Recently a band of Baptist pastors and laity from South Carolina introduced themselves to national pastors and other Christian workers in Delhi, India, on a “discovery” visit to that nation’s capital city, which is home to 30 million people.
SCBC executive director-treasurer Jim Austin, standing at left, accompanied this discovery group to India recently.The introductions were preliminary to finding “partners” with whom South Carolina Baptists could work on future projects in Delhi.
Leading the South Carolina group was Jim Austin, executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, who said he was “encouraged with the number of churches who have agreed to participate in such a significant city in South Asia.”
“I pray,” he told the Courier, “that more will seek the Lord regarding their participation in the unreached, but accessible, people groups who are in the city.”
Tim Rice, interim director of the missions mobilization group of the SCBC, told the Courier, “There are more unreached, unengaged people groups in India than in any other country.
“By linking up with national pastors and church planters in Delhi, our churches will have an incredible opportunity to reach the unengaged people groups there,” he added.
Names of the South Carolina participants in the “discovery” trip are not given for security purposes, according to IMB policy, but one told the Courier, “I have so many thoughts about our trip, it’s hard to put into words. The trip has changed me. The people of India are on my mind every day. When praying, I now can visualize who I pray for, and for some of their daily needs – and, more importantly, for their salvation.”
Another termed the trip a “truly incredible experience, and one which has changed who I am as a person, pastor and follower of Jesus.”
He continued, “I feel the most important truth the Lord impressed upon my heart was to see people as he sees people. I learned that as different as the culture was, and as diverse as the people were, that God is the God of that city. He loves those people with an unfailing love and desires for all of them to come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior.
“He taught me,” this pastor continued, “that every person has a name and a story and has value to the Lord. The time I spent in Delhi, although short, has set off a ripple effect in my life on how to handle the Lord’s calling on my life to follow after him.”
For another, it was “quite an experience” because she had never traveled outside the country before. “I learned so much about the people of India and their culture – and I also learned a lot about myself.”
She told of going to a house church for worship and found that “everyone there was glad to have us with them,” adding, “I gave my testimony and all the women shook my hand and spoke to me, even though I could not understand everything they said. One woman took my hands and put them on her head for me to pray for her.”
She told of prayerwalking in an area where girls and women are enslaved in the human trafficking sex trade and “prayed for God’s light to penetrate the darkness.”
Another recalled the feelings of being in a minority, “but people everywhere are part of God’s creation and in need of salvation.” During a prayerwalk with a national pastor, he “began to pray that God would soften some hearts,” and afterward he witnessed to several young men who accepted Christ as Savior.
The recent “discovery” visit to Delhi was the first of three projects set for that city in 2012. A second “discovery” trip is scheduled Sept. 13-21. Participants will learn strategies for reaching the city, teaching in house churches, and meeting church planters and national pastors.
Four to six volunteers are needed for a “sharing and distribution” project in Delhi Oct. 17-28. The purpose will be to share the love of Jesus with Muslims during a sacrifice festival in which animals are offered up in memory of Abraham.
Volunteers for the October project must be college age or older, experienced in sharing the gospel and their personal testimony in boldness and love as empowered by the Holy Spirit.
The trio of Delhi trips are a part of a five-year endeavor under the banner of “South Carolina Baptists: A Witness to the World.”
This effort began in 2010 with 10 “kingdom connections” to involve South Carolina Baptist churches. Three of these are in South Carolina, three in other parts of North America, and four international partnerships.
As for the international projects, Rice told the Courier, “If every project we organized through the IMB required that their personnel plan, transport and arrange all the logistics, we would be limited in the number of projects we could carry out in a year. By taking our pastors and laity to the international sites so that they can begin to form their own partnerships with national pastors and other Christian leaders, we can multiply the impact we have overseas.”
Information on the partnership is available at www.scbaptist.org/missions.