Story written by Sean Tambagahan, shared with permission.

 

As representatives of The Word Community Church, Pastor J.R. Colman and I had the amazing privilege of visiting India with Mid India Christian Mission.  Our goal was to see the work that God was doing in India through Mid India, and to see if there was a potential partnership with our church.  Our Time with Mid India Christian Mission was definitely an eye opening and life changing experience.

Years ago, before I was a Christian, I visited India while on a business trip.  That was the first time I was awakened to the reality of desperate poverty that most Americans can never relate to.  Even though at that time I could see the obvious physical and sociological needs, it wasn’t until I went back to India with Mid India that I was able to see with my own eyes India’s real spiritual needs.

Prior to our trip, God laid on my heart a burden for global missions.  The Church’s Mission, according to the Bible, is really simple – to make disciples of all nations.  Jesus said “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”  That hasn’t happened yet, so our primary focus as a church ought to be to make sure the gospel is preached where the gospel is not known.  The statistics blew my mind.  There are just over 7 billion people in the world, 1.2 billion of which are in India and 88% of Indians are unreached!  That alone, for us at The Word Community Church, was all we needed to hear to refocus our missions direction towards India.

When we arrived in India, we were warmly welcomed by the Mid India team.  We were extremely impressed with the hospitality and attention to detail that Mid India showed during our entire visit.  Our trip was jam-packed from start to finish.  It had to be this way if we wanted to even see just a fraction of the work that God has allowed Mid India to do.  I couldn’t believe how much influence this ministry has been able to gain in all facets of society, especially in a state that has anti-conversion laws.  From education, to social justice, to trade training, to empowering, to technology and media, to church planting… Mid India has covered massive ground and claimed a substantial amount of territory for the Kingdom of God.  But there is still lots of work to do.  My favorite thing about Mid India is that they acknowledge the primary purpose of everything they do is expanding God’s Kingdom through the Gospel.

After our trip we strategized with Mid India to come up with a plan of how our church can be actively involved in what God is doing through this ministry.  We have since decided to adopt a village by offering hope and a future to under-privileged youth through education.  Our hope and prayer is that we would eventually see a church planted in the village.  Mid India is currently working with our church to create a sustainable global missions strategy which would allow our congregation to be involved with all God is doing in India for years to come.  We are excited to partner with Mid India Christian Mission, and looking forward to all God allows us to do together!

 

Click here to see a short video of Sean’s time in India with Mid India Christian Mission.