Unshakeable Faith
Joseph showed others how to face life in a more excellent way. When he was faced with hardships of the Ashram life, he would confidently say the commission is from above and no one can thwart the call and purpose of God. He never grumbled, or murmured, he was never greedy, but always cheerful and content!
He was asked to vacate his home and ashram campus, which he had dearly cared for and nurtured, to go away, without even providing him shade to rest his head. When he was asked to retire in 1970 without notice at the age of 60 (at the time, clergy retirement was 65 years), all four of his children were still in school; he had no complaints. The Suvieshesha Sanghom (Evangelistic Association) had no pension scheme, as he was one of the very few evangelists of the Church in those days. He was asked to retire to an unknown future, with zero income, no bank balance, and no house. Joseph cheerfully confronted all the odds, rented a house in the town and continued his honorary services to the Sanghom and the Mission Field.
God enabled him to construct a house of his own in 1970 by selling his property in Maramon, Kerala. In June 1971, he moved into his newly constructed house, opposite the present Mission Medical Center which is at the new Tamme Gowda Extension.
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Famous quotes containing the word faith:
“Christianity only hopes. It has hung its harp on the willows, and cannot sing a song in a strange land. It has dreamed a sad dream, and does not yet welcome the morning with joy. The mother tells her falsehoods to her child, but, thank heaven, the child does not grow up in its parent’s shadow. Our mother’s faith has not grown with her experience. Her experience has been too much for her. The lesson of life was too hard for her to learn.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)