www.aimission.org: Tomorrow’s Leaders

Many American Christians support foreign missionaries and mission organizations—Asia International Mission among them. The expectation is that we go, according to The Great Commission, and bring the gospel to unreached souls. And we do.

Russ and I go, often with Mission Teams, and we encourage struggling local ministries, coming alongside them on projects that will open doors for the Gospel. We do humanitarian work according to your generous partnership, alleviating the suffering and poverty of the people. We are also “fish bait”, drawing curious crowds of unbelievers to see the strange foreigners—and we preach about the One True God and the saving love of Jesus Christ. We work hard. Difficulties and opposition are overcome, and souls are ushered into the kingdom.

But, as Asia International Mission, we believe there is a more effective way: Send national missionaries and pastors to their own people. They know the culture, the language, the nuances and the mindset of their neighbors who need Christ. They are on the field in a fraction of the time it takes an American missionary, to reap a harvest for God’s Kingdom.

A few major problems remain, and this is where we need your help. When a village man comes to Christ and experiences a call to serve Him, that man often has no schooling. No Biblical foundation. He has often grown up with a Hindu or Islamic worldview and must learn to see the world through God’s viewpoint: One True God instead of millions; a God of mercy, and salvation through Jesus Christ alone. Many have never owned a Bible. Most of all, though they have passion and commitment, most have no money to obtain an education.

Russ & Ravi

AIM is always looking to the future, and we have found a solution. In Hyderabad, India there is a godly pastor with years of experience in training up other men, as well as hosting foreign missionaries and speakers. His name is Pastor Ravi Sundar. AIM is partnering with him and his Shalom Bible College.

This venture is taking village men with a true calling to spread the Gospel, and providing them with one year of intensive Bible training. Three semesters filled with a basic Bible foundation; Old and New Testament surveys; teaching in the fields of evangelism, scriptural interpretation, eschatology (End Times theology); and other subjects that American Christians take for granted. They are also given practical training in preaching, church administration, leadership and other useful areas.

Three full semesters for each student costs $450 including room, board and books. That is only $50 a month. The men attend free of charge except for chores/work on campus. We are asking you to partner with us financially to train these men for God’s Kingdom.

What do Alumni have to say? Russ and I met with about twenty of them on our last trip, and it was a varied and fascinating group. One interesting graduate of Ravi's college is his "bad boy" Udhay Kumar. He is 26, but looks 18, and deceptively innocent. Ravi says he often ran away from the campus, sometimes with Ravi’s car…

Kumar had asthma since the age of 2 and suffered miserably for 8 years. After being healed at a

Udhay Kumar

gospel meeting, he and his whole family became Christians. At age 17, Kumar joined in holding gospel meetings, but later felt he needed more training. That’s when he came to Shalom Bible College.

During his stay in 2009-2010, he and the College were targeted by a radical fundamentalist Hindu group called RSS. (Their saffron flags currently fly in many nearby neighborhoods, so the hostility is not over.) They attacked the campus, broke all the lights and threatened them if they didn’t discontinue operations.

When Kumar and his peers went out to evangelize, the group attempted to assault them, but they made it back to the safety of the walled compound. Today, Udhay Kumar ministers in K.P. Gudam, about 250km from Hyderabad and about 110km north of Guntur. His church is fairly large for a village--55 members.

He has also begun a fledgling house church in Ramalabanda village with 15 coming for prayer. But, opposition continues to haunt and discourage him. A mob came to beat him, and one man threatened to kill him if he held another service there. Sometimes he is so discouraged he wants to quit, but he says “God is always faithful” and he hasn’t given up. Please pray for this brave, but uneasy young man. His life is truly on the line for the Gospel—something Americans have seldom experienced.

We have seen Ravi Sundar interact with these young men—a combination of fatherly concern, laughter, respect and yet stern discipline. They tell tales of how he implemented “food cuts”—banning them from meals if they were caught walking around during personal prayer time, or cutting chapel. If the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, then the way to his conscience can sometimes take the same route…

We are impressed by the training these men have received, and the fruit that training is producing across Andhra Pradesh.

AIM is committed to helping national pastors and missionaries reach their own people. For less than the cost of a wide-screen TV or 90 days of Starbucks coffee, you can equip a man to plant and pastor a new church in an unreached village of India. He will preach the Gospel there for years, evangelizing five surrounding villages on a circuit. He will raise up new leaders for new churches in those villages and send them back to Shalom Bible College. Each graduate is expected to plant ten churches in his lifetime. Even if each church has only 50 members, think of the eternal consequences.

America is obsessed with the End Times; escalating world problems, climate anomalies, and degradation of morality. Wars and rumors of wars assault us in the media. Is Christ returning soon? The Bible says He will come quickly. Are we filled with compassion, as Jesus was, for the multitudes of lost souls, sheep without a shepherd? Or are we bogged down in our own daily lives?

What happens if Christ returns, and these souls have never heard the Gospel? Let’s DO something! Help AIM to help these men reach their people by giving to the Timothy Fund Now!

--Alice Sharrock