MISSION AMONG THE POOR International, Inc.

Challenges in Indian Missions

In MAP’s Mission activities, our present focus is the nation of India, due to the fact that this nation is unnoticed and left aside in Christian mission activities, even in today’s context. Christian mission in India is difficult and challenging. But, MAP members firmly believe that God can transform all the challenges in order to save millions who are still unreached. India need to be evangelized by the Love of  Jesus Christ, so that the masses who are under darkness might be added to the coming Kingdom. MAP Ministries take almost all the socio-political and religio-cultural factors of the nation into serious consideration in its mission agenda and work out vigorously to reach the goal.

India, one of the world’s most colorful, exciting, and varied places, is popularly known as a land of ‘Unity in the midst of Diversities.’ It has the second largest population in the world and is projected to
overtake China by 2030. Almost 90% Indians, especially the untouchables, aboriginals, dalits, and tribals are struggling in their daily life for the basic necessities. Alongside of that millions of the nation are eagerly longing for a relevant message of eternal salvation, peace, love, and justice. The love-centered message of the Bible is still a mirage for 97.5% of the inhabitants. MAP consider all these divergent aspects of social realities in its gospel propagation.

The national language of India is Hindi, which is the first language of 30% of the population, most of whom live in the north. The challenge of MAP is to train its missionaries  to stay among the aboriginals, learn their language and create dialects, translate the Word of God into people’s languages and teach them to read and write the languages, and lead them toward the Word of God.

An Indian Mission Experience
 
My first Missionary experience was remarkable in several respects. In the Northern part of the South Indian state Kerala is very dry with respect to the Gospel works. But, fortunately, in 1994 as a first year Bachelor of Divinity student, I was privileged to stay with the villagers ofChannanakkampara in Kannur district. I along with my colleagues Biju Philip, Anilkumar, and others stayed in that remote village (i.e., along the Karnataka state borders) about two months. The village was positioned in a heap mountainside and a small stream was flowing from atop the mountain zigzag through the rocky solitary land. Mostly the people of this land were farmers and daily workers. Atop the mountain there was a hut that was made of mud and the top part was covered with interweaved coconut leaves. In that muddy narrow hall, we the five theological students from Serampore University and the family of Pastor Thankachan (he, his wife, son and daughter) lived about 60 long days. During night times we were watchful, because we were at the border of Karnataka forest (i.e., a place of wild animals). Everyday early in the morning we the five young missionaries visited the houses in the villages, distributed Biblical literature, conducted Bible studies, and organized Sunday Schools. Some days, we visited Malayan tribal belt areas and shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ even to the tribal chieftains. We were finding difficulty in understanding their ethnic language. But, one local fellow was helping us to interpret our sharing in to their tribal language. Every Sunday morning, a good number of villagers came to the place where we were taking rest. On Sundays, we woke up early in the morning and arranged the mud-hut open for worship service. Mostly the worship services started 10 A.M. and continued until 2 P.M. Still the local people were eager to hear God’s message and enjoyed the spiritual blessings from the presence of God. The 60 days we spent in that remote South Indian village were unforgettable in several respects. That was the first time in  my life I was living in a remote place with the aboriginals of the land. My time with them generated in me a great impulse to develop an Ethnolinguistic and Sociolinguistic theology from the standpoint of the Word of God. So, the theological contributions I am bringing forth are not peripheral in nature, but, ground touching and imminent. I always prefer for a PANTA TA ETHNE Theology, which works ‘here’ and ‘now.’ I visited Channanakkampara in 2004 (i.e., 10 years after my first missionary experience) again. I was really marveled to see a group of about 50 believers of Jesus Christ worshipping in the place were we lived in a mud-hut about 10 years back. Another thing is that, the mud-hut was replaced by a nice worship hall built of bricks and cement. While I was in Delhi in 1998 and visited Bombay in 1999, I could see people from that isolated hilly village to whom we shared Gospel of Jesus in 1994. My first mission trip in the Southern Indian village influenced me lot to develop ethnocentric visions, missionary strategies and theological inputs.

-Rev. Johnson Thomaskutty