An Incredible Work & Partnership In South Asia
An update from Pastor Greg & Pastor Dave (names concealed for security reasons), on an incredible work and partnership forming in South Asia…
From December 5-12, 2024, Pastor Dave and I had the privilege and pleasure of visiting our Sovereign Grace ministry partners in a country in South Asia. Our purpose was to observe and evaluate first-hand (and for the first time) the status of the churches in that country that have requested an official relationship with Sovereign Grace Churches.
We were able to visit eight different churches over the course of seven days. We enjoyed a special gathering of all 21 pastors and wives (along with their children). Both Dave and I had the opportunity to preach, teach, exhort and speak at least 7 times. We conducted a baptism for 15 professing believers. We experienced the hospitality of four of our six candidates for ordination, while enjoying meals with their families in their homes.
The 21 men provide pastoral leadership to approximately 200 churches. They are well organized, and have formed a cohort that gathers monthly for prayer, planning, and mutual care.
These pastors are diligent with a remarkable work ethic. They each go two by two, from meeting to meeting, preaching in two churches (at least) every night of the week, except Saturday. They’ve been carrying on this pace for years.
The social, religious and economic context for their ministry is stark and dangerous. Brickmaking dominates the economic fabric of the three districts where our ministry partners live and serve. The brickmaking industry is a systemically corrupt, enslaving, and evil institution. There are impossible quotas to reach. Though housing is provided for those employed, there is no electricity, plumbing, heating, or secure enclosures. Nearly everyone is sick from the toxic smoke produced by brick kilns. Women are abused. Infant mortality is high. People are trapped and impoverished for life. Since the days of Moses and Pharoah, little has changed. Nevertheless, this is the primary context where our men have planted dozens and dozens of churches.
The region of the country where our men serve is also an enclave of Muslim extremism. The Imams teach regularly that the way to a better eternal paradise is to “do away with the infidel.” Many of our partner pastors have had people in their churches killed simply for following Jesus. One of them had his church (built adjacent to his home) burned to the ground just this past October. His wife and children, at home at the time, had to flee. And while the local police dispersed those who destroyed his church building, our pastor was threatened that if he put back “one stick” to the church structure, the Muslims would come back and burn it down again, along with his home, with him and his family in it. He HAS, however, resumed meeting with his church in his home.
With remarkable courage, joy, humility, and enduring grace, our ministry partners in this Islamic nation in South Asia are a profound and compelling witness to the truth that the “light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5)
