Vision:
Our vision and calling is to reach the unreached millions in India especially the unreached Hindus with the good news of Jesus Christ and and to reach the children of India with the love of Jesus. Our purpose is to fulfil the Great Commission that Jesus gave to the Church to "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15). We are dedicated to spreading the Good News of the redemption of mankind by the shed blood of Jesus Christ in hopes that Indian people will accept Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord and receive eternal life.
Out of India's billion population, 855 millions live in the rural areas. They do not have the opportunity that other people of the world have to hear about Jesus Christ. Hence our primary aim is to make Christ known in the villages of India. We achieve our vision by using tracts, movie and video presentations to create interest in spiritual matters, and regularly visiting homes to teach about Jesus Christ and by conducting Gospel outreach meetings. We provide tracts, booklets, Gospels and Bibles for further understanding of the spiritual truths. We conduct group discussion meetings for those who want to know more and Bible study groups for those who accept the Lord, baptism, and fellowship of believers to plant churches.
We are working among the unreached Hindus in the villages of Andhra Pradesh, South India. God has placed placed a burden in our hearts to share the Gospel with India's millions and to reach the children of India with the love of Jesus. To fulfil our mission, we are involved with
I. Gospel Ministries
II. Children's ministry
III. Training for Mission & Evangelism
IV. Church planting
"And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people" (Mathew 9.35).
To proclaim the gospel to the people living in the unreached villages, we adopt various means.
(1) Village ministries:
At present, village outreach programmes were conducted once in a month with adequate preparation of praying for a particular village and then setting out to the village taking tracts, literature with us. In the village outreach work, we go out and meet people, and conduct open- air Gospel services with hymn singing and the sharing of our testimonies. We pray for the needs of the people and counsel them on a one to one basis. Through this ministry many people have come to know the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. We use Gospel literature and tracts as part of our outreach work.
(2) Gospel Outreach meetings:
Gospel is being proclaimed in villages and cities through Gospel meetings. People come in thousands to such meetings to listen to the Word of God whatever their caste, creed, or race. Large numbers of non-Christians attend and many have been saved and are today followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. To those who have committed their lives to Jesus Christ in such gospel meetings, there is a follow-up ministry to establish them in Christ.
Since the mission began there have been many Hindus willing to make a commitment to give up their many gods and worship the living God. This commitment is demonstrated in their active involvement in the local church, and obedience in taking baptism. The decision to become a Christian in India is not taken lightly as it frequently involves persecution and rejection by the family of those who make that decision.
(1) IVM Orphanage:
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the widows and orphans in their distress…" (James 1:27).
Care for Homeless Children: India Village Ministries aims to relieve poverty and hardship among the orphan children through the provision of food, shelter, and education with some vocational training. We have started a small Children's Home in Puritigadda using the schoolroom for the time being as a dormitory, and we plan shortly to buy a house in the village to provide better accommodation. We have children hailing from poor and needy backgrounds with either no mother or no father, or with no parents, or with poor parents if they are alive. We have children from Christian and Hindu backgrounds. We want to see the poor and needy children from different caste backgrounds raised in a casteless and Christian Home. Our vision is to see children taken off the streets and out of the slums and put into a loving and caring environment where the love of Jesus is shown to them, along with the day-to-day basic items that they require to live.
Our desire is to see our current home increase and for the new home to have a capacity for more children. We aim to bring hope to as many needy children as possible by providing food, clothing, and education, and introducing them to Jesus Christ. As we in the West, enjoy good food, clothes, and home comforts, so many in India will never know anything but poverty. Your participation in the Child Sponsor program will help bring new life and hope to an orphan in need. Won't you partner with the India Village Ministries in supporting an orphan.
(2) Educational programme:
In India, child labor is still a major problem as many parents do not have the means to send their children for basic education. Our Primary school helps Village children to have a good basic education and come up in life. They are being educated at school and we believe that the Christian values taught brings stability to their lives and the contact can also lead their parents into the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The children are the future of India.
(1) Evangelists Training Centre:
" The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest" (Luke 10:2-3).
At present, IVM is working in 20 mission villages in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. We believe that now is the time for a new generation of native evangelists to reach the people of India with the message of Jesus Christ. Concern and compassion for millions of Indians have motivated us to initiate an Evangelists Training Centre to train the village preachers. There are many native evangelists who are serving in the village communities, but they need Bible teaching so that they are equipped to preach the Word. We are planning to train more evangelists and equip those workers who are already working in villages. We are involved with the training of pastors and evangelists, and to support them as they work to establish new centres of ministry.
(2) Leadership Seminars:
IVM conducts seminars for the national evangelists, pastors and local churches to enable them to understand the Gospel and be better able to carry out the Great Commission. Leadership seminars are conducted regularly to further equip the pastors who are already in the field. We teach them management skills, leadership skills, pray with them and impart giftings for effective, fruitful ministry. Some of these seminars are interdenominational, where up to sixty denominations come together for training and encouragement.
Church planting is a vital part of missionary evangelism. Since we're primarily working in villages without existing churches, church planting is our focal point. Currently we are helping native pastors in India plant new churches by providing them monthly support and by financially assisting them in the construction of church building.
Of the 700,000 villages across India, only about 65,000 have a Christian church. We believe that every unreached village has the right to a church that proclaims the good news of the gospel until Jesus returns. Our vision is to see a living church planted in every one of the remaining 635,000 villages.
(1) Supporting Pastors:
When a gospel worker is sent to a new place for planting a church, he needs to be supported until he is established and is able to support himself. Church planting is hard work. Often these workers are sent to villages where there is no electricity or access to fresh water. They live with their families in a 1-or 2-room house. Compounding the hardship is the fact that they labor in areas where there are no other Christian families to support them or encourage them.
Native pastors desperately want to fulfill the call God has on their lives to reach the lost, but they are hindered by their poverty. India Village Ministries seeks to help these gospel workers until they are established. A gospel worker and his family may be sustained in such a pioneering setting with a monthly support of £60. By no means this covers their full living expenses, but will go a long way in meeting their basic needs. As part of this support we also provide bicycles, public address systems, Bibles, and other gospel literature to equip these gospel workers for effective evangelism and church planting.
(2) Building Church Halls :
An important part of church planting effort is to assist native pastors and village churches in building worship facilities. Most churches in Indian villages are made of poor people, usually laborers and farmers, who do not have the means to finance a building project on their own. Many make the decision to follow Jesus Christ and churches are being established for the growing groups of new believers. Often they gather in homes, and in some cases, under a thatched roof. These churches are in need of financial assistance for erecting a simple prayer hall for the purpose of Sunday worship and weekly meetings.
Your opportunity to get involved
There are three main ways in which you can help the work of India Village Ministries.
A. Be a Prayer Partner:
This ministry is built upon the earnest prayers of God's children. Pray everyday for the India Village ministries and their various needs. Make this your burden.
2. Pray that the Lord would provide funds for the various ministries.
B. Be a Partner in Giving:
Please pray and give what you can to help. Your support can make a real difference to the Lord's work in India. No donation is too small.Give generously for the Lord's work in India. It's extraordinary what a small gift will do in India! Please consider any of the following:
- £20 per month provides an orphan a month's food, shelter, clothes and their school books.
- £40 a month will provide training for village evangelists and pastors.
- £50 can buy 25 copies of the Holy Bible in the local language. Provide financial support for the purchase of gospel literature.
- Sponsor a national evangelist in the field. £60 a month will support a fulltime Indian evangelist and his family who is working in the field
- Support the training programs and church planting work through regular donations. Even a small amount given on a regular basis will help us immensely to carry on the training program as well as the support of national workers.
- Help build a church building. We need to build churches in villages where there are no places of worship, for the new converts who have accepted Christ in their lives. With just £500 we can build a small prayer shed in many places.
- Give towards bicycles, motorcycles for the Gospel workers. A gift of £35 will help buy a bicycle for a native evangelist.
- We are in need of a van which holds speaker system and ministry supplies to be used in village ministries.
- A gift of £80 will help purchase a public address system for our native evangelists.
C. Please Tell Others about this Work:
Only by many working together can we effectively reach India. You can be a help to the Lord's work by telling other Christians about the work of India Village Ministries.