Beginning of it all…
When I went forward to answer a missionary challenge given in a Blessing Youth Mission camp in the year 1988 as a fourteen year old boy, little did I know then, what the Lord would do through me – the tiny me. I just went forward when the call was given, offering to the Lord my five loaves and two fish (I should admit it was even less than that). I was also inspired to do this because I have seen my father throw his secure CMC Hospital Engineer job (when I was just 2 years old) to come to the fulltime ministry with a fledgling organisation and how God took care of his needs. God had done great things in my life, over the years. I later studied upto graduation in Technology (B. Tech) in North India. Later, I joined the Masters in Divinity in Southern Asia Bible College as I wanted to formally trained to do the ministry. I worked as a youth pastor (to some of most modern youth in India) in New Delhi. This was my first fulltime ministry assignment. In this period, I married Evan, a missionary's daughter. Later, when I knew my call was to bless the modern generation in not only one church but all churches and denominations, I joined Blessing Youth Mission, a trans-denominational revival missionary organization, as a traveling missionary-writer-in-residence and worked with them for three years. During this period, I traveled extensively preaching in youth camps, college meetings and church events in places as far out as Kalimpong in the Himalayas and in Tuticorin in South Tamil Nadu. Sometimes, during these extensive travels my wife traveled with me and shared the pulpit. At this point in our life and ministry, the Lord lead my wife and I to the city of Hyderabad - the most centrally located big city in India. "Go there and from there I will use you to bless all the modern youth (the Yahoo Youth, as I called them then and the Facbook Folk, as I call them now) in all four corners of India! I will use you to grab them from going to Hell and make them go gaga over my Word!" My wife and I simply obeyed that call of God. We came to Hyderabad, with our little son Dale in tow. Initially, God lead me to work in the Corporate World so that I could launch a ministry of our own without looking to others for funds. After three years of doing that, I quit my job in November 2008 - over two years ago. Meanwhile I formally began, Grabbing the Gadget Generation from Gehenna (the Word Jesus used for Hell) Mission, in Feb 2006. It's been over five years of independent ministry with our base in Hyderabad. It's been over two years of full-time ministry for both of us (my wife and I). God has been very good.
A year in which we had 11 Monthly Bible Studies n 10 Midnite prayersBig Day in Vijayawada!
In Vijayawada, this year, Evan and I preached in what was the biggest ever youth convention we preached in and possibly Vijayawada's biggest youth convention ever. Over 2000 youth crammed into the Loyola College Auditorium in an event organised by Metropolitan Mission on October 2. Hundreds of youth came to the altar and accepted Jesus. Posters with our pictures, attractively designed by this church youth invited youth from everywhere to come for this meeting. Your possible last chance ever, was one of the messages I preached that big day. My wife preached on 7 Bs that help to beat temptation.
A year in which our message CDs travelled to countries such as Bangladesh, US, Singapore, Dubai, to bless many and were telecast on TV tooBrandishing the Sword called the Bible in Bangladesh!
This year the Lord took us to the country of Bangladesh and made us a blessing to 60 leaders from all over that country. Both of us preached practical messages to this youth in a Compassion International Leadership Development program. Many of the youth, knelt down and gave their lives to the Lord. Later they were challenged to leaders who were lead by the Spirit, not leaders who were lead by their bodily desires (like Samson was). I would have been in the US to coach youth in a Compassion Conference there, if only my visa was not denied.
No Beating About The Bush Time with the Boisterous Bunch of Modern Youth from the Biggest Church (not not-as-big churches)!
This year the Lord took me to preach to the cream of the Facebook Folk (high-schoolers, college-goers and corporate company workers) of the largest church in India, the New Life AG Church, Chennai. At the end of this rocking camp, these youth received rock-solid teachings straight out of the Bible teachings on hot topics like Why God Created Sex & How Man Went On To Abuse God's Gift of Sex with illustrations from the modern world. There were times of hushed silence and holy decisions, in this camp.
This year the Lord took me to preach to young folks in the Victory Church in New Delhi, the Centenary Baptist Church in Secunderabad, the Wesley ClockTower CSI Church in Secunderabad, the Wesley Musheerabad CSI Church in Secunderabad, Revival Centre AG Church, Hyderabad, SPG Church, Secunderabad, Metropolitan Church, Vijayawada, and the Capstone Church in Vizag. They were all blessed immensely. I challenged the believers in these churches to become daring soldiers and soul winners instead of remaining seat warmers and spectators. Blessing the youth of different churches and denominations by challenging them to holy living and for a witnessing life remains our priority. My messages to these diverse groups varied as the Holy Spirit gave me different messages to preach to different youth groups. For one youth group it was, "The Greatest Love Story Ever Told" (from Hosea 3). For another youth group the message was, "The Climax of The Greatest Love Poem of the Planet!" (from Song of Songs 8). For yet another youth group the message was, "You can even postpone your first night with your wife to prepare for this Day!" (from Minor Prophets).
We are not a church but just a help to the local church where ever it is. One pastor told me, "What you have taught our young people about sex, love and marriage from the Bible was useful even to older folk. What we pastors find difficult to teach our youth, you do with prophetic anointing!"
I also had opportunities to speak to young people on hardcore youth issues like relationships with parents and the opposite gender in Ebenezer School, Chennai. Their eyes were opened! I made a visit to the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad to pray there with like-minded folk and take part in a strategy meet for an evangelistic event in this premier Business School, this year. For the first time I addressed students in Pondy Central University right inside their campus this year and saw many rededicate their lives to the Lord. Pondy became the 17 Indian state the Lord has opened ministry doors for me to preach his Word in, in this itinerant ministry of mine that began on August 9, 1991 – the day I preached my first sermon as a School Kid.
A year in which our mag was appreciated by young people living even in AmsterdamBanquet set up for the Bible-hungry About What The Message of Each Book of The Bible Is
On the first Sunday of each month of 2010 (with the exception of December) I invited Bible-hungry folks from all parts of Hyderabad to our office-cum-base-home just behind the Kanajiguda Petrol Pump in the Tirumalgiri area for a riveting, rare Bible Study – a Bible banquet so to speak. I used the name of the Bible book as a short-form for its message. We did this sort of Bible study for 11 Old Testament Books including Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Job, Psalms, Esther, Nehemiah, etc. The folk were left our base they were hungry for more such studies after I treated them with unadulterated Bible biriyani of great taste. A vice-president of Deloitte who could not attend the Ecclesiastes study got the outline I developed for the same via email. He wrote back talking about how much he liked it. During these meetings, we had great times of worship and a 'giggling' time of games before I started to brief the audience what the message of one full book of the Bible was in a practical way (for about 1 hour to 1 and a half hours). I also took time to answer questions after a powerful time of prayer that my wife invariably led. The folk who gathered left after having snack. This study began three years ago. So far 37 Bible Book books have been covered. We have only two more books of the Old Testament left in this series that blessed young working professionals from companies such as Infosys, Dell, Delloitte, GE, etc. We had students from the African continent who also attending this Bible Study. One such young man told me that the Holy Spirit told him not to miss even a single such study and he made a covenant to this effect!
I also took time to serve the delicious meat of God's Word on Sunday Morning Church Services in Philadelphia Church in Chennai, Hosanna AG Church in Pondy, Capstone AG Church, Hitex City and Living Word Missionary Church, Chennai. On Good Friday, I preached God’s Word in the church of Rev. Jeyakumar in Bangalore. My message on 10 S words that described how Jesus was tortured for us on the Cross, melted the audience and helped them take practical steps to draw near to Jesus. In fifteen minutes, I summarized the essentials of ministry to modern youth from the Bible to the student body of Southern Asia Bible College, Bangalore this year. "We have never heard anyone taking passages such as Song of Solomon 8 and using it to teach frank Bible truth for modern youth like you just did!" - one listener testified.
A year in which we preached in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondy, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, etc, to bless youth of many backgrounds
’Barnabas’-ing a group of Working Professionals at Midnight on the Month's End!
”Want to enter the new month in God's presence with a Promise Word from the Bible practically explained by Duke?”, I asked young working professionals via phone messages. Each night about 10 to 15 such youth (including ladies) said yes and came to our base for a prayer meeting from 11 pm to 1 am on the last day of the month. We had 10 such meetings on January 31, February 28, March 31, etc In each of these meetings I shared brief encouraging promise message from the Bible. I played Barnabas to them. Barnabas means encourager. I took up a promise verse passage in the Bible, explained it in a practical way. Not only that - I expounded the conditions that go along for us to inherit those promises. The Lord blessed folk who came for this meeting in a clearly visible way. One of them has moved to the US for a job. A bunch of them have got salary hikes. :)) But more importantly, these folk discovered spiritual power in that meeting to face the challenges of the new month!
Boxing-in the Bible's Message To Cool Crowds of Over 1000 Boldly and Seeing Great Results!
On two occasions, I was invited by Pastor Younus Samuel to speak to crowds of over 1000 modern youth (college goers and corporate company workers) in events organized by Hyderabad's New Life AG Church, this year. These events were held in a wedding reception hall and saw many non-believers attending. The crowds were quite boisterous and in a playful meet when I was given the mike. But they calmed down as he began his Gospel presentation under the Spirit anointing using innovative methods. He preached two messages that brought youth to altar to accept Christ on these two occasions. On one occasion, 400 folks who were in church for the first were there. Over 100 of them answered the altar call that I gave following a moving message from John 10:10.
A year in which Duke preached in Ahmednagar, Vizag, New Delhi, Vijayawada,Chennai, Wayanad, etc and saw many youth commit their lives to Jesus and for holy livingBook that bluntly addresses hot yet hushed up topics published Before Brimming Parents!
My mother, Mrs. Vimala Jeyaraj, has often told me that all she needed to do to keep me engaged during Christian Meetings in which Dad, Mr. A. Jeyaraj, helped as a translator to Uncle R. Stanley, was to give me a notebook and pencil. I would scribble away to glory without disturbing anyone, she informs me. That habit stuck with me, it looks like. I started writing letters to The Hindu newspaper as a School Boy. Over 50 of those letters were published. Later on, the Lord led me to write articles for youth from the Bible. The first article of mine that was published in a Christian magazine was in the year 1993 - a report of the missionary kids I was part of. The report was published in Blessing mag. I was 17 years old at that time. From that time I have been writing. When a Sri Lankan Tamil Pastor invited me to preach in Germany after reading my article on Absalom in the year 1998, I was overjoyed. Through these formative years, Dr. Mrs. Lilian Stanley helped me to become a better writer. Little did I know then, that what I would write a book at that point in time.
But that's what happened this year. My book, NO BEATING ABOUT THE BUSH STRAIGHT TALK ON HUSHED UP MATTERS, which was basically a collection of my contemporary-event wrapped essays on what the Bible had to say about matters like sex, love and marriage and more, was released by my mother, Mrs. Vimala Jeyaraj, after prayer by my dad, Mr. A. Jeyaraj in the presence of Rev. Allen Prosper in Hosannah AG Church, Pondicherry. Also present were my entire family along with the families of my brothers Kingsley and Prince. The Lord opened the hearts of one of college contemporaries to sponsor the printing of this book and another dear person from Nagercoil to arrange for its page layout. This book is in good demand it goes on to talk about topics which are swept under the carpet by most Christian communicators - topics like masturbation, how far is too far when it comes physical intimacy, homosexuality, beating sexual temptation, etc.
A year in which Duke preached in events organised by church organisations like Nireckshana, Asian Sahoyi Sanstha, AG, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, etcBridging, contemporary events with the Bible thro' magazine and articles
Bridging Bible Truths around contemporary events the way Jesus did in Luke 13 and Paul did in Acts 17 is our God-given mandate. And that's why we publish a magazine, The Days Of Your Youth (online at www.TheDaysOfYourYouth.com) that does just that. This year we published 3 issues of that mag and distributed it to our subscribers and supporters. Bulk copies were sent to people in strategic places and these people distributed this mag to more and the message went on. The PDF copies of our mag goes to my emailing list of over 2000 people. These people forward what they have received to more friends. One young man living in Amsterdam received one such PDF of our mag and posted 'you-mag-is-a-blessing' note on Facebook, this year. One HSBC manager told me that she carried my mag to her office. Invariably, her copy of the mag would travel several desks in the office as people read it and passed it around. A man from Vijaywada after reading the lead article of one of this year’s issues, “What is your favorite number?” said, “I never knew such deep spiritual truths can be learnt from different numbers found in the Bible!”
This year, I took up events like Laxman's fourth-innings miracle batting at Mohali to wrap it around the Gospel (in a poem format). The last page of our mag always has a Gospel presentation wrapped around a contemporary event.
A year in which young people came closer to Jesus and understood the Bible better in meetings done by different churches, from CSI to Capstone in Hyderabad in which Duke ministeredBlue-ray Dics - that's the next stage in our Message CD production efforts
This year we produced more message CDs to bless the folk world-over. I was thrilled to hear from a young man from Pondy how he never forgot a DVD message of mine titled, "Do You Have It In You?" this year. I was over the moon when a person who lives in the US told me that a certain young man loves to hear DVD messages of mine. We, by this year-end, have over 15 DVDs featuring my messages (and in some cases my wife's messages) shared directly in English; about another 15 DVDs of mine with vernacular translation. We have four MP3 Message CDs as well, with each CD having over 10 different messages that I have preached to different audiences: non-believers, corporate company workers, believers, etc. In the last financial year, I discovered over Rs.50,000 worth of message CDs/books/magazines of ours were sold in various meetings I preached in. I put this sale money back in the ministry fund. Now, I am thinking of how to distribute these messages of mine, which are deliberately blunt and bold and delivered in a bubbly, freewheeling style to choice audience, world-over, thro' blueray discs. Bits of these messages have been uploaded in Youtube.com. They will show up if that site is searched under, Duke Jeyaraj. They have recorded quite a number of hits – one video has over 8500!
Blending with other Christian Organisations to fulfil the Great Commission
I often say that G4 Mission, this ministry of ours, is not only inter-denominational but also inter-organizational. We blend into our organizations to do all what we can to fulfill the Great Commission. We take up invitations from other para-church organizations to minister to youth, instead of conducting programs for youth ourselves, each time there is a public holiday. This year, I preached in New Delhi in a youth event organised by Asian Sahoyi Sansta. About 100 young people were blessed through the two messages I preached in that event (on salvation and overcoming temptation). In another event organised by Nireckshana in Hyderabad, this year, I spoke about the importance of taking efforts to confront dark realities such as Human Trafficking/Flesh Trade by providing sound Bible teaching to youth on matters such as sex, love and marriage to youth we come in contact with. Youth Arise, an inter-denominational youth group lead by two young men, organised a youth event in Narsapur, Andhra Pradesh, which saw over 700 youth attended. Evan and I preached in this event that saw folk being filled with the Holy Spirit and committing for fulltime ministry. Both of us also had time to talk about intimate matters in an interesting way with the men and women separately from the Bible, without beating about the Bush.
A year in which over 1000 youth from many colleges, corporate companies in Hyderabad heard of Jesus thro Duke's msg in Hyderabad TWICE in NLAG eventsBreak-through efforts to share the Goodnews with the Google Generation Youth!
This December, we hired a hall in KFC Restuarant in Hyderabad with a closed glass room space and had a Gospel meeting inside! This modern generation may refuse to come to church or even a Christian home but KFC is a place they would love to be, isn't it? Among those who came were three Google Hyderabad employees including a non-believer! I spoke on Popular Philosophies (like Atheism, Hedonism, etc) which Christmas Questions! After that, we had a time of discussion where the believers present used apologetics to bring out various facets of the Gospel. In the same meeting, I ran a different sort of AIDS-awareness quiz emphasizing abstinence.
I split up my messages on hot youth topics as Youtube Video Clips and I am seeing that they are scoring an amazing number of hits! For example, the video clip of mine titled, "Sex outside of marriage - Preity Zinta Vs. Bible - Duke Jeyaraj" has had over 8500 hits. The Youtube messages I uploaded this year have interesting titles such as: When I Was Sexually Tempted; When Alone With A "Mallika Sherawat" Like Woman...; Falling Into The Same Sin Again and Again, Help Me!;, Armani Suit, Amsterdam Visit, Adidas Shoe, Yet No Satisfaction In My Soul; Rig Veda, Ripped Back, and Salvation; Nayanthara Vs The Bible When It Comes To Exposure; Telugu Movie Song Vs. The Bible on Fondling etc I got an message from a US Army Soldier, a US High School Student and a host of others saying they were blessed some of by these clips. These type of videos are reaching to youth who are on Youtube surfing for porn! They stand almost alone preaching the Gospel among a row of porn videos when young people search for porn using certain key words!
On Facebook.com, the world's third largest country with a population of over 550 million, I ran an innovative program which encouraged 'facebookers' worldwide to read 10 chapters of the Bible daily and post what they learn on my Facebook account. This event greatly encouraged the Net savvy youth to get back to the Bible. I had over 190 people joining this event from many parts of the world. I posted the lesson I learn from my readings as my status update too. Several people were blessed. I received a 'I-am-blessed-by-your-thots-from-the-bible' message from folks far-out as Italy when I posted one such status update!
At home, the events of the year was the way my wife picked up "face-booking". She started an account with Facebook.com earlier this year and before the year came to a close she had over 500 friend requests. It has been always me who usually opens the laptop at our home-base these 9 years we have been married. But with the coming in of Facebook.com, my wife has taken over what I usually do! She has been praying and posting encouraging messages to a number of our ministry contacts. Via Facebook, we counselled and gave answers from the Bible to some questions young people posed on topics such as choice of life partner, conflict with parents, etc.
November 7 was Billy Graham’s birthday. That day happened to be a Sunday as well. I did not miss the opportunity to share with our Bible Study group why I liked Billy Graham (his integrity, his usage of contemporary events to illustrate the Gospel, etc) in a presentation before I went onto that day’s Bible Study – the study of the book of Leviticus.
A year in which Facebook users around the world read the Bible with Duke and posted what they learnt thereBecoming Buddies With Youth and Counseling Them!
This year, at various times, we took time out to counsel modern youth who came to us for counsel. They bared open their hearts and problems to us even as we befriended them. We gave them biblical counsels to their problems relating to finding life partner, self-stimulation, porn-addiction, etc. Most of our messages are prepared keeping in mind the common questions of youth. We are now on the threshold of opening an exclusive counseling room at our base for modern youth.
Band of Volunteers that makes our work easier!
This year the Lord added fresh volunteers to our ministry volunteers team. One of them is Adeline Anurupa. She works for Accenture and now helps in the text-editing of our mag. Another young man by the name of Joel Joseph, who plays for the Sound of the Nations band helps us in CD Cover designs and Facebook Event Picture design, very enthusiastically. Theoson Kanagaraj, whom we first met when traveled in the train last December, multi-tasks for us in various ways - designing magazine pages and CD Covers. Hudson Paul, a missionary kids joined in the volunteers team by helping in the arrangements for our base meetings and updating our ministry contact lists. Arpana, another young woman was around to make tea and serve guests after the midnight month end meetings. Mamta Samuel, joined Evan in leading music classes at Rainbow International Schools, voluntarily. Esther Tammadi, regularly helps out in the base meeting arrangements. Prathusha N came home during her offs and finished a lot of pending office work. She also helped in sending Facebook Event Invites on my behalf from my account.
Eugene Pandian, my college contemporary in Allahabad, took time out to craft the cover for my book, STRAIGHT TALK, and most of the mag covers. Ravi Alamothu, who lives in Malaysia skillfully designed the inside pages of our magazine and all of the four pages of our Gospel Tract, Bubbly. Navamani Kingsley, who works for Deloitte, chipped in by designing the cover of one of the issues of our magazine and other back pages of the same. Ruby Evangel Chandrasekar, who lives in the US, created cute-looking CD Covers for our ministry and designed the last page of our magazine whenever I requested her. Steve Jothiraj, a young Bangalore Corporate Company Manager, along with Leema Pandian (despite having two little kids constantly calling for her attention) read up the text of my book STRAIGHT TALK to fish out errors in record time. Solomon Paul K. promptly sent updates about my meetings to a list of over 600 phone numbers via the web after summarizing them in SMS language. Florussel Satya uses a lot of creativity that she has in abundance to manage my Gospel Blog - www.purposespot.blogspot.com. Fenella Prince does the same with another blog of ours featuring news from our ministry at g-4mission.blogspot.com. Santhosh William sends 'done' in double quick time each time I send him an article to upload in our main web-site, www.TheDaysofYourYouth.com. Shruthi Joy, lead worship and conducted games and was the Master of Ceremonies for many of the ministry events we hosted. She did this with dedication and delight. Vinup Joseph drove down to our base with his guitar to lead worship in our Bible Studies and Midnight Month-end Prayers with a smile on his face. Priyanka Chouhan, Anisha Ambrose, Girisha, Abe and Priyanka Moses were willing to lend their pictures for us to use in our publications this year with making a fuss. Aaron Nelson, a right-on-target lens-man, came home voluntarily with his hi-tech cameras to do a photoshoot for us at our base. The result was a Facebook album that recorded maximum likes and complimentary comments! About 10 of these live-wires came home to make our 9th Wedding Anniversary which we celebrated on 9th July, an unforgettable one! Their gift of a smashing photo-collage adorns our walls till date. I cannot thank God enough for this terrific team of willing volunteers whom God has given me to assist me in executing His Call upon my life. I am standing up from set to clap for them! Why don't you join me?!
A year in which we both addressed the largest ever youth gathering in Vijayawada and saw hundreds give their life to JesusBandwagon-mate
Doing Ministry becomes a joy (instead of it being a job) because of my wife, Evan. She has traveled in my bandwagon of life for the last 9 years through all the ups and downs. She manages the base when I travel to preach or to study in Bangalore great efficiency. She tutors my kids in their studies. She cooks meals for our many guests. Plus, she also travels to preach God’s Word with on occasions when it is possible. She preached in tandem with me in the Dhaka, Narsapur (Andhra Pradesh) and Vijayawada. People were blessed by her messages. She also preached in the Sunday Morning service of Capstone AG Church on Women’s Day Sunday. Her message from verses 6,7 of Job 8, Small Beginning; Smashing End, was a hit. One business man wrote to us saying that he was playing that message again and again and was hugely encouraged. A young lady smsed my wife (this year) saying, when I grow up I want to be a woman like you, a wife like you and a mother like you! We praise God for such testimonies. Just few minutes before 2010 ended, Evan was invited to pray for our local church’s youth department before a crowd of over 10000. Her spirit-propelled prayer shook the audience. Several came to her to say that that prayer of hers was soul-stirring, including the pastors. For Issue 24 of our magazine, The Days, Evan has written the lead article. The mag is not yet out, but the text editors have told me that article of hers was different and made delightful reading.
Balancing, Family and Ministry
This year, I took conscious efforts to balance family and ministry. The last thing I want is to have a packed ministry schedule and an empty family life! When I had to choose between urgent ministry works and being there during important family tender moments, I chose the latter. For example, I said 'no' to three youth camp preaching invites in the month of December (from Nagpur, from New Delhi and from Hyderabad) just to be able to be there for my family in a year I was invariably away from home, preaching during most of the public holidays. After my wife and I preached 18 messages in 48 hours in Wayanad, Kerala, in an AG Youth Camp there, we requested the organizers to keep us one more day there in the ‘honey-moon’-esque hotel that we stayed in, with our kids. We over-slept, went around boating, that day as a family and we enjoyed it!
A year in which Duke preached to the most modern youth of India's largest churchBending my back and knuckles, Bending my knees
Since I was being choosy about the preaching assignments that I took up that meant that I had more time for doing two more things: writing (bending of my back and knuckles) and prayer (bending of knees). My writings, I know, will live longer than my preaching would and so naturally I needed to concentrate on that, since I am called to both preach and write. And talking about prayer - prayer is not a preparation for ministry but is the ministry!
I wrote articles this year that were published in Light of Life, India’s leading Christian magazine, a mag that goes to 20,000 folks world-wide, Friends Missionary Prayer Band’s Youth Magazine, Kerith, and a Tamil Christian Magazine out of Trichy published by Bro. Ravindran. I wrote articles wrapping Bible Truths around interesting contemporary events (like the Football World Cup 2010) and posted them on my Facebook account and also sent them via mass mails. My wife and I, took time out to fast and pray, twice a week, till evening, through this year. We also had two full weeks (in May and November) where our till-evening fasting lasted for a full week. There were times when we received the answer to our prayers via the phone while we were still on our knees! Despite all of this, I would be the first to admit that we need to vastly improve our praying.
Broadcasting, the Gospel through printed tracts and relayed TV programs
This year we re-printed our tract, Bubbly Outside, Yet Empty Inside, a Gospel tract written by me just for the modern generation for twice out. The updated tract that was released by December 2010 had stories about Michael Douglas (Hollywood actor who was wanting to come to India to discover ‘peace’), Michael Schumacher (who drove a Taxi of a cooperating Taxi Driver to reach an airport in Time), Lady Diana, Viveka Babajee (condom model who committed suicide) connected to different aspects of the Gospel. When I gave this tract to a Levis-jeans wearing, Woodlands-shoe sporting young man during one of my train travels this year, I saw him stand rooted to the ground and read the whole tract (four pages of it). A missionary of a leading missionary organization ordered 1000 copies of this tract to be distributed in Lucknow. We ourselves gave this tract in Market places, Airports, Bus Stands, Outside Shopping Malls at various times this year. Some how, the modern youth should be saved. A tract given is one effort we can take in this regard. We must go to the highways and byways and ask those who are standing to come into the feast of the Lamb. Giving a Gospel tract is one way to invite them in!
A TV channel by the name of Heaven TV telecast our messages on Sunday Evenings at 7 PM regularly this year. We keep receiving emails and phone calls after these telecast. The last email came from Thailand. This program is ongoing – you can watch it on any given Sunday evening at 7 PM (India Time) at www.heaventiv.in. On a Malayalam TV local TV channel, the messages Evan and I preached in the North Kerala AG Youth Camp were telecast this year.
A year in which our Gospel tract, BUBBLY, was distributed in trains, in the city of Lucknow, all overBrushing up on things we already know and need to know
We haven't arrived yet in life and ministry. We need to learn a lot, still. That's we go to ONE LOCAL CHURCH so that we can learn things in a systematic way and we would be accountable to a body of believers who get to see us regularly. That is the New Life AG Church, Secunderabad. We are NOT part of the paid staff of that church. But we have spiritual fellowship there regularly. We go there to be fed by God's Word. This year, I don't recall that there was even ONE SUNDAY when we were not there, if we did not preach in any other church! We were blessed and built up by the edifying messages for Rev. Arlene Stubbs, the electrifying message for Rev. Valson Varghese and encouraging messages of Pas. Younus Samuel. We had the privilege of hosting Rev. Valson at our home one day this year and I had the honor of eating dinner out with Pas. Younus Samuel on yet another day. We make ourselves spiritually accountable to our local church pastors, though we are independent ministry that is supported by freewill offerings of those who are blessed by our writing and preaching.
I also brushed up on what I already knew and learnt many new things in the Doctor of Ministry course I am doing at Southern Asia Bible College, currently. A dear family I greatly love and thank God for is helping me out with the fees for this four-year course. I was there in Bangalore for three full working weeks this year at various times for this purpose. I was blessed by the teachings of World Class professors like Dr. Steve Lim (from the US), Prof. Prabhu Guptara (from Switzerland) and Mr. Ajith Prasadam (from India). I enjoyed one particular assignment that I did this year for my doctoral course. It was this one: summarizing my life under 13 ‘p’s before my 12 classmates. I repeated what I did in that class when I celebrated my 36th birthday at our base in the presence of corporate company youth on the midnight of 31 Oct-1 Nov.
Another way I brushed up what I needed to know was by reading books. The Archeological Study Bible, The New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, were among the choice Bible study tools God added to my library through the help of loving friends. The book, I was browsing through at the end of this year was by Dr. Ravi Zacharias’ Has Christianity Failed You? – a very good book.
This year I did take out time to meet with senior spiritual folk to get valuable advice from them. When I preached in Maharashtra in a youth camp this year along with my preacher professor, Dr. David Balasingh, I was blessed by his counsels. When I was in Southern Asia Bible College, for my D. Min. course, I took time out to be with Dr. Jacob Cherian and Dr. I. Praveen. I was a better person after talking with them. My inner man was built up as I talked my local church pastor, Rev. Valson and Pas. Younus Samuel.
Being there in homes and weddings sharing the Word and the Gospel.
This year, the Lord opened homes in which I could share his Word to eager believers. In one home, I practically summarized the message of Prophet Amos using the acronym, ‘Bethel’, the town he ministered in. In yet another home I shared from the lives of Bible Characters, whom the Bible recorded as being handsome or beautiful but had a character flaw like Absalom, David, Joseph, etc.
I was also in settings such as weddings/wedding receptions in Chennai and Guntur using even those occasions to bring in elements of the Gospel in speeches that were not only entertaining but also Gospel-light bringing for audiences that included influential non-believers. In the Chennai wedding reception conducted on the lawns of the huge CSI Church in Cathedral Road, there were non-believing employees of HCL, who were friends of the girl who was getting married and in the Guntur wedding, there were without-Jesus folk from the Corporate Companies the girl and her brother worked in.
In the month of January, the brother of one of our Bible Study regulars passed away. I was there at his home, sharing God’s Word in the memorial service. I shared on the topic: Different Channels Through Which God Comforts Us.
Blessings too many to count!
This year, the Lord blessed us in marvelous ways, this year. The crowning blessing was receiving at the end of this year from a very dear family who have received my mass emails with ministry updates and Bible-teaching articles for many years. They blessed us a sleek Andriod High-end phone: The Motorola Milestone and a Dell Laptop! Please pray for us, that we may use all the technology in the world, to spread all the truth found in the Word, to all the modern youth of this World!
Bucks that came from willing, God-sent Indians!
When we began this ministry, no individual or church or group promised to take care of all our expenses. But we knew God was with us and we began by faith and continue to operate by faith. This financial year (April 2009 to Mar 2010), the Lord blessed with offerings from willing donors - all of whom were Indian (except the ministry offering we received from Compassion International, Bangladesh, which was from its Bangladeshi Country Director). The folk who supported our ministry were from different parts of India and from different Indian States. In this lot were ordinary people who gave to God in with extraordinary generosity moved by the Holy Spirit. God's Work, done in God's Way, will not lack God's support and we shout a loud, 'That is indeed true!' to this profound statement. All this support came from folk who were blessed by our messages or writings. From this amount so received we paid all our ministry bills and also gave more a tithe to other preachers and other ministries we wanted to encourage and thank God for. We had a board meeting this year in the month of September at Chennai. Mr. Y. Silver Ramesh, a BPO owner from Arakonam took time out to be there. Pastor Gnanasekaran, made himself available even though he was about to leave for Sri Lanka for ministry. The ministry reports and accounts were submitted. My dad, Mr. A. Jeyaraj, later got them audited by an auditor (who is incidentally not a believer) and then the accounts were submitted to the Government of India. They sent us an acknowledgment for this too. We must do those things, which are right, not only in our eyes, but also in the eyes of others, Paul wrote when he talked about financial accountability!
Thank you for reading this reading this mail very patiently. Please continue to pray for us.
I am just doing my bit in God’s big Vineyard. I just want to continue to be a donkey who carries Jesus to the Google Generation till I die.
PS – Please go to my FaceBook account under Duke Jeyaraj and see the Album 2010 in 12 Summary Pictures to relive the times and moments I have talked about in this 11 page report.
Please remember me as I preach in the following meetings in January:
2 Jan – Bible Study on the book of Numbers at our base, Hyderabad
13 Jan – Preaching the Gospel in a Metropolitan Mission Gospel Meeting in Vijayawada (10,000 people expected)
26 Jan – Preaching in the youth retreat of IPA, Coimbatore
30 Jan – Month-end Midnight Prayer at our base
“THE TEACHINGS I MISSED DURING MY YOUTH, GOD’S PROVIDING
MY TEEN-AGED KIDS THRO’ YOUR MINISTRY!”
(Notes of encouragement that Duke and Evan have received of late)
Great to see you, Duke annan, on Facebook! Just wanted to tell you how much I love your ministry. I think your work is amazing and you really truly have an incredible talent win the hearts of youth to the Lord. I know that I myself greatly benefit from reading your articles - something that I have done right from my college days. – a young medical doctor of Indian origin who lives in the US via Facebook.com
Dear Duke, I have been following your writings since reading Blessing magazine during my college days (in WCC, Chennai). So, in a sense though I don't really know you, I still know you... if that makes sense at all! I think some Christian organizations do not really reach the corporate world of today as they are quite far removed from the struggles and issues of this whole generation. This was why I used to be struck by your efforts to try and cater to the spiritual needs of that sector even from your BYM days. I now see that you have launched a ministry of your own which targets this sector specifically. I applaud your work my dear brother and co worker in Christ. This was also the reason I wanted to join your Bible reading group on Facebook.com, to get some insights and tips into what might work when talking to say, colleagues at the work place. I have read some of your messages on your website (TheDaysOfYourYouth.com) and notice that you have taken considerable effort to try and connect contemporary events and people to timeless Bible truths.– a Indian woman living in England via email to emailduke@gmail.com.
Hello friends! This particular DVD featuring Duke Jeyaraj’s message on Taming Tough Temptation should be in everyone’s library. It is one of the best guides on love, I have ever come across! – a young corporate company worker living in Pondicherry, India via Facebook.com.
Dear Duke, I purchased a copy of your book, No-Beating-About-The-Bush Straight Talk On Hushed Up Matters, in my local church, the day you preached there. I also purchased one CD message of yours. Both were very informative. Though I had read the Bible passages you refer to in both these resources many a time, I did not discover the hidden truths you have brilliantly and practically brought out till I viewed and read your resources (Book and Message CD). I regret that I did not go ahead and buy more message CDs of yours. How can I now purchase them? – a church believer in India via email to emailduke@gmail.com
Duke, I read thro this email of yours (a mass mail you had sent featuring Christmas Outreach Resources of yours) in full and also all the attachments that came with it. I sincerely appreciate all the time, effort and energy you put in to be contemporary and relate to the youth of this generation. Duke, I have always missed your Bible Teaching sessions at your base because of my work schedule etc. But thank you for sharing the word document of the outline you developed (on the book of Ecclesiastes) via mass email. I read it and found it VERY useful. – a vice-president in a world-renowned multinational corporate company in Hyderabad via email to emailduke@gmail.com
Really, happy and I praise God, Duke, for your ministry among youth. My son, a teen now, will soon be eating the fruits of your yield. What I have missed in my youth, I am happy God will be providing to my children and through your ministry. – a manager with a multinational corporate company in Hyderabad via email to emailduke@gmail.com
You are an inspiration, Evan (Evan is Duke’s wife). I don’t know if I would ever be like you. But I really want to be a wife like you, a mum like you, and most of all, a woman like you! You guys are a blessing! – a young woman, part of our Bible Study Group at our base, working in Hyderabad, via sms to Evan at +91-9440327922
