ATLANTA (ABP) — For five years, Sam Bandela has worked among hill tribes in the mountainous central region of India. As tsunami relief and personal challenges intervened, Bandela struggled to find trusted local partners, train indigenous church planters and fund development projects in the area.
Now, he is seeing results.
Among three tribal groups — Sora, Jathava and Kui — in the area between the Andhra Pradesh and Orissa states, 50 new churches have been planted. Some were formed in spite of active resistance by other religious groups.
In this region, Hindu militants routinely threaten new converts. In recent years, several foreign missions workers, including an Australian named Graham Stain and his two young sons, Paul and Timothy, have been killed.
“The persecution is causing the church to grow,” Bandela, a field worker for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, said. “In the beginning of 2000, there were so many persecutions in India. As a result, the Christians are growing closer together. Now they are much more serious about their faith. The church in India has not grown much in the last 50 years, but it has grown tremendously in the last two years because of the persecution.”
One particularly effective partner for Bandela has been Narayan Paul, a pastor in the area for more than 35 years. The 78-year-old Paul and his partners have started more than 120 churches after leading more than 12,000 people to Christ. Their methodology is simple and as old as the early church: They simply travel to the remote hill villages building relationships and sharing the gospel.
“There's a good response; there's an openness,” Bandela said. “In March, Brother Paul baptized 80 people and another 70 people in May. The people are responding. He is effective because he is from this state and not an outsider. They are receptive to him.”
In April, more than 3,000 Christians from the hill tribes staged a silent prayer walk as a demonstration against religious persecution. The event solidified the new believers and was not marred by violence.
As Paul and his partners travel, they identify physical needs that Bandela is able to channel CBF resources toward addressing. In some villages, they have built new water systems, saving people a two-mile hike down a mountain at a nearly 45-degree angle to retrieve water.
In addition, Bandela schedules medical clinics in the remote areas, bringing physicians from the United States to treat villagers who have little access to health care.
In some areas, they have helped complete church buildings, which usually begin as four walls with thatched roofs or no roofs at all. So far, Bandela has worked with five churches to build new roofs, and he has five more in progress. The plan is to build a total of 50.
Plus, Bandela has channeled aid and supplies to help more than 400 families after floods hit the area in August 2006.
“Our focus — our end result — is church planting,” Bandela said. “Medical clinics, sewing-center projects, supplying food, flood relief, water projects — they are all means and methods for evangelism. All that we do is helping people come to know the Lord, giving birth to a new church.”
A major concern for Bandela and his partners is building self-sustaining work. Bandela and his wife, Latha, have worked with CBF since 1994. They live in the United States because of the special needs of their youngest son, Paul, but Bandela travels back and forth from Duluth, Ga., several times a year to network, conduct medical clinics, train church-planters, execute building projects and participate in evangelistic meetings.
Often, other American pastors participate by leading training sessions in Hyderabad, India. The program there, established by Bandela with gifts from American churches, is led by indigenous Christian leaders and produces between 10 and 20 church-planters several times a year.
At the program's graduation ceremony, each student receives a Bible and a bike. The newly trained evangelists are then sent out into the remotest areas to be the presence of Christ in word and deed.
“Giving a bicycle to them is like giving a car,” he said. “The roads are cow paths. It's only $50 for a bicycle. When you and I go to eat, we'll spend about $50. For us, it is just a meal and fellowship, but for them, $50 for a new bicycle is a lifetime investment.”
This year, CBF Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal will travel with Bandela to participate in a leadership development seminar for almost 500 pastors, church-planters and evangelists at the center in Hyderabad.
“I'm grateful to God for the good work of Latha and Sam Bandela in India,” said Rob Nash, CBF global missions coordinator. “They represent the very best of CBF's focus upon evangelism, church planting and meeting the needs of the most marginalized of people around the world. I'm also grateful for their work with churches in the United States as they connect congregations to ministry on the other side of the globe.”
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