August 28, 2012: Around 200 people attended a funeral service on Sunday for a renowned
preacher who was often referred to as the Billy Graham of India. Peramangalam Porinju
Job died of a heart attack on August 19 in Hungary. He was 67. The body of the inveterate
traveler, who visited 129 countries in his 49-year mission, was brought to New Delhi
on Saturday.
Job was “a courageous evangelist who started small, dreamed big
and made things happen,” said Marthoma Metropolitan Joseph Mar Thoma, who led the
service at the city’s Church of Redemption.
Job was president of the International
Christian Association, an organization that works for persecuted Christians. He championed
the cause of minority believers especially in Muslim and communist countries.
As
well as opening an orphanage, he also set up a printing press that now publishes three
million items of Christian literature annually, in 37 languages. They are distributed
worldwide, including in countries that ban such material.
Rev. Jacob Thomas,
representing the bereaved family, said Job was always compassionate toward the disadvantaged
and the downtrodden. “He had controversies throughout his life but he had the integrity
and honesty to say he was simply a humble servant of God,” he said.
His mention
of controversies may have been a reference to a failed attempt on Job’s life by suspected
Hindu radicals in 1999. The same group is suspected of killing his 21-year-old son
Michael by running him down with a car. After the funeral service, Job’s body was
flown to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu state, to help his loved ones pay their last respects.