July 15, 2010

Dear Friends,

Many happy greetings to you all from Christopher and my wife Elizabeth. It is so nice to relate the time we enjoyed in the ministry.

The wonderful training which I received in Gilead School helped me to stick to my assignment and reap a lot of blessings despite difficult situations like mob attacks and financial problems.

After my Gilead training in 1980 I served in Bethel for one and a half year.  Then my first assignment was Gulbarga, South India in 1982.  I married the same year and my wife Elizabeth joined me.  She was a zealous special pioneer.  In the meantime we were blessed with two lovely boys Enoch and Joshua.  We never thought of giving up pioneering because we wanted to continue doing more in Jehovah’s service to show how much we love him.  This fulltime service has added many joys to our lives.  Always applying the practical suggestions for training children as well as our bible students has brought very good results.  We were able to train Enoch and Joshua in godly fear, keeping always the goal to serve our loving father Jehovah.  Today we are so happy to see them both serving in Bethel.  We have been able to help more than 50 people dedicate their lives to Jehovah. 

In 2001, there was a financial restriction imposed in India with regard to the Branch activities.  Due to which most of the special pioneers were taken off the list, which included us too.  But we did not panic, because our confidence was in Jehovah’s caring and powerful hand – Isaiah 43:13.  By continuing to keep kingdom interests first in our lives we have experienced firsthand how Jehovah has abundantly provided for our needs.  At present Elizabeth and I are serving as regular pioneers in Goa, a small state in India.  And I continue serving as an elder.  Recently our eldest son Enoch got married to a Bethelite, Nancy.  And both are continuing their full-time ministry there. 

It has been a pleasure to get in touch with all of you after three decades.  I am sure you all would have enjoyed many joys too in your assignments and hope to hear from you. 

We send you our warm Christian Love and wish you all a very happy re-union.

Your friend and brother,
Christopher Rodrigues

I would like to share an interesting experience of an ex-nun.

Her name is Leena Saldhana. She was 9 years in a nunnery, thinking that it would be a life very close to God. But she was very much disappointed by the treatment she received there, as she saw the partiality, dishonesty and rude behavior of the superiors. She just did not want to be there so with much persistence, she came out from the convent. We met her in the house-to-house ministry, when we decided to call on a not- at- home. She was living with her mother. She always felt guilty that God will punish her in hell, as she had left the nunnery. When we had the discussion on soul, why we die and what happens after death, she was very happy to learn the truth.

She made rapid progress despite a lot of opposition from the local priest who pressured Leena’s mother to threaten her to leave home if she continued studying the Bible with us. But she remained firm and could overcome all the obstacles. Today she is a zealous witness of Jehovah. In time her mother also showed appreciation for the truth, made progress and now is a dedicated servant of Jehovah.