Ruben Balaguer, a retired Rocky Mountain Conference pastor, met a couple named Provesh and Rupa Bairagi via Facebook two years ago. Provesh was a Baptist pastor at that time in Bangladesh in southern Asia where he lives with his wife and 11-year-old son.
The Bairagis have 51 orphaned children under their care, and Provesh preaches to the children and a large group of adults in a hall once a week. The small hall is seven hours away from where they live, and he must take four buses on this precarious journey to get there.
“They do not have the support of anyone because almost everyone there is Muslim and Hindu, and they have to meet behind closed doors because Christians are frowned upon,” remarked Balaguer. “Despite this, they continue doing the work of God and with the project of building a place of worship on a piece of land that his father donated to him.”
Church members from Balaguer’s district in the RMC made donations to the building project that helped purchase construction materials.
“I began to share with Pastor Provesh a series of Bible studies on doctrines that he did not know, and he accepted them and gladly started to teach the new truths to his church—so much so that when they learned the truth about the true day of the Lord, they began to have worship every Sabbath,” Balaguer recalled.
He continued, “After the first study about the Sabbath he told me: ‘Pastor, don’t forget to send me the second study on the day of the Lord,’ which made me very happy because I noticed his sincerity and his love for the truth. My wife and I decided to start sending him a monthly donation. Thank God the dollar goes a long way there.”
Provesh named his church New Hope after the name of one of the churches in Balaguer’s last district and appointed Balaguer as the honorary leader of his congregation. Balaguer receives weekly updates with photos and videos of the meetings, of the children having lunch and studying, and of the food that he manages to buy with the donations.
“I finished all the Bibles studies, and now I’m sending him studies about Revelation prophecies,” commented Balaguer. “Provesh has a brother who helps him with preaching when he can’t travel to that place and his brother is also learning and accepting all the new truths as well. I prepare new studies weekly and send them to him so that he can teach them to his congregation. I also send him stories for children. Praise God for what can be done through the internet—in my case, being a long-distance pastor and teacher!”
Balaguer believes there is no doubt that God is doing this miracle on the other side of the world with these people who love the Word of God and are sincere in accepting the new light that is coming to them from his home. “I ask you to pray for them, for all the adults who listen to Pastor Provesh, and for those 51 orphaned children that they feed and educate. They hope that they will be able to receive the help they need to build the church and continuing to preach the gospel in that remote place,” he concluded.
