Welcome to the Mondithokas' website
Welcome to our website. We hope that you would be challenged and blessed by reading the content from this website. Visit our blog Quest for Truth and let us know your comments.
"The Wounded Healer -- written by Santhi Mondithoka"
Comments on Blog
Faith Beyond Reason: A Balanced Biblical View of Faith -- Expanded Version
It will be from 5pm with two short lectures, a Q&A Session, high tea, and a brief Inauguration Ceremony. Dr. Augustine Pagolu is coming from Singapore and Dr. and Bishop Narendra John (ATA General Secretary and Bishop of the Free Methodist Church) and Dr. and Rev. David Ravinder (a Methodist Pastor and Visiting Professor from New Jersey with a Ph. D from Princeton) will be speaking.
Please contact us for more details and invitations @ hithahyd@gmail.com or 040-23231010 or 9704315262.
Pastors and Leaders will be in attendance.
YOU ARE MOST WELCOME
Written for and Published in The Greater Hyderabad United Christmas Celebrations' Souvineir.
The Characters Around the First Christmas
(New)Families and the Purposes of God - Ministry through Families -- Expanded version
Do I have the Right Kind of Faith
Characteristics of a Christian Leader The Telugu translation of this article is now published in VJ, April issue.
A shorter version of the following article was written for Vidyarthi Jwala and will be published in the December Issue (in Telugu).
The What and Why of Apologetics: A Very Short Introduction of Christian Apologetics
Theology and Practice of Christian Giving
Renewed Mind and Transformed Life
Here are the first three of four messages delivered at regional graduates conference. The first article is now published in Harvest Times for Your Family, the GLS magazine.
Check back for the rest of the messages.
Message1-Being Holy Because God is Holy
Message2-What it means for us to be holy
Message3-Holiness in Thought Life
David and his Three Military Chiefs: Learning Some Spiritual Lessons from a Battle Scene
Articles
"Being Good Christian Citizens and Facing the Contemporary Social Challenges" Comments
Life After Death: Reincarnation or Resurrection? Comments
Jesus Christ and the Two Natures - Compatible or Incompatible?
The Divine Human Interface in Jesus Christ
Comments
Yoga and Meditation : Relaxation Or Religion? Comments
Priority Christian Living in the Present Perplexing World Comments
The Lost Tomb of Jesus: Searching the Living among the Dead -- An article by Jerry Thomas Comments
The New Testament Gospels: Testimony or Spin? A Response to Da Vince Code
Unpublished Letters to Editor
Reason, Open Discussion, the Da Vinci Code, and Truth
View the comments on this article here!
Applied Apologetics: Conversations/Dialogues that Count
Should we see God in order to believe that He exists?
Comments
What is the sex of God? Is God a He or She or an It?
Comments
Does the Christian idea of God as Trinity make sense?
Comments
The Qur'an or the Bible? Which one is the Word of God for All Humanity?
Comments
Note: In addition to the teaching at HITHA – Santhi has been teaching Biblical Greek I (Tuesday & Saturday) and I have been teaching Introduction to Christian Apologetics I (Thursday & Saturday) from March and my ministry at the Church (Centenary Baptist Church, Secunderabad), we have the following important speaking engagements. By the end of April I will be finishing my long series of messages on “Families and the Purposes of God” at our Church. Please do pray.
We (both of us) will start teaching at HITHA during the first full semester starting from the middle of July. In addition to all these speaking engagements, we have some writing projects to complete as well -Santhi’s commentary on the book of Ruth for the South Asian Bible Commentary and a number of articles that we both need to write. Please do pray for us. We also do some ministry through the internet/e-mail. We do lot of counseling both directly and through e-mail/chatting. We appreciate your partnership in the ministry of the Lord through your prayer and other kinds of support.
July 2009
July 11, Hyderabad: Official Launching of HITHA with two Inaugural Lectures by Dr. and Bishop Narendra John and Dr. and Rev. David Ravinder and a function
June 2009
11 - June 18: Trip to USA and Canada – teaching and preaching ministry in a few locations and attending a Teaching Seminar at VOM-Canada in Toronto
May 2009
May 6, Karimnagar: Speaking in the housewarming ceremony of Prakash and Christiana (addressing both believers and unbelievers, especially the Friends of Other Faiths)
8, Tenali: Speaking in the wedding of Nagamalli.
(New)
Update from the Mondithokas, as on March 08, 2009
We had a good Orientation Program for the Registered and Prospective Students of HITHA with 32 professionals (from medical, software, teaching, etc., backgrounds) and some who have registered or will be registering were not able to make it. We will have the Biblical Greek I class meeting on Tuesday 7: 30-9: 30 pm and Saturday (9:30-11:30 am) - two batches and Introduction to Christian Apologetics I class meeting on Thursday (7: 30-9:30 pm) and Saturday (11:30 am -1: 30 pm) - two batches. We arrived at these dates and timings based on the inputs from the participants in the Orientaion Program. Lot of interaction took place after our presentations were over. Praise the Lord. Let us pray for chairs with writing planks and other equipments we need on a priorit b
Dr. Narendra John has agreed to delever the lecture. But we need to fix the date (either the 11th or another date between July 4 and 18). Let us decide the date so that I might be able to confirm the final date to him.
Also, Brothers Ratna Babu, Jerry Thomas and Augustine anna were given the responsibility of working on the job descriptions, terms and conditions for the positions of Academic Dean and Director of HITHA (the board discussed this matter and made this decision on the 21st of Jan.). So you three need to initiate the process and whenever you need my inputs I will be available.
The Seminar on "Biblical Theology of Persecution and Discipleship" that HITHA organized in Partnership with VOM-Canada went well with 42 Persecuted Pastors and Leaders from Kandhamal district and other parts of Orissa (including three from the ministry of the Stains).
We are looking at 707 in Mount Nasir Apartment complex. We are keeping Bros. Jerry and Raj and sister Shobha informed of these things. I met the owner's brother today. Tehy are willing to give it to us and we will finalize the deal shortly.
View of the 32 participants, HITHA Orientation, March 2, '09
Santhi Mondithoka introducing the Biblical Greek I course, HITHA Orientation Program"
Prayer/Praise Points
(New)Recently we traveled as a family (after one full year) and went to Chennai. Santhi received her M. Phil Certificate (did her dissertation on “Contextualization of Christianity in India: A Critical Study of the Contribution of Bro. Bakht Singh and his Assemblies”) and a Gold Medal for being the Topper with Outstanding Performance (from the University of Madras). It is a matter of great joy for us as a family and God timed this trip and the receiving of the medal to give a tremendous sense of confidence and motivation to Santhi to continue to serve the Lord. Praise the Lord.
Please pray that God's enabling grace and anointing might be granted for the speaking engagements of different kinds at different places: Itinerary
**** A New Thing: We see a New Thing that the Lord is doing. It is Theological and Apologetics Training with a Difference that Dr. Augustine Pagolu and Santhi will be leading. I will be helping them. Market place theology and apologetics of world class standards would be the focus to equip the whole Church to effectively fulfill its mission – edification and evangelism. We are tentatively calling this place of training HITA (Hyderabad Institute of Theology and Apologetics). It may be officially launched towards the end of 2008. When we met in June, we could see that all the people on the Accountability Group (12 keen Christian friends joined us) were excited about it and gave us many useful inputs and we have continued to pray. We now have the 2nd consultation on the 30th. Please pray for God’s guidance and help. We now need to think more concretely and form a Committee, finalize a place for the office, and finalize many other details. We need your prayers, suggestions, and any other kind of help very badly. If you wish, we would be happy to send you more information about HITA for your information and involvement in whatever way you can and want.
**** Writing Projects: We have some writing projects also to work on. Please pray very specially for Santhi's work on "A Commentary on the book of Ruth" for the South Asia Bible Commentary and my article on “Bribery and Corruption” for the same commentary. I need to finish my work on the last essay in the series on holiness for the GLS magazine, Harvest Times for Your Family. (so far I have only been able to finish the first part of this). I now need to write an Evangelistic Tract for UESI-AP also. I am also now thinking again about continuing to work on a book on Apologetics “Building Bridges to Faith: A Very Short Introduction to Christian Apologetics” that I started writing some time ago. I could not do any work on this whole of last year and now I need to do some original research to continue my work on this. Santhi also needs to think of converting her M. Phil thesis (on Brother Bakht Singh) into a book (GLS has requested her to do this). We need wisdom and guidance from the Lord to plan these thing out and work on them. Please pray for God’s enabling grace and the needed resources.
The Lord is good and faithful and all glory and praise be to Him alone. Here are the comments from some who sent 'thank you notes' after different conferences & meetings over the past two months:
- For the first time in my life I realized that I should reason out my faith and grow stronger- deeper in and more confident about my faith
- I realized how important apologetics is for me as a Christian both in my life and in my ministry
- I realized that in the present world being a Christian without the knowledge of apologetics is very difficult
- It was liberating to know that it is alright for me to have doubts and that I could share them with others and receive help from them
- My approach to Christian life and ministry has been changed for better as I have been exposed to the scriptural teaching on the place of mind in Christian discipleship
Reason Vs. Faith -- Sudhakar's comment Published in Hyderbad Times, Times of India, October 7, 2007, p. 1.
God has given humans the ability to think rationally and the right to express themselves freely. The right to expression is also constitutionally guaranteed in a democracy. I am for that freedom. However, freedom comes with responsibility. I cannot do whatever I want to, particularly if it infringes upon others' freedom.
When Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code was published, I argued for his freedom of speech, and so did many churches. It was not banned in Christian communities in Europe and America. However, highly qualified clergy and even secular scholars responded to his views in a scholarly way.
So, it is about understanding each other in reasonable, logical ways. There can be a healthy debate. Reason has a valid role to play in understanding and communicating faith in a friendly and respectful manner. But Fundamentalism expresses itself in emotional outbursts and if we are emotional then our reason goes down. Loudness of an argument and low levels of logic generally go hand in hand and this is not good.
*** Very Encouraging Feedback from SAIACS (where I taught a course on Christian Ethics to MA 2nd year students during June):
One of the students in the class wrote . . .
Dear.Sir,
. . . I take this privilege to thank you for your commitment for us. We have learnt so much from you. Before sitting in your class, there seemed to be so many gray areas in life. But now, everything seems to be more black and white. You have made ethical issues so much simpler. We will always remain indebted to you for your efforts. I am always impressed by your energy!
I hope we will have the opportunity to sit in your class again soon. God bless.
Milton Terang
Response to the talk on the Da Vinci Code:
Once student wrote the following (many others had similar things to say in their thank you notes)
I am raju, came to JESUS as my personal Saviour in 2003.i am doing my engineering in bhimavaram. i am a member of iceu bvrm. i attended a seminar on dvc (Da Vinci Code) at our city center. i was in hyd last Sunday. It was very useful for me as i got good information about dvc and i thank GOD for dvc bcoz now i can answer my friends questions.
Anna, I really thank GOD for ur family. i want to know some more information regarding dvc and other contemporary issues. Please send me the names of the sites, which i hope will help me to worship my Lord with my whole mind.
thanking u,
ur thammudu (= younger brother)
raju b.
*** It is all the Lord's doing and we are privileged to be His servants – we are His servants and we have just done what we are called to do, that is, our duty. So all glory to Him alone.
SAIACS News, Dec. 2005 carried this News Item about the Modular Course that Rev. Mondithoka taught in the month of Sept. 2005 to the M. A 2nd year students:
In Defense of ApologeticsChristian Apologetics, since its appearance in the realm of theological education, has continued to be one of the much sought after subjects by students world over. Guess what! SAIACS offered a full module on 'Contemporary World Religions and Christian Apologetics' to the MA second year students in September. The course instructor, Rev. Sudhakar Mondithoka of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) from Chennai was brilliant. He taught us from his wide experience and knowledge. Through his dynamic, befitting, and at times even forceful lectures, Mondithoka made the students realize the importance of knowing other religious faiths and the uses of Apologetics for effective communication of the Gospel. As a part of the course requirement, the students were sent in small groups of three or four to meet and share the Gospel with people other faiths outside SAIACS Campus. This turned out to be an outstanding module.
-(Sam K. John, MA II)
Respected Sir,
Greetings to you in His Holy Name!
I am glad that I could attend the Sunday service on last Sunday i.e. 11.01.2009 and could hear the message on Families and God’s purposes. It was wonderful. After my completion of M.Th, now I am involved in teaching ministry at COTR Theological Seminary in Visakhapatnam. I was there in Secunderabad for 5 days to attend the personal Contact Programme of MSW through Annamalai University. It was Prabhu who told me that there is English service at Centenary Baptist Church. As soon as I heard that you are going to preach there, I rushed to the Church.
Now, I am tempted to attend the service just to hear the series of message that you started last Sunday. But practically I am not able to make it possible. Anyhow, I have received the written message from your website but I am really missing the opportunity of hearing from you directly.
Sir, the recent persecution made me to change my ministry place and now we are preparing prayerfully to move to Orissa. Therefore, may be by next April or May we will move from here. Please pray for us. Along with one Oriya brother who is a business man living in Hyderabad have discussed to conduct a meeting and to take you as main speaker to our hometown (Utkal Baptist Church – Prabhu Kumar has visited our Church) Church in Orissa. Pray that God may grant us His grace to fulfill our plan for His glory. Please continuously pray for us. We are praying for you. Now, if you are in SABC, please convey our regard to Jyithikanth Sadhu and Sanjukta. Thanking you. Please convey our regard to Santhi madam.
In His Grace,
Lalit Kumar Bardhan
COTR Theological Seminary,
Dorathota, Box- 3
Bheemunipatnam Post
Visakhapatnam – 531 163.
