ONE Prayer Update: India

This is brother Vasanth Solomon. He is from a Christian family, and his father is a Pastor. After his father’s death, he assumed that he would simply acquire his father’s property and continue his mission, though he wasn’t exactly sure how to go about accomplishing that goal. Using basic evangelism tactics, Vasanth worked hard to build a network of over 150 new believers over a period of 5 years, but still believed that he needed additional training in order to further his effectiveness in the field.

Then he attended the Kingdom of God training (KGT) offered by Life Mission International through the ONE Prayer network. There, he learned about the importance of vision, goal setting and doing relational evangelism. He started praying for God to show him a place where he could plant a church and engage the community. Shortly thereafter, the Lord guided him to Puzhiyankannu village, where no one knows Christ. It is “completely unreached”. Here, all the people are high caste Hindus, and the village also supports two full time temple prostitutes.

When Vasanth started sharing Jesus in this village, the head of the village gathered all the people together and told them not to allow any other God to enter the village. In addition, when Vasanth shared a Gospel booklet with a member of the village, a young man pulled the booklet from his hand and tossed it into the fire. That night, however, the young man became so frightened and he quite literally went insane. This sent a wave of fear through the minds of the people in the village and gave them a high sense that they should not do any additional harm to Vasanth. In addition, Vasanth began praying for God to heal the young man.

After two months, people are showing great interest in learning about this new God. Thus far, 12 people have accepted Christ and are attending a small group Bible study. Vasanth is supervising 3 similar groups in this area, and also conducts a Children’s program in two places (currently, there are more than 60 children attending). Please pray that Vasanth will continue to make appropriate inroads for the Gospel and the Kingdom in this unreached village!

ONE Prayer Update: India

Crew!

Wanted to inlcude the next ONE Prayer update from Raj and our teams in India.  Enjoy! -sj

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Can a Woman Plant a Church in India?  Duh!....

India is one of the oldest civilized countries in the world, and has a rich cultural and linguistic heritage. In fact, some of the languages in India (including Tamil) are estimated to be more than 3,000 years old. However, despite its depth of tradition and culture, India continues to face the difficulty of regularly practiced traditional atrocities. One of these practices is called “Sati”. Satī is a funeral practice among some Hindu communities (now very rare and outlawed in modern India), in which a recently-widowed woman would be expected to throw herself alive onto her husband’s funeral pyre, thus dying with him in order to demonstrate that life would be unacceptable without his continued presence. This practice was condemned by William Carry and then by Indian reformers, but while it is openly denounced by Indian officials, it is still practiced in many remote villages throughout the country.

In addition, in recent centuries, and due in large part to the Dowry System (a price paid by a young woman’s family as a gift to her new husband), many families have undervalued their female children. This has paved way the regular practice of female infanticide because parents know at birth that they will be unable to care for the little girl, but will also be unable to raise a dowry to marry her when she is older. Because of this, when a female child is born, the mother or the relatives will simply kill the child. This practice continues today, and is an issue that many ONE Prayer church planters are being mobilized to engage as they plant churches in areas where infanticide rates are high.

Finally, the Indian people are divided by Caste System, which has existed in India for thousands of years. The Caste System creates a social heirarchy where certain individuals are granted greater worth than others, and thus entitled to varying levels of privilege, wealth, and even access to the gods within the Hindu pantheon. Within this Caste System, women are still regarded as “lower than men” and cannot sit or walk equally with them. They are the “oppressed among the oppressed”.

However, things started changing when the missionaries started coming to India. They taught people, protected them with laws, and helped them to succeed in life. Today in India, the Church is beginning to understand the importance of women getting involved in building the family, society, the Nation and even the Church in the light of fresh understanding from the Scripture. Many parts of our country allow women to do “evangelism” but not planting or pastoring. But in Tamilnadu, whereONE Prayer church planters are being trained, the Churches are more open and thus allow their daughters and sisters to get engaged in the ministry of the Church.

One such jewel is Pretha! She once wanted to end her life because of a tragedy that occurred in her life, but came to know the Lord through the ministry of a local Indian Church. Today, along with her, her parents have accepted Christ and are assisting her in the ministry. Her uncle, who is also a Pastor, now helps them in the planting process.

Due to recent violence and government reactions, as well as increasing legal stresses and persecution, the doors for Crusades, street preaching and tract distribution in many parts of our country are simply closed. But Pretha is following the “One to One” method of basic discipleship and small group Bible study that is seen in the Book of Acts. She hopes to baptize around 40 people in the beginning of next year. God is using her mightily among the poor people in the slum area where she works. She has a big heart for them, and ONE Prayer resources are ensuring that Pretha is well equipped for her task!

About India...

I'm so grateful to have so many friends and family who, first of all, are aware of what we, as GCC, are attempting to do as we send teams regularly to India to support and bolster the work of indigenous Indian church planters, but second, are seeing all the havoc on television around Mumbai and wondering how this will affect us and our upcoming teams in December. As a result, i wanted to post here what i sent to all our India team members and their families. Hopefully, it will be helpful to you as well. -sj

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Dear December India Team Members and Friends!

By now, no doubt, you've heard about the tragic attacks and bombings going on in Bombay (Mumbai), India, pursuant to apparent Islamic terrorists targetting innocent Indian citizens and foreigners (if you haven't, please click here for update). As a result, i'm guessing that you probably have a variety of questions about the impact of this event on both a) our overall ministry in India, and b) our upcoming teams in December. While we are still gathering data and watching how events unfold along with the rest of the world, i wanted to drop you a quick line to give you some basic information that i hope will be helpful to you and to your support teams, families and friends as you field questions and attempt to direct your own prayers.

1) First of all, please let me state plainly and simply that we will never willingly drop a team of GCC members into a situation that is known to be overtly dangerous or hostile. While there is always a certain amount of risk associated with international travel of any kind, of course, we will monitor the situation in India closely for resolution, and will be paying attention to the US State Department for analysis about the relative safety of contiuing to travel to/from or operation within the country. If there is a genuine threat, if the US State Dept feels that travel to/from India is unadvisable, or we just don't have a good "feel" for our ability to maintain safety and security, we will simply cancel and/or reschedule our time there, and will keep everyone appraised of all necessary data along the way.

2) Also, be advised that the epicenter of this kind of terror is actually "far away" from where our teams typically operate. Think of what might happen if you saw terrorists attempting similar activities in New York, but you were planning on travelling to South Bend (the distance between the two is about the same as between Bombay and Chennai in Tamilnadu). While Bombay is a highly important city within India, and is a focal point for international attention, business, tourism and banking, it is some 700 miles from Tamilnadu, where we concentrate all of our work. In addition, Tamilnadu is nearly 100% Hindu, so there is a considerably higher degree of peace and tranquility than in much of the rest of the country where Hindu/Muslim conflicts occur regularly. Again, all of this to say not that we will ignore genuine international threats or concerns, but rather that what you are seeing on CNN is not necessarily indicative of what is going on in the rest of the country.

3) Next, our current airline tickets have us routing nowhere close to Bombay for any component of our travel to/from India. Most likely, we will either fly directly to Chennai (on the Southeast coast of the country), or to Chennai via Bangalore (in the South-Central part of the country) from our stop-over in Europe.

4) Finally, despite the above, please continue to pray diligently for India. As you have heard me say in your training DVD's, India is a country currently "in flux", trying to find its point of balance between the old ways and the new. In the last 10 years, it has attempted to bring itself out of the Stone Ages and into the light as a global super-power (economically, militarily, socially and governmentally), and the tension that occurs with that kind of seismic upheaval is always difficult, and sometimes (as in this case), violent and tragic. As you pray, please ask God that this horrific evil will result in a greater openness for those of us who are attempting to bring the Kingdom of our Lord and Savior into such Darkness, and that his Light and Love will triumph over the spirit of oppression and violence that is pervading India now.

I'm sure that what is above has most likely not answered all your questions, but hopefully, it has at least answered a few. Please feel free to contact your team leader first, or me directly for additional information if it would be helpful for you. Thanks, and we'll continue to give you more information as we have it.

All for One!

Jack Magruder
Director of Life Mission
Granger Community Church

Other Eyes On Target...

I have a friend in India right now, leading a group of people through some of the major areas where the ministry he works for are doing the bulk of their service.   He is a man of incredible wisdom and experience, has served as a mentor for many of us on staff here at GCC, and has helped to plant more than 40,000 churches worldwide in the last 25 years.  His name is Ron (last name omitted for security's sake), and he has a way with words and a good photographic eye to boot.  So why am i telling you this?  Because he's actually blogging his current trip!  You won't want to miss it.  I loaded up today's posts and saw what he saw sitting at the banks of the Ganges River near the town of Varnasi.  You can get there by clicking here, or going to the following link:   http://tourindiaoctober08.blogspot.com/

ONE Prayer Update: India

Crew!  Here's another ONE Prayer update.  This one is from India and from the mouth (erm...keyboard) of our brother Raj  about one of the ONE Prayer church planters in Tamilnadu! -sj

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Brother Jeyapaul was born deaf to a poor Hindu family. As a result, he was not allowed to study beyond 4th grade. In order to survive, he found all sorts of odd-jobs serving in restaurants, agriculture and road work, all of which were paid on daily wage basis. Many times, he did not get any job.

Because of his low status and physical disability, no girl was willing to marry him. As a result, he married an orphan girl from the nearby state of Kerala. She was a professional witch, and each week, as many as 70 people would come to her to ask her to solve their various problems through her ability to manipulate evil spirits. Later, when Jeyapaul and his wife had a daughter, they found that she was born mute. Until at the age of six, she could not speak even a single word. At that time, Jeyapaul himself became sick and bed ridden. His wife tried to heal him using all her spiritist means, but every thing was in vain. It was also during this time that a group of Christians came to that village to do open air evangelism. When Jeyapaul and his family heard that Jesus can heal any sickness, they invited the Christians to pray for him. He was miraculously healed! Then after joining the local church, they began to pray for his daughter. Immediately she started speaking as well! After that, his wife decided to follow this powerful God, and as a family they started sharing their testimony, which brought many people to Christ.

When God called Jeyapaul to do His ministry, he sold all his tools at half rate in order to acquire a little initial capital for books and supplies. He approached different organization to get an opportunity to learn to pastor and plant churches, but all of them rejected him because he was not educated either in secular college or in seminary. He asked his wife to help him. He said he wanted to study the Bible and pray for3 years, so that he will know the word of God to teach others. His wife decided to help him, and by hiring herself out as a day laborer, was able to acquire about 75 cent per day for the work she did (all the while honoring God by giving a tithe of about 7 cents). One day, when he was praying, his daughter asked for a few cents to buy some toffee. Since he did not have the money, he was feeling so bad and asked God if he would help him to provide something kind and compassionate for his daughter. After he finished praying, his daughter came to him holding some sweets in her little hands. When he asked where she had acquired the candy, the little girl pointed to a raven perching on a branch nearby. The raven left, and then came back with more candy for the little girl. This continued for three days, during which time, Jeyapaul came across the passage in 1Kings 17 where Elijah was fed by ravens in the wilderness. He was so shocked that he began to call people to him, instructing them about this God who can feed his children, even from the mouths of the birds of the air. As a result, more than 27 people came to Christ during this period.

Later, the Lord directed Jeyapaul to go to a small village called Kodimangalam. This village has 4,000 houses. There are 28 temples and 32 priests serving in those temples. There are 4 Hindu spiritists (witch-doctors) functioning in this village. There are also 17 prostitutes living in the area. When he came to do ministry in this village, no one would provide him with a house. As a result, the first day, he had to sleep on the road with his wife’s old saree wrapped around him. The next day, he found a house for $3 rent per month. When he started sharing Christ, the head of the village man, Palanisamy, chased him out of the village. He was there out in the village for 12 days, without any food. Then one man from that village who opposes Palanisamy gave his cow shed. Jeyapaul started staying there and doing ministry, and while he continues to meet significant opposition, threats and persecution, God is doing great things in the village as he seeks to plant a church there, and also in a village nearby

When Jeyapaul heard that we are training Church planters, he rushed to us and begged to be allowed to participate in the training program. Through the ONE Prayer movement, we are so happy to say that Jeyapaul is being trained to do ministry more effectively, and that he is proceeding through the training curriculum with great enthusiasm. He told us recently, that “I am so thrilled [to be receiving this training] and now have confidence and tools that will help me to plant a Church with 1000 people in it some day!” 

December-January India Team Blog!

Hey, many of you already know that I'm facilitating another round of teams to India in December and January to reinforce and help our Indian church planter network, and i wanted to let you know that the blog for the teams is now up and running. You can do the following with/through the blog if you would like to track it:

• Keep up with the teams we're sending throughout the entire training process, as well as while they are on the field.
• Link to other previous teams to get an idea of what GCC India teams do when they're on the field.
• Give to either specific team members or to the team as a whole through the "online giving" link.

Check it out! You can either click here, or go to the following: http://gccindiadec08.blogspot.com/
-sj

ONE Prayer Update: India...

In July, Raj and i went to a 1,300 year old temple fortification near the seashore of a town called Mammalapuram (it's a large, tourist attraction), where, at sunrise, we shot the following update of the progress of the ONE Prayer movement in India. Walking through the stone ruins of this beautiful, massive, hand-built structure helped me to see anew the beauty of what God is doing in and through all of us to knit people together to Himself! Enjoy!

Thirst II: Reloaded...

In July, i visited one of the villages where GCC Water Teams will be operating in December. My purpose was to do a little recon in figuring out what the status of the village is in terms of their existing water quality, as well as getting some basic data on their demographics, population stats, etc. What is attached here is a little video that is an edited compendium of the footage that i took while there, and gives you an accurate picture of how our helping to deliver clean water to the 65 - 75 families who live there will be helpful.

By the way, we will be blogging the December Teams as we prep to leave for the field. You can track them by clicking here, or going to http://gccindiadec08.blogspot.com.

Smart Zombie: Raj

Meet Raj! He's our Director of International Missions here at GCC, and one of the most amazing people on the planet! Seriously! Under his leadership over the past 10 years, more than 600 men and women have been trained to plant churches in Tamilnadu, Southern India. We first met Raj through our partnership with The Bible League , and now have the privilege of having him on staff with us.

In addition to continuing to resource ongoing networks of Indian church planters, Raj is also running point for/with us on the India partnership component of the ONE Prayer campaign, operates our "in country" organization (called Life Mission International), and is a dedicated dad (he has two children, Bruce - who is in college, and Clarinda, who is in High School) and husband to his wife of 20 years (Prema). We'll be spending several days hammering out all of the various things we'll be doing together over 2009 and beyond, and are grateful to have him with us for a few days!

ONE Prayer Update: India...

See below for a field update from India and the progress of ministry there with the ONE Prayer movement. -sj

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Here is brother POOVARASU, which means King of Flower, who was sick from birth. He had multiple problem, heart problem, puss coming out from ear, and "un-healable" wounds. His poor parents could not care for him during his childhood due to the poverty they experienced, and could not afford to take him to the nearby town hospital. Once, while he was studying 3rd standard in a free government school, they took him to a hospital and the doctors said he needed to undergo different operations which exceeded the potential savings of his small family. Since they did not have the resources, and since bad smell used to come from his body, his parents eventually just left him outside the house, not knowing what else to do with him. People used to pass by him so often that his plight became "routine", and he was eventually completely forgotten. While he was in 9th grade, he became so sick and his pain became so unbearable that everyone expected him to die.

Since Jesus loves him, however, he had a different plan for him. On an eventful day a Christian woman passed by the village, saw the misery of this man, and it broke her heart. She immediately knelt down and touched him with compassion and prayed for him. God also touched him, healed him, and he became a new man! All the wounds and pain slowly disappeared from him. People who saw him earlier were amazed by what had happened. God filled him with a love and joy that he never experienced.
He then received a Bible from the lady who prayed for him, and started reading the Word of God. As he was reading the life of Jesus, he was moved by the love of Christ even to the persecutors and the thieves on the cross. He wanted show the same love to his parents, even though they abandoned him. He started learning from this lady about Christ. Then he started sharing about Christ to his parents and relatives. When his parents saw what had happened, they believed in Jesus as well. Few of the relatives and village people have accepted Christ. Now, if anyone is sick in the village or close by, they call Poovarasu to come and pray for them.

Now he is the most wanted man in this area for people who long for peace, healing, and meaning in life. God is using him mightily to touch many people in this community. Now he has joined our ONE Prayer KGT ("Kingdom of God") Training to plant churches in the villages around him. He has completed the first module, and is using a simple Bible study booklet that we have provided to share Christ along with his living testimony. He is so happy that he found a right training to shape his life and ministry. He is thankful to the ONE Prayer Movement for the opportunity!

Smart Zombie: Thirsty

Okay, so I'm willing to acknowledget that there's "complexity" in any environment that should prevent first-blush judgmentalism. I mean, you don't really know all the details of what affects a person or situation until you spend the time to really understand the environment, relationships and circumstances that cause things to be the way that they are, and people have done a lot of damage over the years by making summary judgments and recommending "solutions" based on a one-sided worldview that is not in full possession of the facts or scenarios in play.

But this particular circumstance REALLY bothers me. See this large concrete basin? It's actually a well. It services a community of about 75 families in a small village in Tamilnadu, Southern India. The water in the well is absolutely disgusting, as you might imagine. The reason for this is that as a water source, it is totally uncovered, and everything from livestock to wild birds and animals use it, garbage finds its way into it, and the standard "stagnation" that occurs with any standing water source occurs here as well. As a result, the village has high infant mortality rates, recurrent sickness in the forms of Typhoid and other water-borne illnesses, and has to ration the water usage of each family on a daily basis. But as tragic as all this is, that's not what really angers me.



What angers me is the small hut you can barely see in the background. This small hut is a diesel-generator powered well with clean water for the crops owned by the wealthy land-owner adjacent to the small village. This one man and his family maintain the well for their own usage and the usage of their crops, but defend the water supply against the 75 families who suffer only 100 yards from his propoerty. When i asked why and how this happens, the people in the village explained, "Well, you see, he only operates it at times when he knows we won't be available to use it, or he threatens us if we try. He is afraid that if he shares the water with us, the water table will drop, and he won't have enough for his crops." So... the village continues to suffer. Their crops don't grow. Their children die. They continue to struggle with disease and water-related rationing. But this guy is fine. He's got his water... who cares about the rest?

So we're going to try to fix this, at least pragmatically, for the 75 families in the village. Through a newly designed, low-tech water-filtration system manufactured by Hydraid, GCC teams, in conjunction with local, indigenous Indian church planters sourced through the Life Mission International network, will install an individual filter for each family that will supply up to 60 gallons of purified, clean water for up to 15 years with only minimal (and easy) manual maintenance.

It still doesn't solve the "heart issue" of the wealthy landowner and his lack of care for the fact that 75 families less than 100 yards from his home suffer from preventable plight... but i'm confident that a group of Jesus-loving Smart Zombies can form a mob to persuade him about that next.

Smart Zombie: Sunitha

This is my new friend Sunitha. She is a wife, mother, and worker in one of the garment factories that surrounds her little village in Tamilnadu, Southern India. She is an amazing woman, a Christ-follower, and a member of one of the churches currently pastored by one of our "Super Pastors". She is a hard worker, and can manufacture nearly 300 pairs of shoes or similar garments in a single workday.

From her, we learned about the plight of women in this particular industrialized community. In each factory, the men and the women are separated into facilities where they have no contact with one another. In the women's areas, all the supervisors are men. In virtually all of the factories in the community, if you are a young woman and you want a job to support your family, you are required to have sex with your supervisor or foreman. If you do, you get to keep your job. If you don't, you are labeled a "poor producer" and dismissed. You could, of course, try to get a job at another factory, but you would find the same situation facing you there. "It's the same in all the factories," Sunitha told us, "and if you keep moving around, you are viewed with increasing suspicion as a worker who will not 'submit' to the demands of the supervisors, and therefore not hired." Most of these women, then, daily have to balance the tension between remaining faithful to their husbands and children and providing food and basic wages for those same relationships.

In December, GCC Justice Teams will be travelling to help women just like Sunitha through micro-enterprise training, community organizing and legal education. According to Sunitha, "if i had $250 to buy a sewing machine of my own, i could multiple my income by a factor of 7 and avoid the harassment in the factories." Micro-enterprise and loans through partners like Growing Opportunity, Int'l, will help with capital equipment loans, and we will be training GCC teams to help with forming basic power structures like unions and collectives. We will also seek to educate women about existing Indian government legislation preventing sexual harassment and "outraging a woman's modesty" (a penalty which, if proven, carries prison sentence and/or fine).

Helping people like Sunitha is the essence of what being a Smart Zombie is all about. If 2,000 women suddenly rise up against the oppression of their dehumanizing employers by refusing to work, organizing power and developing alternate means of income-generation, they starve the industries subjugating them. In return, they gain their own power, and begin to exert influence over the structure itself. Many say it's a long shot or a pipe-dream to long for such things. But then... they don't understand Hunger the way Smart Zombies do.