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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 is 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.
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 ninety seventies1970'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 seventies1970'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 fifties1950'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.