Love’s Revolution

Gideon Perikala
Age: 44
Tenali

In childhood a brotherly bond was formed. In adolescence the bond was nurtured through great joy and unsettled heartbreak. And as they matured, the two brothers grew closer through their relationship with our Heavenly Father. Gideon Perikala and Suresh Kumar remain banded as brothers, serving, side by side, the Kingdom of India as the hands and feet of our Savior. Gideon is a remarkably strong man in presence, gentle in spirit and powerful in command. He is the chief officer of Harvest India’s main operations in Tenali, Andhra Pradesh. Eighteen years ago Gideon “sold out” to the Kingdom work of God’s redemptive love and became employed by, long time best friend, Suresh Kumar at Harvest India. For the last fourteen years Gideon has been living out his declaration of faith in a main role for the ministry work at Harvest India.
Gideon grew up in a Christian home that faithfully served the one true God in a time of every opposition in India. He credits his families faithfulness to laying the spiritual foundation in which his faith has grown exponentially. In his early twenties Gideon fell in love with a beautiful young girl he met at high school. Their love grew mutually and they committed to wed. When the couple sought the approval of her family their was great opposition. Gideon and his soon to be bride were separated by levels in the caste system. The remains of the caste system are widely responsible for the continued oppression of the majority of India’s 1.2 billion populous. Facing opposition and committed to loving this woman, all the remaining days of his life, Gideon stepped into the gap and proclaimed his love for her even more boldly. Sadly, the young girl was not as strong and fell before the opposition denouncing her love for Gideon and returning to her family’s rule over her life.
Heartbroken, Gideon was consoled by the love and compassion of his closest friends. He sought God for answers to the questions in his heartbreak and God answered! He answered in a clear calling on Gideon’s life in the most unforeseen of circumstances. Gideon’s heart had been committed to studying economics in hopes of starting his own business and finding joy and peace in the successes of this world. God had different plans which began to unfold as Harvest India’s ministry began to grow and he was offered a position working to oversee crusades and outreach programs in the rural areas of Southern India. With his life in transition he welcomed a new opportunity and he has since worked to further Harvest India’s ability to reach and save countless lost souls from this passing world with the hope of salvation in Christ Jesus!
Gideon has committed his life as a sacrifice to God, committing to serve the Kingdom work of Harvest India for as long as God will give him days on this earth. Unfortunately for Gideon, his commitment to serve God has come at quite a price. In India your marital status holds a significant weight in society. Because Gideon is 44 years old and unmarried, his family easily finds themselves losing focus of God’s will for his life and reverting to their own, for Gideon to find joy and happiness in the commitment of marriage, and they constantly challenge Gideon to wed. Perhaps there is a lesson in Gideon’s commitment to God for us all. God certainly blesses marriages that honor his commandments but, suppose, for Gideon and so many others like him, that true happiness can only be found in Christ, that in the societal pressures of today’s world the bible is still truthful when Paul speaks of singleness to be something to strive for, to desire, because of it’s unique way of allowing more of yourself to be given more fully to God. Perhaps more servants of Christ, in this up and coming generation of Indian children, will pledge full allegiance and “sell out” to anything less than God being the only true lover of our souls. Gideon is a revolutionary! A revolutionary for the doors of God’s love to be open wide. He remind us that God will show us what full surrender to Him looks like in our individual lives. He reminds us that society does not know what’s best for God’s children and neither do God’s children know what’s best for one another. It’s personal, it’s a journey, it’s a revolution, it’s love!