Ministry to Orphans (Part 1)

This video clip has been a long time in the works. In God's providence everything came together today, and I was able to finish up the work on it, and upload it.

In this video, my friend Shalem Raju answers two questions.

1.) What is life like for Indian pastor's children?

2.) Why would an Indian pastor's child need special care?



I added a few extra video clips, pictures, and best of all, subtitles for your convenience.



Soli Deo Gloria,



Josh

Obed's Interview

Obed Shares His Heart

[Download Mp3!]

On India's 62nd Independence day (63rd if you count the first year) I interviewed Obed. He is the newest addition to our ministry and hails from Mokokchung, Nagaland.

Mokokchung, Nagaland: Obed's home is just left of the lower-left hand corner

Obed dedicated his life to the Lord in 2001 with a goal to serve the nation of India and particularly the Naga people of India. In his own words he wants to be "a change maker in the ailing society."

He has studied in William Carey's world famous Serampore university and by God's grace, holds a Bachelor's of Divinity.

Obed has committed himself to work with our ministry for the next two years before returning to his native state to serve there. He is currently teaching computer and guitar classes in our school, and leading worship on Sunday night service at our main campus church.



You can download the compete interview by clicking here.

The video interview is also available in High Quality, so please select it if you want it.



List of questions selected for the video edition:

1. What has the Lord done in your life?
2. What are the main dangers facing the church in India from without and within?
3. If you could change any one thing in the Indian church, what would be the one thing you would change?
4. What is the main message pastors are preaching these days?

"Christ Is The Greatest Thing In My Life"

Pastor Rajesh from Chhatisgarh

Download MP3 Of the Complete Interview Here;

Okay, here we go again, its time to resume our interview series. I am really excited about this one. Rajesh has been a friend of mine for the past three and a half years. He is a friendly, easy-going, yet hard working pastor/leader from Chhattisgarh, India. I don't think I can count the number of times we have stayed up into the late hours of the night enjoying pleasant fellowship and discussing the wonders of our savior as we walk together towards the celestial city.

Chhattisgarh, India

Rajesh has been blessed to travel to Europe where he spent some time at theological schools there. Yet, even while he has spent time abroad and in academia, he never lost his desire to share the gospel with the diverse peoples of his home state of Chhattisgarh. For several years he has relentlessly traveled the rough mountains of his state to unreached villages where people still often live naked.

On a few occasions he was mistaken by government soldiers for a guerrilla fighter. There are many groups operating in the mountain regions. The people who live in the plains and cities rarely venture into the mountains, so goverment troops are highly suspicious of any they find out there. Because of that, he has spent a few times in prison for the sake of the name before being vindicated.

To be an even more effective steward of the gospel, Rajesh has opened up a training facility to equip others to do the same work. Rajesh has taken great pains to diversify his ministry. While he has a desire to reach those people in the mountains, he has not forgotten those in the city who are just as eternally lost as those living in the mountains.

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DOWNLOAD THE MP3 OF THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW > HERE <
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In the Youtube Version of the interview Rajesh tackles the following questions*;

*I have supplied a brief summary for each of Rajesh's answers

1.) Q. What has the Lord been doing in your Life?
(What are the greatest lessons you have learned?)
A. Christ has removed my sin

2.) Q.What are the main dangers facing the Indian church from without and within?
(Help us to understand how we can pray for the Indian church and how we can help.)

A. Sound doctrine is sometimes not in the church. Churches are sometimes growing, but sadly not in sound doctrine.

3.) Q. If you could change any one thing in the church, what would it be?

A. Trust in God, not in man. Depend on God, not on man.

4.) Q. What do you think the main thing being preached from the Indian pulpit today is?

A. They don't want to hurt anyone. Therefore they are mainly telling the love and compassion of God.

5.) Q. Do you have any special goals for improvement and growth this year?

A. Leadership programs in the church. Bringing up the local people.

6.) Q. As you visit churches, what signs do you look for that tell you if they are a healthy church or an unhealthy church.

A. The level of preaching, and how the people are concentrating on the word of God. (Singing and emotions not necessarily sings of a healthy church.) If the leader is taken away and the church can't stand anymore, then it's probably not a healthy church.

7.) Q. Is there anything on your heart that you would especially like to share with the church in the West?

A. The church is growing. The Indian church is not mainly in need of dependence on money, but they need the support of prayer, counseling, books, and teaching.

Serving Christ in Orissa

Pastor T.K. Raju

Today I am introducing Pastor T. K. Raju, a Children's evangelist and pastor from Orissa. T.K Raju hold a Bachelors of Arts from a school in Orissa, and a Master of Divinity from ICCS (International College of Cultural Studies, Operation Mobilization)


Serving Christ in the North

While T.K. Raju pastors a small church, he is also working with the I.E.T (Indian Evangelical Team) in children ministry. Each week he visits an average of two churches, training Sunday school teachers with a goal of bringing children into a saving knowledge of Christ. By the grace of God he has trained teachers in all thirty districts of Orissa. This year they held 130 children camps around the region teaching about 15,000 children.

He says his vision is to someday build a home for children and drug addicts.

Brief testimony of persecution

Last year one night as he was sleeping peacefully at his home in Orissa, a mob of around 4000 (many drunk and armed with pistols) stormed into a nearby village and began to destroy Christian property and to search for believers. Raju and many from his village managed to escape into the mountains, but some did not make it and died for their faith.

In the youtube version of the interview TK Raju answers most of the ten previously asked questions. All the questions are treated in the mp3 version.

I trust everyone has benefited from this interview series. It has assisted me personally as I search for answers and pray for understanding. And not only that, but by God's grace the nature of the questions has sparked some serious thinking amongst those who are participating, including those who are behind the scenes.

Click here to Download the Interview Mp3 Audio!

"My Grandfather Was A Headhunter" Part 2

Black and white photographs taken by R.G. Woodthorpe, c.1873-1875 Tangkhul Nagas photographs Tangkhul Woodthorpe/ R.G.(1873-1875). Pitt Rivers Museum Archive, Oxford AL.62.1.4

As promised, here is the complete interview with Professor Shitio in audio format. All the questions are treated here as well as additional impromptu questions which show up sporadically.

MP3 DOWNLOAD

Click this link to download the mp3.

"My Grandfather Was A Headhunter"

Professor Nchumbemo Shitio

As crazy as it seems, I have already arrived at my second Sunday in India since leaving the States. That said, I am going to use today's post to return to our Indian leader/pastor interview series. Today I am introducing professor Nchumbemo Shitio, a seminary lecturer from Nagaland. He is quick to point out that his name is difficult to pronounce, and so he simply goes by Shitio.

He has a special burden to return to his state and strengthen his people in the Lord by preaching, conducting seminars, and raising up Christian schools. His native state of Nagaland is home to an hard working people who seriously took up the evangelism of their own tribes. While the Nagas previously consisted of several tribes of fierce headhunters, including Shitio's grandfather, today by God's grace at least 95% of the people in the state claim Christianity as their religion.

However with Christian apathy, humanist philosophy and secularism on the rise in Nagaland, Shitio often stresses, "I feel like a Jonah running from where God wants me." "I should clean my own house before attempting to clean my neighbor's." His humble plea to the West is to remember the too often overlooked Christian states in their prayers and support.

The original interview was 35+ minutes, and it was painful to trim it down to fit Youtube's ten minute time constraint. So sadly, for brevity's sake I left out some important points. I will be posting them in either video or audio form (maybe both) in the near future.

Questions treated in this condensed version of the interview;

1.) Tell us about yourself, how you came into the ministry, and what you are doing now.

2.) What are the greatest lessons God has taught you in the last year?

3.) What is the main motive for your ministry?

4.) Is there anything on your heart that you like to share with the church in the West?



The full list of questions asked in the original interview:

1.) What has the Lord done in your life?

2.) What are the greatest lessons you have learned?

3.) How have you observed Christ building his church in India?

4.) What is your greatest motivation for ministry?

5.) What is your vision for ministry?

6.) What are the main dangers facing the Indian church from without and within?

7.) How does an Indian evangelist reach his people with the gospel?

8.) Can you give me an example of a typical gospel proclamation in a village, street corner or city?

9.) What are you reading these days and have you learned anything important for your life?

10.) Do you have any special goals for growth this year?

11.) Is there anything on your heart that you would especially like to share with the church in the West?

Tochimong's Testimony

Every now and then I will post some videos featuring interaction with Indian pastors and leaders. Some will be from local areas, others will be from different states. In particular, I am planning a series of interviews that may shed more light on the current state of Christianity in India.

Today I am posting a five minute clip featuring selections from yesterday's interview which I held with a young pastor from Nagaland, India who is just setting out on the mission field.

For the sake of brevity I have condensed this interview down to three questions out of the original ten.

Questions treated essentially consist of;

1.) What has the Lord done in your life?

2.) What are some important lessons you have learned?

3.) Is there anything on your heart that you would especially like to share with the church in the West?

To assist some or most of you who may perchance have difficulty understanding his accent, I am posting the transcript of the interview below.



[Joshua]
Okay, so I am here with Tochimong who has just completed his bachelors of theology. And he is originally from Nagaland - born and raised in Nagaland. And ah - why don't you just start by telling us a little bit about yourself - where you were born, what kind of environment it was, and how God brought you into the ministry - Just a short five minutes or less summary.

[Tochimong]

Okay, let me tell something about my life, how I came to study theology.

I was born in a Christian family. Even though I was born in a Christian family, most of the time I used to go to church and I used to lead the children and the young people, I never committed fully my life to God. Because when I was studying at high school I did not learn fully about Jesus. At one time I thought to study theology, but because of some financial problem I could not study theology. But one time God called me and showed me in my vision to go and tell whatever he speaks to me. Then I committed fully my life to Jesus.

One time I got sickness. At that time I was praying for healing but at that time I did not commit my life fully to Jesus so He didn't heal me. I was praying... but at last I committed my life fully to Jesus. And after three days I took fasting and then God healed my sickness completely. And then I committed my life fully to Jesus and I started to study theology.
. . .

[Joshua]
Are there any particular lessons in your life which God has taught you, that are important to you?
. . .

[Tochimong]
Yeah. Even though I was born in a Christian family I never did good things for the Lord, though God has done great things through my life. Many times God saved me from the grave.

. . .

And once, the great thing in my life. One vehicle came and hit my body recently. But a very amazing thing happened to me, even though the big vehicle came and hit on my back I did not feel pain on that day and the vehicle owner came and asked me what happened. Then I told the vehicle owner, because I didn't feel anything even though with a broken kidney. So I told that vehicle owner, 'no problem, you don't worry, but you drive carefully, if you hit another person, he will die.'

On that day when the vehicle came and hit me, the sound also came. "Thud" But it never hurt - my life. So God has done great things in my life. Even though I don't have a mother and father, I lack nothing. Every time whatever I need, God provides everything.

[Joshua]

So the final question and this is the one that is probably the most important question and - the least amount of pressure. Is there anything on your heart that you would especially like to share with the church in the West? Anything that is just burning on your heart that you think would be of service to Christians around the world? From your life - from your knowledge of God - anything?

[Tochimong]

Yeah, anytime I am thinking about the Westerner's life, even though I never visited their village - place. I have seen on the television how the Western lifestyle is. Even my people also, they used to imitate how the Westerners are using the phones and speaking. And most of the people they used to imitate the style of speaking, so I want to encourage the Western people to improve their spiritual life and how they are growing their spiritual life. And I want them to come and share their spiritual life.

[Joshua]

Excellent. Well thank you Tochimong for sharing with us. And may God bless you in ministry.