A young Indian and his wife venture to serve the Lord in East Africa…

By Robin Sam

WHEN Mark Barnabas was just a boy, his staple reading diet included a host of books on Christian missionaries who traversed around the world to spread the Gospel. His earliest childhood heroes were missionaries like David Livingstone and William Carey. Inspired by these men of faith, Mark used to make periodic announcements at home that one day he too would be serving in Africa, particularly in the Horn of Africa, as a missionary. Though none at home took it seriously, the seeds of a resolve to work for God had been sown in a young and impressionable mind. His parents named their youngest child Barnabas (meaning ‘son of encouragement’) in the hope he would be with them in their old age.

After Mohammed Siad Barre, the leader of Somalia was overthrown in 1991, political groups took to violence that killed over 20,000 people. A year later, Somalia plunged into a severe famine that left over 300,000 people dead. News and images from the impoverished country only strengthened Mark’s resolve to go there as a missionary. However, the urge to be a missionary was put on the backburner when in his teens he backslid. But God does not give up on those He foreknew and also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His son. He brought Mark back into the fold when he was in the second year of college (Mark did BA in English Literature from the American College, Madurai).

After graduation, Rev. J.J.Y Arul, his pastor at New Hope Power AG Church in Madurai, persuaded him to study in a Bible college. Mark says,“That was also the time I was fasting and praying and asking God to reveal His plans for my future. God spoke to me through Acts 13:2. “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’.” He took this as a specific direction from God.

In 2000, he joined Madras Assemblies of God Bible College (MABC). In his second year at the MABC, he shared his desire to work as a missionary in Somalia in a prayer meeting. Two days later, a man who did not know about his calling prophesied to him after a Sunday service at NLAG Church in Chennai that God would send him to a ‘difficult country where he would face a lot of hardships but the Lord will continue to sustain him.’ After graduating from MABC, he served at pastor Arul’s church in Madurai as an assistant pastor. There, pastor Arul advised him to go to England and get trained in mission work.

Priscilla, who was to be Mark’s wife, had in one of the youth camps yielded to God’s call to run a home for the destitute, downtrodden children and people affected by AIDS. A day before Priscilla shared with her father, her desire to serve the Lord, her mother had a vision where she saw her daughter working among impoverished and ailing African children. When the family exchanged notes on this, they knew God was up to something! By a divine connection, Mark and Priscilla got married in July , 2005.

Six months later, Mark joined Redcliffe College in United Kingdom to be trained in mission work and the couple left for Gloucester in UK. The training and education at Redcliffe proved to be quite expensive but Jehovah Jireh met all their needs.

God provided for their needs miraculously while they were in England. “We had just 900 pounds with us when we first went to England and that was barely enough to pay our first term fees. But some people who remain anonymous till date had paid the fees for the rest of our terms. Even our personal needs were taken care of in amazing ways.” Mark remembers with gratitude.

After returning from the UK, they went to Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. During their time in Nairobi they came across a mission organization called ‘Christ’s Mission to the Unreached’ (CMU) and got in touch with it. CMU, a cross cultural faith based mission agency focused on taking the gospel to the unreached people groups, was looking for someone who’d be willing to work along with them on the border. Soon, the couple set off to Garissa, a town along the Somalia border and eight hours from Nairobi by road.

Garissa is a small town in the north-east of Kenya where Somalis form the bulk of the population. “We are the only Asian family living there,” Mark chuckles. During their stay there they got to know the place, the people and the language. Life was not easy but God’s grace sustained them. There were many people upholding them by their prayers. They had to come to India for Priscilla’s confinement. God blessed them with a boy child. The Marks left India in the last week of January 2010, setting their eyes on the One who has called them into His Vineyard.

Mark Barnabas can be contacted at his email id.

© Copyright: The Christian Messenger/Messenger Communications Pvt Ltd.

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