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
Enslaved and Overlooked: Pakistan’s Brick Kiln Workers
White smokestacks mar an otherwise cloudless desert sky, their toxic fumes not only a by-product of the more than 20,000 brick kilns that exist across Pakistan, but also a sinister warning to the 4.5 million people enslaved there: You cannot pass beyond our bounds.
Support Missionaries’ Faithful Work in South Asia
A young man and his parents were addicted to alcohol and their life was very difficult. The young man left his home and went to another city, where someone gave him a Bible to read. When he returned home, the man sought out a local missionary to answer his questions about God, and the missionary taught the man and his parents about Jesus.
Help Christian Workers Share The Gospel in Sri Lanka
One day, while driving a missionary from a native ministry, the taxi driver told the missionary that his wife was gravely ill. Though they had tried many ways to heal her through their own religion, nothing worked. The ministry worker shared the gospel with the taxi driver, told him of the healing power of Jesus, and gave him a Bible.
Support Ministry To Unreached Tribes in Bangladesh
Because of native missionaries’ diligent evangelism efforts to previously unreached indigenous tribes, approximately 1,940 people from various tribal villages were baptized during a six-month period. In addition to sharing the gospel, these Christian workers also taught the people about proper hygiene, and they distributed food among the most vulnerable families.
Bring Jesus’ Love To The Weary in South Asia
Three native missionaries regularly visit a leper colony and conduct prayer meetings with the 49 people who live there. During their visits, the missionaries also provide medical care and much-needed medicine, as well as a once-a-month special time of fellowship. “People are doing better there,” the ministry leader said.
Share The Gospel In Spiritually Dark Places in South Asia
A father of four was a devout Hindu and addicted to alcohol. His wife and daughters, however, became believers through the evangelism of their relatives in another village. When one of his daughters hoped to marry a man who was also a believer, her father refused for almost a year until, one day, God spoke to him.