India Ministries:

What: Out of India's population of one billion, 855 million live in rural areas. The overwhelming majority do not have the opportunity to hear the Gospel.

Why: AsiaLink partners are working in 20 villages around Krishna. Seminars are conducted to train Indian nationals for local church work. There are many native evangelists who are serving in the village communities, but they need Bible teaching so that they are equipped to preach the Word.

Children's ministries aim to relieve poverty and hardship among orphans through clothing, food and basic education. Children attend Lydia Primary School which is attached to the church for all the village children. There are around 60 children being educated at the Christian school.

Cost: £20 provides one orphan with food, shelter and school books for one month. £30 helps keep the training school operating each month. £50 provides 25 Bibles in indigenous languages.

Prayer: India has more (and larger) people groups with no Christians, churches or workers than any other part of the world. There are still large numbers of tribal groups that are unevangelised or under-evangelised, among them the Sindhi with only about 300 believers from a 36 million population and the Bhill and the Gond with about 11 million population each but only a handful of believers. Pray for Indian nationals working to reach their own people. They face increased and more organised opposition and often persecution.

India background:

India is the seventh largest country in the world with over one million square miles and is bordered on the north by the Himalayan foothills and by Pakistan, China, Nepal and Bhutan. A middle plains region is formed by three river systems: the Ganges, Indus and Brahmaputra. India is bordered to the east by Bangladesh, Myanmar and the Bay of Bengal, and to the west by the Arabian Sea. The Deccan Plateau is the southern and largest region of India. Sri Lanka is India 's island neighbour to the southeast. While being seventh largest in size, India is second in world population with 984 million inhabitants. It is estimated that by 2050 India will surpass China as the most populous nation with more than 1.5 billion people. Three quarters of Indians live in rural areas.

Fundamental concerns in India include the ongoing dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir , massive overpopulation, environmental degradation, extensive poverty, and ethnic strife, all this despite impressive gains in economic investment and output. With such a young population the government has struggled to provide adequate education, medicine and nutrition for its people. Some improvement has been made in state-run health care, yet many diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, cholera, dysentery and influenza abound. Drinkable water is hard, sometimes impossible, to find in rural areas. And the infant mortality is high: one in ten babies die. Malnutrition is a serious problem given the country's poverty level. It has been estimated that in another 5 to 10 years the growing population, despite India 's family planning programs, could outrun the food supply.

Church/Mission activity

Hinduism claims the largest block of India 's population, with 82%. This may be elevated somewhat as those in the lower castes report the Hindu belief as protection from persecution and harassment. Muslims comprise 12% and Christianity some 2% of the population. There are almost 11 million Protestants in India though rising levels of persecution have come from militant Hindus. Government jobs and funds are withheld from converts and surveillance of Christians is increasing. Nominalism is the biggest problem in the church--in large part this is due to the lack of discipleship training. Some of the best methods of evangelization are Christian radio broadcasts, which reach many with the Word of God. Indian indigenous agencies and workers have been very successful as well. There are now nearly 500 Indian mission and church-based agencies, over half of which are involved in cross-cultural work in and beyond India .

Persecution Index

Every six months, Open Doors World Watch publishes an index which grades countries according to the levels of persecution religious believers, and of Christians especially.

2009 Grading for India: 22nd

India

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Church/Mission activity

Persecution Index

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