Duane, a member of the Sowers International USA board, has recently returned from a very exciting trip to India. Duane was accompanied by his son and by John & Winsome who are the Sowers Regional Directors for Asia.
Two years ago, Duane travelled to India on a work visa, to train some future co-workers. Some friends asked him to bring gifts along for an orphanage they support in Hyderabad. There he met Brother Joab, who has planted many churches and orphanages throughout all of India. After Joab learned of the Sowers sketchboard method, he asked Duane to bring a message to the children at the orphanage. After he shared an evangelistic message using the Sowers' method, Joab was so impressed with the message, he asked Duane if he would come and train his pastors & evangelists in the Sower's method. Duane wasn't sure if Sowers had the workers or the finances to do this, so they corresponded via email with each other waiting to see what the Lord would do for India. As the communication increased, Joab revealed he had 500 pastors in 12 states in India working full time! We also discovered that many of the states have anti-conversion laws and it is very dangerous doing any of the Lord's work outside in public places. Since the Sowers Program is primarily designed for outdoor evangelism we had concerns about training in India. We left it in the Lord's hands, and as usual, God had definite plans for India!
At first funds for this project were not available, so Sowers made India an item of prayer. Then a bit later, Duane met a man who has a heart for India and wanted to support our first trip. The Sowers Governance Board immediately gave us the green light on starting a project in India and the plans began. John & Winsome were able to track down a man who is the only Level 4 Sower in India. He offered to come to Hyderabad and help us with the training.
The people who came for training are church planters and have a huge heart for evangelism, but they do not stop there, they provide for people in need as well: Feeding the poor; providing health care; teaching them how to read and founding orphanages.
Hyderabad is 106-120 degrees in April with no air conditioning and the electricity goes out half the time so the fans wouldn't work. Duane reports there are 6 seasons in Hyderabad: hot, very hot, hotter, much hotter, hottest and most hottest. In spite of the heat, they trained 109 people on level 1 and 2 of the Sowers Program. They were very quick at catching on and seemed to love the training. Some of the students were from the state of Orissa where there have been many atrocities committed against Christians: burned homes, burned churches, people beaten and killed-- this has been going on for the last 2 years. These students still plan on going out to share Christ with the lost in Orissa! They told Duane they continue to evangelize because there are still 400 million Indians that have not heard the gospel! One area reported 500 baptized and the planting of 100 new churches every year. Joab's vision is to see 120 trained Sowers in each state of India!
Please pray for those in India that are working and risking their lives to share the gospel. Pray for the hearts of the many Hindus that will hear the gospel. They are a religious country but they do not understand and have difficulty comprehending the fact that Jesus is the only way! Please pray for finances so that this work can continue. It is going to take at least 6 more trips before the nationals are ready to provide the training on their own. Once this happens it will be much easier to sustain the work as the local churches can provide much of the funds needed to send one or two off to different locations in India. That is the beauty of the Sowers' method. We train nationals who in turn train more nationals, and the work spreads naturally."
Please join us in reaching India! God has given us a great opportunity, we want to honor it as best we can.
