In recent years, local believers in the predominantly rural state of J have been paralyzed into inactivity because of increased persecution from the fundamentalist Hindu government and the region’s non-believers. In the past two years, however, believers have been trained to share their faith and have broadly sown the gospel in J-Town and nearby rural communities. Lost people have come to faith, creating opportunities to start new churches. Your gift will enable long-term workers to train 500 church planters over the next three years in urban J-Town using the “4-fields process of church planting”. As healthy churches are planted in urban neighborhoods, the urban-dwelling new believers will host/lead training in their native villages, taking the gospel into rural communities that are harder for foreign workers to reach.
The largely rural state of J in South Asia is home to over thirty million people, comprised of Hindus, Muslims, tribals, Christians, and a handful of other minority religions. Only 4.3 percent of the population claims to be Christian and only a small percentage of that evangelical. Your partnership and support will help start a movement of pioneering gospel work in the rural areas that will usher thousands of new believers into Christ’s kingdom.
Our focus on this city began in 2019. Initially, your gifts enabled us to host vision-casting and training programs. Through these events, we met a few like-minded brothers and sisters in Christ who continue to partner with us to reach the city with the gospel.
With several faithful couples, additional Christian workers, and a few others who are proven, consistent co-laborers, we are systematically spreading into new neighborhoods and planting house churches. Our goal is to raise local witnesses and strengthen disciples who will join us in the task of reaching the rest of the city. With this ministry underway, we are extending our outreach into two other cities in the state.
Prayer requests:
South Asian peoples live within a kaleidoscope of colors, a cacophony of sounds, and a buffet of flavors that ignite the senses and warm the soul. This enigmatic region is the birthplace of four world religions but is also home to the world's highest concentration of lostness.
The 1.6 billion people of South Asia are concentrated in an area less than half the size of the USA. Muslims and Hindus comprise the overwhelming religious majority. Every week 225,000 South Asians die, most without Christ. Yet there are glimmers of gospel hope. Through the work of local Christians and foreign workers God is bringing South Asians to faith in Jesus, the church is growing, and stories of Christ’s redeeming power are emerging from the field.
More than a billion South Asian eyes are searching for hope. Pray for long-term workers and their local partners who share the love of Christ daily. Ask God to use their efforts to create a movement of his Spirit across the city and throughout countries and islands of South Asia!