Healing Ministry: Family serves on faith mission in India

Although Raju Manchala grew up in India and has made several trips there since relocating to the U.S. five years ago, the most recent one was special.

Manchala, 42, oversees a local church equipping ministry at Youth With a Mission in Lakeside. He recently returned from a trip to India and Thailand with his wife, Grace, and their son, Finney.

“It was one of the most significant trips we have had,” Raju said. “We went as a family and each played different roles, including my 11-year-old son.”

As part of the trip, the Manchalas visited Kanpur, a city in northern India, Kerala, a state in southern India, and Hyderabad, a city in south central India and Raju’s hometown.

While in Thailand, Raju preached and Finney shared a testimony and prayed for several people. “There were many physical healings. The Lord showed Finney a woman with pain in her chest,” Raju said. A woman with severe bronchitis who couldn’t walk more than a few steps without pain was delivered after Finney prayed for her, Raju said. Finney also prayed for a man who had a metal ball in his hip. The man was in constant pain, but “he was walking around praising God for healing him,” Raju said.

These were just some of the healings that took place on the trip, according to Raju, who related that he has seen many people healed on his mission trips.

Raju said Finney raised money for the trip by making and selling holiday-themed cards. “He said, ‘What can I do?’ I said, ‘You can draw.’” With funds from his card sales, Finney was able to donate school fees and supplies for three students to attend private school in India. Raju explained that there are no public schools in his native country.

The family also ministered to refugees from Myanmar. “They have so much bitterness and anger because of the unjustice that has been done,” Raju said. “ We were called to minister the Father’s love to these people. They were very hurt and broken on the inside. They were able to release forgiveness for different offenses in their life.”

At a pastor’s conference in Kanpur, Raju trained the pastors, who came from remote villages in Uttarpradesh, which is the most populated state in India and one of the most impoverished. “We brought pastors together to pray for the welfare of the city,” Raju said. As a result, the Manchalas will make another trip there in October after the pastors asked him to give a healing campaign. “A lot of the people we talked to came to know Jesus through a supernatural encounter in their life or the life of a member of their family,” he said. The Indian pastors will raise half of the funds for the conference, which will run around $10,000, Raju said. He will raise the other half. Raising funds is not foreign for Raju. He’s been doing it do support himself and his family since before he arrived at Lakeside’s YWAM campus. That’s all part of the ministry at YWAM, which came to Lakeside in 1985.

Raju is not sure what the future holds, but he also has an invitation to travel to Cambodia. “When I joined church equipping (at YWAM) there was no job description,” he said. “You can travel anywhere. You can be with YWAM anywhere in the world. I don’t know everything God has in store for us. We will be going back and forth to India and different nations.”

The Manchalas — who also have a 22-year-old daughter, Anmol, attending college in Bozeman — often minister to Hindus when they travel to India, as they make up 80 percent of the population.

Hindus have some 33 million gods, Grace said. But she isn’t afraid to minister to Hindus. During their recent trip, Grace prayed for and cast out demons from a woman, Raju said.

Grace, 45, was born in a Christian family in Kerala state, but suffered abuse from relatives and ended up rebelling. “I was a single mother with a five-day-old baby, and God spoke to me.” Someone suggested she attend a Discipleship Training School at YWAM. That began a journey of healing. “I ended up giving my life into full-time ministry,” she said. “Since then I have been able to minister to boys and girls who suffered physical, mental and emotional abuse. I always share that story.”

“The Burmese refugees opened up to us because Grace shared her testimony,” Raju said.