and tender we were. Shout a "Praise the Lord!" when you look at one selected photo per each month attached, taken from several photos of ministerial events we were part of in 2008! As your eyeballs lock themselves on these images, give thanks to the One who saw us as the apples of His Eye, this year!
Jan - Duke speaks at the wedding of John Wesley and Esther
Feb - A message from Gen 24 which Duke gave to over 700 youth becomes a DVD message
March - Those who attended Duke's Bible Study in the home of Daniel and Magdalene
April - After Evan preached in Dapegoan in an IET camp
May - Duke with his dad translating into Tamil preaches in a Vellore Church
June - When travelling in a train Duke distributes tracts with Emmanuel
July - Duke preaches to youth from Pune and Mumbai in the UBS CampusAugust - Duke and Evan preach in a YFC camp for North East Youth
Sept - Duke makes a presentation on Meaning a RZIM meeting for teens
Oct - Duke challenges corporates from the book of Nehemiah in Cornerstone AG Church one Sunday Morning!
Nov - At the roof of Duke's home, on his daughter's first birthday, friends from other faiths hear the Gospel wrapped around her miraculous birth
Dec - the corporates in Mindspace Raheja IT Park in Hitec City hear a persuasive presentation of the Gospel by Duke
Find below one sample testimony we received thro' email this year, which tells the larger story of God's mighty move even as we preached His Word wrapped around contemporary events following the model of Jesus in Luke 13 and Paul in Acts 17.
Hello Bro. Duke,
This is ….. (name withheld to protect identity), the nastiest sinner of the whole universe. Bro Duke I happily wanted to recollect that day (12 Dec 2008) when you brought tears out of my eyes when you preached in the MindSpace IT Park Christmas Event.
You know I was filled with an extreme abundant joy, strength, hope in my heart after listening to your message!!. (I could sense that) there was a Super Power (God) in you while you were giving a message to us. My whole body was vibrating with joy, happiness, wanted to cry out LOUD.....
- One person from a non-Christian background who was present during Duke's presentation of the Gospel in MindSpace IT Park Open Air Arena on the 12 December 2008. This person also expressed a desire to be baptized in water to Duke.
(Go to www.G-4Mission.Blogspot.com to read more testimonies like these....)
This year was also significant because, I quit HSBC Global Resourcing, part of the group of the international Bank I worked for, on November 7 to get back to full-time ministry. We are certain that God would provide for our personal as well as ministerial needs.
Let me give you some ministerial highlights of 2008. We first talk about how God used us to influence individuals and then we move progressively to talk about how God used us to influence continents (in a small way).
Counselling
Counselling is one way we ministered to individuals or at the most two people at a time. When young people contacted Duke to be counselled on various mind-boggling issues they faced, Duke and his wife made themselves available. Sitting at the roof of his home in Dr. AS Rao Nagar, Hyderabad, Duke and his wife, Evan lead a medical student who came to them with many complications in her life, to Christ. Duke responded through a soothing yet straight email to the heart-cry of a young girl who was cheated by a man from overseas she met thro' the internet. Evan and Duke visited a physically challenged young girl to cheer her up and signed off by counselling her in areas where she needed it. Even on the last day of this year we were privileged to talk about finding God's Will in marriage to two fine young people working in the Corporate World who visited us at our home.
Couples
Duke was given some part in four weddings this year to bless the young couples who were getting married. The climax was his moving sermon, "When Jesus Enters Your Home" in the wedding of Scoty and Mamta in the New Life AG Church, Secunderabad on December 22. Relatives of this couple who were from a non-Christian background, along with the corporate heads of UBS and Google, the two companies they worked for respectively were part of that a good crowd to hear that spot-on message.
Clans
Duke was invited by two different clans to preach in their family get-togethers twice this year. Duke preached at the home of Ravi Alamothu and The Nune fame. His apt and anointed message penetrated needy hearts.
Colony
We were burdened to begin a Bible Study that serves the needs of Bible lovers closer to our home in Dr. A. S. Rao Nagar, the colony we live in. So we began an once-in-a-month Practical Bible Book summary study in the nearby home of Brother Christopher this November. We studied the book of Haggai. In the month of December we took up the study of the book of Zachariah. Again we used the the name of the Book as the short form for us to study the main message of the entire book. For seven straight days this Novemeber, Evan, lead in prayer, two young people in intense prayer and intercession with fasting. Duke also joined along to teach them crucial Bible Lessons on various topics. When our daughter Datasha celebrated her first birthday on November 7, we threw a party on the roof of our home and wrapped the Gospel message around the story of her miraculous birth. On Christmas Day and after we gave New Testaments along with Cake to our Non-Christian neighbours and colony contacts like the Milk Man, DVD Man, Tailor, Cobbler etc.
Churches
The largest crowd that Duke spoke to this year was in the New Life AG Church, Secunderabad, one Sunday this August - a crowd of over 3000 people. Duke shared the testimony of how the Lord Jesus miraculously gave back the life of Datasha, his daugher, when she was still in her mother's womb, even as Rev. Valson Varghese dedicated Datasha. One person emailed us to let us know how she was blessed by that testimony. Duke even wrote that testimony down and printed it out and gave it to the guests who came. One person who works in a large corporate company told Duke that he had pinned that printed testimony on his corporate office desk for people who do not know Jesus to read! This testimony, in tract form, was also given to couples without children coming out of Hyderabad's most famous fertility clinic!
The largest young crowd that Duke preached to this year was again in the New Life AG Church in Secunderabad - crowd of about 800. On the Saturday evening following Valentine's Day, Duke preached a practical message from Genesis 24 titled, "Marriage-Romance Question-Answers". The young people listened to this talk from the edge of their seats and some gave their hearts to Jesus as well, after that moving talk.
Duke's message "Wrong Ideas About the Holy Spirit" was delivered one Sunday Morning in the month of May in a large church in Vellore - the Zion Pentecostal Church.
Twice this year Duke preached in the Cornerstone AG Church, Hitec City, pastored by his Bible College Roommate, Pas. Chaitanya. The corporates that are largely part of his church were touched and blessed. One message that Duke preached was titled, "If Nehemiah Were in Nipuna..." (Nipuna is the former name of Satyam BPO).
On Christmas Day, Duke made a rousing challenge from the Christmas Prophets in Secunderabad Bible Fellowship Church. "On Christmas day, we must not only think of the Cake. Think of the Lake - the Lake of Fire people without Christ will go to - and do what we can to save them from going there! During Christmas season, don't just think about eating Turkey. Think of the nations like Turkey, so full of our friends from the Muslim World without the Gospel!" So challenged Duke his audience!
Crowds
On the very first day of 2008, Duke had the opportunity to fly from Hyderabad to Chennai. When in the Airport and while on Air, Duke distributed the Gospel Tract he himself wrote, Bubbly Outside, Yet Empty Inside to interested co-passengers. There were times, this year, when Duke was in Secunderabad Railway station and in Shopping Malls such as City Centre to do the same. No involvement in direct evangelism is one direct reason for the fall of many reputed servants of God, we have sadly observed!
Corporates
While Duke worked in HSBC, he continued to hold meetings for three to four minutes to bless the corporates who worked there. This small group would move to an secluded part of the corporate office, first. Duke would then read a small portion of Scripture, following which he would give a three or four sentence exhortation, relevant to the Corporate World. After this was over, Duke or someone else present, would lead in prayer and intercession. "Lord, let hell be plundered in Dell!" "Lord, let the google generation be grabbed from going to Gehenna!" - those are the sort of prayers that would be raised to heaven at that midnight hour! Oh that similar prayers would be held in all the corporate buildings in this planet! Duke had the joy of praying the sinner's prayer with one Corporate employee right in the processing floor, after logging out, one early morning, this year! Oh that, believers in the Corporate world would witness for Jesus over Coffee in their canteens!
Twice this year, after receiving an invitation from Bro. Mohan Patnaik, a senior leader with UBS (Swiss Bank) Hyderabad, Duke taught on the subjects of integrity and money to a group of corporate employees in a Morph meeting.
Camps
Duke preached in different camps organised by different groups and organisations this year. In January he preached in the Baptist Youth Camp in Birdy. In August he preached in a short Youth For Christ camp along with his wife for North East Girls. In January again, Duke preached in Yuvasena - a youth camp aimed at developing young leaders for the AP Region for the Assemblies of God. The young campers raced to the altar to have an encounter with God whose ways Duke presented to them in a captivating way.
College
God took Duke to St. Francis College for Women in Hyderabad this August to preach to about 100 hip college girls. As Duke prayed, God spirit moved powerfully over the girls, many of whom accepted the Lord! To some girls standing outside the Villa Marie College we gave our Gospel tract, "Bubbly Outside, Yet Empty Inside!" this year. In the ECIL area of Hyderabad, where there are some colleges on World AIDS DAY, Dec 1, Duke gave a tract which wrapped the Gospel around a different sort of AIDS awareness message, written by Him, titled, "ShahRukh in DDLJ Wouldn't Do It Even In A Dream...."
Cruising
God took Duke to Pune, Dapegoan and Vellore to preach his Word this year. He had to turn down preaching invitations from towns such as Asansol, Varanasi, Nagpur and Vizag because of practical reasons. When Duke cruised out of Hyderabad and preached, the response was over-whelming. One medical doctor who heard Duke in Dapegoan said she never heard preaching like that in over 30 years. One young teacher confessed to Evan in the same town, "I thought to myself, What would this lady preach! But after I heard you, I realized my thinking was wrong!"
Classrooms
Duke converted the sprawling home of Daniel and Magdalene, located at the heart of Hyderabad into a Bible Class Room, month after month, this year. On one Sunday per month (except September and October), Duke summarized the messages of the lesser known books of the Bible (from the Prophetic Books Section) for the google generation that gathered there representing various church groups and age groups. Duke would use the very name of the book as a short-form for the message of the book in this unique Bible Study! God used Tanmay Naik, Padma Nela, Kalyan, Uncle Nallaraj Edward to bring people into this Bible Study. Magdalene Daniel ensured that those who attended were served a tasty dinner each time they came.
Duke was also invited by Pastor Younus Samuel to teach on the Second Coming and Youth Preaching to a group of young people from the New Life AG Church, Secunderabad this May.
Crossing
Duke crossed organisational and denominational barriers time and again this year. Organisations such as Ravi Zacharias International Ministries(RZIM), Youth For Christ (YFC), Bombay Tamil Christian Youth Fellowship (BTCYF), Indian Evangelical Team (IET) and Jesus Calls invited Duke to preach in their meetings, this year and churches as diverse as Assemblies of God, Baptist and the Church at Cyberabad did the same. The Bible Study that Duke lead in the home of Daniel and Magdalene saw people from Emmanuel House of Worship, Church of South India among other churches attend. Duke's own organisation, Grabbing the Gadget Generation from Gehenna Mission (G-4 Mission) is an inter-organisational and inter-denominational which means it will only assist the existing local church in youth ministry and Bible Teaching and not attempt to start new local churches.
What Duke writes crosses barriers as well. Light of Life, India's leading Christian magazine published Duke's articles time and again this year.The Voice of the Shepherd magazine from Vellore published Duke's article, "King David Vs Jackie Chan!" after translating it into Tamil. A BYM missionary wrote to Duke asking for permission to translate his Gospel tract for modern youth, Bubbly Outside, Yet Empty Inside?! into Hindi. This tract was distributed by Duke during the train journeys he undertook this year to interested co-passengers. Once when Duke distributed that tract to a fellow cab traveller while he worked in HSBC, she told him, "This writeup (available online at PurposeSpot.Blogspot.com) accurately describes what I go through! Thank you for giving it to me!" Bubbly was also distributed in the North Indian town of Jaipur this year.
CDs
The messages that Duke preached to youth, messages born in prayer, messages wrapped around contemporary events, messages delivered in informal, fluid, style, were packed into DVDs and MP3 CDs and widely distributed. Ruby Evangel and Navamani Kingsley worked overtime to design the covers of these CDs. The new message CDs released this year have these very interesting titles: A Sex Addict Gets Saved (A message of deliverance from Ezekiel 16); Which Road Are You On (The Book of Ecclesiastes made relevant for youth); Beating Temptations Like Joseph (A gripping talk from Genesis 39); Marriage-Romance Question-Answers (A practical message from Genesis 24). A new CD with MP3 messages of Duke given just for the corporate world was created this year. One message in this CD is titled: "What Motivated A TentMaker to Become a SoulWinner!" MP3 message collections of Duke with translation into Nepali, Tamil, Marathi and Telugu are now available at the end of this year. When these CDs were put up for sale, in the meetings Duke preached in, there was a very good response. In a small church, after Duke's message one Sunday morning, the CD sale touched Rs.2000/- for example!
Continents
This year we made it possible for anyone in any continent - in Canberra or Calcutta or Copenhagen or Chicago or Cairo - to see the messages of Duke on taboo topics such as pornography, homosexuality, fondling the opposite gender etc, thanks to Youtube.com. Yes, on this popular video sharing site, for the first time, clips of Duke's daring messages were uploaded, this year, with a lot of help from Santhosh William, our volunteer.
Cellulose
Even though we live in a world of the Internet, the charm of cellulose has not faded away. On sheets of cellulose, our magazine which wraps Bible Truth around contemporary events is published once in two months - a total of five issues per year including a double issue. This magazine asked five different questions to its readers on the cover this year. They are, "When was the last time you cried?", "What gives Life Meaning?", "Have you seen a man more madly in love?", "What Shall I do with this One life I have?", "Shall we say, Live On! to Living In? Duke, after sweating buckets in personal Bible meditation, wrote articles that summarized and made relevant the messages of the Bible books of Ecclesiastes, Hosea, Amos and Lamentations to the Yahoo Youth as lead articles this year. He has plans to write one such article for every Bible book in his lifetime. Events as interesting as Barrack Obama's victory acceptance speech were tracked down with a purpose of bring out Bible truth around them, in this one-of-a-kind magazine which is distributed by key people located all across India.
Duke's book for youth, NO BEATING ABOUT THE BUSH STRAIGHT STRAIGHT TALK ON HUSHED UP SUBJECTS, sold briskly in the meetings he preached in this year in the spiral bound photocopy format. It takes up about 30 hard core youth issues and unabashedly announces what God's Word has to say on that topic without beating about the bush. We have seen this book travel all the way to Florida in the United States and Damaiguda in Hyderabad this year! At the close of 2008, Duke came up with yet another spiral bound photocopy format book titled, THE GOODNEWS FOR THE GOOGLE GENERATION - a book with over 25 different fresh gospel presentations for the modern generation.
.Com
Our official website, www.TheDaysOfYourYouth.com, so painstakingly managed by Santhosh William, uploads one fresh article by Duke every week. On the homepage you would bump into a Youtube.com video of Duke as well. That it has registered 30,000 hits within a few months of being set up tells us that people visit and re-visit that site often. PurposeSpot.Blogspot.com was set us this year with the purpose of hosting Duke's compelling, captivating and uncompromising evangelistic messages for the casual browser out there somewhere in this planet. Florussel manages this site apart from making herself available to video shoot my messages. G-4 Mission.Blogspot.com presents picturesque reports of our ministry. This is managed by our volunteer Fenella Prince, who lives in Bangalore.
Calling
God used Duke during the month of December to call corporate employees and PHD students to his fold in four different Christmas Gospel Events. In Mindspace Raheja IT park, Duke presented the Gospel to over 150 Corporates. The power of God was felt in an unmistakable way in that Gospel presentation which Duke began with the Mumbai Terror Attack Plan. He also had the opportunity to preach the Gospel in the terrace of another Corporate Building in Ashok Bhoopal Chambers in Secunderabad, following presentation of skits and adzapps by the youth of the New Life AG Church. In the home of Daniel and Magdalene, Duke's Gospel presentation for without Christ friends of those who usually attend the Bible Study there, began with the movie, Dostana. Evangelistic preaching with an apologetic bend, is something that Duke loves to do! Duke also preached to a crowd of 400 in a Jesus Calls meeting in Secunderabad twice this year! He titled one message, he preached there, very differently and preached it also differently and daringly: "After the Healing!" One young man SMSed Duke this way about this, his choice of topic for the message: "I have never heard any in India preach on this topic!"
Crew
For doing all of this we have a very talented crew of volunteers The skilful editing team of M. Shruthi Joy, Magdalene Daniel, Steve Jothiraj join Duke and Evan in text editing of the magazine, The Days.... Florussel and Gideon Gnanasekaran swiftly search for photos to illustrate the articles. Santhosh William and Fenella Prince upload them onto these two sites: www.TheDaysOfYourYouth.com and G-4Mission.blogspot.com. Ravi Alamothu deftly designs the whole magazine. Bro. Christopher Tharalla helps us post the magazine, along with his friends. These wonderful volunteers continue to wow us with their commitment and dedication despite their varied responsibilities.
Cash
We are happy to let you know that God more than met all our ministerial and family needs in 2008 needs through freewill offerings/donations from Indians from various backgrounds. To site an example - an young woman who heard Duke preach in October 2007 in a youth camp sent in a money order of Rs.1000/- There was even a deposit of close to Rs.7000 in Duke's ICICI account from an anonymous person, this year! We told ourselves, "People trust us with their hard-earned resources so much so that some of them do not bother even to tell us who they are! How much more we must be faithful in handling these resources!"
Cartons
Apart from cash, we also received loving carton boxes of priceless gifts from God's people. The gift of a sleek Dell laptop arrived early this January to aid our writing ministry. A wireless router and a Samsonite laptop bag was another gift we got this year. The ESV Study Bible - the best single-volume Bible Study aid ever published, released in the United States only this October 2008 - hit my home as early as December 2008, thanks to another generous gift-giver! Our house owner, Aunty Sreekumari needs to be mentioned here. We just pay the rent of Rs.3000/- for this independent office cum residence we stay in. The actual rent for this beautiful home is much more. But because we are in ministry, Aunty, very generously lets us pay only that much.
Companion
This report is jointly written by Duke and Evan. But at this point, Duke takes over. I take over to talk about the faithful, fantastic, companion of seven years that God has so graciously given me, Evan. She motivated me to pray this year. She took care of the kids. She was my Nathan, needless to say. She stood next to me in pulpits in Dapegoan and Pune to preach the Word in all authority and clarity. In March 2008, she was invited to speak to a section of 200 single youth - from colleges and the corporate world - in the New Life AG Women's Conference, Secunderabad. Her message, "Single and Despondent to Single and Confident" touched many. I was very happy to babysit while she preached that day! One email we received, following that meeting, revealed that one youth broke up with her unbelieving boyfriend the very next day! I cannot thank God enough for giving me Evan to walk along hand in hand with me in this journey called life!
Combination
We are praying that we will blend and combine the Word (the challenge for the mind), Works (the challenge for the heart) and Wonders (the challenge for the body) in our ministry as the Bible teaches we must do more and more in the coming years. Please pray for us! Though there were invitations to preach on both the 30 Dec and 31 Dec of 2008 we turned them down to concentrate on prayer. Prayer is the stop that keeps us going. We have many miles to go and many promises to keep! Thank you for holding the rope when took the plunge to grab the Google Generation from Gehenna in 2008!
Evan with Dale. They, along with little Datasha, stood with Duke through thick and thin!
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Please pray for Duke and Evan - preachers and writers attempting to grab the google generation from Gehenna (Hell)
In the ministry of making God's Word relevant and riveting for the Google Generation,
Duke and Evan Jeyaraj
"The Days Of Your Youth"
G-4 Mission
LIG B 316, Dr. A. S. Rao Nagar
Hyderabad 500 062
Mobile: +91-9441352433
Young people come forward to recieve Jesus after Duke's message, The Diamond Blood, in the AG Church Youth Service this March in Millenium Gardens, Hyderabad.
