Mission to INDIA Januay 2017
Streams of Mercy Mission to India. January 9th to 31st 2017
Just before Christmas 2016 we received this email from a Pastor in India.
Dear beloved director. Greetings to you in the most highly exalted Name of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ! It is really a great privilege that God has given us to be able to meet you through this e-mail and share with you about our Ministry in India. Please let us introduce ourselves to you that we are a team of pastors with a great zeal and enthusiasm to extend the Kingdom of God in India. Our aim is to visit every nook and corner of the Indian villages, and to promote the Gospel to every perishing soul. We really hope to see a great deal of harvest in the coming days.
People in India The people of India are trapped for the most part in land that is over populated - 800 Million people in a country one third size of America. Many different religious people are living in India. They are Hindus, Mohammedans, Buddhist’s., Sikhs and a few others. The Christian population in India, according to the government figures is only 2.3% of the population. Even if we follow the optimistic figures given by Christian leaders, it is only 4%. Of these 60% are found in the southern three states and in a few of the small states in the northeast And Christianity in India is considered to be the religion of the lowest community. Christians have no honour in the society. They are not allowed to live together with the people of the higher community. They are considered to be "untouchables". So they live in their huts on the outskirts of the villages. . India is a country of idolatry and superstitions. Indians have over 9 Million " Gods". Poverty is a great problem in Indian because there is no proper source and professions for way of living.70 percent depend upon agriculture for their living. Moreover, 70 percent live in small villages No one, after seeing how they live, would want to live like they do. Fifty percent of the villages do not have Electricity; they have virtually no furniture in their shanty huts. There is no running water in the villages. And many hundred just floors and thatch roofs. In fact there are many things to say about our people, Indian and their poverty.
People respond to the Gods word. For many hundreds of years, the servants of God have been preaching God’s word to the multitudes of people in the villages. People are also responding to God’s word and converting to become as the children of God for Eternity. The people in India are tiring of Hinduism at a rapidly growing race. Further, there is no real promise of Eternal life. And even when they believe they will go to “NIRVANA” (their concept of Heaven), they believe that their souls will be blended with all the other souls that have already gone on. There is thus no personal redemption because of this reasoning. They are being converted by thinking about the true religion in this world. Christianity is growing rapidly here. Christianity in any form is fairly new to India. In many villages today, people have never heard about Jesus Christ and have never seen a Bible. Truly is a field white unto harvest! India has been the greatest successes story of mission efforts among churches in this country. And we can have as many faithful Christians in India as we want. Brother, we must pray for it, work for it and give to help it. Brother, we can accomplish the gospel of Jesus Christ in regarding to save the lost. Our ministry is mainly based on Gospel work in rural, tribal, and slum areas. We visit several villages in a month to proclaim the Gospel. The people here give much attention to listen the Gods word. if we visit the villages and conduct the gospel campaigns, indeed the people would come for miles around and sit on the ground, stand, or sit on hard wooden benches without backs and listen the God’s word very interestingly. The people will listen for a long time to God’s word and do not seem to get bored or uncomfortable. In fact, they honestly seem to be disappointed when the services are concluding early. Often in many of the villages they would request us to visit their villages and preach to them some about God’s truth. Because of this great encouragement and co-operation from the people. we can start many congregations for our Lord Jesus Christ and for His glory. Therefore, brother we request you very much please consider to encourage the lords work here in our place. We are extending our warm welcome to you to come to our region in India to conduct seminars, crusades and conventions and Discipleship Training I have a burning passion to train up youth and men. If you kindly write me your convenient date, we will arrange the meetings. Our co-workers meet regularly and with a great burden, fully praying to God to send any Mighty Men like you to India to share the word of God to Indian people through seminars, crusades and conventions.
We very hopefully and prayerfully await your kind and favourable letter. All our co-workers, Church people, and orphan children are sending their hearty greetings to you and your family. Thanking you. Yours together for the Lord’s work in India, Pastor S.ChristopherHe sent us photos of the group of Pastors and Bible Women.
We felt we could not ignore this invitation and after asking more questions and speaking to this Pastor on the phone we decided to visit if we could get the visas The Pastor said the best months were January and February so we decided on January, delaying our planned visit to Uganda until mid-February.
We discovered there was an Indian E-Visa available on line and we received it within 24 hours! Then we found a cheap direct flight to Hyderabad , the nearest airport in the Andhra Pradesh region to the Krishna Delta where the Hindu villages were situated – a 6 hour drive from the airport. We stayed in the Pastor’s rented house in Repalle
First Gospel Crusade in Padalavripalam
We preached at four two day villages crusades. They took place in the evenings. They started with a lot of singing and a time of worship and we would be taken onto the platform at around 8.30 pm, often not beginning to preach until 9 pm! AT the first one we were welcomed in true Indian manner with garlands of flowers.
Women sit on the floor – men have benches at the back! They listened intently. The pastor was translating us into the Telagu language. We both gave a Gospel message and the Pastor gave an appeal. On the first night 15 responded. The second night 23 responded
Streams of Mercy Mission to India. January 9th to 31st 2017
Just before Christmas we received this email from a Pastor in India.
Dear beloved director Greetings to you in the most highly exalted Name of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ! It is really a great privilege that God has given us to be able to meet you through this e-mail and share with you about our Ministry in India. Please let us introduce ourselves to you that we are a team of pastors with a great zeal and enthusiasm to extend the Kingdom of God in India. Our aim is to visit every nook and corner of the Indian villages, and to promote the Gospel to every perishing soul. We really hope to see a great deal of harvest in the coming days. People in IndiaThe people of India are trapped for the most part in land that is over populated - 800 Million people in a country one third size of America. Many different religious people are living in India. They are Hindus, Mohammedans, Buddhist’s., Sikhs and a few others. The Christian population in India, according to the government figures is only 2.3% of the
At the second crusade at Dagalaplam we gave a talk to the children about the lost sheep using Basil our puppet. 
21 responded on the first evening and 15 on the second.
After the final service of each crusade almost everyone present came and asked us for prayer – mainly for healing but also family problems. The young people asked for help with their studies and some just wanted a blessing.
We reckoned that between us we had prayed for 50 or more people each night!
Some needs were very distressing – cancer patients who were too poor to pay for treatment; widows struggling to bring up their children alone with very little income. Women with drunken husbands!
The third crusade at Mudhnapalli had a smaller congregation. 17 people responded. And there was 1 request for Baptism.
Pastor Christopher’s son led worship
The final crusade was at Machilipatnam - a coastal village where most of the population get their meagre income from fishing.
The congregation enjoyed the lost sheep story with Basil.
Aswell as the crusades, there were church services in different places on Saturdays and Sundays. Pastors gave the opportunity for respond for any who had not yet decided to accept Christ, and overall a total of 31 people responded. Also, there was another request for Baptism and the Pastor took her to the river after the service and baptised her. One of the Saturdays was designated as a Love Feast. At first, we thought this would be a type of communion service but it was a communal meal following the teaching.
We had time to look around the area to see how people lived in this village. (They gave us permission for the photos)
We prayed for a sick baby and for a boy who was a polio victim but had no help towards rehabilitation or provision of aids. He just seemed to sit around all day unable to do anything. We found an Indian charity online who help Polio victims and hope the Pastor has made contact to see if any help is available for the boy.
In the final week, we took part in a 3-day Pastor’s conference attended by over 20 of the pastor’s group and several Bible women 
On the final day, we met with a group id HIV/AIDS patients. We shared the good news of God’s love with them and then payed for each one. Their stories were heartrending at times. Again, often widows struggling to cope with their families, and unable to pay for the HIV medication which they needed There were also some cancer patient in this group, again unable to pay for much needed treatment.
Pastor Christopher has started a programme to help with their nutrition, but is quite limited due to lack of finance. Each family get a small bag of food stuffs each month.
Prospects for the future.
Christopher wants to register Streams of Mercy in India but it is not clear what he is expecting SoM to be doing or what contribution he expects from the UK. One project would be set up some Vocational Training for the HIV group. We thought about asking Tools with a Mission for sewing machines but found that they can’t work in India. Although we could order from them and arrange our own shipping the customs rules seem to be quite complicated and we feel this may not be cost effective. I asked the Pastor to investigate the cost of machines in India as it can be cheaper in the long run to finance the purchase of equipment from within the country.
Streams of Mercy UK is already heavily committed to projects in Africa and so we need much prayer and guidance as to whether there is a future for SoM in India and how much involvement SoM UK should have in that. Please stand with us in prayer about the future in this regard, for the necessary finance for all our projects and for more people to be willing to go to Africa or India to minister.
We need people who will PRAY, GIVE, and GO!
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