2015 INDIA MISSION TRIP

TOM COLE & JOHN LEECH

Have you ever tried to hold your breath for one minute? If you have and were successful then if you had performed that feat in India you would have been able to see 51 live births. Yes, that’s right, the population of India increases by 51 new born babies every minute. The current estimate for the population of India is 1.27 billion people. Fifty percent of the current population is below the age of 25 years and one person out of every six people walking on this globe lives in India. However, the estimated number of those who are Christian is somewhere in the range of 3%. It has been said that with in just a few years at the current rate of population growth India will surpass the nation of China in population.

Tom Cole and I just returned from a two week familiarization and teaching trip to the city of Chennai in the southern part of India. While Tennessee was facing freezing rain, snow and cold weather Tom and I were enjoying the balmy weather of south India. Short sleeves were the mandate for Tom and I during the last two weeks of February.

Chennai is located near the southern portion of India along its east coast. It is the capital of Tamil Nadu and is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the fifth most populous city in India.

One of the most iconic eye sights in the Chennai area is the St. Thomas Mount. That’s right Thomas who was also called Didymus meaning twin is usually remember for his doubting and is believed by some to have carried the gospel to India. Thomas was the one who doubted Jesus resurrection in John chapter 20 when the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” Thomas reply was: “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were , and my hand into his side, ‘I will not believe it.’” Well the risen Jesus soon thereafter made a believer out of doubting Thomas by inviting him to do the very thing that Thomas said he needed to do to believe.

Chennai is a mixture of old and new structures just as is every growing community, but one of the most modern monumental tasks is the building of a modern metro rail around the city of Chennai to help alleviate the traffic and link the International airport with the city. Traffic is horrendous and appears to be bumper to bumper traffic if it were mostly cars, but most Indians ride a form of motor bike and it amazing to see how the people weave in and out of traffic while it seems that everyone appears to be trying to wear out their horns in warning others to get out of the way.

Tom and my visit to India was through the invitation of Good News Ministries India. Charles Finney the director of GNMI and I became acquainted at I.C.O.M. and thru previous interest and work of JILOA Ministries in India i.e., the supporting of orphans and providing Bibles to poor we were connected I believe by divine providence.

This last November brother Charles Finney asked if I could host him if he could once again make it to I.C.O.M. My answer to his request was certainly! In November 2014 Charles, Sherry (my wife) and I headed to I.C.O.M in Columbus, Ohio in very foggy weather.

Charles has a very outgoing personality and readily associates with people. Charles connected GNMI with International Disaster Emergency Services (I.D.E.S.) located in Indiana. Charles requested funds from I.D.E.S. to drill bore holes (water wells) near some new and old church construction around Chennai and in the villages of the mountains. If you want to get somebodies attention; just shut off their water or drill a new bore hole when supply is limited. This is how GNMI and JILOA Ministries became connected. As director of JILOA Charles Finney asked me to be the forwarding agent and U.S. representative for GNMI and represent the India ministry in the relationship established with I.D.E.S.

All wells were drilled closed to Christian churches so that they can also be used as a tool of evangelization. Free water gathered in jugs by the surrounding community will draw people to the generosity of the Christians and their worship centers.

The government of India has stated that India is for Hindu’s so there is persecution of Christians in that country. But India is also a place of great spiritual darkness. You don’t have to drive very far before you see idol temples and places of idol worship. East Indians worship many, many different things as gods and have strange philosophies about the afterlife. Don’t expect to go to McDonald’s to get a hamburger either, as cattle roam the streets and are considered sacred. Chick-fil-A’s cow campaign which says “Eat Mor Chikin” could have started in India because you just don’t order a hamburger but only chicken @ McDonalds.

Tom and I were kept very busy and travelled a lot outside Chennai to teach and preach in the mountainous areas north of Chennai; which are dotted with villages throughout the mountains. Travel from Chennai to our destinations was by train. The trains could be called anything but comfortable.

Because of persecution and the lack of opportunities to learn Charles visits these areas as a part of his ministry every one or two months to teach village church pastors and leaders. I have attached our teaching schedule to this report.

Anytime you go into another culture it is always wise to remember that you are a visitor in another man’s land. Soak up all the culture you want but American laws don’t apply so learn but don’t infringe or make fun of native dress, actions or beliefs.

GNMI is involved in many different outreach ministries in their culture that we have not been exposed to here e.g., ministry to the transgendered, ministry to people who dwell in slums, ministry to girls who would not be educated unless they were provided with an opportunity and support outside their own village. Girls treated as property only to passed on to another household and not educated in these mountain villages.

There is a great desire to share the gospel but also discouragement among the pastors because of the persecution of believers. Our task this trip was to familiarize ourselves with the culture, learn as much as we could in how we could benefit the believers and teach material that they had not previous been exposed. I found out early in my teaching that there had been little or no instruction about the traits and function of covenant in our relationship with the Creator. I focused my teaching on that subject and also the subject of remaining faithful to the truth in our conduct & actions but most importantly in the sharing of the gospel.

There are many, many opportunities to encourage the brethren and live out the gospel among the Christian brothers of India. There is estimated to be over 1000 languages with no national language in India. Think about the need for the gospel in so many different languages in India. How will this all be accomplished? Please pray to the Lord of the Harvest: “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

Please consider making a greater commitment to your local fellowship by either preparing to go or doing the ministry of another so they can go and be a worker in the fields. Why? “Because the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”

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