More than a year after a catastrophic tsunami opened doors for Virginia Baptists to minister in southern India, ties between Baptists in the Commonwealth and in the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu are burgeoning.
Virginia Baptists are now working closely with Indian Baptists in a variety of evangelistic and social ministries.
“Virginia Baptists' fingerprints are all over south India,” said John Upton after a recent whirlwind tour of the region. “Our presence there is making a difference and Indian Baptists are having an impact on us as well,” said Upton, executive director of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board.
Baptist churches in Kerala and Tamil Nadu are loosely organized as the India Baptist Convention and Baptists in the region support a variety of ministries, including a children's home and seminary.
On their visit last month, Upton and Jerry Jones, team leader for the board's glocal missions and evangelism team, dedicated a new facility for a church whose building was swept away by the tsunami; laid the first brick on a new children's home that will accommodate up to 300 children; distributed school supplies and uniforms to children; provided fishing boats to families that had lost theirs in the tsunami; and led a mission conference for pastors and seminary and university students.
Over the next few weeks, the Herald will feature articles on each of these ministries.