India Thrives

Our Pastors and congregations in India send their greetings! It always makes me smile when I get an e-mail or an “IM” from someone in India. They always begin with “Greetings in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ”, or something similar. I love it because it is a constant reminder of the cause that joins us and of our purpose. Our purpose, of course, is to represent Jesus Christ well and to help draw others to Him.

As many of you are aware, we do that in several ways in India. We have our School of the Bible, where our Director of Heart of God India prepares and trains our Pastors as a group. Our Pastors all come together in one place to worship, learn, pray, and encourage one another. This is a wonderful way for the Pastors to share amongst one another about themselves and their ministries, binding our group tightly together. Some of these Pastors travel a pretty good distance to get to our School of the Bible and there are many more Pastors wanting to join our group. This is a three day event, so the Pastors spend the night in the Church and we are blessed to feed them and provide some reimbursement for travel expense. We also provide a very small amount of financial support for each Pastor, so they are able to continue in their ministry efforts. Please pray for our School of the Bible and for these Pastors, their families and their ministries.

We are busily planning for our Director of Heart of God India to come to the US this fall. If you are interested in meeting with him or having him as a guest at your Church or ministry, please let me know. We are currently raising funds for his airfare. If you are able to contribute in anyway, please advise. I am hopeful that this Pastor will touch many hearts while he is here, make some friends and help others see what their calling in Christ might be.

Another one of our ministry efforts is our humanitarian and spiritual support of two leper colonies. One of our leper colonies has been under the care of our Lead Pastor since before I first began in India (1997 or 1998) and continues to lose and add more “members” of the colony each year. The other colony is fairly new, having been founded by Heart of God India last year. We provide a monthly rice supplement and occasional fruit and clothing for the lepers. There is always a great need in the colonies as our leper family becomes more disabled and special shoes and some treatments are needed. Shelter is important for the lepers, especially because they oftentimes can’t tend to their needs without proper digits or limbs, the heat is intense in the summer months and it is especially hot and painful to have to scoot themselves along the sun soaked soil. Please remember these most precious brothers and sisters as you pray.

Our orphanage is growing! Our children have been provided with an upcoming shelter, thank You, Lord! We are currently building a shelter to house the orphan children. This will enable the children to have a bathroom facility and give us a little room to accept a few more children. This project has been heavy on the heart of the Indians for sometime and we are so pleased that things are going well.

Evangelism is one of the most important things that Heart of God India does. Our Teams utilize every opportunity, be it natural disaster or Hindu holiday, to spread the gospel or testify of or demonstrate the love of God to their people. Our Team defies fear and goes into areas where the gospel has not been heard, where the people are difficult to reach, and where the terrain is dangerous to travel. God sent Jesus to save the whole world and our Indian Brothers and Sisters take this calling very seriously. In the next couple of months we will be launching a “Beggars Ministry”, similar to our domestic Inner City Ministry, wherein our Team goes directly to the streets and walks among and ministers to the homeless, diseased, and distraught there.

As you can see, there are MANY opportunities for ministry in India. Please watch for information about the assemblage of a US team to travel to minister in India in March of 2011. Please remember the Indian team as they minister in India and as the Director travels here this fall. Much prayer is needed for the people of India. If you feel led to contribute financially, you may do so here. One hundred percent of all donations to India go exactly where specified. We accept one-time donations or you may sponsor a Pastor, an orphan, the lepers on a monthly basis, or give toward an evangelistic outreach. The options are many and the need is great and the reward eternal.