"The Lord is good: for His mercy endureth for ever - Hallelujah!" This is the refrain heard all day long and without break in the nights, in the Ashram. And those who sing are drawn from all corners of the earth, representing different races and nationality. These are the chosen few of God who, having seen His light from far and near, have flocked to this Ashram in remote South India to be with the Son of Man at the time of Rapture.
Manujothi, the name of the Ashram, literally means, 'the Divine Light to all mankind' (Manu-Humanity, Jothi-Divine Light). This light is shed to all the dark places of the world from this Ashram by the propagation of the end-time messages given out by Bro.Lawrie, as revealed to him by God Himself. Those who saw this light and preferred it to the darkness they were living in, forsook all that they valued most in life and are gathered in this wilderness 10 miles West of Tirunelveli Town. Yet the name was not selected after any deliberation. It was so named by divine inspiration, many years before Bro.Lawrie was commissioned with this ministry.
There are many talented musicians among those who are gathered in the Ashram. All day long and all night through, they sing praises to the Lord God, to the accompaniment of many types of stringed and wind instruments. The people join them in a Heavenly chorus, clapping hands, while the percussion instruments infuse the tempo - in this wilderness! This was what Prophet Jeremiah saw in sprit happening in the wilderness, which he describes in Jer. 33:7-11. It thrills out hearts to know that the Bride of God has fulfilled the prophecy even without her knowledge.
Also Prophet Joel in Chapter 2, 16th Verse says, "Let the Bridegroom go forth out of his chamber and the Bride out of her closet". Curiously enough the Bride members in the Ashram are staying in closets built as residential quarters.
Except for a cart track, there is no link to the outside world from this Ashram site. The nearest Post Office is at Odaimarichan, one and a half miles away, and the Telegraph Office, Mukkudal, at a distance of 4 miles. One can contact the Ashram by telephone (Telephone No.43) from Mukkudal. The nearest Rail road station is at Tirunelveli, 15 miles away. A small Aerodrome exists at Madurai, a city about 100 miles to the North and another at Trivandrum also at about 100 miles distance to the Ashram to the West. This would give the reader an idea of its remoteness. All round this Ashram is a rolling, parched grassland studded with sturdy, straight Palmyrah trees.
A vague notion to have an Ashram as part of the ministry had its beginning as far back as 1956 in the minds of the Lawries when they were on their second Ceylon tour, at Maruthana Madam. Here they came across an Ashram for both boys and girls - Chundukuli Ashram, Jaffna - and liked the way it was functioning. As is their principle in spiritual life, they left it at that and waited on God to work it out in His good time. It took about six years, before a start could be made.
Mr.Rasiah, Bro.Lawrie's father, had some ready cash earned while he was at Ceylon. His family members and friends advised him to invest part of it on a real estate, and he went in for a piece of land, about fifty three and a half acres - spread near the little town of Mukkudal, Tirunelveli District. For an Indian standard, this is a vast stretch of land holding. Ever since its acquisition, Mr.Rasiah put in much labour to make this plot of land yield. There are three wells within the limits and a small mud-banked reservoir to collect the rain water during monsoon. With all these sources of water, Mr.Rasiah utterly failed to realize even part of his investment on the land.
Though discouraged, he would not part with the land, even though he was in urgent need of considerable amount of money. When his efforts to raise a loan failed, he turned to the alternative of disposing of this white elephant - fifty three and a half acres of land - that gobbled up most of his savings and yielded next to nothing. But when he went out in search of a probable buyer, to his dismay, they quoted ground bottom prices for it.
This happened when Bro.Lawrie was conducting meetings at S.I.A.A. Grounds, Madras. When he came to know of his father's plans for getting rid of the land, Bro.Lawrie offered to buy it off him. But whatever crossed his mind, the old man declined to sell it to his son. Except for a cattle shed, there was no pucca building on this site and a watchman-cum-farmhand was looking after the holding. Suddenly two children of this man died of snake bite. This gave Mr.Rasiah a severe jolt and he capitulated in favour of his son.
The Lawries had raised some funds by selling the jewelry people had offered them as their contribution for the ministry, in token of gratitude for the blessings they experienced in the S.I.A.A. meetings at Madras. Part of this money was given to Mr.Rasiah to help him tide over his financial difficulties, who in turn gave tho' fifty three and a half acres of land to his son and documented the deal in 1962, to read that it was gifted away for God's work. They also could buy a jeep out of these funds, the only type of vehicle that can travel the rough terrain in and around the Ashram site.
It is said that Mr.Rasiah had a dream a week or so before he died. In that he saw a tall palmyrah tree with its luxuriant head of leaves standing proudly erect on the land. But an angel came down and announced that he was cutting down this tree as it yielded no fruit. As it fell to his axe, a banyan tree sprouted at its place and grew till it spread it branches and covered the earth. When he woke up the next morning, the old man tried to find an explanation to this unusual dream, and came out with his view that his son, Lawrie who owned that property, would die, and someone else would take possession of it. From the happenings subsequent to his death, it appears that the old man was shown in that parable sort of dream how his son's ministry would cover the entire world. After the Lord came down in Chicago, U.S.A. in 1969 on the person of Bro.Lawrie, the Manujothi Ashram attained international significance.
Though some beginning was made immediately on the acquisition of the land, it was a Herculean task to tame the fifty three and a half acres of wild land of which an adjacent plot of 10 acres was later acquired and added. Water in the three wells was inadequate. They were dry for more than six months of the year. But ever since this bit of wilderness was dedicated to the Lord's ministry, there was a vast transformation. The water in the wells is now sufficient for the 300 inmates for all their needs, and to irrigate the fields as well, even in a year when severe drought condition prevailed in many places nearby.
Bro.Lawrie has named this location as "Sathia Nagar" - meaning 'City of Truth' - a city (in the wilderness!) from where unadulterated truths from the Bible would flow to the ends of the earth. For two years after acquiring the land, the Lawries had their headquarters still in Madras. They would pay short visits now and then to the site. A one-room apartment was built and was dedicated on February 1, 1963. The first person to be entrusted with the physical and spiritual care of the Ashram and its labourers was a young man, Bro.S.Thomas Wesley. He was an Engineer in the Hindustan Aircraft Ltd., Bangalore, before relinquishing his remunerative job and offering himself for full-time work in the ministry. He had to endure many hard-ships and much privation. He had to depend on the roots of the palmyrah palm for good and the sweet juice of this palm trees for nourishment. Later another brother joined him, who looked after poultry-farming and bee-keeping. A lady Doctor, Dr. (Miss) Oliver, resigned her job and gave herself up for full-time work in the ministry. She was a Medical Officer in the Madras Government at the time of her resignation. She also came over to the Ashram.
When Bro.Thomas was transferred from Manujothi Ashram to Vellore to look after the center there and also at Chittoor, a couple of workers joined this little band. This team of five put up another small building with three rooms - one for the ladies, one for the visitors and another for general use. Villagers began to attend the prayer meetings in the Ashram and many sick persons came to be prayed for healing. When a regular Bible study programme was chalked out, a few young men came to the Ashram and stayed here for the full course.
When more people came, cultivation of the fields had to be improved. That required more water. To tide over this, they petitioned their requirements to the Lord in prayer. Even after, the wells did not go dry. The position of water so improved that they could install a pump coupled to a diesel engine. Two paid farmers were recruited to handle the food production side, whereas the volunteers cooked their frugal food - mostly cunjee. (Porridge made out of rice).
Writing in the 'Nambikaiyin Thoothan' (Tamil Journal), Bro.Lawrie spelled out the purpose of the Ashram as ".... to select workers for villages, train them in the Ashram and send them to villages to preach the gospel so that the Kingdom of God may go on spreading". In a later issue (1965), he has written, "The object of the Manujothi Ashram are to spread the Light of Jesus Christ from the Ashram throughout the world, to support the poor and the forlorn, to help rehabilitate reformed prisoners and channeling the burning zeal of youngsters to serve God". Bro.Lawrie wanted to make the volunteers fir for independent work in villages and to pray for the sick and the possessed, in the name of Jesus. His experience in life was an object lesson for these trainees. Facilities were provided for such people who wished to fast, pray or meditate. In short, the Lawries desired that the Ashram must be a center of training for various workers - men and women - and subsequently send them out to work with faith in the villages, not depending on any human resources, but totally committing themselves to God's care.
The inmates of the Ashram were also sent out in the pattern of the word, two by two, to preach the gospel in the villages. They invariably walked to these villages and had very little money on them. They went out into the world with faith and preached the gospel, going from one village to the other, and were away from the Ashram even for a week at a stretch. Returning they witnessed how their needs were wonderfully met by the Lord. Thus they were made to grow in faith life from strength to strength.
Wherever God's work prospered, the devil had his agents to try and thwart the people engaged in His work. One such agent was the Postmaster of Singamparai, through whose Office the Ashramites had their mails routed. This official, a Roman Catholic, for reasons better known to him, would not cause the delivery of any letters. Even Money Orders were not delivered, but returned to the persons who remitted the money with the Post Master's remarks that there was no institution within his postal range by name, Manujothi Ashram. This caused great hardship to the inmates.
The monied men who had holdings close to the site hated the idea of an Ashram there which they thought would undermine their importance. So they instigated their farm hands to give no peace to the Ashramites. They even made attempts to take the land by force or by vile. They
The Non-Christians, who hated the existence of the Ashram, even resorted to witchcraft to disrupt its smooth functioning. As the evil power was persistently trying to project itself into the inmates, Bro.Lawrie undertook a ten-day fast. On the final day of the fast, he took a glass of water after prayer and sat in front of the 'Bethany House' watching the two turkeys picking the crumbs near there. As he prayed that the demon power must be cast out of this Ashram, these two turkeys fell dead! Ever since there is great relief in the Ashram.
A landmark of historical importance is the stone Mandapam (A hall made out of stone pillars, stone planks and stone floors.) right at the entrance to the Ashram. This is believed to be built in the days of Rani Mangamma (about A.D. 1700) who ruled Madurai and its environs. When there were no buildings, this Mandapam was used for meditation and prayers.
By now the Ashram and its activities had come to be known to people outside the country through the publications mailed world over. A few readers evinced enough interest that they came over here. Among them were Bro. & Sis.Otto Buess, Switzerland; Bro.Ewald Frank, Germany; and Sis.Goebeles, a Missionary from Germany at Bangalore. The first one-room apartment built on the site was named after this Missionary lady as 'Goebel Hall'. This was rebuilt and renamed as 'Bethany Home'. Now it is called the 'Zion Home' where the Lawries are putting up.
Bro.Lawrie shifted his headquarters to the Ashram in 1964. A printing press donated by a supporter of the ministry, which played an important role in printing thousands of tracts, and millions of campaign notices was set up here. Regular Camp Meetings were conducted under huge thatched sheds. People in large numbers attended these meetings from all parts of India. They came by all modes of transport - from bullock carts to buses.
Of recent times a new block of 20 rooms has been added which now houses the Indians. Community living has been adopted as the way of life in the Ashram in fulfillment of Psalm 133. It takes away all self-life. There are two branches of the Manujothi Ashram, one in Gandhinagar and the other in Tuticorin, about 40 miles away from Tirunelveli on the sea-shore. There are altogether about 700 members in all the three centres combined. A time will come when the Lord may merge all these three centers into one, just before the Glorification.
Initially, the foreigners. Mainly from U.S.A., West Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Malaysia and Burma, were housed at Gandhinagar, about 5 miles away from the Ashram and nearer to the Township of Tirunelveli. But later they all felt that the wilderness atmosphere of the Ashram would be conductive to meditation and spiritual well-being, that they requested to be moved there. They don't have, what their friends and relatives back home will call, the comforts of life. But they consider themselves to be blessed, to have the spiritual luxury they now enjoy. It is baseless and utterly false to say that they have adopted this life out of compulsion. Nothing is farther from the truth. They have voluntarily chosen this life for their physical and spiritual uplift.
Contrary to what some of the busybodies who go about maligning the administration of the Ashram, and the press that have given adverse reports, the Ashramites love it here. They feel wholeheartedly that they are in Zion - the Heavenly Jerusalem. This letter is of a German lady, who unable to express her gratitude personally, had this written by a person knowing English and presented it to Sister Lawrie. This will enlighten outsiders how the foreigners are thankful to God for this opportunity to live with and near the Son of Man:
"Dear Bro. & Sis. Lawrie,
For a long time I have had the urge to express my love and thankfulness to you for the love bestowed upon us everyday by your entire household. Tears often come to my eyes because of the great sacrifice which your family has made for us. May the Lord richly and mightily reward your family for the sacrifices which you have made. I'm sorry that I cannot express my thanks to you in a personal way. So, as best I can, I express my thanks to you through this letter. I never imagined that in India I would be so well cared for. I had thought we would live in poor straw huts. Nevertheless, with an irresistible power, I was pulled here. I was greatly surprised that I together with the Mengels, could live as a nice family in a house. Daily I give thanks unto the Lord that I can now be in the Ashram. Also the community life here is a pleasure. For the shelter which you erected for us, Brother Lawrie, I give my thanks to you. Surely you have thought of everything to make it so comfortable as possible for us. I often feel sorry for the way you were so ill-treated in the Western countries. And that you now care and show your love for the western Brothers & Sisters in such a royal manner. Heart-warming thanks! I will close with the portion - I Kings 10:6-9 - "...the half was not told me".Yours in Love,
Sd/- ... FRIDAL ZACHMANN
Brother Lawrie started giving out the end-time messages which were compiled and printed as books and despatched all over the world. Foreigners started coming in after reading these messages which were also mimeographed by me to be distributed in U.S.A. Bro.Mengel did the same in West Germany. As he propagated these messages, people of his country started persecuting Bro.Mengel. Finally, in response to the Word of God, he came over to India with his family. They were followed by other Germans. Bro.Ralph D.White and Bro.James Mckay, both from Canada, came with their wives and children. They also brought along with them several other Bride members from Canada and America. My daughter and I came in the fall of 1971, and many other Americans came with us too. All foreigners were put up in different houses in Gandhinagar.
The arrival of the foreigners triggered a spate of problems with the Government officials. It being an unprecedented influx of foreigners, mostly Westerners, officials of the departments of Excise, Income-Tax, Revenue and Intelligence Bureau converged at the Manujothi Ashram Headquarters with their querrulous assistants cackling over nuances of the Government rules and regulations. They, in their turn, created many more problems. Over and above, the rowdy elements of the political parties, who had their influence over the Government officials, stood in the way of getting the visas endorsed. God wonderfully opened up ways to help cross all these hurdles, and the difficulties vanished as it came up. This was followed up by frantic queries of the countries from which these foreigners have come. In its wake news-reporters, Indian and foreign, poured in almost everyday. Invariably they filed unfavourable reports to their papers, radio networks and televisions, that they all screamed of the difficulties, factual or imaginative, that these hapless foreigners have been lured into; so much so the Embassies pressed the Government of India to repatriate all nationals back to their homeland. The Indian Government, however, refused to take any action as requested by these Embassies, as they had no adverse report about the Manujothi Ashram or on Bro.Lawrie.
At the same time Indians too started flocking to the Ashram. Almost all of them have renounced everything wordly, anxious to join the Bride before the rapture. The inflow was so great that the Ashram strained hard to cope up with. Temporary sheds were constructed which were later replaced by semi-permanent structures.
More people begat more problems. Troubles erupted when wives came away without the consent of their husbands, and minors their parents. A certain group of people connived with the police and cornered Bro.Lawrie and his son, Bro.Deva Evu in a building, with the intent of either to assault them or fleece some huge amount of money from them over one such case. Bro.Lawrie's demeanor overawed them and they let them go without any trouble. Even the cab drivers waiting outside the building, and who had been hand and glove with these thugs, were surprised when Bro.Lawrie and Deva Evu came out unscathed.
When still more people came, a branch of the Ashram had to be opened at Tuticorin. Ever since, Bro.Lawrie and Sister Lawrie have restricted their activities in and about the Ashram. Messages that are preached are sent all over the world.
Bro.Lawrie is a happily married man with his wife, children and grand-children, all living with him. The eldest son Deva Evu Manujothi Lawrie (25) left his studies to join the ministry. He married Ananda Joy in September 1968. His daughter, Laura, is the first grand-child of Bro.Lawrie. Deva Evu's second child, a son, is Bezaleel Jeevajothi Ophir Raja. Bro.Lawrie's second son, Deva Aseer (23) was called up for the ministry when he was just two months short of a Veterinary Doctor's degree. Geeta Ranjithavalli is the name if his wife, and daughter Kanuga Catherina Rajakumarathy. The third son of Bro.Lawrie is Deva Dayavoo (20). His wife is Valsa Helena. They are a family dedicated to the Lord's work. All of them perfectly adapt themselves to their apportioned duties.
The biography of Bro.Lawrie is not complete without reference to the great help rendered by his wife Ebenezer Natchathram Lawrie in his ministry. Throughout all the hard trials and severe testings the whole family was drilled through, she had been a staunch help and an inspiration. She has boundless energy, administrative acumen and eagerness to serve God, which goes to prove that she was truly the God-chosen wife of this man, who has such a great position in the plan of God for future ages.
In the early ministry, she was a powerful preacher of the truth, before it was realized that the Word of God disallows women to preach. Even today Bro.Lawrie depends upon her heavily for Bible data and other information. While preaching, if he is stuck up for reference or a name, all he has to do is to have a quick glance in her direction. She will immediately come out with the necessary information, like a living computer.
Sis.Lawrie has multifarious duties to perform in the day-to-day activities of the Ashram, and she is busy from morning till late in the night, solving problems and catering to the needs of those in the Ashram, especially the ladies. She is well-loved and respected by all members.
In accordance with Isaiah 4:5, they see here, "cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flame of fire by night". Zion denotes the city of David. If so there must be someone from King David's line here. The inmates proudly declare: "Our hearts thrill when we see the prophecies being fulfilled before our eyes". It proves that not a jot or a tittle shall pass away till all the things mentioned in the Bible are fulfilled.