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SGM Lifewords — Freely sharing the Bible’s life words since 1888
House by House Planting churches in rural India
Issue 1 2017
The Rickshaw Evangelists Sharing the gospel on the streets of Bangalore
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Contents
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House by House Planting churches in rural India
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News The latest news from the SGM Lifewords global family
10 The Rickshaw Evangelists Sharing the gospel on the streets of Bangalore
12 Indian Blossoms Transforming lives through Pavement Project
14 5 Stories About RISE Bible Clubs in 2016 Interact Issue 66 /1 - 2017 Editorial team: Jess Bee Danielle Welch Steve Bassett Photographs: SGM Lifewords Design: S2 Design & Advertising Ltd Print: Yeomans Creative Interact is published in the UK by SGM Lifewords Ltd, CN. 05908817 Registered office: 1A The Chandlery 50 Westminster Bridge Road London SE1 7QY Interact is free, available three times a year from your nearest member of the SGM Lifewords global family of organisations (see page 14)
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Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
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Hebrews 10:23-24
Danielle Welch Executive Director SGM Lifewords
Welcome to a special edition of Interact – where we’re celebrating the work and witness of the gospel in India. We’ve given over most of the magazine to stories from India. Stories of hope, perseverance, and transformation – as life words are shared. SGM Lifewords UK has been sharing “stories from India” throughout the last months of 2016 – and here we are beginning 2017 with the same call to prayer. Why? Because all across India, we are met by requests for prayer from pastors, evangelists, and Christian organisations. The call from Hebrews 10 to persevere in to sharing the gospel, and for many Christians the threat of persecution is very real. So I hope this issue of Interact will inspire you to pray. You’ll read about the work of church planters, Suresh, Richard, and Priya in our main feature. And on pages 12–13, SGM Lifewords India Director Serah Thomas shares our vision for a great expansion of Pavement Project work in 2017–18. We will need your help, money, and prayer to meet the opportunity that two major new partnerships offer – but we’re so excited about the chance to make a much greater impact in the lives of Indian children, who need to know God’s love in a rough world. Thank you as always for your partnership and prayer.
Welcome
faith is highly relevant. We hear increasing reports of opposition
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House by House
Danielle Welch reports on the rural church-planters who are risking persecution as they take the gospel house-by-house across India. Read how you can help pray and equip these evangelists to share good news.
Danielle Welch
Pastor Suresh
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Pastor Suresh is showing me around one of his 23 churches. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re standing on top of a hill, sheltering from the wind, behind a small Hindu temple. This open piece of land is where Suresh and his assistant first started
inviting people to meet with them and hear about Jesus. The local community consists of a series of small two-room houses, stepping down the steep hillside to the main road below. We passed some shops and market stalls a few miles back, but up here on the hillside there is nothing but a few families and views of countryside as far as I can see. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re invited into one home to meet some of the families here who have become Christians, and are eager to learn about Jesus. As we drink chai, more women and children arrive, and I think what an unlikely gathering we are â&#x20AC;&#x201C; drawn from such different cultures (as true for my Indian colleagues as for me) by the story of Jesus.
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Suresh is a church-planter and evangelist with a heart full of vision for reaching communities across Karnataka (one of India’s southern states) who have never heard of Jesus. He and his team try to get to know people in the local villages, where the population is a mix of Muslim and Hindu. Talking about this community Suresh says, “The first time I came here I saw this temple. I had a vision, a challenge, to come and share the gospel here. After much prayer I came to visit individual houses, sharing Bible portions. So I made one friend – and after that it multiplied. And now we have nearly 40 people here. We have a church – a small house church.” “Making friends” is not easy – and Suresh says they are often chased out of villages when they talk about Jesus. He’s been beaten up many times, and threatened with arrest. Two days after we meet, Suresh goes to help an assistant who has been seized by police. Both of them are held in a police cell for several days before someone secures their release. “Still, people are brave about evangelism,” Suresh reports. “They have accepted Jesus as their Saviour and they are brave enough. We see many miracles here.”
asking what they need for their work, and where the resourcegaps are. The message is always – whatever else you do, please pray. Suresh asks: “I request you all to pray for Indian pastors who are being persecuted a lot. I work with 22 pastors in Karnataka and other states – and most of them have been persecuted. Please pray for us, and for our vision – let the vision come true, that we will reach each and every home in this state with the Word of God.” FROM SOUTH TO NORTH The message is the same when we meet Pastor Richard and his wife Priya in Rajasthan. They moved to this, one of India’s most northern states, in 2010 – and now lead a small team of pastors and church planters. Richard explains, “It’s been very hard. When I was at Bible college, we were clear that we wanted to be somewhere where there is much need for the gospel. Rajasthan is geographically a dry place – a desert. And spiritually I would also call it a ‘dry land’. North India has been hard ground for the gospel right from the beginning. We have had many
“The first time I came here I saw this temple. I had a vision, a challenge, to come and share the gospel here”
The village temple
Children at Pastor Richard’s church
ONE AT A TIME In a context where Christian witness is under increasing pressure, and sharing the gospel brings with it a real threat of persecution; there are whole networks of pastors like Suresh, sharing the gospel house-byhouse and village-by-village across India’s vast rural landscape. SGM Lifewords has been meeting with pastors, 5
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missionaries from the south of India, and from all over the world, but still we haven’t seen a big result here. North India is the place (in our nation) the gospel seems to have least reached.”
“Christian witness is under increasing pressure, and sharing the gospel brings with it a real threat of persecution”
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UNDER THREAT And here, perhaps even more than in the south, persecution is a daily and a dangerous reality. Richard talks of fellow pastors who have been attacked, two even left for dead – their families also attacked, churches broken into or burnt, and services disrupted. Claiming the name of Jesus here takes courage, and great faith. “Rajasthan is the least-reached place – Haryana next. In Haryana you cannot distribute Bible booklets in some places, you can’t share and pray for a person in the street. We cannot use the name of Jesus openly because there are restrictions by the law. We cannot put up a cross or use the word 'church' – when we are trying to build a church we have to call it a ‘prayer house’ or something else, or we will not get permission.”
Public rhetoric boasts that Christianity will be wiped out in these northern states by 2020, stoking up fear, hate and opposition in local communities. Richard says Christians have to look to their own conduct too. “We have to be people of good testimony. There are reports of ministries exaggerating conversions and numbers, for funds; or attacking and condemning other people’s beliefs in a way that only stirs up more hatred.” As Priya explains, “When we carry the name of Jesus, we are looked on as a ‘religion from the outside nations’ – there are so many barriers to overcome.” Richard points out that for every person that a pastor shares the gospel with, “there are ten people back at home to discourage them. And to turn the good news into bad news in their lives.” CHALLENGES TO GOOD NEWS Priya knows this experience first-hand. She became a Christian at the age of 20: “Immediately my whole family, my entire community, the whole society around me came against me. I kept telling them, ‘I cannot leave Christ’. For months I was kept in house arrest, under guard. There came a day when my father told me if I have to follow that faith, then I have to walk out of that house. So I left my house in 2004, and since then I have been following and serving Jesus.” Priya now works with women and children in the local area. She considers the culture about women and children one of the biggest barriers for Christian workers to overcome, if people are to experience the good news
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of the gospel. “In many communities, women are looked down upon, considered lesser to men; the girl-child especially is a burden.” This view of women opens up space for all kinds of violence, abuse and neglect towards women and girls. Even in the absence of outright abuse, many girls have very low selfesteem, and consider themselves of little value. AN OPPORTUNITY FOR LOVE In a culture dominated by strong religious, political, and societal divides – perhaps epitomised in the caste system – here then is a great opportunity for love, and therefore for the gospel. Richard explains: “Here in north India, I would say the culture is generally very rigid. We don’t hear much about love – it is absent in most religion, in the caste system, in many homes. People are hurting because they are growing up in a harsh world. So when we talk about God as a father of love, giver of good gifts, this is a great thing for people to hear. It is something they have never heard or understood before – that God is love.” VILLAGE-BY-VILLAGE And just as with Pastor Suresh in Karnataka, Richard says the church is growing village-byvillage, house-by-house. “There is lots of work to be done. There are villages and tribal areas where name of Jesus has never been spoken or heard. But we have also seen lots of doors opened to the gospel in villages, and in tribal areas. North India is definitely a place that needs God to move – and I believe this is the time.”
HOW YOU CAN HELP SGM Lifewords is committed to resourcing workers like Suresh, Richard, and Priya in their ministry, providing suitable booklets and other tools wherever we can – so that evangelists have support as they share the gospel, and young Christians have ways in to the Bible, as they grow in faith. In 2017 and 2018 we’ll be working with pastors to identify good resources, and to make sure we have simple booklets and story-telling tools available in key languages. You and your church can get involved by praying, and by giving to SGM Lifewords work in India. Make a gift, get prayer cards, more info, and your own "Curry Night pack" via our UK website at www.sgmlifewords.com/ storiesfromindia.
PRAY WITH US n
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Give thanks for Suresh, Richard, Priya and others like them. Praise God for their commitment to reaching people who don't know Jesus. Pray for the pastors who are persecuted. Ask for God's protection and comfort as they meet opposition and barriers to the gospel. Pray for those who hear the good news and decide to follow Jesus. Pray that their faith would be accepted by their families and that in turn loved ones would respond to the gospel.
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World News
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Turning to Christ
Transformation on the streets In Medellin, Columbia, Carmen Andrade and a group of volunteers from different churches take sandwiches, juices and SGM Lifewords publications to people living on the streets. Six times a week they bring food to the body and soul of children, youth and adults across the city. Medellin is a city known for violence and drug trafficking. In many cases, being homeless is caused by addictions that take hold of people’s lives. Carlos Andres was one such person but his life was transformed by the ministry of Carmen and the team. Cleisse Andrade, SGM Lifewords Latin America, explains: “Every week for five years we found Carlos on the Medellin streets. Then one day we met him and he was very happy. He said that each leaflet and booklet he’d read touched his heart when he was sleeping at night on a driveway, cold and drugged. He had collected SGM Lifewords booklets and kept them carefully. He remembered us saying that God loved him and could change his life, and that God could hear him. He said he started to pray for a new opportunity. He is now living with his family and he has a job. Carlos no longer uses drugs and is attending a church.”
In Mombasa, Kenya, Pastor Rahim* has been using Inspiring Prayer, A Beautiful Life, How’s Life? and Who Cares About Me? in his outreach, and people have been becoming Christians. “We gave out Who Cares About Me? on the first day of our outreach,” said Pastor Rahim, “and many people came requesting to get born again and to know God more.” Two people shared their stories: “I was a Muslim for 25 years,” says one. “I used to attend mosque with Rahim … I learnt from friends that he’d become a Christian. I called him and we met. He gave me two booklets Who Cares About Me? and How’s Life? I was struggling with hopelessness, emptiness and disillusionment in life. I felt life had no meaning and purpose. … I read these two books and we talked at length about Jesus Christ. I felt the need to seek forgiveness in Jesus and surrender my life to him.” Another said: “I have been a Muslim for 28 years. All those years, I felt like a slave. … I felt there were chains all over me and I desired to break them and be free but I did not know how. I was handed a small booklet, How’s Life? After reading it, I asked Rahim lots of questions and a week later, I yielded to Jesus.” Reading SGM Lifewords booklets
*Name has been changed.
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A special gift Last Christmas Angel Tree, part of Prison Fellowship, sent gifts and SGM Lifewords booklets to children whose parents are in prison. There are around 200,000 children in England and Wales with a parent in prison – 7% (around 1 in 15) children will experience their father’s imprisonment before they leave school. Angel Tree is a very simple way to help prisoners keep in contact with their families and has been shown to reduce re-offending.* At Christmas, Angel Tree works with prisoners to help them send a present to their children. No mention of the prison or Angel Tree is made, just a simple gift with a message written by their parent. Inmates are given the option of including a Christian booklet with the present they send. Val who runs Angel Tree in her local prison ordered copies of Journey Out of Darkness, Meet the Cast, The Christmas Story and You Matter to include with gifts that she helped send out. “When I send Christmas cards to the men telling them what gifts are being sent I include a booklet for them too,” says Val. “The World War One Gospels, and Journey Out of Darkness have been ideal.” * Information and statistics taken from www.prisonfellowship.org.uk
Hope for the future Fields of Hope is a prison ministry which has been using SGM Lifewords resources in its work with inmates in Argentina since 2002. The ministry aims to serve and help rehabilitate prisoners through bakery courses, a carpentry shop, and working in an orchard and a health course; with a view to equipping the men to find jobs and security once they’re released. Alongside training the inmates in practical skills, Fields of Hope shares Way to Life, Finding
Hope, An Invitation and Words for the Journey in Spanish. “The inmates are very thankful,” says Luis Becedillas from Fields of Hope. “They like the booklets very much. They read and share them with other prisoners and their families. One prisoner read the booklets and became interested in reading the Bible and became a believer, and then shared his faith with his family.” Inmates take part in baking workshops
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The Rickshaw Evangelists On the streets of one of India’s largest cities people are being reached with God’s Word. Jess Bee reports on an unusual one-to-one ministry.
Jess Bee
“God saved me and I believe he has burdened me to share this good news”
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“When they hear these words, they get a joy that is beyond the worldly joy. Some come into the auto with anger and a lot of tension. But the booklets help them to ease their minds.” Christy, auto driver, Bangalore On the bustling, noisy streets of Bangalore auto rickshaws transport people around the city. From shoppers to tourists, school children to business people, thousands use these small vehicles every year. Drivers from the Christian Auto Drivers Ministry, Bangalore carry SGM Lifewords booklets in their auto ricks to offer to the people they meet. As they journey around the city picking up and dropping off passengers this team of thirty offer a listening ear, pastoral support and a chance to read about God’s love.
THE WORD ON THE STREET At the beginning of each day the drivers meet together to worship and pray then set off in their auto ricks which are emblazoned with Bible verses and encouraging phrases. Our friends at World Cassette Outreach of India (WCOI) have provided the drivers with audio Bibles so the drivers even listen to the Bible as they travel around the city. Christy, one of the leaders, talks about the impact God and Bible has had on his work and way of life: “While driving the auto I faced lots of issues personally. I got saved and told God that I wanted to serve him. God opened a door. I first got in touch with SGM Lifewords 12 years ago. They give me booklets and I share them with people in auto ricks … God saved me and I believe he has burdened me to share this good news.”
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ANYONE AND EVERYONE The range of resources that SGM Lifewords offers is perfect for Christy’s ministry: anyone and everyone can be a passenger and there is often a booklet that meets their needs or stage of life. “Many young people come and take the booklets … they are happy that there are titles available for their age group,” says Christy. “Others, who come with concerns and worries, are able to read booklets that suit their needs. Some others who come with sickness are happy to read verses about God’s healing.” Christy and the team’s simple one-to-one ministry has life-changing impact. One woman read God’s Word and talked to Christy about his faith: “She told me she wants to seek Jesus and accept him as Saviour,” says Christy. “Some are on their way to hospital or to court cases,” Christy continues. “They get into the auto rick tense but walk out peaceful and joyful.” He tells the story of a man who wanted to divorce his wife. He read Living Together in Christy’s auto rick
and he and his wife forgave each other and continued in their marriage. As the auto ricks zip in and out of traffic, picking up and dropping off, people are discovering God’s love, hope and peace as they go about their daily business. Through these little vehicles and a dedicated team of drivers, God is touching the lives of many people.
PRAY WITH US n Give thanks for Christy
"Anyone and everyone can be a passenger and there is often a booklet that meets their needs or stage of life"
and the team of drivers, for their dedication and commitment. Pray that God would continue to bless their ministry and keep them safe as they travel. n Pray for the people who travel in the auto ricks – pray that they would find peace, hope and comfort as they talk to the drivers and read the Bible. n Give thanks for the versatility and availability of SGM Lifewords resources – pray that they would continue to be used to speak God’s message of truth and love into people’s lives all over the world. 11
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Indian Blossoms Pavement Project is changing the lives of children and young people in Hyderabad. SGM Lifewords India has a vision that many more children will hear good news, through Pavement Project. Serah Thomas reports.
Serah Thomas
“Despite these obstacles, the good news is that there is hope”
See more of Christina and Shiva’s story at www.youtube.com/lifewords. 12
“I hated my life. Other people’s lives seemed so much better than mine. I thought – they’re happy and I’m not.” That was Shiva’s story six years ago, when Christina – a social worker in Hyderabad – first counselled him using the Pavement Project green bag. Christina had noticed his stress and anger. Shiva’s father had died, and his mum worked as a housemaid. He felt badly treated by her, as she took her own frustrations out on him. Like many children before him, he found himself able to "talk to the bag". He remembers that as he listened to stories about Jesus, his own narrative began to change: “I realised that no matter what my situation is, I’m precious to God. It made me feel happy knowing that God loves me and values me, and that he thinks I’m special. I wanted to follow Jesus after that.”
We filmed Shiva’s story a few years ago. Fast forward to 2016 and – as we meet him again – his life has changed remarkably. From a boy who felt neglected and abused, Shiva has blossomed into a young man who is passing on his own experience of transformation to others. He trained to use Pavement Project himself, and now he counsels children in a local hostel – many of them orphaned by HIV/AIDS. WHERE FLOWERS GROW Every Pavement Project green bag is decorated with a small icon of a flower, growing between two paving stones. It’s an image that speaks strongly to Christina: “There is so much negativity, rejection, and hate around us,” she says, “less opportunity for children to grow. But despite these obstacles, the good news is that there is hope.
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In the roughness of life, in the trauma and the tragedy, I have seen children like Shiva blossom to become great and strong – because of the good news of the gospel.” The “roughness of life” that Christina witnesses day-by-day, as she works in a slum community in Hyderabad, is not just anecdotal. Research suggests there are anywhere between 400,000 and 800,000 children living on the streets here in India. 80,000 children join that number every year, many of them sleeping on railway platforms. The Ministry of Women and Child Development’s own study suggests 50% of children experience physical abuse. The same study reports that 53% of Indian children have been victims of sexual abuse (more than half from people they know, or in their homes). 126 million children work as “child labourers”; an estimated 300,000 children are exploited in prostitution. THE MISSION OF CHRIST Pranitha Timothy is a social worker and justice advocate, working with one of our Pavement Project partners in Chennai. She reflects: “When I began working I realised, every problem comes down to affecting the child. Because they are the ones who are voiceless. You can take any situation – work with prisoners, trafficking, forced labour – the children are affected the most. It’s been the same over twenty years, right from the beginning until now. In fact, maybe it’s worsened now. Poverty has really deepened, and children are the ones who are most affected.”
Pranitha is clear about what needs to happen for children and communities in India: “I believe the church is the only answer. If the church takes its proper place in the community, we wouldn’t need NGOs … If the church was there to do what it was called to do – to bind up the broken-hearted, to feed the hungry, to rescue, to bring out from the dungeon those in darkness … That was the mission of Christ when he came to earth – and our society is in need of that healing.” RESPONDING THROUGH THE GREEN BAG Together with some partner agencies, SGM Lifewords India is planning a significant expansion of our Pavement Project work in 2017–18. Our goal is to reach an extra 75,000 children every year – through two large training partnerships, across 13 Indian states. We believe the story of Jesus can transform children’s lives, and that Pavement Project can be a tool for the church as we seek to imitate Christ – echoing Pranitha’s challenge. Please visit www.sgmlifewords.com to find out how you can help today.
“I have seen children like Shiva blossom and grow”
PRAY WITH US n
Give thanks for the ongoing work on Pavement Project in India. Praise God for people like Shiva who have been transformed by God and who now want to help others. n Pray for Christina and Pranitha, and others who work with children. Pray too for the local church – ask God to use his people to bring hope and change. n Please pray for the expansion of Pavement Project in India. Ask God to provide the funds and the people needed to help more and more children-at-risk.
Pranitha Timothy
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… stories about RISE Bible Clubs in 2016 JANUARY In the heart of the Majengo slums in Nairobi many young people are being forced into prostitution due to the poverty they’re subjected to. We introduced RISE Bible Clubs and our resources to over 1,600 students so that they can find peace, hope and empowerment in the Bible’s life words.
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APRIL This month 5,000 people representing high schools in Kenya gathered together for their annual schools’ conference – and we were there to tell delegates about RISE Bible Clubs. During the first four months of this year, 4,090 students in 179 Bible Clubs had been reached with the gospel.
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JUNE We shared A Beautiful Life with 450 students at Parklands Arya Girls High School. After reading the booklet and discussing it with their friends 17 young women decided to follow Jesus.
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JULY During a weekend event at Itabua Mixed Secondary School Life’s Not Fair was shared. The weekend focused on evangelising and inspiring more than 400 students. Also this month, a RISE Bible Club follow-up took place at State House Girls school – our resources were shared with over 800 students.
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SEPTEMBER A student who is part of a RISE Bible club at Uhuru Primary School told us: “I was a hostile person but now I am quite social and trying to make peace with others.” Through effective engagement, hearts are being inspired.
CONTACT US Have you got a story to share of the Bible’s life words at work? Get in touch with the SGM Lifewords global family. Find us on the web at www.sgmlifewords.com, or contact your local office. Australia: +61 437 705 947
Canada: +1 683 6482
Indonesia: +62 816 714 983
Poland:
australia@sgmlifewords.com
info@sgmcanada.ca
indonesia@sgmlifewords.com
europe@sgmlifewords.com
Brazil:
Kenya: +254 20 2730100
India: +91-80-2529 6587
UK (International office):
projectoc@sgmlifewords.com
kenya@sgmlifewords.com
india@sgmlifewords.com
+44 (0)20 7730 2155 uk@sgmlifewords.com
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RESOURCES IN ACTION
A closer look at our Bible resources and how they make a difference
“More and more I feel social media
SGM Lifewords’ online resource for young people has grown rapidly since its launch in 2014. With over 18,000 followers, its mix of striking images and creatively presented Bible verses has got young people connecting and sharing God’s Word online.
bringing out the worst in people and it’s always so uplifting to scroll down and see VerseFirst’s posts set against such a potentially selfish platform. The verses you pick constantly inspire me.” – Lexi
Following the success on Instagram and Facebook, 2016 saw the launch of the new website. The site has allowed VerseFirst to reach its audience in new ways, largely thanks to its blog which sees guest writers contribute their thoughts on verses and current issues. LITTLE BOOK OF CHAOS
“Love your feed – the posts are beautiful and are a great thing to wake up to.” – Helen
This year VerseFirst will release its first booklet – Little Book of Chaos – focusing on issues surrounding mental health, depression and the hard times that we can face in life. Featuring the usual Little Book style of verses, it will also include an invitation to explore these themes in an online space on the VerseFirst website, including further reading into Bible stories, practices of mindfulness and prayer, and links
Check out the blog at www.versefirst.com
to charities and organisations that will point
Contact the VerseFirst team at hello@versefirst.com
young people to those equipped to help them.
@VerseFirst
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Read and share the events of Good Friday through the 14 stations of the cross. Told through words from the Bible and beautiful new paintings by artist Jenny Hawke, One Friday is a powerful way to share the Easter story.
Visit www.sgmlifewords.com to order the One Friday booklet. Available for free â&#x20AC;&#x201C; helping you share the Bible wherever you are.