Mission Reports
Village Ministry in Naxalbari, West Bengal
On Monday, 4th September, I traveled from Kolkata to Siliguri, and then to the home of Ps. Sagar Kumar Nag near Naxalbari. Ps. Sagar lives in the village of Mir Jangla. Mir Jangla is a majority Christian village. It was a novel experience walking around an Indian village being greeted by almost everyone saying “Praise the Lord” and “Jai Masih.” Although many of the people are very poor, they are all friendly and cheerful. There is a strong sense of peace throughout the village. Ps. Sagar’s church in Mir Jangla has almost doubled in size in the past year. He now has over 100 faithful church members.
During the first week I was there, Ps. Sagar and two of his co-workers took me to a tea estate called Damdim in the neighboring district of Jalpaiguri. He is working with and mentoring Ps. Jyotish Ekka. They are also working with another Pastor in Damdim, Karma Koya. I spoke in Ps. Karma’s church. Ps. Jyotish and Ps. Karma both sent students to the LOVE INDIA
Academy.
We started the LOVE INDIA Academy ministry training program on Tuesday, 12 September, and it ran until Friday, 6 October. We held teaching sessions from Tuesday through Friday for 4 weeks. On Friday afternoon, after the final teaching session, the students were free to return to their village for the weekend and return on Monday. Each week, about half of the students returned home while the others remained at Ps. Sagar’s church in Mir Jangla. Using money donated by a friend in the U.S., Ps. Sagar had constructed a small shelter for the men to sleep in. We conducted the class sessions in Ps. Sagar’s church building.
The teaching sessions covered the following topics:
1) The Kingdom of God
2) Our Identity in Christ
3) What is the Gospel?
4) Discipleship
5) Servant-Leadership
6) Evangelism in a village setting
7) Church Planting in a village setting
We started with 16 students – 10 men and 6 women – but for various reasons, three of the women were not able to finish. So, we ended with 13 graduates.
Only two of the 13 graduates were in their 30’s. All the rest of the students were in their late teens and early 20’s. One student was 16 years old and two students were 17. When we first started, I was
very concerned that these young students would lose interest in the teaching and get bored. Fortunately, they maintained interest and stayed focused throughout the program. In fact, the 16-year-old was one of the best students.