Millions of people in India don’t follow Jesus because they’ve simply never heard of Him, especially in the tribal areas. These “unreached” people aren’t just lost—they’ve never had the opportunity to hear the Gospel or to meet a believer, hold a Bible, or attend a worship service. Literally, as the Bible says, “The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great Light, And those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, Upon them a Light dawned.” (Mat. 4:16) The only deliverance for them is ‘the light of the Gospel. It must shine on them.’ Without the light of Gospel, they have very little hope for the future. Romans 10:13-15 says
for “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? But how are they to preach unless they are sent?
In our training Centers (called “Christ Discipleship Centers”) that are in different locations, every year over 600-700 passionate native believers come together from different tribes and locations to be trained, to share the Gospel and establish house churches and prayers groups in their own communities and in their own native languages. It’s 40 days of training, one day a week for 40 weeks. Most of them grow up in their own communities and live in their villages and all know each other. They know the tribal languages, so they can more easily reach their own communities. Over the period of one year of training in both classroom and practical mission training, they will have already reached out to many in their communities. By the end of their training, they will have already led many people to the Lord and started several prayer groups in the unreached villages and among unreached people groups.
Last month during our trip to Bihar, we visited brother Ramesh and his family. He has worked as a missionary for the past 9 years. Ramesh was from one of the tribal areas, and he used to work as a factory worker in Punjab. He and his wife came to one of the house churches for prayer. They had been married for 12 years and had lost 8 children prematurely. Ramesh’s wife was greatly depressed and had attempted suicide three times. Ramesh had been imprisoned for 4 months due to his wife’s repeated suicide attempts.
They came to the house church where they experienced deliverance, and the Lord blessed them with twins – a boy and girl. They dedicated their lives to the Lord and served as house church leaders. During this time, they felt a burden to go back to their own community, known as the Bhoi tribe, The tribe lived in eastern Bihar, with an estimated 0.01% Christians.
Through brother Ramesh and three other brothers they started to reach out to the Bhoi tribe in Bihar. Over the past 6 years our outreach team has helped them strategically reach hundreds of villages focusing on the Bhoi tribe. In the last 9 years brother Ramesh and their teams started over 42 house churches in the Bihar state. Today there are hundreds of believers in this tribe.
During our visit we visited one of our Christ Discipleship Training Centers in a remote tribal area where 32 passionate believers were going through training. As I was teaching the class I asked them which caste of the 12 unreached tribal people groups were represented in that one training center. Some of the tribal caste names, I had never heard of, but later I found them on the “Joshua Project” website, where it mentioned that there was “no known Christian” or they were totally unreached. During my queries, 90% of them told me that they came to know about the Lord while they were away from their village. In their village no one had heard the Gospel, no one came to share, and the students were the only ones who started to share their testimony and how the Lord changed their lives. They also shared that their tribal people are addicted to alcohol and local drugs. As one young woman said, “our people are living in total darkness and of course there have been generations of idol worship and witchcraft. Our people are hoping for healing, deliverance and a good life by praying to idols, offering sacrifices, or meeting with witch doctors. All this costs money and leaves families even more frustrated when nothing seems to turn their situation around. They turn to drugs and fall into depression. The suicide rates in our tribal areas are some of the highest in all India.”
As they were sharing their burden for their own people in tears, we prayed with them as the Holy Spirit inspired my heart to share.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Mt. 5: 14-16)
After prayer and talking with other brothers, we decided to send out 10 teams to ten unreached tribal people groups during the Christmas outreach. In December, more than 107 brothers walked several miles from the nearest road to reach these 10 communities in Bihar. They reported that they were getting a very good response from the tribal people. The light of the Gospel is shining in the darkest part of our nation. Continue to pray for the fruit from the Christmas outreach and the public meetings that were held from December 23rd to 26th.
Help Us Share the Gospel
Hearing testimonies from these unreached tribal areas reminds us of the power of the Gospel we preach, the light of the Gospel that shines and overcomes the darkness. Please consider helping us in this task. Without your prayers and support we would not be able to reap the harvest. To read more inspiring and exciting testimonies of what God is doing among the unreached people groups of India, click the links on the right, and keep reading!
Proclaiming the Gospel…
…until He comes