Countries Where We
Assist Native Ministries
Overview
Persecution of Christians is on the rise throughout South Asia, as radical Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists seek to “purify” their countries of religious minorities.
Despite this persecution, Christianity is rapidly growing in this region. Today in India, between 15,000 and 20,000 people are baptized every day. Northern India still contains the world’s largest number of unreached people groups, however. India’s Christian leaders are beginning to collaborate on how to reach these groups.
In the Islamic country of Pakistan, radical Muslim groups flourish. Many Christians are falsely accused of violating Pakistan’s “blasphemy laws” and imprisoned. Islamic extremism has significantly increased during the last 10 to 15 years due in large part to Islamic education centers where 40 million children are taught to persecute religious minorities like Christians.
Christians comprise less than 2 percent of Pakistan’s population and are at the bottom of the socio-economic strata. Likewise, Christians are typically the poorest members of society in India, where the gospel is taking root among the low-caste populations. Though India is the world’s largest democracy, more than 300 million people in India still live below the poverty line.
How You Can Make a Difference
Ways To Give
Evangelism & Discipleship
Workers with one Christian Aid Mission-assisted ministry South Asia have planted a total of 600 churches, which are attended by approximately 24,000 people. The ministry’s theological institute trains and equips native believers for Christian service. Church-planting missionaries settle in urban and rural communities, establishing relationships to win souls to Christ. This ministry has established a church in every major city inside of its country. GIVE NOW to help evangelistic and discipleship ministries like this one in South Asia.
Community Engagement
Since 1974, a Christian hospital has provided medical care, along with the gospel message, to poverty-stricken people suffering from ailments such as leprosy, tuberculosis, blindness, and malnutrition. The staff conducts free eye camps in the villages surrounding the hospital, performing simple surgeries to restore sight to thousands of people who would otherwise be severely limited in their ability to earn a modest living. Every year, the medical team screens approximately 10,000 patients at the eye camps and performs around 2,000 surgeries, mainly for cataracts. A hospital chaplain shares the gospel with patients and 30 gospel workers have established fellowships in several outlying villages. The hospital has helped construct church buildings in many small communities. GIVE NOW to help community engagement ministries like this one in South Asia.
Compassion
Human trafficking runs rampant in India. Every hour, four girls enter prostitution, three of them against their will. Girls as young as 10 years are trafficked from economically depressed neighborhoods to major prostitution centers. An indigenous ministry is successfully rehabilitating survivors of forced prostitution back into the community as self-sustaining citizens who love the Lord Jesus. Through basic life skills, education, vocational training, counseling, and help with housing, survivors of trafficking are finding healing and restoration. GIVE NOW to help compassion ministries like this one in South Asia.
Exclusive Stories from the Mission Field
Encourage Those New To The Faith in Sri Lanka
A boy who could not speak began attending a native ministry’s preschool program, and ministry staff not only prayed for the child, but they also ministered to his mother. Through their faithful prayers, the little boy began to speak, and his mother accepted Christ as Savior. Though she now faces opposition because of her new faith, she has not wavered.
Support New Believers’ Deepening Faith in South Asia
More than 50 women attended a women’s conference organized by a native ministry to learn about the power of prayer. Most of the participants are ministry leaders themselves, and they expressed their gratitude for the many sessions available for them to attend during the conference, which was called “Empowerment through Prayer.”
Plant Gospel Seeds in Bangladesh
A Hindu woman in a native ministry’s tailoring program was amazed by a missionary’s story of Jesus following the conclusion of class one day. She invited the missionary to her home because her husband, a rickshaw driver, wanted to know more about Jesus too.
Help Lead The Lost To Christ in South Asia
Ministry workers laid the foundation stone for a new prayer hall, an exciting step toward creating a new place of worship in the region. Evangelism has been so fruitful here that many of the 400 to 500 worshippers sit outside the current meeting place each Sunday because there is not enough space inside for all to come together.
Embolden Workers Fighting Spiritual Battles in South Asia
For years, evil spirits tormented a devout follower of a native religion, and his religion’s magicians could not help him. Finally, he visited a Christian church and asked for prayer. A ministry worker shared the gospel and prayed for the distressed man, who was then attacked by the spirits until he fell unconscious.
Provide Native Workers With Outreach Tools in Pakistan
A native ministry has sparked change in a region of Pakistan in which child labor is a normal part of life. Through community outreach such as distributing school supplies to families, ministry workers can now report that 30 children who once worked in the brick kiln factories are now attending school instead.