Avarachan Upadeshi

Cheruvallethu Mathunni Abraham or C. M. Abraham who was more widely known as Avarachan Upadeshi was the youngest son of Koshy Mathunni, one of the first five persons to be baptized and identified as Brethren in India. Koshy Mathunni was kicked out of his Jacobite family, and disinherited of all property for this crime. The family went to great lengths to declare even through a social ceremony that Mathunni was no longer part of his family.

Young Mathunni moved to a place a few kilometers away and, on the basis of his well-known character and integrity, was able to get some land on lease. It is said that this land came from a Hindu temple, that eventually made Mathunni the custodian of much of its stores. It is also said that the family name Cheruvallethu used by the subsequent generations originated here.

The youngest child, Avarachan Upadeshi had a very tough childhood because his mother passed away when Upadeshi was very young. Their father had to lock the children in the house and go away for business. However, the Lord blessed the family and gradually they became owners of substantial areas of land and business.

Avarachan Upadeshi started looking after the flourishing clothes business, which was only one among the several businesses owned by the joint family. This was a period of great spiritual revival in Kerala state and soon Avarachan also accepted Christ. He was fully aware of the cost paid by his father (excommunication from family and church, no place to bury his wife), but at the same time he was fully aware that this is the way the Lord wants His children to separate out of the man-made religious systems.

Right from the beginning Avarachan was an outstanding orator and preacher. There was a special authority in his voice, and large number of people were convicted of their sin and came to Christ through his ministry.

Loudspeakers were rare in those days, and were not compact or battery operated. So in open-air meetings preachers had to depend upon men who would repeat their statements loud enough for the crowd to hear. This used to be a strenuous job, but Avarachan's sound was naturally so loud, having a ringing effect in ears, that he was in great demand for "repetition" in meetings attended by thousands of people.

Eventually the Lord made it clear to him that he must leave his business and enter full-time Christian ministry. This was the time of world-wars, and famine was all over. The Brethren Movement in India was still in its infancy, and there was no practice of systematically supporting people in full-time ministry. Hearing the Lord's call those days literally meant starvation and deprivation for the whole family, but then everyone in his family was willing to embrace this call -- such was the effect of spiritual renewal during those days.

Entrusting his business to his elder son he entered full-time ministry. His son was not adept at business, and therefore soon it came to naught, further straining the family resources. But Avarachan was not deterred. At this time Tiruvalla Medical Mission Hospital was becoming a center for evangelization, and the administration of the hospital invited Avarachan to become the chaplain. This turned out to be God's chosen profession for him, and he laboured in the hospital for over four decades, initially as a staff and later as a volunteer.

He was eased out from his ministry at TMM in the 1970's, but continued to enjoy great demand from the hospital and patients for ministry -- and used to go to minister there as a volunteer as long as his health allowed him to do so. Finally in his 87th year he suffered from a mild heart attack and was admitted to the very hospital where he had for decades served his Master. He remained conscious for three days, and on the third day he audibly prayed for everyone standing around his bed, exhorted them to prepare themselves for the fight, invited them to eventually join him on the other shore, and soon entered his eternal abode in April 1990.

When his mother, who had begotten him, died eight decades before, there was no place to lay to rest her mortal body. She had to be buried behind their own house -- inside the family compound, and there were few to attend because the new Assembly movement was despised and opposed by all. But when Avarachan Upadeshi died, he was laid to rest in a spacious graveyard that was gifted to the assembly freely by his father -- Koshy Mathunni, one of the first five Brethren to be baptized -- and there were thousands there to attend. The Brethren movement had grown and become a large force by this time, and the father and son had paid not a small cost to nurture this movement.

His Family: Avarachan Upadeshi had five children, all born again, and all of them are alive at the time of this writing (3 August 2001). The first one, A.D. George is unmarried and stays in the ancestral home. The second one Saramma is married to the well-known thinker and teacher Daniel Kunjummen. The Kunjummens migrated to the USA in the early 1970's. They have six children, all of whom know the Lord as personal saviour and all of whom have a stake, along with their secular jobs, in the Lord's work.

The third one, Philip Abraham, became a pioneer missionary to North India towards the late 1950's. His fifty-day gospel preaching walk from Madras to Kerala along with his friends, and the way he and his friends faced attacks by anti-Christian forces in Kota (Rajasthan) are heroic examples of the Brethren Assembly pioneers. After five decades of his ministry first in Kota (Rajasthan) and then in Gwalior (Madhaya Pradesh) he has recently moved back to Mazukkeer, a place close to his native village. He has five children, all of them saved and two in full-time ministry.

The fourth one Elizabeth Abraham was married to Late Mr. P. K. Abraham, a first-generation Hindu convert, thinker and teacher. She has two girls, both committed believers.

The fifth one is Dr. Benjamin Abraham, pediatrician with the Tiruvalla Medical Mission Hospital. He chose to follow his father to serve in a mission hospital rather than serving serving anywhere else. He has two daughters, both committed to the Lord.

His Personality: Avarachan Upadeshi came from the androcentric society where senior men in family were nothing less than great tribe-leaders and warriors. This is exactly the position that he enjoyed among this extended family. His Patriarchal voice had an unusual weight, and it often settled matters once and for all -- be it a spiritual dispute or things more mundane. His children and grandchildren did not never dared to face him or to speak lightly in front of him, though they loved him -- and were loved by him -- greatly.

He was so punctual of time that the foreign missionaries and doctors in the hospital used to say that they needed nothing else to "adjust" their watches than check the moment when the "native Preacher" stepped into the hospital around 5.45 AM in the morning. He was equally meticulous in all the other aspects of his life, and he expected his children and grandchildren to conform to his demand for order in life and thoughts.

His Vision: Avarachan Upadeshi had only one vision in life, "to make Christ known to every person" and he ordered his entire life around that vision. He used to proclaim the gospel and persuade people of all profession and call to accept the Lord. Be it a Christian convention or a marriage, he would definitely share the gospel if given even a few minutes of the pulpit.

A fearless soldier, he used to go and proclaim the gospel to every person irrespective of his position. This became clear at the time of his funeral when several people of high social standing professed how the Upadeshi shared the gospel with them unmindful of their high social standing. They labeled him as a "terrorist for Christ".

About his progeny he had three requests from the Lord: he did not want anyone bound to hell to be born in his family, he did not want his progeny to be rich or poor, and he wanted the best of them (male as well as female) to serve the Lord in one Christian ministry or other. At the writing of this article it is clear that the Lord honoured his servant's request. Even the wealthier one's among his progeny have made it a point not to live off it but to give away a substantial portion for spiritual ministries. His son Philip Abraham and grandchildren Dr. Johnson C. Philip and Dr. Raju Kunjummen, are in Christian ministry, Grand daughter Dora Alex is an Evangelist's wife, and great grandson Anand Philip is also preparing for entering Christian Medical ministry.

He was an uncompromising man in majors, but was quite liberal with his progeny in minors. A great cook, the "payasam" he used to cook when his grandchildren came home was legendary in taste. It is his hidden gentleness that endeared this fearsome man to his grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.

His Contributions: Numerous are the contributions made by this man who did not have even 5 years of schooling, the greatest of them being (in the opinion of this writer) his influence on this family so that all his progeny stand committed to Christ even to the generation of his great grand children. Including his father, he was able to see five generations standing in uncompromising faith.

At the Assembly level he was an uncompromising preacher/teacher, and this has encouraged many in the next generation to take a strong stand in spirituals. In the days when transportation was rare, he used to travel by non-mechanized country-boats and sometimes walk as much as 16 kilometers on one side, to establish an assembly testimony at Melpadom (Kerala State). Today it is an independent and flourishing assembly, which has sent out several evangelists and Christian leaders.

At his death many witnessed to his uncompromising zeal to lead everyone to Christ. Some even went so far as to say that he was a "terrorist" for the Lord who had only one aim -- lead people to heaven.

Though his uncompromising attitude irritated and even angered many, specially the compromisers, he was not deterred by them. And this has had a lasting impact both on his own generations and also upon his people (the assemblies). Our generation is yet to see such a fearsome warrior for the Lord.