Duke Jeyaraj
MOMMY TURNS 75 – AN APPRECIATION
Duke Jeyaraj
My mom, retired Blessing Youth Mission missionary, Mrs. Vimala Jeyaraj turns 75 today (21 June 2025)! I thank God for her!
I want to divide her life into three 25-year parts and talk about one outstanding aspect of that part.
First, She WALKED IN OBEDIENCE TO THE LIMITED LIGHT SHE HAD. Mom hailed from a family that was not exposed to the full gospel. But she walked in obedience to the light she already had. And God was true to His promise in Matthew 13:12: “To those who use what has already been given to them, more will be given” (my version). And she married daddy who was already walking in the full Gospel in the year 1973.
And the rest is history. Second, she ENDURED AMIDST CHALLENGES OF LIFE AND MINISTRY SITUATIONS. Mom was not elated that my dad quit his secure Christian Medical College job in Vellore to become one of the earliest missionaries of the organization which he co-founded with others, the Blessing Youth Mission (then called FGYMA) in 1976. But she endured. She raised four kids with a limited missionary income. Daddy had to travel extensively for the cause of the Kingdom work interpreting into Tamil for Uncle R. Stanley, administrating the finances of BYM, playing the second fiddle. As the eldest son, I was not of much help to her as I was very quiet, home-bound and super-shy. But mom still managed things well at home, single-handedly. Yes, when the going got tough, the tough woman she transformed herself into by the Grace of God, got going.
In the quarter of her life which she just completed, mom used the talents that God graciously gave her – writing books which carried thumbnails of literally all Bible women. The fact that mom wrote her first book only AFTER I wrote mine (in 2010 – she was the one who dedicated my book on sex, love, marriage, porn and more called, Straight Talk, in an Assembly of God church in Pondicherry which my brother Kingsley attended then) shows forth her spirit of ‘others first’.
Blessed 75th birthday mom!
My daughter Datasha, now 17, recently made my mom smile when she quizzed her about how she only met my dad first on the day of her wedding engagement (and never before) in 1973. May God fill the rest of your life with cute smiles!
(Written by Duke Jeyaraj. Edited by Dale Nathan Duke).
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