A Partner Bible College at the Centre of a Huge Opportunity
With the campus of our partner Bible College so perfectly situated, the faculty and staff poised for increasing impact, off site courses gladly welcoming teachers for a week at a time, and a rich history of Canadian pastors and churches involvement here, what is there to hinder us? Well over 725 million are opening to the Gospel as never before throughout this vast nation. These are the lower scheduled castes and lower scheduled tribes at the bottom of the pecking order in India.
THE COMMAND: PRAY
Matt 9:35-38 describes a very active initial tour in the ministry of Jesus where he instructs us in a particular posture: “And Jesus was going about all the cities and the villages, teaching in the synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. And seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd. The He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.'” We are urged to bathe our outreach in fervent prayer!
THE FOCUS: TEEMING MULTITUDES OF NORTHEAST & SURROUNDING INDIA
Questions tumble through my mind and heart: Can you, my dear praying friends, imagine this city with a population of nearly 15 million? How can we develop hearts of compassion for these teeming multitudes? Hundreds of millions populate the region. How could our Saviour Jesus Christ describe these peoples more accurately than, “they are distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd” (vs 37)? Let us fervently and persistently pray for workers and labourers!
THE HEART: COMPASSION
Yet our partner Bible School is a perfect place to begin to develop a heart of compassion and to send out more labourers. Please pray for a dramatic increase of scholarships! We want to increase from 25 in the 2023/24 school year to 35 or 40 in the 2024/25 school year. Millar College of the Bible mobilizes their student body to help with this project with Professor Arnie Armstrong taking the leadership. Lord willing, the Principal will tour Canada in April and May to strengthen and to help develop a stronger team.
THE TURNING: ELEVEN PERCENT OF INDIA
There is a formula that will likely stimulate us all in fervent, unusual, persistent prayer. The caste system of India is a demonic structure consigning over half of the population to utter poverty. On the one hand, the upper and middle castes have everything, even a growing economy. On the other hand, the lower schedule castes and the lower scheduled tribes are considered under the judgement of the gods with no hope of achieving anything because of their sins in their past lives. They view the next reincarnation is their only hope. For the upper and middle castes to help the lower schedules castes and lower schedules tribes is nothing other than a sin in the Hindu system.
My brothers and my sisters, the caste system is being broken! Praise the Lord! The slaves are being freed. Some estimate that eleven percent of India are Christians today. The tribals are coming to Christ. And the tribals are well placed to reach the lower scheduled tribes! They grow up knowing 3 to 5 tribal languages from their neighbouring villages. They are perfectly placed to reach Unreached People Groups (UPGs).