SOLAI was born to Nalliah and Thayilnayagi as the youngest of three children in a village in Pudukottai in Tamil Nadu, India. Extreme poverty forced the family to migrate to Chennai when Solai was 20 years old. The school dropout eked out a living selling lottery tickets to support his family along with his father, elder brother and sister who were also doing sundry jobs.
As years passed, the family’s economic condition improved and Solai bought two autorickshaws. However, when misfortune fell on the family the young man had to sell both his vehicles. Shocked by the sudden turn of events, Solai boarded a bus and went to Devipattinam in Ramnad district as if in a trance. His family believed he had lost his mental balance due to the loss of business. However, prompted by the Holy Spirit Solai got down in Devipattinam and went to a Christian acquaintance’s house to borrow a copy of the Bible.
He read the Bible voraciously for several days. When he realized the supreme love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ who gave His own life for the sinful mankind, Solai was convicted of his sins. Soon, he gave up smoking, drinking and frequenting brothels. Back in Chennai, he started attending the Sunday services at a local church in his neighborhood (Pastor Paulraj Manickam’s Bethel AG Church in Neelankarai near Chennai). He took water baptism on Oct 1, 2000. The church got him involved in tracts ministry. After accepting Jesus as his Savior, Solai took a new name for himself – Joshua!
Three years later, his mother and sister Swarnam came to Christ. The same year he stopped driving autorickshaws for a living and heeded the Lord’s calling to get into fulltime ministry. In 2005, his father Nalliah accepted Jesus.
From 2003 onwards, he has distributed over five lakh tracts almost all over Tamil Nadu. Though on an average, he distributes tracts to 2,000 people every month there have been occasions when he has shared the Gospel to over 9,000 people through the leaflets.
As a result of his personal evangelism efforts, as many as 40 people have accepted Jesus as their savior.
“Seven of them are in fulltime ministry,” he beams.
Till date, he has shared the Gospel in over 1,200 villages in as many as 20 districts of Tamil Nadu.
“I have been beaten up by people who were opposed to Gospel four times in these seven years. I get yelled at almost every day by someone for distributing tracts. But the grace of God has abounded immeasurably in my life,” he says.
He likens his ministry to the public ministry of Jesus Christ where He traveled through villages in Judaea and Galilee proclaiming the Gospel.
“Village ministry is tough. We travel on foot for several miles to reach a village. We camp in the village for many days, sleeping under trees or on school verandahs. Imagine bearing the chill of the night and the biting of mosquitoes without a blanket to cover yourself. Most days, there won’t be any food available. So we make do with a cup of tea,” he says.
“But the sense of satisfaction you get in sharing the Lord’s love and plan of salvation with people is immense,” he adds. “The work is huge. There’s so much more to do.”
Joshua (N Solai) is an itinerant evangelist supported by The Christian Messenger. You can read more about our ministries here.
