MISSIONARIES ON THE FRONTLINES
FRONTLINERS
Frontliners, church planters, or national missionaries is some of the names we give to these heroes of our faith. Often working covertly, these incredible men and women offer their lives to see the light of Jesus flourish in even the most extreme areas of the planet. Their passionate efforts may go unnoticed by many but CEIFA aims to support, encourage, and come alongside them as they partner with God is His great commission by church planting, discipling, and inviting new hearts into the kingdom of God.
FRONTLINERS IN INDIA:
(Amit and Diana Gully)
Amit is from Nagaland, India and Diana is from the US. God orchestrated quite the story to bring these two together while they were young and serving as missionaries in North-west China. They lived there for more than 10 years, teaching English, running a restaurant, and more, all with the focus of reaching out to the Amdo Tibetans in that region. After their son, Jack was born in 2017, in 2018 they came back to the US for a sabbatical year and further missions training. During their visit to the US, Covid hit and they ended up staying for a bit longer than they expected. Their daughter Lily was born in the US in 2021. In 2022, they moved their family to a strategic area in North-East India where they continue to reach out to Tibetan Buddhist people groups. Ceifa is partnering with the Gully family through Discipleship training and medical outreaches in their area. If you would like to connect with them or know more about what they are doing, email them at bgully@highrange.org or contact Ceifa.
Meet one of the frontliners Ceifa is partnering with in India; VEER and NITU
CEIFA is partnering with Veer and Nitu who are proclaiming the Gospel in both word and deed in India. Read their personal testimony below.
“Hi, my name is Veer and my wife’s name is Nitu. We have 2 boys, Ray and Bey. I am originally from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India but grew up in Punjab. I have 3 brothers and 2 sisters.
I came from a family with a strong Hindu background. At a young age, I joined the RSS (the religious fanatical wing of the Hindu BJP political party) and became a very active member. I was indoctrinated about Hindu supremacy and brainwashed to hate other religions, especially Christians.
Before I knew Jesus, I had lots of problems and lived a very sinful life. I used to worship idols and there was no peace in my life. I was longing and looking for God’s love from different people but could not find the love that I was looking for. When I was 15 years old, I left school and started working very hard to provide for my family because my father did not take care of our family. Whatever money he would earn he ended up squandering away by gambling and drinking. We also went into debt because our family had to pay the dowry for my sister’s marriage at the age of 15. Our family was in a grave financial situation and the future was uncertain. I had lots of pressure to provide for the family being the eldest son in the family. I did not know what to do. In desperation, our whole family even contemplated suicide as we had no hope or future.
During that time, my cousin, who was a believer, told me about Jesus and the Good News. When I heard it for the first time I was filled with peace in my heart. My cousin’s family even helped us pay off our debt. After some time, I started going to church but my life was the same as before. I still had lots of anger and resentment in my heart against my father for failing us.
My younger sister was the first in my family to believe in Jesus at the age of 16. In 2011, when I went to drop my sister off at a YWAM base, I met the base leader for a brief moment. I only had 15 minutes before my train was about to leave and the leader told me about a discipleship training school. The school was starting the next day and at that moment I decided to stay back and join the discipleship training school. During the DTS, I learned a lot about God but never got to experience Him personally. After the school, I went back home to my own past life and into all the worldly things again. At that time, I was possessed by an evil spirit and was tormented for many years. In 2013, I got another chance to do a secondary school with YWAM called the school of frontier mission (SOFM) which was in my hometown of Varanasi. During the school one speaker came to teach and as he prayed for me, I was delivered from the evil spirit and my life completely changed. I experienced God in a special way like never before. I got married to Nitu in 2015, whom I met during my DTS. Currently we both are working full time with YWAM Siliguri, West Bengal, India. God has given us a vision to do Church planting among the unreached people groups here in our city and to train and disciple many young people.
We have already started five house fellowships and every week we partner with a medical team in conducting medical clinics in different unreached areas in our city.”
FRONTLINERS IN TANZANIA:
Frontlines in Tanzania are currently involved in a village called Chagana which is located in the central part of Tanzania in East Africa. It is inhabitated by the Taturu community from the mangati tribe which is a nomadic community and one of the largest marginalized in Tanzania. Until 2021, the community had never heard about Jesus. Many having not gone to school and speaking in their local language, looking after cattle was their only task and they depended on witch doctors in their communities for all their needs; spiritual, health and financial.
On Jan 2021, God led a team to Chagana. An invitation by Gidufana (a local missionary), the TEGA team and CEIFA president (Pastor Dave Promise) visited the area and had the chance to speak and interact with the locals.
Gidufana played a great role where he solved language barrier issues that the team was experiencing. Farming God’s way and discipleship was the main subjects to the community and they were willing to listen. This was the staring point of a great journey in transforming the Taturu people and share the love of Jesus with them. Many hey have been receptive to the message and Taturu disciples and disciple makers growing by the day.
With the help of Fred (a missionary), for over a year now, the number of disciples has grown and even started a church in Chagana. The church has grown and the new church es are being planted in the neighbouring villages of Mwakule and Mwalala.
You can help towards Chagana church planting project, the community cannot read and therefore, they need audio bibles translated in their language. You can support them by contributing towards buying more audio bibles.
How you can help the frontliners
You can support ease movement for the missionaries from one village to the other as they work towards the goal of fulfilling the great commission in the 10/40 window.