An Unlikely Moses

By: Chris Martin

“I prayed like Moses prayed. I said ‘Lord, why did you give me all this? Leave me alone!’”

If I was taken aback, it was because the man sitting across the desk was not a newborn believer. Nor a burnt-out pastor or missionary. A Lancaster Bible College student and journalism intern, I’d been assigned to interview Dr. Vararuchi Dalavai, BCM’s Vice President of International Ministries, for the 70th anniversary of BCM International. He was an appropriate choice, since BCM India was celebrating its own 30th anniversary, and it had been under this man’s leadership that the ministry there had grown to more than 16,000 churches, 400,000 baptized believers, and nearly a half-million children in Bible Clubs and Christian education.

Not as tall as I’d expected, Dr. Dalavai had met me with a formal greeting, white teeth flashing against coffee-toned skin, deep lines in his features speaking of his many years of ministry—34 years of persecution and blessing, failure and success. 34 years of God’s faithfulness. Dr. Dalavai went on to explain himself.

Unlike most families in his homeland of India, the Dalavais represented Christian roots three generations strong. Dr. Dalavai’s great-grandfather had been a Hindu priest who, after accepting Christ, stepped down from that position to become an evangelical minister. His father served faithfully as a minister for 67 years. Because of harsh sacrifices his family experienced, Dr. Dalavai opted for a different occupation. After a fine education, he settled into a high-paying office job, which allowed him, his wife Veronica and three children to lead a comfortable lifestyle.

But as with Moses, God had different plans for Dr. Dalavai. “Of all people,” he shares, “Moses was called by name and asked to lead the people of Israel out of bondage, the greatest challenge a human being could face.”

Dr. Dalavai’s own ‘burning bush’ experience did not come until he became seriously ill. While lying prostrate and helpless on a hospital bed, he told God, “I think I’m done. You win. You do what you want.” Today he shares, “That’s where I made my commitment. When I came back, I resigned and never looked back.”

This conscious decision to follow wherever God called led Dr. Vararuchi to study God’s Word in Canada. The cold climate, different food, and loneliness were a struggle. He would see his wife and children only once during the whole three-year period. But Dr. Dalavai shares now, “That was what God did with Moses. He had to train him. Though Moses went to school in Egypt, God had to bring him back to Mt. Sinai so he could be more fit to lead the children of Israel out of bondage.”

Upon returning to his homeland, Dr. Dalavai joined BCM (then called the Bible Club Movement) and began teaching children’s Bible Clubs, bicycling to schools and churches. His goal was simple—to effectively teach God’s Word and win young children to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Soon, he found himself teaching 24 Bible Clubs every month.

Despite this apparent success, a problem was causing increasing restlessness within Dr. Dalavai. Hundreds were accepting Jesus Christ as Savior, but there were no spiritual leaders to pastor them. In 1982, Dr. Dalavai responded to this dilemma by expanding his ministry from Bible teaching to church planting. His objective was to plant churches where they had never previously existed. With no local church model to follow, he began by organizing prayer cells among groups of believers. As the Holy Spirit began to work within them, prayers cells grew into Bible Study groups, which eventually emerged into thriving congregations. The movement spread like a fierce wildfire until a church was being planted every month, then every week. Roughly 30 people a day were accepting Christ as Savior!

Church leaders and a growing body of BCM India missionaries set a goal to plant a thousand churches in one year. When the goal was accomplished in six months alone, they increased their goals. The fire spread with BCM India missionaries reaching out to neighboring countries such as Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, then into the continent of Africa. Dr. Dalavai himself would eventually preach and teach in 51 countries on five continents.

Today BCM Afro-Asia trains approximately 100 new missionaries every year as evangelists, church planters, children’s workers, etc. An organization system maximizes the work of each individual minister. Each country is divided into regions, which are overseen by supervisors, usually a senior pastor of a large BCM mother church. The supervisor is responsible to travel to satellite churches, usually without pastors of their own, on a monthly basis. Administering anywhere from 5 to 50 satellite churches, the supervisor performs communion, marriages, or handles internal problems within the church.

Exciting it has been to see God’s work, but not easy. In every country, BCM Afro-Asian missionaries have faced persecution. Dr. Dalavai himself has been beaten, shot at, smuggled out of town in the dead of night under a death threat. Whether experiencing persecution, overcoming obstacles against his ministry, or even problems with coworkers, Dr. Dalavai says that it seemed not a single day went by absent of some form of difficulty.

It was at times like these that he identified so emphatically with Moses’ desire to be released from the weight of his calling. Was he losing the battle? Was he even in the right ministry? Just as Moses walked through the desert with the nation of Israel, many times Dr. Dalavai found himself simply walking, desperately clinging to the faith that God was indeed leading him to a place where he could effectively serve the Lord.

Dr. Dalavai pauses in the interview to remind me, “Ministry is not just roses as we talk. It is also the thorns that we must handle too.”

Yet through it all, he was able to see God’s faithfulness throughout the many hardships. To Dr. Dalavai, the most rewarding aspect of his ministry has been observing firsthand thousands of churches emerge from nothing, hundreds of thousands coming to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ, and witnessing the profound impact of Jesus Christ on countless lives.

For example, a Muslim man’s wife was deeply involved in witchcraft and had been visibly possessed by an evil spirit. In desperation, this man begged a local BCM pastor to pray over her. Today that woman testifies how she experienced the evil spirit leave her through those prayers. The couple accepted Christ as Lord and are now effectively planting churches among Muslims.

In another instance, a committed Hindu priest was bitten by a snake. The doctor had given him two hours to live when a Christian pastor laid his hands on the wound and prayed. By the time the sun rose, he could feel life coming back. Accepting Christ as Savior, he became that pastor’s disciple and went on to become a BCM evangelist himself.

As I sit across the desk from him, Dr. Dalavai’s eyes still light up at the mention of pioneer mission work and church planting. As the current work in India alone continues to expand, he urges Christians and the local church to get involved. How to do that?

Pray - not just for the overall Indian church, but for numerous BCM projects and ministries emerging all across a nation home to almost a sixth of the world’s population.

Participate - take the initiative to participate in an active outreach to encourage and support Indian believers. BCM India has numerous opportunities both in short-term missions outreach and in financially supporting local BCM ministries and missionaries.

Partner - an effective thing many churches have put in progress is selecting an international church and connecting with it through an exchange of prayer, letters, and spiritual support. Contact BCM to link up with an Indian or Afro-Asian congregation.

As the interview finishes and the door closes behind me, I walk away with a new perspective on what is true success in ministry. Like Moses, Dr. Vararuchi Dalavai is just one man who responded to God’s call on his life. A man who has struggled to survive in the spiritual desert of doubts. A grassroots worker who describes himself as more comfortable preaching to a village multitude than sitting in an office building making decisive telephone calls.

However, there is no limitation to what God can do through one individual willing to be poured out and spent for the Glory of the Son of God.

May I heed that same call in my own life.