Faith and Healing in India

In a rural village in the Alipurduar district of West Bengal, India, a slow-moving driver hosts a flurry of activity. On one end a woman sits on a rock, her feet dangling in the water. Beside her a colorful mound of clothing shrinks in size as she takes piece by piece, washes them in the water, and stacks them into a basket. A hundred yards away a group of women walk through the current with nets in hand and dinner in mind. Water lilies dot the surface, undulating with the ebb and flow of the waves.

On the adjacent road people dawdle on simple bicycles devoid of fancy gears or brakes. Others walk by with piles of wood on their heads, delivering fuel to their homes. In the background there are fields where a lone worker harvests the crop for the day.

The Guavar church was constructed in 2006, but the building is already falling apart because of poor materials. [Photo: Julie Lee, Maranatha Volunteers International]

It is a peaceful, bucolic setting, far from the energy, technological advancement, and wealth of India’s larger cities. The people here live a simple life, farming and selling their yield or working in the tea fields that dominate the region.

And it is here that Maranatha Volunteers International, a supporting ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, has been asked to build churches for congregations in need of a new place of worship.

A Similar Refrain

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in West Bengal is divided into two sections, North and South Bengal. There are more than 11,000 baptized Seventh-day Adventists in North Bengal and 117 congregations. A little more than half of the groups have a church to worship in, and of those, about half were built by Maranatha in the early 2000s. Since Maranatha’s involvement the region has experienced rapid growth, and Maranatha has returned twice to build more churches.

Erosion of the floor and walls is common in this area, where there are issues with expansive soil and extreme weather. [Photo: Julie Lee, Maranatha Volunteers International]

Most recently Maranatha was invited to build in the Alipurduar district, which is in the North section. Situated at the foothills of the Himalayas, the area is known for its tiger reserve, a national park, and tea gardens. There are also extensive tea plantations that employ a good portion of the population. There are multiple churches scattered throughout, but many of them are falling apart, decrepit and impacted by extreme weather and other environmental conditions. This year Maranatha is committed to constructing five churches in this area, and in March a team from Maranatha visited the sites to collect information on their needs.

What was striking about each place was not only the condition of the buildings but the similarity in their stories, and the one element of faith that threaded through them all.

The Guavar church is one of the five. The building sits across from an expansive tea plantation, where many of its members work. Relatively speaking, the building isn’t too old—it was built in 2006. But it is literally crumbling. The once-cheery yellow exterior has faded and is speckled with mold. Inside lies a buckled foundation, crumbling walls, and a rusty roof that turns into a sieve during the rainy season. Termites have taken hold, spitting out piles of dirt and sand on the perimeter of the floor.

Every inch of the church is disintegrating, making it a safety hazard for those who worship inside. [Photo: Julie Lee, Maranatha Volunteers International]

Twenty-seven years ago a man named Soharay Munda fell very ill. Locals described it as “the devil attacking” him and his family. Soharay sought healing from his priests, witch doctors, gods—anyone he thought could help. But it was to no avail.

Then he heard about the Christian God. It was a faith foreign to him, but he was in no place to be picky. He wanted to get better. So he traveled to a town that he had heard included an Adventist church, and asked its members to help.

The Adventists prayed with Soharay. Day after day they prayed with him, and slowly Soharay became well. He was baptized along with his brother, then started meeting in a family member’s house, which became the founding of the Guavar church. They went from home to home offering to pray for the sick, with faith that God would heal them.

In a population of nearly 1.5 billion in India, only about 2.4 percent are Christians. In some areas Christianity is a very unfamiliar religion, which can create much tension, prejudice, and even violence between belief systems—especially in rural areas. The situation was arguably worse decades ago, when Christianity was first introduced to Guavar. For these early Adventists, even walking to church could be dangerous, as people waited in the dark to attack them on the road. Sometimes Soharay and his family received death threats. When they were building the church, people tried to stop the construction.

Members of the Rajabhatkhawa church meet in their decrepit building. [Photo: Julie Lee, Maranatha Volunteers International]

But over the years the community began to see the power of the Munda family’s God. They not only stopped harassing the Adventists but began seeking them out for advice on health and asking for prayers. Whatever tension there had been dissipated with each miracle.

Today Guavar has 160 faithful members.

Amazingly, this story of friction, healing, then connection is repeated in all the villages Maranatha visited: Chengmaritari, Guavar, Rajabhatkhawa, Bamchuka, Gadadhar. At each there is testimony upon testimony of faith born from the miracle of answered prayer and the power of healing.

“These are people who do not have easy access to health care. There are no clinics or hospitals nearby,” says Christos Mathew, construction manager for Maranatha India. “If they get sick and miss a few days of work, their families will suffer. You can see why healing is important.”

Navin Mahato visits homes to provide basic health-care information and checks up as part of his medical outreach ministry. [Photo: Julie Lee, Maranatha Volunteers International]

It speaks volumes, and perhaps it is loudest in places in which there is no other option but to rely on faith for your health care.

Navin Mahato is a member of the Gadadhar church. In 2015 a friend invited him to attend a program on health. Back then Navin had no idea that it was organized by Adventist Christians; had he known, he would have turned down the offer. But he attended, and fell in love with the information and the people. His bias against Christians melted away, and he began to read the Bible. “In my life I had never touched a Bible. [But as I read] I could see the picture of God. It touched my heart. . . . It was totally different from what I had been taught,” says Navin, who was baptized in 2020.

He began helping with health ministries, going from door to door to check people’s blood pressure, share natural remedies, and talk about health in general. “We visit weekly. Then when we approach them and ask ‘Can we pray for you?’ they’re more than happy to accept it. We have visited more than a few hundred houses in many different religious communities, and nowhere have we been rejected or threatened with anything.”

In this area it is common for non-church members to request prayer from the Adventists every time they are sick. It has been a powerful way to introduce Christianity to a reluctant community. [Photo: Julie Lee, Maranatha Volunteers International]

For Navin it’s been the key to opening people to the gospel. “Only through medical ministry work are we able to present the love of Christ toward others. And we see in the Bible that when Christ was here, He was involved in healing more than preaching. So Christ also calls us to do the same thing.”

A Church Home

The final piece to this outreach? A dignified church home.

In such places as India where the barrier to Christianity is especially wide, a beautiful temple can be a powerful symbol of strength and hope. On the flip side, a damaged one can represent weakness not only in the building but in God. 

Each of the churches Maranatha has been asked to replace is suffering from eroding walls, broken roofs, and cracked foundations. The spaces are not only unsightly but dangerous; the next big storm could topple the building. All these factors serve as deterrents to potential and even existing members. 

“It is difficult to hold church here,” says Nirmal Minz, pastor of the Rajabhatkhawa church. “When it rains, water leaks. When the sun shines, the sun and heat are too strong—all this is difficult when trying to have church services. . . . People do not want to come after seeing the church.”

Guavar church members meet with a woman who had asked them to come and pray for her to overcome her illness. [Photo: Julie Lee, Maranatha Volunteers International]

Soon Maranatha crews will roll into town and knock down what is old and crumbling, and replace it with a beautiful, new temple. In India Maranatha churches are designed with stained-glass-like windows and porticos. Some sites also have bathrooms. In this region, where the environment suffers from seismic activity, cyclones, and expansive soil, the standard India church plan will be adjusted to account for the specific vulnerabilities. Every detail will be considered to provide a dignified, lasting place of worship.

Through powerful health ministry and miraculous answers to prayer, the members of these Adventist congregations have broken down barriers of prejudice and opened doors to the gospel in the rural Alipurduar district. Maranatha’s commitment to building welcoming, safe, and durable churches is a vital part of this effort. These new places of worship will not only house the congregations but also serve as symbols of strength and hope, empowering the local members to continue their spiritual and healing work within their growing communities.

The original version of this story was posted on the Issue 2, 2026, of The Volunteer. Maranatha Volunteers International is a supporting ministry that is not part of the corporate Seventh-day Adventist Church.