FAITH

My greatest desire in writing this booklet is to record the faithfulness of God toward the work of Christian Missions Charitable Trust from its first day until now.

So very often the people of God think of Him as one who enacted great things only in a day gone by, to men of the Scriptures, and to men of notable faith like George Muller, Lord Shaftesbury, Wm. Carey etc, but as you read these pages you will acknowledge, along with me, that He has not changed and that He is still the same.

I gave my life to the Lord when I was 13 years old and living with my parents, sister and brothers in New Zealand. Throughout my teenage years I knew I wanted to serve the Lord in full time capacity. I offered myself to Him and He graciously accepted me into full time service.

After leaving school I trained as a Kindergarten teacher and spent three years as Director of a Kindergarten school in Wanganui, my home town. Then I enrolled for a concentrated period of Bible study with New Zealand Bible School in Auckland. During that time I knew without any doubt that the Lord was calling me to serve Him in the sub-continent of India.

I was 24 when I left my home and sailed with the late Miss Ruth Taylor, a missionary from New Zealand, for India via Sri Lanka. That was in 1964.

With the motto ever before me “Where there is no vision the people perish”.

It was a very humble beginning in a small rented garage in Chennai(Madras) which God graciously put His hand upon, and which has become a blessing to many.

My one longing as I met with these girls was to give them not only an understanding about the things of the Lord, but to train them in an occupation which would give them a measure of in an occupation which would give them a measure of independence and self-esteem. The majority of the teen-age girls that I was meeting at that time had finished school, and because of poverty, had no further chance to improve themselves, but spent their days simply waiting for an arranged marriage.

The Haven of Hope ministry began in my rented home. Each day I moved my car out of the garage, wiped up the oil from the floor, and with one girl who is still with me today, now married and a mother of two, began teaching her simple cross-stitch, knitting and typing. Later, other girls also joined.

As the Lord blessed the work and it began to grow it was advisable to register the work with the Government. In 1979 Christian Missions Charitable Trust was officially recognised.

My garage soon became too small and larger premises had to be found. The Lord gave us the services of a Government trained sewing teacher and our first professional work was under way! Friends from overseas took an interest and the first to sell this on our behalf was the late dot Bevin of New Zealand.

We were also invited to sell the handicraft at different churches on Sunday afternoons and after church services in Madras. From those sources the work has grown and now embraces 18 different ministries.

In 1984 we moved into a larger building where we continued for three years. In 1986 we moved again into even larger premises where the work has been until now and where the hostel and orphanage work began. It was however been my experience that with great heaviness and sadness of heart, I have had to refuse a shelter to needy ones, simply because we have not had the room.

During the day the premises doubled up as a place of work with every available inch being occupied for one things or another. All the facilities on the premises were overworked and over-loaded. As we began a new ministry we erected another room or extension. Now there are extensions on extensions!

Although I knew the Lord would always provide of His work, I also knew that we would not be allowed remain in the premises at Khader Nawaz Khan Road for too much longer, and in my mind I felt perhaps after another four or five years at the most and we would be asked to find other accommodation.

One evening during February 1994, I was sitting at home having dinner when my telephone rang. The caller was unknown to me but he told me that a piece of land that was owned by a member of his family, was for sale. He wondered if I would be interested in buying it! Nothing could have been further from my mind at that moment.

He described the land and circumstances leading up to the offer of sale and invited to come and look it over.

I went the following Sunday afternoon and found an old derelict two storey building which had been previously rented out to tenants who had not looked after the property and had been asked to leave. It had taken many years to evict them. Such was the condition of the building that only the land was being offered for sale.

The vendor had little understanding of the work of Christian Missions Charitable Trust other than a very brief knowledge of the orphanage/hostel work. He asked me many questions as to my background, where the financial support for the work came from, who paid my salary etc., etc., I explained that as I had been called by God to His work, I looked to Him day by day to support me and His work and He had never failed, nor was He able too.

The piece of land measured 4,5/6ths grounds i.e. 13,600 sq.ft. His original asking price was 38 lakhs per ground, but after listening to a detailed account of the work he reduced the asking price to 28 lakhs per ground, graciously enquiring if I was happy with that! I replied that I was thinking more along the lines of 27 lakhs to which he readily agreed!

But was this of the Lord? I had had no leading before about our own building, it had never been anything more than a dream. Could this possibly be His will? Thinking that nothing happens by chance in the life of the child of God, I told our friend that I could only pray and seek the mind of the Lord was telling me. He was more than happy to wait for one month for that answer.

This I considered to be unusual because I knew that many developers were seeking plots of land for building, particularly where this land was situated.

So I went to prayer and morning and evening I sought the Lord’s will in the simplest and plainest of terms-“Father if this offer is of yourself, then please lead and show me”.

During this month the landlord of the house that I was renting and living in with my Indian family, told me that he was raising my rent by 50% and that after two years he wanted the property back so that it could be sold to developers. That would mean another house move, the twelfth in my 30 years living in India.

Also during this month of prayer I had a fax message from a brother who I had met years earlier from Singapore. It was to say that he was to visit Chennai (Madras) and wanted to spend the majority of his time with us at C.M.C.T. He was bringing with him a small team and they would be four men in all. I had met this gentleman some years earlier and invited him to visit us. He promised that one day he would, but would only come on the leading of the Lord. Now he felt, was the right time.

Suitable accommodation was arranged and they stayed with us for about four days. They saw every aspect of the work, spoke in the local assembly, in devotions in the Centre and at a large gospel rally during the Saturday evening they were with us. They spoke to many individually, hearing of how the Lord had blessed them spiritually and practically since coming to C.M.C.T.

The day before they left to return to Singapore they spoke to me of how moved they were at the stories of one and another they had listened to, how impressed they were with the work and its growth and how the Lord the obviously been pleased to show His hand in blessing. “But” they said, “What about these premises that you are occupying?”

Anyone who is familiar with the premises of 18 Khader Nawaz Road, Chennai, knows only too well the overcrowding and generally poor conditions under which we worked and lived for so many years. Wherever there was available space we had built small rooms to accommodate the increasing number of ministries within the work. None were ‘architect designed’ and none were uniform! The only similarity was overcrowding.

So I described how I had taken these premises which were originally for family occupation. They were rented from a Muslim family and that at best, I considered we would only be able to or remain there for, perhaps, a further four or five years. Then the land would most probably be sold, but I well knew that it would only be sold to those of the Muslim faith.

However, I told them that I had just recently been offered a piece of land approximately one or two klms away from our present building. Immediately they asked to see it which I agreed to on the understanding that they spoke to no one in India as I was still waiting on the Lord for His leading.

They readily agreed and shortly after we went to see the land, just quietly walking around observing one thing and another. Then we all gathered in front of the old derelict building and quietly together committed this to the Lord, once again seeking His mind and purposes for the future of C.M.C.T. That evening they left for Singapore.

My month of specific prayer was ticking by and no answer had come from the Lord. The last day of the month was Monday and I knew that I had to keep my word, relative to purchasing this land. I confess to having felt at the moment of recognition a slight disappointment because already in my mind I had constructed a building for the work of C.M.C.T.

However, I also knew that the Lord could have had something better which He many wish for His work. I simply had to trust Him.

During that Monday Morning I was busily engaged in my office when at approximately mid-day my fax machine rang and began gushing forth feet of paper. I leant over the machine pulling away the paper. Imagine my surprise when I found this to be from one of our earlier visitors from Singapore, advising me that they had reported to the elders of their fellowship on the previous Saturday matters relating to their visit to Madras. In brief the result of that meeting was that the sum of Singapore $40,000 was immediately allotted to Christian Missions Charitable Trust for the purpose of securing the land deal. The final paragraph red “So dear sister, proceed to contract”. I find it extremely hard even now, to describe my feelings at that moment. I locked my office door, put out the light and lifted my heart to my God for this clear and direct answer to my prayers.

I later learnt that this meeting in Singapore had been arranged long before the visit, but at the last moment, due to unexpected reasons, the meeting was postponed. However those difficulties were later resolved and the meeting held as proposed.

When I returned home later in the evening the first thing I did was to phone the vendor of the land, telling him that I believed that I had received an answer from the Lord to proceed with the purchase of his property. He said to me “I almost phoned you last night, but something held me back”. I replied “If you had, I would have told you to go ahead as I had had no leading from the Lord”. It was then that he told me that he had been inundated with offers at his original asking price!

I seemed to stay awake for hours that night going over the events of the day. It was then that I realised that had that meeting been postponed in Singapore, it would have been too late as probably the land would have been offered elsewhere in the meantime. I also reflected on my reading from the Scriptures that morning which was certainly not by chance. It was on the faithfulness of God.

Within three days of the receipt of the fax I received two other large gifts, both from overseas, that had obviously been in the post for at least one week. Together, with the promised gift from Singapore, I had enough to pay the necessary 10% deposit on the land deal.

In conversation later with the owner of the land I found out that he had been trying to evict his tenants for almost 13 years. They were gone just in time for the visit of our friends.

I was very kindly given until the following January(95) to complete the payment. No specific repayment sums were stipulated and no interest required on the outstanding amount. I was certain that the Lord would provide. But January came and although a great amount had been given there remained quite a debt. ’I wondered what would happen’.

During the first week of February the owner strode into my office’. I hardly knew how to look at him, but I need not have worried! He immediately told me that I could have until the following July to achieve the full payment of the land, still no interest required on what was outstanding. Some months later I was in America for deputation meetings in connection with the work. During that time I met a group of ladies who said to me that they had had a particular burden to pray for me and the work during the month of February. Could I remember anything “unusual” that may have occurred then? How lovely it was to tell them of the gracious attitude of our vendor in postponing the final date of payment which he advised me of in February.

I can only say that from numerous sources funds came in and without pleading, pledging or borrowing, the full and complete settlement was made by the first week of August 1995.

However, to effect the transform of ownership from one party to another it was necessary to pay 13% of the value of the land to the Government. Furthermore, as the owners were emigrating they wished to have this completed within the following five months.

Once again, I could only look to the Lord and once again He provided this in full, and in time.

With this fresh experience of the faithfulness of God, I was encouraged to instruct a Christian friend who is a builder to draw up plans to build hostel / orphanage and work place for the future of the ministry of Christian Missions Charitable Trust. The foundations were finally dug out to a depth of 10ft. in June1996 and I think it was the sight of this that made me wonder whatever I had committed myself too! The size of that hole in the ground was enormous!

But I was firmly convinced in my heart that God’s work done in His way, never lacks His supply.

It has taken approximately three years to complete this building. There have been driven to my knees knowing that the building work was proceeding and the builder would need to be paid. Those were good experience and I have no regret over those times.

In December 1998 the owner of the premises at 18 Khader Nawaz Road gave me several months notice to quit her property.

Today you see the evidence before you that “He changes not”. He is still the same, the faithful God, whose word can be totally relied upon. He cannot fail, He cannot break his promises.

In 1979 Christian Missions Charitable Trust was officially recognized by the Government of India and what began with one girl has now developed into a large organization employing more than 350 people. My aim is, and has always been to uplift the poor and to train them in an occupation which would give them a measure of Independence and self-esteem.

I am so grateful for the many years I have been able to work for the poor in India.

Oh to trust Him then more fully,

Just to take Him at His word.
Colleen M. Redit
President