Vijay Chandra Memorial Letter

by Mrs. Narsamma Chandra

September 14, 2019

Dear Praying Friends,

Thank you for praying for us and supporting us so faithfully over the years. The Lord has been wonderful to us. By now many of you know and maybe some of you do not know that Vijay went to be with his Savior and Lord on the 24th of July at 3:30 pm in Fiji.

We left for the Fiji Islands on Wednesday the 17th of July and arrived there on Friday the 19th. He preached on the Lord’s day on the 21st at the Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Ba, from Luke 18:9, 10, 11. We were thrilled to be at the church which we started together in 1993 and were there till 2017. We had a wonderful fellowship with the believers after the service and then we were invited by a member, Sagar and his sister Puja. He himself cooked the meal and then discussed about the Lord and also he was having some problems with his mother. After counseling them and edifying them we went home.

On Monday we had some things taken care of and Sagar met us again and we again spent a lot of time counseling him and encouraging him. On Tuesday a Muslim man had come to do some yard work and Vijay made tea with ginger and they had it together and Vijay witnessed to him and a neighbor who came to visit. On Wednesday morning those two men came again and Vijay talked to them again and we left for Lautoka.

He took chapel on Wednesday the 24th for the students and staff of Fiji Bible College of Evangelism, sharing from John 4 about the attributes of God. He had graduated from the Bible college, and also had helped build the buildings. He also had taught Hebrew, Greek, and Old Testament Theology for over 24 years there.

He said he was not feeling good so I took him to a doctor for a checkup. The same day after few hours the Lord whom he served faithfully to the last minute saw it fit to call him home. I was with him. He did not suffer at all, and as the Word says, “he was absent from the body and present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). He left peacefully to be with his Lord. Vijay can surely say “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7, 8).

Andrew and Kimberly were able to fly from Australia the next day and Philip joined us on Sunday. Funeral service was held at the Ba church at 11:00 am on the 29th of July where Andrew also shared from Jeremiah 1:5-10 and then the burial service took place at the Veroka cemetery at 1 pm. After the burial the Fijian staff and students knelt around the grave and paid respect to Vijay, a gesture which the natives give only to chiefs and people they place in highest honor. Our Lord blessed with a beautiful day and a wonderful service in the church as well as at the cemetery. Many believers and nonbelievers, families and friends from Australia and New Zealand and all over Fiji were able to hear the gospel and our Lord’s name was glorified through Hymns and his Word. The memorial service in honor of Vijay was held the same evening at the church where our God was glorified once again. My dear brothers and sisters, the Lord has been my strength and my shield and has guided me and my family through all these days. The Lord guided me in all these and I surely felt His loving presence with me in my sorrow and days of bereavement. He was my refuge to flee to.

I came back with Philip to Utah and spent some time with his family and waited on the Lord’s guidance as to what He wanted me to do. Even though Philip and his family wanted me to live with them, after much prayer I felt the Lord was calling me back to Flint to continue with the Cross Cultural Ministry which Vijay and I started with the help of other friends like Tim Marshal, Luke, Moses, Scott Snyder, and Keshitiz at Kettering University and also wherever and whomever the Lord brings in my way. Scott Snyder took some Bibles and gave the news about Vijay and students helped themselves to 12 Bibles. I was able to visit them last Friday with Sabrina and most of the students were glad to visit with me and a couple of friends also came over. They conveyed that they really loved Vijay and would miss him greatly and shared that Vijay would call them “son”. I was really touched by their love. Keshitiz and Moses came that evening to my home and shared what Vijay meant to them and how he was mentoring them.

Friends, I really appreciate your love and prayers for me and the work here. It will not be easy for me without Vijay but for now I know the Lord wants me here in Flint. Thank you also for the sympathy cards and phone calls, it means a lot to me. My Lord has been with me throughout the day on the 24th, and I felt His love and His presence and His guidance then and also continually to this day. We had celebrated 41 years of our wedding anniversary last year on the 5th of November. I have known him for 44 years. His love and zeal for his Savior kept him going till the last day and I praise the Lord for his life.

Ralph and Sharon Kemrer from Calvary Baptist Church in Pennsylvania shared with me a handwritten note which Vijay had written to them in 2005 and the text which I would also like to share with you is from Lamentations 3:20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26.

In His service,

Narsamma

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