Meet Lakshmi, a dalit girl, and the story of a Indian church planter

5:18pm Sunday, 17th January 2010

In the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, nine-year-old Lakshmi works in a factory as a cigarette roller. She tells her sister’s story, giving us a glimpse into their world: my sister is ten years old. Every morning at seven she goes to the bonded labour man, and every night at nine she comes home.

He treats her badly; he hits her if he thinks she is working slowly or if she talks to the other children, he yells at her, he comes looking for her if she is sick and cannot go to work. I feel this is very difficult for her. I don’t care about school or playing. I don’t care about any of that. All I want is to bring my sister home from the bonded labour man. For 600 rupees I can bring her home—that is our only chance to get her back. We don’t have 600 rupees . . . we will never have 600 rupees [the equivalent of $16]

Before the second half of the 1980s rolled around, most evangelical Christians in western countries tended to view mission history in terms of only two great waves of activity. The first wave broke over the New Testament world in the first century as the apostles obeyed the Great Commission. It swept through the Jewish and pagan communities of the Roman Empire and even some parts of Asia.

The second wave is most often dated from William Carey’s pioneer work in 18th-century India. It began a flood of 19th and 20th -century missions to the colonies of the great European powers.

But around the world today, the Holy Spirit is breaking over Asian nations, raising up thousands of dedicated men and women who are bringing the salvation story to their own people.

These national Christians—humble, obscure pioneers of the Gospel—are taking up the banner of the cross where colonial-era missions left off. They are the third wave of mission history—the native missionary movement.
Gospel for Asia (GFA) is one of these ministries reaching out to millions of ‘Dalits’ and other backward caste peoples of Asia. An estimated 100 million Dalit (“Untouchable”) children live trapped in a world of extreme poverty in the nation of India. These children are destined from birth for a life of illiteracy, sickness and hunger with little hope of breaking the poverty cycle. The children are viewed as worthy only if they are working or exploited.

The Dalits, also known as the “Untouchables” are the lowest caste of Hinduism.

For 3,000 years, hundreds of millions of India’s Untouchables have suffered oppression, slavery and countless atrocities. They are trapped in a caste system that denies them adequate education, safe drinking water, decent-paying jobs and the right to own land or a home.

Segregated and oppressed, Dalits are frequently the victims of violent crime. And just as the need is great, so is the possibility for Christ’s power and love to be known. In recent years, the door to these possibilities has been flung wide open. Among Dalits and other low-caste groups that face similar repressive treatment, there has been a growing desire for freedom. Leaders representing approximately 700 million of these people have come forth demanding justice and freedom from caste slavery and persecution. The turning point came on November 4, 2001, when tens of thousands of Dalits gathered for one of the most historic meetings of the 21st century, publicly declaring their desire to “quit Hinduism” and follow a faith of their own choosing.

Gospel for Asia (GFA) is involved in evangelism and church planting in the unreached regions of Asia in the 10/40 window and is supporting thousands of native missionaries at the moment. GFA is planting 17 churches and fellowships every day.

The ministry was birthed in 1979 by Br KP Yohannan. GFA has planted thousands of churches throughout Asia, and established 67 Bible colleges.

www.gospelforasia.org.au

Laurie Skilton runs a small independent evangelical church in Perth. But his real impact may be in India.

It was watching a mob of dogs tearing apart the bodies of abandoned children that set Samuel Babu on the path to being a pastor to the Dalit people. He has since sent me a newspaper cutting showing the picture of a dog with a baby in its jaws.

Samuel had just finshed his MBA at Hyderabad University, but seeing the dogs and children made him became a church planter, now with a church of over 700.

In 2004 I visited India for the first time, following up a request from Samuel to see what he was doing for abandoned children.

Entering India as a minister of the Gospel requires a servant attitude. Being a servant to these people means that we had to forget any ideas we had about what we thought might be needed.

That first visit was quite intense, I preached most nights at street gatherings and at homes among the rocks. As Samuel had no wish to be associated with any particular denomination and he had no Bible College training, our presence was an intensive training time for him.

Samuel has since taken his church leaders through the Bethel and Evangelism Explosion course material and calls it his ‘Bible School’. He now has a number of trained Bible students and evangelists and that accounts for the significant growth of his church.

I have provided biblical messages each week and sent them to Samuel for the past six years and this has been the most significant element in his biblical education. He also shares the content of my sermons and my teaching with his leaders. Towards the end of our first visit to Samuel, we were able to put a deposit on a building that became his orphanage. Our small congregation of ‘The Church of the Resurrection’ in Western Australia shared much of the burden of paying off the eight thousand dollars required to complete the purchase.

During our six weeks in Andhra Pradesh in 2008 Sylvia and I visited Pastor Sadhu in Kavali on the coast some ten hours bus journey from Hyderabad. There we were given a tour of the villages where pastors had established churches in the past year or two. The typical pastor in these villages is semi-literate. He has founded his church or churches without funding and without denominational reference. Living by faith is more than lip service for these men and their families.

A travelling prosperity gospel teacher came to that village the previous year with a promise of health and wealth. This was very attractive to coolies who had nothing but hardship and sickness. However, when the message wore thin the pastor left and the congregation sought to return to their independent evangelical village pastor.

We have since been able to obtain the Theological Education by Extension (TEE) course for these pastors, a course that has been used by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and others in Africa and South America. We now fund the training of 40 village pastors with this course.

Café

Meet Lakshmi, a dalit girl, and the story of a Indian church planter

Laurie Skilton runs a small independent evangelical church in Perth. But his real impact may be in India.