He saw a man named Mathews

It all began with God calling a young man from the southern part of india. Thomas Mathews was a university student doing his Bachelor's degree in Science in Kerala. His mother was praying for his conversion but he was drifting away from God. In a youth camp he had an accident. He fell into a dangerous whirlpool in a deep river. In those deep waters he prayed to his mother's God and promised to serve Him if He chose to spare his life. All of a sudden God inspired an unknown man to rush to Thomas' aid and rescue him from the waters. Immediately he left his university studies and committed his life to evangelistic missionary work in North India. He received four months of Bible training but had no mission organization willing to support him. He left his home in 1963 with his personal belongings for Rajasthan- a region 2000 miles north of his home town. He was told in Kerala that the state of Rajasthan is the hardest and the most hostile mission field.

Continuous days of starvation and the constant beatings did not deter him from his life's mission. He was only 19 years old when he began his ministry in Rajasthan. His was reluctant to write or share about his personal needs to any one. He met his daily needs by selling Gospels in Hindi language in the streets and villages in and around North West India.

The monthly rent of his room was Rs. 15 (50 cents) but he could not pay it for the first three months. One night the landlord came and threatened to throw out him and his meager possessions the following morning if the rent was not yet paid. It was a question of his survival. The night was spent in prayer before the Lord. The next morning the postman came and knocked at the door before the landlord came to collect the money. He handed over a 50 rupees money order- a wonderful gift from the Lord! When the three-month's rent of 45 rupees was presented to the landlord he was surprised how he could get so much money overnight. His reply was "God who sent me here for His work has sent it". The landlord left bewildered and never came to ask for rent money again.

During the cold winter nights the only protection was the kerosene stove. Thomas would burn the stove with a low flame throughout the night and sleep on the floor on a bed sheet, having no cot nor mattress. These challenges only pushed him ahead to concentrate to new villages. After six months God provided him a bicycle. There are countless stories like this to demonstrate the faithfulness of God.

Once Thomas prayed for a seriously sick person in the hospital.. God instantly healed the sick man. He compelled Thomas to take up his studies and even paid for his expenses for one year. While doing continuous evangelistic work and travelling extensively, he was able to complete his Bachelor's degree with distinction and was awarded the university merit scholarship. The scholarship enabled him to complete his Master's degree and achieve the University Gold Medal.

After receiving the University Grants Commission's Fellowship he did his Ph.D. in 1979 on the 'Providence of God' in John Milton's epics Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained. In all he received 25,000 rupees from the university as a Fellowship, while at the same time doing full time Gospel work. He was offered a teaching job in the university, but declined it in order to continue his missionary work. His academic achievements opened up a number of ministry opportunities in Rajasthan.

Meanwhile he married a girl from Kerala, Mary, who had a keen missionary vision about North India. Even though they were half-starved for several days of the month Mary was one step ahead of Thomas in missionary work. God has blessed them with three children who are now involved in the ministry.

“Behold, I have set before you an open door” – A Call to Enlarge

So far Thomas and Mary were confining their work to the state of Rajasthan. During December 1980 Dr. Donald McGavran invited him to come to a mission conference held at Bharuch (Gujarat). Dr. McGavran spent time with Thomas, and his message challenged him to "launch out into the deep". In that small conference the Lord gave him a promise spoken to the New Testament church at Philadelphia "Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it" (Rev. 3:8). Dr. McGavran's encouragement was the impetus that led to the founding of the Native Missionary Movement.

After a couple of weeks Thomas took four of his closest Rajasthani co-workers with him and they started the first missionary journey outside Rajasthan. They obtained a map of western India and received guidance to go to Surat first. They went up to the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra and conducted a series of Gospel meetings during the night. During daytime they visited homes and prayed for the sick. The local language was new to him but he spoke in Hindi and managed to get a translator who tried to communicate his message to the people. The Holy Spirit gathered together huge crowds for these meetings. The team was fed and sheltered in different homes every night. God performed one healing after another to the amazement of the ministry team. The meetings continued for around three weeks with around 100 non-Christians- many of those in attendance having been healed by God.

From the beginning, the believers were gathered into houses in every village and lay leaders were appointed to care for them. There were no full-time trained workers at this time; therefore, there was a great need for teaching and training of potential leaders. To meet the need for missionary and leadership training, we founded the Filadelfia Bible College in July 1982. Filadelfia Bible College is an accredited, mission –centered academy designed to train godly, skilled leaders for the church. The college offers different graduation programmes. To date, God has enabled NMM to train around 1000 graduates from all over India and the neighboring countries. Our goal is to instill in each student the vision to take the Gospel to the unreached; provide on-the- job training through ongoing outreach ministry; give them quality instruction in the word of God; and prepare them for pioneer work, hardship, persecution and life of faith through Jesus.