God is at Work in India
Taking the Gospel to the Tribes
Away from the teeming masses of the cities, deep in the Indian jungle, there are people who believe in forest gods and goddesses. Many are openly hostile to Christians. Yet, here we were, bringing the Gospel of hope and light into the darkness. The moment we entered this forest village we could feel the hostility and presence of pure evil. God emboldened us as we started witnessing to the women we saw washing tamarind (a local Indian spice often used in cuisine) at the stream.
The people here also believe in karma and reincarnation after death, not recognizing that we are all sinful and will stand before God. We boldly told them that there is indeed life after death and that Jesus Christ can wash them with His blood and that Satan will then no longer have any hold on them.
God is good! The Gospel is powerful! Several women responded to our testimonies and came to Christ.
This particular village is quite large for a jungle village and once had a church that had died over the years. Harvesters Ministries took hands with the local pastor and helped re-establish a church that is ready to serve the community.
Reports from this village are that the church is growing and people are experiencing God’s love and mercy in their daily lives.
Training Pastors in India
In a large town a few kilometres from the Bay of Bengal, Harvesters Ministries’ representative Peter* is working among these tribal communities.
“The nearer we come to Christ, the more intense missionaries we become,” Peter* believes these words and experiences them in his daily life. “We face the burden of winning the lost at any cost and this burden intensifies every day. These tribal people also believe in the spirits of their ancestors and as a result, here it is quite challenging to minister to them.” Harvesters has trained and enabled Peter* and others like him to become pastors and lead the lost to Christ.
Overcoming Rejection
Anjali* is HIV-positive. She was lost until a Harvesters pastor shared the Gospel with her. Sadly, in Anjali’s village she will always be seen as the girl with HIV, but she knows that she is a loved daughter of God. God can use anyone to do His work and to enlarge His kingdom. Anjali has completed her evangelism training with Harvesters and is now sharing the Gospel with other individuals who are seeking the Truth.
Anjali faced uncalled-for rejection and judgement because she is HIV-positive. Some people would not allow her into their homes and some even refused to speak to her. However, Anjali did not want this to stop her from spreading the Gospel and leading the lost to Christ, she wanted to disciple people and evangelise those who do not know the Truth yet. On this journey of discipleship Anjali met Lalit*. Lalit is from a higher social class and she was very hostile towards the Christian faith. As Anjali started testifying to her about the wages of sin and the doom that sinners will face, Lalit was shaken. She too believed in reincarnation and did not realize that she will perish. Anjali used the opportunity to share Christ with Lalit. She immediately responded to the Gospel and decided to follow Christ. She was baptized by our local pastor. Anjali says, “I do not know how long I will live but I do know that I want to spend my life leading others to Christ and spreading the Gospel.”
Small Beginnings, Huge Outcomes
Harvesters Ministries has been involved in India for the past three years. In that time more than 4300 churches have already been planted. Pastors are being trained for these churches and the Harvesters curriculum is being translated into 10 of the 16 major languages of the country (there are over 650 known dialects spoken in India). What a wonderful God we serve. None of this will be possible without Harvesters Ministries supporters.
How can I get involved?
Harvesters Ministries is a church planting organization with many willing missionaries working across the globe to evangelise the lost at any cost. We are seeking the support of people with a passion for Christ to lighten our burden and help us to mend the nets.
*Names have been changed.
Egypt: A Nation Ready For Change
Some things will never change
Things change. Through the dusty afternoon haze, beyond a line of camels moving slowly across the Egyptian deserts, I gazed in awe at the pyramids of Giza in the distance. This same view has captivated people for thousands of years. This is probably one of the most enduring vistas anywhere. However, as your eyes focus beyond these symbols of ancient cultures, through the smog and dust you see the encroaching city, the buildings and signs of a new civilization, of a different culture. Later, marvelling at the Sphinx, weathered by time, but still a sign of endurance, of things that last, of the unchangeable; one only has to turn around to gaze at a Pizza Hut. Things change.
Cairo – open to Jesus
Egypt is in flux in other ways too. Since the revolution of 2011 many things are changing. This once seemingly impenetrable nation is opening to the Gospel like never before. An unexpected invitation highlighted this for me. I found myself exhorting a group of people of different ages being prepared for witness and missions, to go out and fearlessly proclaim the name of Jesus.
My host was a dear man of God with a passion for souls and deeply committed to missions. The group was being discipled by him to take Jesus out of the building and into the streets, no matter what the consequences. A student came up afterwards, glowing with excitement about her willingness to preach Jesus anywhere. A highly qualified man came for a chat about how he is trying to discern where God wants him to go.
The Holy Spirit has brought about a movement that has seldom been seen in the Middle East, including in Egypt. A huge number of people have turned to Christ in recent years, many of them through dreams and vision. Television and radio are also making a huge impact, and many are questioning their traditions and religion and are willing to talk about Jesus. Despite the changes there are still many who strongly oppose Christianity.
Harvesters bringing change to Egypt
With change comes opportunity. I sense a real opening for multiplication church planting through evangelism, discipleship and pastoral training. This is what I presented to leaders from different churches and denominations with a view of starting a church planting movement in partnership with Harvesters Ministries.
I am both excited and concerned. Change comes slowly to churches. We are often swept along by societal changes rather than spearheading or at least managing them. Often, by the time the church is ready to meet new challenges the world has shifted and the opportunity has passed. The desire to hold onto that which has ‘worked’ in the past or that which we are comfortable with is great. Yet, there are those who see the change and are energised by the opportunities it brings. Some saw that what worked in the past cannot work now to reach a population of 100 million people. It is too slow and too expensive and new methodologies are required. In the case of the church, ‘new’ usually calls for a return to biblical methods and the application of biblical principles.
There is a need for change
God’s faithful servants, many of whom have suffered persecution, could easily be lulled into seeking peaceful co-existence, acceptance and the respect of their neighbours rather than continuing to radically proclaim Jesus.
How can you get involved?
Harvesters is seeking out those who are willing to step up and step out and grasp this opportunity. Harvesters will be implementing its Strategic Mapping process and opening the way for the Gospel to have a permanent presence in every community across this nation. Join us, help us. Pray for those who see this as God’s timing to bring the Gospel to every place where people stay. Now is the time for new wineskins. Watch this space. Now is the time to change things.
The Amazon Needs Our Prayers
We at Harvesters Ministries are truly blessed to have such an amazing team of prayer warriors on our side. We have seen so many prayers answered over the past 18 years and we are just amazed at what God has done for us. We continue to trust Him through prayer and ask you to join us in prayer this week.
“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” Matthew 18:19
The Amazon tribes need our prayers
Why is Harvesters Ministries working in the Amazon? The answer is simple – we were called to lead the lost to Christ, to plant churches where there have never been churches before and to shine Christ’s light in the darkest of places. There are about 24 million inhabitants in the Amazon basin that stretches over a vast landscape and a few different countries. Furthermore, there are 900,000 indigenous people from 240 tribes. Most of these tribes in the Amazon currently live in protected reserves which are closed to the public.
Harvesters went to the Amazon with the deliberate intention of sharing the Gospel, planting churches and developing disciple makers who would evangelise, disciple and grow the church. By God’s amazing grace we were introduced to qualified, competent brothers and sisters in Christ who, by means of love and practical explication, taught us what we were woefully lacking in knowledge and understanding.
You don’t come to the Amazon (indigenous people groups), they come to you.
Please continue to pray for the church Streams that are being planted in the Amazon. Pray that God will bless the pastors with the wisdom that they need to evangelise the indigenous people of the Amazon that live in remote and far-off villages. Pray for their safety as they enter these tribes. Pray that God will raise up more brothers and sisters in Christ that will go out and evangelise the lost.
“He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’” Mark 16:15
The Church on the River
Harvesters Ministries has planted churches in some unexpected places – in bus stops, in barber shops, in refugee camps, in the Masai Mara, a church on legs, candlelight churches in Zanzibar and in many, many cities and forgotten villages all over Africa.
The time has come to plant churches in Brazil and the Amazon – particularly among the “River People” of the Amazon. But who are these “River People”?
These people live on the Amazon riverbanks in the thousands. Local missionaries believe that there might be as many as 10,000 of these isolated villages without access to a church. God has called Harvesters Ministries to prepare the way – even in the jungle!
Please join us in prayer as we pray for our missionaries who train pastors in these remote villages in the Amazon. Pray that God will continue to protect them. Pray that the newly trained Hub-Leaders will be filled with the Holy Spirit and that they will continue to trust God for courage to undertake their daily responsibility of evangelising the lost. Pray that the lost that come to Christ will be a shining light in their villages and that they too will lead others to Christ. We serve an awesome God and with Him all things are possible!
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19
Uganda Bible Placement
Every time a pastor, like pastor Richard Okello of Apac District near Lira, tells us that he does not own a Bible, and that he must borrow a Bible from someone and return it after the service, we realise yet again what a privilege it is to be part of Harvesters Ministries. It is so wonderful to deliver God’s Word to His precious children and to see the joy in which the Bibles are received. It strengthens our calling and hope that every church involved with Harvesters has at least one Bible. People who live in remote areas often do not know where to get Bibles and cannot afford to buy Bibles.
Uganda, which is located on the equator, is a beautiful country with lush vegetation, large forests and a variety of wildlife – famous for gorillas and chimpanzees. This land, known as “The Pearl of Africa”, is also the country with plenty of water and large lakes. Before we landed on March 19 in Entebbe, we flew over Lake Victoria for 20 minutes and saw water that carried on endlessly and islands that stretched for kilometres and kilometres. This lake is the largest in Africa’s northern outlet and flows into the Nile River. Uganda is also the land of the Moon and Ruwenzori Mountains.
It was truly an amazing experience to visit this country during its rainy seasons, but what stands out more was being able to meet several of God’s children who displayed sincerity in their faith. The Ugandans are welcoming and hospitable. Uganda, along with its ethnic value and various cultural groups, is generally regarded as a ‘Christian country’.
Aloysious Kinaalwa, Harvesters’ national leader in Uganda, is a passionate man of God with a desire to bring his people to God through the Harvesters Church Planting Model and Training Programme. While transporting 200 Luganda Bibles to Gomba, and 1200 copies in English, Acholi and Lango to Lira, from the Bible House in Kampala, he was involved in an accident and attained a head injury. Aloysious’s message to us was: “I still feel headache, But God is supernaturally healing me. To God be the glory! It’s amazing, we serve a miracle working God!”
God is so good! Despite this incident and several hours on extreme dirt roads, God protected us so that we could deliver Bibles to more than 200 churches in Gomba as well as Lira. Some of these roads are almost impassable due to the rainy season which meant enormous potholes where we constantly had to dodge stones and branches in the road.
Harvesters cannot do this work without the wonderful partners who God sends us. Charles Mukhwana, Harvester’s regional leader in Lira province, is truly dependable. He has a great vision to train the thousands of pastors who live in remote villages in the Harvesters programme. Charles arranged for the church leaders from various regions to gather at one church, where we could encourage the members, listen to their testimonies and then hand out three to four Bibles to each church. Every church’s name and the names of the recipients were on a separate list.
It was particularly encouraging for us to experience the great excitement and anticipation from the different churches. The members and pastors would sometimes wait for us for hours and receive us warmly then literally dance for joy as they received a Bible. Before we drove off, they would pray for us first – all of them praying out loud for our safety on the road as well as for our families at home.
For instance, the Abalo Kweri congregation of Pastor Elinga Bosco gathers under a mango tree. They are but a handful of people, yet they represent the body of Christ and show a great love for Jesus. What a privilege it was to hand out four Bibles to them!
Every time we place a new Bible in someone’s hand that is written in their mother tongue, we are encouraged by their testimony and we know that the Bible will be put to good use.
- “Now I can connect with women and do the work of God” – Semy Amori, leader of the women’s ministry, Church of God, Apac District.
- Past Kate Molly (Victory Outreach Church Apac District) had a Bible years ago, but it was torn and destroyed. “With this new Bible, I will not only read it for my own self, but at the same time I will help other people to come to Christ.”
- “I am so happy for the Bible. I am proud because I have a tool now to use when I go to preach the Word of God.”
- Past Jastine Otim of the Victory Outreach Church in Pader, was thrilled to hear of the Harvesters Discipleship Programme, “I had a misconception about Matthew 28… Go ye and make disciples… In my own understanding, I interpreted it as just bringing people into the Kingdom, but over 7 years of my pastoral experience, I realised I got stuck along the way and didn’t know how to get people from the level of coming to the Kingdom and getting them to another level of knowing God and having the authority of Christ in them.”
- Then the church under the hill in the lovely village of Kalonge: Past Thomas Amone (Victory Outreach Church) said, “I’m going to use the Bible to impact the lives of people, preaching the Gospel of Christ to other people. We appreciate the Bibles.”
Conflict between the government and rebels started some years ago and lead to a prolonged war of almost 16 years. The trauma of the war has claimed thousands of lives and destroyed schools and health centres. The war was characterised by violation of human rights, abduction of men, women and children, torture and national insecurity.
To listen to a pastor who lives in that area’s testimony, we once again realised the need that arises for church planting and training of pastors in Uganda, and how desperate people are for it. This pastor told us that their congregation reaches out to areas where people live who were attacked by the rebels, abducted and tortured – people whose body parts such as lips, arms and legs were cut off. She testified that they visit these people, make friends, build relationships and they are then served with the Word.
The need is also to plant churches in these areas. Her words were: “The Bibles in our own language you allowed to come to us in our village, will make us strong to know more about Jesus Christ and all the nation will get saved through that Word of God that we are going to take to them.”
God’s Word is precious. Praise God for this opportunity and thank you, Harvesters Ministries and Midland Bible Church for making this Bible placement to many believers in Uganda possible. All the glory to God!