Church Planter (Meitei people), Sylhet, Bangladesh

He faces much persecution in order to preach the Gospel to his own people. He was raised as a Hindu, but came to faith in Christ in 2004. He studied at a Bible institute in India. He currently hopes to be married, but is facing opposition from his fiancé’s Hindu family.

Testimony

Until 2004, there were no Christians in the 54 Meitei villages in northeast Bangladesh. The Meiteis in this location are descendants of men and women who were forced to migrate from Manipur more than 400 years ago. They have remained Hindu in spite of being surrounded by Bengali Muslims, which number more than 100 million in Bangladesh today. Since they are such a religious and ethnic minority, they fiercely guard their ancestral traditions and Hindu faith. Christianity, as well as Islam, is viewed as a threat to their ancient culture.

In 2003, Takhellambam Luckson heard about his kinsmen living in darkness in Bangladesh and the Lord gave him a great burden to reach them with the Gospel. In 2004, he and his family moved from Manipur to Bangladesh to plant churches among the Meiteis. Since that time, he has seen more than 70 people come to faith in Christ. All of them have faced great persecution and ostracism as a result. Most of the time it begins after they openly profess Christ as Lord through baptism.

Since he belongs to the Meitei ethnic group, Probir was born and raised a Hindu. He comes from a family of three children: two boys and one girl. He spent 25 years in darkness until he came to faith in Christ. Before he was converted, he lived a life filled with drinking and smoking and many other immoral activities. He didn’t believe those things were wrong. Through the preaching of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit, he came to realize that the gods he worshiped were idols and that he was a sinner.

The Lord used Luckson to bring him to this realization. Luckson spoke with him about sin and that there is no satisfaction in it. He shared that Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty man deserves for sin. Luckson then gave Probir a Bible and told him to read it. He took it home and read it and after reading it over a period of weeks, the Lord convicted him of his sin and that Jesus Christ was the only way of salvation. He was baptized on June 10, 2004.

Persecution began after his baptism. He was beaten in front of his village and three different times was told to give up his faith. After he would not, the people in his village cut him off from their society. His brothers also tried to coerce him to renounce his faith. They told him they would give him employment if he would renounce Jesus Christ. His parents kicked him out of their house, but they did provide him with a small room to live in. Through persecution his faith only grew stronger. He continued to persevere and courageously shared the Gospel with his family. Now, both his father and mother and one of his brothers has repented of their sins and has professed Christ. They have not yet taken the step to be baptized.

Probir has a burning desire to share the Gospel with the people he sees all around him. He knows they are headed for hell and he’s doing everything in his power so that they will not go there. He is currently ministering to several people who want to know more about Jesus. He continues to tell them the Gospel amidst much opposition from the people in his village.