I left India last month with a lot of questions. One of the biggest reasons why I love the World Race is because we are placed with different ministries that are doing amazing things in the country to help them in whatever way they need. But that also means we get to see a lot of rockin ministries!
This past month, I was working in Hyderabad with an organization through ICM (India Christian Ministries) called Rescue Pink (http://www.rescuepink.org/). I brought with me a lot of questions about what God is stirring in my heart. One of the things I found out within the first few days in India is that India makes up 18% of the worlds population (1.25 billion). 94.9% of that 1.25 billion is unreached.
I heard the term “unreached” a lot in church but I didn’t fully understand what it meant. Unreached is what it sounds like. It is the people around the world who have never been exposed to the gospel. They might know the term “Christian” but do not know what that means. 94.9% of Indians do not know Jesus.
You hear a lot about Jesus in America. You know the Christian phrases even if you aren’t a Christian. Some children in schools say “One Nation Under God” in the pledge and you pass a church almost ever mile. That does not mean that you should assume people know who Jesus actually is, but they at least have heard his name before.
There is a lot going on in India. The ministry I worked with, Rescue Pink, mission is “to bring an end to female infanticide in India through rescue, prevention and awareness.” Wow. That is a hard task but something that needs to happen in India. But how do you do that when a country has not valued women for years? There is shift happening in India where the views of women are beginning to change, but in the villages there is a still a lot of infanticide happening.
Rescue Pink is beginning to spread hope. They have three programs: women’s entrepreneurs, nutrition for lactating or pregnant moms, and an after school program for girls in the villages. If you are a teacher, you know that the first way to get someone to listen is to help give them what they need physically. The women need to know that they have skills and abilities to run a business so they are given a loan to start their own business whether that is selling buffalo milk, becoming a seamstress, selling bangles, etc. The women need nutrition so that they break the cycle of girls being malnourished. They need their babies to be strong so they can fight for themselves. So Rescue Pink gives pregnant and lactating moms nutrition. The women and girls need to find their value and their worth. So they start by getting stronger physically and start believing in themselves. Then the hope is that they find their value and worth in something more than themselves; something that will never change or never disappoint: Jesus.
Above: One of the women from the lactating mother’s program through Rescue Pink and her 17 day old baby.
Above: One of the women from the entrepreneur program through Rescue Pink.
With Christmas approaching, I think about the reason of why Jesus had to come. Before Jesus, Jews had to work extremely hard to please God and no matter how hard they worked, they could never get to heaven. They were sinners and not perfect. But when Jesus came to the earth, he spoke hope to people. He shared that ANYONE can be welcomed to heaven. It didn’t matter the color of your skin, if you were a girl or boy. It only mattered if you believed that He could save you from all your sins.
It was hard to see how hopeless some of the people I met in the villages were. They spent their days hoping for a son. If they had daughters, they spent their times worrying if their in laws would disown them or if their daughters would have enough money to get married. The sons were well nourished while the daughters were malnourished. The sons went longer to school and the daughters got married instead of finishing school. And none of these things were consistent. Families didn’t always have sons. Daughters didn’t always have dowry. Families couldn’t always afford school. So where is their hope when they have nothing?
This Christmas season, I am beginning to really see the importance of Christmas. It isn’t sitting in the kitchen with my dad drinking coffee. It isn’t decorating the tree. It isn’t watching the classic Christmas movies or the cold air. It is Jesus. It is the hope that a baby brought to the world. Not just America. Not just the parts of the world who were fortunate enough to hear about Jesus. But the WHOLE world. We have the best gift every single day: grace. We are sinners in need of grace and we get it! For FREE! But others don’t even know about this gift. People all over the world don’t even know that they are missing out on something that could save their soul.
We as Christians have a HUGE calling.
“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the WHOLE creation Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
Mark 16:15-16
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28: 16-20
There is a ministry in India that is making disciples to spread the Word. ICM is training many people to live in villages among others and share Jesus with them. One part of my job was to go around to different villages and interview women who are in Rescue Pink’s entrepreneur program, women who are lactating or pregnant, or girls who go to Rescue Pink’s after school care program. We had lunch at the local pastor’s home and got to hear some of their stories. They have gone through ICM’s programs and are now pastors in these villages. They get to be role models for these families and get to share hope with them.
I have attached an extremely helpful blog post that sheds lights into unreached area’s pastors.
http://brantliveson.blogspot.in/2015/10/the-not-so-great-commission.html
In a Facebook message that Brant (the person who wrote the blog) sent me, he spoke about Operation Saturation (go like their Facebook page!) Operation Saturation is through ICM. ICM has created 7,000 churches in the past 15 years and attempts to provide each church planter with $30/month. It is not enough to live off of but goes far in rural India. Recently, because of a lack of donors, it has been continuously reduced and now each church planter only gets $8 a month. So ICM, and more specifically, Operation Saturation is looking for churches to help sponsor these church planters and pastors at $30 a month per pastor. These pastors generally pastor 3 churches at once.
There is also an option of sponsoring an entire district at $1,500 a month. Brant said that just yesterday they got an awesome software (https://icm.kindful.com/?campaign=256021) that can keep the donors connected with their own pastors specifically and get updates on what God is doing through their partnership.
Ya’ll. These people are doing the Great Commission. They are going out and sharing with people the importance of knowing Christ. Both Rescue Pink and ICM are showing others that they can hope in something that never changes.
Both of these organizations need your help. I have seen the amazing things that both of these organizations have done. I can see the ripple beginning to happen in the country of India and I can’t wait for that ripple to turn into a wave and YOU can help make that happen.
For your New Years Resolution, maybe take some time to read the 4 gospels and see what God is calling you to do. I want you to pray what God is teaching you through those. Maybe He is calling you to do something locally in your community. Maybe He is calling you to give to ICM or Rescue Pink. I don’t know what God is calling you personally to do but I do want you to listen and ask. I pray that you enter into this holiday season realizing that Christmas is much more than the tree, presents, or Christmas songs. It is about the hope that Jesus brought to this world. So how can you spread hope not only in December but for every day of the year?
