Back to Northern India and Thoughts on Our Walk With God by Rich Mullins

This picture perfectly shows the juxtaposition of wealth and poverty in India, where over 800 million people live on less than 2$ per day. Tomorrow I leave for Northern India. I will be traveling on a team of 6 as we visit the land of holy shrines, holy cities, and the holy river (Ganges) of the Hindus. Our trip will take us into Dehli and then north to the capitol of Uttarakhand, named Dehradun. We will be gathering with a group of holistic ministries that we have helped to initiate and pull together called the Uttarakhand Christian Network. This group is networking together to share resources and strategy to improve life in the plains and Himalayas of Uttarkhand and to also expand the Kingdom through spiritual, social, and economic transformation. We first met with these ministries and organizations a year ago and have seen amazing things happen as networking has occurred between them. Through the non-profit that we have established, Community Development Initiatives, we now are able to facilitate direct partnership between churches, small groups, and individual in the United States with the projects and work of the seven indigenous ministries in the network as they/we focus on education for children, healthcare, business development, micro-enterprise, social concerns, and of course, church planting, discipleship, and the spread of the gospel.

India is gripped by Hinduism, which encapsulates a belief in millions of gods and goddesses. At essence, all the gods become one and we with them. We are all caught up in the cycle of life and we are reincarnated again and again to keep improving our karma so that we can come back in a better state. Karma is so important to Hindus. Your place in life is your place in life. You are how you are born. This is why the poor are so shackled in the chains of caste and karma. There is no escape from their place in life. Whatever happens was destined to happen. When Christianity came it began to butt up against that type of thinking. The British brought their educational system and Hinduism began to lose power over the intellect of the nation because the mysterious things of the world were explained. As people began to be educated, they hold of Hinduism began to be lessened. However, it still holds strongly upon culture and the ways and worldview of the masses. As we go into the villages and provide clean water, health care, economic advancement, social reform, education, and proper governance, the gospel gains a hearing and the people, enslaved to karma and caste, begin to see that this life can be better and the life to come can be changed. They begin to listen to our message. Without this presence in the villages, the people continue to be enslaved to superstition, false gods, and a mindset that destroys. An example of this is the baby that was recently born in a Northern Indian village. She was born with two faces and is being worshipped as a goddess.

Last year, we established the Himalayan Clean Water Project in partnership with a hospital in the mountains and a children's home/church planting ministry. This project is taking place DEEP in the mountains and is a year long prototype of further work that we are going to do. For only $1000 per, we have have been able to build a water purification tank in a village, conduct classes on sanitation, clean water use, and hygiene, connect it with the church planter/school in the village that we are working with, and use all of this as a platform for the gospel. The response has been very good on all levels and we are seeing people moving toward the Father. We have been able to initiate this in three villages.

The ministries that we are working with are seeing people come to Christ among unreached peoples for the first time. Churches are being planted deep, deep in the mountains. Work is being done in healthcare, education, and in building up the local economies through microenterprise. It is amazing to see the Christians that are working in this area see the work of God as being so holistic. I am learning a lot from them.

We will also have a one day conference with 50 people from the 7 organizations. I will be helping to lead the conference along with other team members as we talk about development issues and how our witness must be to the whole person. I will be discussing the spiritual aspect of development work and another man will be discussing the economic side. We will also have someone who has done a great deal of city reaching work come and share with us about how Christian unity in a region really works and how we can network together to accomplish God's purposes. Others from the different organizations will be sharing on specific issues that are germane to their setting. I am really looking forward to this.

We will also be traveling around quite a bit and assessing different ministries in the network. Our overall goal is that churches in the U.S. would partner with us to help support these ministries in specific projects that they are doing to bless the people and create platforms for gospel work. They have the manpower, the heart, and the cultural access and expertise, but often lack funding. We have set up a system where they submit grant proposals to CDI and then we disseminate the requests to partner churches/small groups/individuals. As we adopt projects, we send the funding for them to get started. There are quarterly reports regarding progress that are sent back and a delegation from the U.S. visits the sites 1-2 times a year to check on progress. Of course, we lift them up in prayer regularly and join our hearts with them. If anyone is interested in partnering with us in the future, let me know and I will send you some information.

We will be gone 9 days. I'll try to post updates when I can. We will be visiting two of the three most holy cities for the Hindus along the Ganges and visitng the work of these ministries in those areas. I appreciate your prayers for us and also for the believers in Northern India that are dramatically impacting lostness.

I leave you with a teaching segment from Rich Mullins on the Scriptures, Church, Spirituality, and identification with and love for the poor. This really spoke to my heart and it encapsulates a lot of what I hope my is about. Plus, he's pretty funny. I'm not there yet, but the heart of God calls us to intimacy with Him and love for the least of these. Take a few minutes to listen to these words and reflect upon them:

Comments

[from the middle east]

Brother Alan,

I will be praying for you. Thanks for posting this. And thanks for the Rich Mullins clip... haven't listened to him in a while and I needed it!

Hs presence go with you,
From the Middle East

[Bryan Riley]

Godspeed. May your knowledge of the Father increase and may it overflow in abundance through you to everyone you meet.