Alex Mathew - India

Posted Thursday, March 31, 2005

Pushed into the ABODE by a Hindu sage in 1968 and since them took on the ministry to lead the defeated and broken people into ABIDING. Has been in this ministry of encouraging others to take their rightful place in the Lord Jesus and enjoy the rest that is available only in Him.

Worked as a teacher/counselor in the Department of Education , Government of Tanzania for 16 years from 1969 to 1985 and for seven years in a mental assylum( not an inmate!) as Group Counselor. Since 1985 in India- in full-time Christian Counseling and teaching and sharing Abiding Life. Trained by Dr. Hans Staub of Switzerland and Dr. Helmut Sataut of Germany back in 1971, early part of his ministry was in Tanzania, Africa. Later specialized in Youth, Family and cross cultural counseling leading to a Doctoral degree in Counseling. India Director, ALM-International, Consultant, P. N. V. M. Hospital

*Founder of Agape Life Ministry and Services India (ALMS-India);
*Director CSI North Kerala Diocese Counseling center,
*President Toc H Cochin;
*Director, Ethical and Counseling Studies, Toc H Institute of Technology and Science,
*Director, Cochin Housing Development Center.
*Advisor, Cochin Counseling Center,
*Project Director, Muktisadan Deaddiction Center. (*All honorary positions held in Charitable organizations.)

Got to know Mike Wells in 1987 and since then the relationship is that of two closely held branches in the True Vine. He considers all secular training as rags for a Christian Counselor because counseling is NOT what a counselor pretends to do but essentially who he IS IN Christ. Alex maintains that is why ABIDING is so vital in the ministry of Christian Counseling. His whole creed in counseling is "Because He lives all things are possible" Alex Mathew believes the whole universe hangs on this one preposition "BECAUSE"!

Alex's Christmas 2004 Letter:

The Lord blessed us all this year in ways beyond our comprehension and our hearts are filled with gratitude and praise and I pray that He would continue to do that in your lives through the days to come. As you are an Abiding Branch I have the joy to share some of the highlights of this year in the Branch here.

Ministry;

Abiding Life Ministries and Services India is being used of the Lord mightily. We have trained six more Abiding Life Counselors. 811 people were given 3 hours training sessions and 2562 people were given 90 minutes teaching in batches of 25 to 30. The concept of Abiding Life is catching up. This year the number of our counselors have gone up from 12 to 17. They are M/s. Paul Selvaraj, Jyoti Mariam, Jose Valappad, M. Thomas, Birendra Kumar, Priscilla Babu, Monzy Oommen, Susy Oommen, Sharada Silas, Venus Thomas, Pramila Jayaraj, Deepu Joseph, P. C. Varkey, Thomas Mathew, Renu Thomas, Alikutty Abraham and Alex Mathew. Only five of them are supported workers. Between this 17 they handled over three thousand counseling sessions. We now have regular access to 3 Educational institutions, one Hospital one Deaddiction center, one Prison ministry and four other Christian ministries.

 

The highlight this year was my visit to the First Presbyterian Church, Kilgore, Texas for two weeks in the month of April 2004 as part of the CSI North Kerala Diocese delegation to the Grace Presbytery, Texas. The visit was a blessing in many ways receiving the love and friendship of a great Church and its people.

 

Family;

Sanjay has stepped on to managerial level in his organization. Reeba now works in the Mayor’s office in Trenton, NJ, Abe is getting ready for college and trying for an entry in the University of Pennsylvania, Anita is in grade 8 and Ben in grade 5.

 

Sujata has a very busy practice getting almost 100-130 out-patients a day and on some days up to 6-8 Caesarian sections/hysterectomy/PPS and so on. Eby is finishing 12th grade this year and is looking forward to pursue engineering studies. Vinay is in 8th grade.

By the grace of the Lord both Grace and I are reasonably well.

I have enough to do everyday, Training, Counseling doing Conferences/Seminars/W.shops besides attending to ALMS-India, Toc H and other Organizational matters. At the moment I am the President of Toc H Cochin and the Director responsible for Ethical and Counseling matters of the Toc H Institute of Science and Technology and its Public School Society. The CSI Diocese of North Kerala has asked me to function as the Technical Director of its Counseling center in Cochin. I also help in a Government Sponsored Deaddiction Center (Muktisadan) as its Project Director. As much as possible I try to be with the different ALMS-India workers, Prison Gospel Ministry. Visits to the Orphanages Snehabhavan, Karunalayam, Love Home, are now limited to once in a moth.All these folks I work with understands the Abiding Concept and marvel at it. IN CHRIST is the key.

Grace is a great support in all this. Sometimes I wonder how I can do justice to all these responsibilities. But then the TRUTH is, what is not possible for man also gets done when the doing is taken care of the ‘Because He’ factor. With all this He gives me usually :-) four and a half hours of sleep! Wherever I get an opening it is always an opportunity to share the great truth of ABIDING.

-Alex (alexnilamel@airtelmail.in)

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