Gò0dNews

Gò0dNews for Missions
MISSION TO INDIA—PART 1
Visiting a place like India can be overwhelming. The
population is more than 1.2 billion people, which is
more than the inhabitants of Canada, the United States,
Central America, and South America, combined. The number
of Evangelical Christians is 2.2 percent of the total population.
There are 456 languages with 22 official languages. Poverty is
everywhere. The beauty and grandeur of the country can leave
you speechless, but the religions of India are complex and tied
to their culture and caste system.
There are 159 large people groups of which 133 are
unreached. Hundreds of other groups with fewer than one
million are unreached. Also, there are 600,000 villages with no
church or Christian witness, although they tend to be more
concentrated in the north of India.
Throughout India, there are 485 people groups with
populations of over 10,000 that are
unreached and unengaged. That represents
almost three-fourths of the
world’s 639 people groups that come
under this same category.
When it comes to the Gospel,
the world’s least-evangelized and
least-engaged peoples are concentrated
in India. India is the most lost place on the planet. It is
easy to let the enormity of the task deter you, but you must let
it drive you to do something under God’s leadership for His
glory.
But, how can Gospel change come about What is the solution
Christ’s answer was lifestyle evangelism and discipleship.
This is done through nurturing Christians who grow in
Biblical knowledge, obedience, and by applying Biblical truths
to everyday situations through their lives. This is how God put
things together during the two weeks I was in India.
The challenges began with a fifty-hour flight from Tennessee
to Delhi, India. And yes, that arrival time in Delhi was at
3:30 a.m. By the time I cleared customs and got to Daniel and
Eunice’s apartment, a new day was dawning. But my body
30 // January 2015
by Rick Mitchell
time was still yesterday and the sun was setting. Jet lag was beginning
to hit hard. There are all types of cures to fight off jet
lag, but for me, I stay up as long as I can and then sleep. Then
I repeat the cycle until I think I will live. As normalcy returned
to my body, Daniel told me my schedule.
On Saturday afternoon, I went to a small church in Delhi
of forty members, which meets in a small room of a large
building. I preached there on each of my two previous visits
and was looking forward to visiting them again. The church
was having a planning meeting, and they let me sit in. The
pastor told me they realize they cannot reach all four million
people in their immediate area, or the 21 million in all of Delhi,
especially if the plan is to just invite these folks to attend their
church on Sunday morning. There’s not enough room. So
their pastor challenged the members (all forty of them) a few
months ago to each disciple and train
seven people. Then those seven will
disciple and train seven more, and so
on. They now have more than 1,000
people attending 100 or more discipleship/small
church groups. Since
their one church will never reach all
of Delhi, they plan to start hundreds
of small churches/groups. They want 10,000 in their small
church groups (amen and amen). May their tribe increase.
Some folks would say that their task is impossible—
something like the time Chester Harrison and I were in Niger
training fifteen Tribal Church leaders how to use Storycloths
to share the Gospel to the 35 million people around them. The
last I heard, the little “mama church” under the tree in Dargol
was still going and the new churches too. It is amazing how
people can do the impossible when God is in it and you don’t
tell them it is impossible.
Rick Mitchell is president of Sports & Rec Plus, a
worldwide church-planting ministry that trains
churches and mission organizations to use all types of
recreation and leisure-time activities for evangelism,
discipleship, and church planting. Contact him at
sportsrecplus@cs.com.