ATLANTA — For five years, Sam Bandela, one of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's global missions field personnel, has been working patiently among hill tribes in the mountainous central region of India. Even as tsunami relief and personal challenges intervened, Bandela continued 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 mountainous region between the Andhra Pradesh and Orissa states, 50 new churches have been planted as dozens of families have embraced Jesus Christ, some 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 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 has been Narayan Paul, a pastor and evangelist 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 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 Global Missions 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 U.S. to treat the villagers who have little access to health care.
In some areas, they have been helping 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 with five more in progress. The plan is for 50 more.
Plus, Bandela has channeled aid and supplies to help more than 400 families after floods hit the area in August of 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, CBF field personnel since 1994, live in the United States because of the special needs of their youngest son, Paul. Bandela travels back and forth from his home in Duluth, Ga., several times a year for a month or longer at a time to network, develop partnerships, facilitate church groups, conduct medical clinics, train new church planters, execute building projects and participate in evangelistic meetings.
Often, U.S. pastors will participate by teaching in the church planting seminars and training in Hyderabad. The program, established by Bandela with gifts from Fellowship churches, is now completely led by indigenous Christian leaders and produces cohorts of 10 to 20 church planters several times a year.
At the graduation ceremony, each church planter is given a new Bible and a bicycle. 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 300 to 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.”
True to the CBF global missions approach, Bandela does not serve as a paternalistic charity, creating dependency on his handouts. He works with local leaders, empowering and equipping them to build upon the foundation he has laid and start new work in areas he couldn't possibly get to.
“American Christians have a part — prayer, encouragement, giving — but they are not the front runners,” he said. “Times have changed. We need to stand behind our Indian brothers and sisters as they lead the way.”