In a hot and bustling market in a South Asian border city, Santanu spends his day making and repairing leather shoes. He is remarkably cheerful, earning the nickname “happy, smiling man” from his neighbors. His background, however, is far from happy. Santanu’s mother died when he was very young, leading to a difficult and sad school experience and an entanglement with a gang of boys who eventually went to prison for murder.
In the midst of this turmoil, Santanu met Tanmoy—a young man who came from a similar background, but who had a very unfamiliar message about peace, hope, and Jesus. At first, Santanu observed Tanmoy and his friends from the outside. When he noticed how the group prayed for each other and their problems, he started attending their Bible studies.
Today, Santanu is one of a core team of eight people who work with Tanmoy and his wife, sharing with their own people group and praying that God will lead others to experience the same hope and joy that he’s found.
Rosedale International (RI)’s involvement with this group is new and developing, but it has some old roots. In the late 1990s, an RI worker named Dan was living in South Asia and working with a group of low-caste Hindus who had come to faith in Jesus. Tanmoy came to visit relatives in the town where Dan was working, and the two men met and spent some time together. When he went back to his home city, Tanmoy sought out Christian training and eventually decided to follow Jesus! He reconnected with the group that Dan was mentoring several times over the years, but over time, they lost touch. Dan moved to Thailand and eventually returned to the United States.
Almost twenty years later, the COVID-19 pandemic led Tanmoy and Dan to reconnect. Because visits to Asia were not feasible at the time, Dan had begun a weekly online Bible study with RI’s partner team in the south. Tanmoy heard about this and reached out to Dan, asking if he would do the same for his group. Dan was intrigued by Tanmoy’s report of Hindu-background believers who were hungry for Bible study, and so the second phase of RI’s connection to Tanmoy began.
They are praying ambitious prayers for God to expand their work…
During the time that Dan and the RI team had lost contact with Tanmoy, he had been busy, and God had blessed his efforts in amazing ways. He had gotten married to a Muslim-background woman (an event that nearly cost them their lives…but that’s another story), had three children, received training through YWAM, and begun working full time to share about Jesus with his people group. He and his wife started Sunday school classes for the children and youth, and this led to the formation of the team they have today.
Today, the team meets regularly for worship, prayer, strategy, and outreach. They have continued the Sunday school program that was so influential in many of their lives. They meet twice a week with Dan for online Bible studies. They are praying ambitious prayers for God to expand their work and allow more of their people to hear the good news in a way that makes sense to them. Dan reports that they currently have “more opportunities than they have time and resources to meet.”
As RI’s partnership with this group deepens, the main benefit that Tanmoy sees is support through prayer. “Satan never leaves us in peace,” he says. The team faces strong spiritual resistance and social pressure as they speak openly about Jesus, and prayer makes all the difference.
Tanmoy, Santanu, and the rest of the team are asking for dedicated intercessors to form a group that will pray specifically and regularly for them and their work. If you are interested in learning more about partnering with the team through prayer, please contact info@rosedaleinternational.org. The Communications Team will connect you with Tom, Asia Director, and Tanmoy’s team in South Asia.
Photo credit: unsplash.com/Ziph
