From Harilal Swarnkar to Cornelius Smith : The Smith Foundation
Harilal, a young dynamic person, goldsmith by caste, was a well educated and devotee person in his life. During British rule in India he had enough education to attain a high class job. After the Independence of India Harilal was growing as a common religious Indian man. Being a strong Hindu devotee he always hated Christians considering Christianity a foreign religion. A number of times he was approached with the gospel by few missionaries which he strongly opposed and many times beaten them and torn their Bibles.
With the course of time Harilal had a divine encounter with Jesus and he surrendered his life to him. For this cause he was expelled from family and later excommunicated by the society. Harilal had to go through very hard time in his life due to his faith in Christ. He had been beaten many time, gone through severe poverty, hunger, homeless and persecution by his own people. But he decided to abide in the Truth.
There were no Christian around in those days who could help him in his sufferings. Thus he had to leave his native place and moved to another place where he came in contact with some missionaries. They chang
ed his name from Harilal to Cornelius. Now he was a new man with new identity.
With the course of time Cornelius became very famous missionary to gentiles. He preached gospel almost everywhere in India and later decided to settle in Bihar, his home state. During his time Bihar was called “The Graveyard of Missionaries”. He preached to millions throughout his missionary journeys. He has been followed by thousands of Pastors and Leaders as an example of Faith during his life time.
In 2015 he went to be with God leaving behind a lineage of missions and missionaries. Later the Smith Foundation was registered after his name by his 7th child Rajesh Daniel, the founder of “Yeshu Parivar” movement.