A Note from John Roach
Over the past two weeks, Pastor Michael and I have had the privilege of working alongside a ministry in India that has planted hundreds of churches, trained hundreds of pastors, created ministry for orphans and widows, and launched a school to serve their community. The importance of this ministry cannot be overstated. By the end of the day today, over 25,000 Indian people will have died with no opportunity to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Over 9 million people will die in India in 2025 having never heard the gospel, never seeing a church, never seeing a Bible, and probably never seeing a Christian. Just for reference, there are less than 9 million people in New York City. So, imagine everyone in New York passing away without ever hearing about Jesus.
The terms used to describe this total void of gospel presence is “unreached people.” Unreached people are not simply those in a city or a community who are lost. “Unreached people” describes a specific nation or ethnicity where there are typically less than 2% of the population of that ethnicity, nation, and region who claim Jesus as Lord. According to the Joshua Project, “An unreached people is a people among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people without outside assistance.”
As we made our way to India, this reality was ever-present on our minds. Once we landed and began to observe the culture, we were overwhelmed with the amount of people we saw. We began to recognize different acts of worship in efforts to appease gods that do not exist. We saw a culture built around an oppressive religious system meant to bring peace and contentment, but it only brought more impossible requirements and robbed people of their hope. The hardest part was driving through city after city seeing thousands of people who will likely never hear about Jesus.
During our time there, Pastor Michael led pastor training, and we were able to preach and encourage three different congregations. We also had the privilege of worshipping in the home of a sweet sister in Christ who invited her village to her home, and eight people gave their lives to Jesus and will be connected to the local church. We were able to love on orphans and encourage students and teachers in a school of 400 students. This school openly teaches curriculum using the Bible and Christian ideas for predominantly Hindu and Muslim students. All the incredible ministry we witnessed this past week began with one man’s commitment to the gospel.
The ministry we served with is run by a local Indian pastor and his father who have been leading people to Jesus for over three decades. The story of this entire ministry starts with the desire of a husband and father to provide for his family. This father travelled to another country for work. He was a practicing Hindu, but somewhere he had heard about a God who had sent His son to spill His blood for the world, sacrificing His life to cover the sins of all people. Everything he knew through his Hindu religion clashed with this idea of a God pouring out His blood for people.
As he arrived in this new city for work, he began asking people if they had heard about this God who sent His Son to pay for the sin of humanity. He began to ask himself, “Why have I been giving the blood of animals to a tree god when there is a God who has given His blood for me?” In this new city, he heard of a church and sought out the pastor of the church to ask him about this God. The pastor shared the Gospel of Jesus with this husband and father who responded by faith in Jesus Christ. Over the next decade, this pastor would disciple this man until he finally told him, “You need to return to your country and to your people and to your village to tell them about Jesus. You need to start a church.” In the late 90’s he moved back to his village and began sharing the gospel. He approached one of the ladies who helped him sacrifice animals to these false gods. She was a demon-possessed, Hindu priestess cutting animals with her teeth and worshipping a tree. She had heard that a man had brought a God back. She began asking some of the same questions this man had asked. During a worship service, he saw the woman in the back and approached her. He told her about Jesus sacrificing His blood once and for all mankind and that she could be forgiven and never need to sacrifice an animal again. Jesus saved her, delivered her, and then the Spirit of God prompted her to give her house as the first church in the village.
What we witnessed in India over twenty years later was the fruit of one man’s salvation and commitment to the gospel. In the face of tremendous adversity and overwhelming odds, this man and his family remained faithful to the charge of Jesus to the disciples in the upper room after His resurrection. Consider the words of Jesus in Luke 24:46-48, “’This is what is written: The Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem. You are witnesses to these things.’” Then Luke continues in his second installment, called the book of Acts. Writing about Jesus and this same charge to the disciples, he records Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8, “But you [the disciples] will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Luke continues to record the response of these disciples. In Acts 2, Luke records the birth of the church and the first sermon by Peter (vs. 1-41). Those who heard this sermon repented and were baptized and then began gathering regularly under the leadership of the Apostles, teaching the Word of God, baptizing, celebrating the Lord’s supper, worshipping the Lord, and serving one another (vs. 42-47).
Jesus tells the disciples to be His witnesses to the nations in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth and they respond by sharing the gospel and planting churches. They do exactly what He told them to do in Acts 2-12. They preach the gospel and form churches throughout Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. Then in Acts 13-14, Saul (Paul) and Barnabas are sent out by the church at Antioch to the ends of the earth (Acts 13:1-4)! They then go city to city sharing the gospel in places that the gospel had not yet gone. Everywhere that men, women, boys, and girls responded by faith, a church was started. Note Acts 14:21-23: “After they [Paul and Barnabas] had preached the gospel in that town and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch, strengthening the disciples by encouraging them to continue in the faith and by telling them, ‘It is necessary to go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.’ When they had appointed elders [pastors and overseers] in every church and prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”
In essence, Jesus said, “tell the world about me,” and the disciples responded by planting churches. Green Acres, God is using us in incredible ways around the world. We are literally living out the Book of Acts in our own country and beyond. God’s mission to fill the earth with His glory mobilizes His church to make disciples of all nations. He uses the church to engage the lost. He saves the lost through the declaration of His gospel by His church. He then gathers His people under Biblical leadership and leads these leaders to teach the church to obey the gospel and God’s Word. Then He sends the church out all over again. Disciples make disciples who plant churches that plant churches.
Pray for India. Pray for this family. Pray for their ministries as they expand across India. Pray for disciples to be made and churches to be planted. Pray for the pastors that are being trained and cared for. Pray for the orphans that live at the home church with the founding pastor. Pray for the widows that the church is serving. Pray for the school to continue to be a light to students who are Hindu and Muslim. Pray for our partnership with this ministry in India.