THE WORD OF FAITH WE PROCLAIM – INDIA TRIP

By Dr. Eric C. Stumpf, Senior Pastor

St. Paul’s Ev. Lutheran Church – Munster, IN

24 & 25 March 2007 + Lent 1 (C) +

Romans 10:8b-13

              As most of you know I was invited along with about 35 LCMS pastors to visit India and see some of the Lutheran mission work being done.  The organization that invited me was Mission India.   

            In preparation for this visit I bought a couple of books on India, talked to people who had gone on the trip before, President Dan May of Indiana District went in 1997.  I also spoke with a member of our congregation, Corrine Powell who gave me a lot of tips from her 3 week visit last spring.

             One of the things all agreed on was the great poverty I would see when I went to India.  To be sure I saw much poverty, worse than anything I have seen in the Appalacian Mountains.  My heart, like any other normal person, went out to these people.  I wished I could help them have better housing, medical treatment, food, even something we take for granted, clean water.  But it also struck me that physical poverty is relative.  To them I was as rich as a king.  To me, I am not rich at all.  To me, Bill Gates, the billionaire and founder of Microsoft, is really rich.  Wealth is relative.  But wealth means nothing at all if you have lost your eternal soul.

             The real and tragic poverty of India is that thousands and millions do not know Jesus as Lord and Savior.  If we really believe what we profess, and we heard the words from Romans 10, that there is no salvation apart from Christ, then millions will be lost eternally.  If we don’t really believe Jesus is the only Savior, then I suppose we could care less about their eternal welfare, as well as ours.  You could be the richest person in the world, but lost eternally in hell.  Your wealth will be of no comfort for you for the rest of eternity. 

             Mission India is in partnership with the India Evangelical Lutheran Church, which is a partner church to our LCMS.  Our LCMS is also using Mission India in their work with Ablaze, a worldwide evangelism program.  Mission India is not a church body or denomination, it does not oversee churches.  It has three programs it does very well and offers them to any Christian Church working in India.

             The first program is the Children’s Bible Club.  Mission India trains native Christians to gather children in the villages after school to learn Bible stories, sing songs, memorize Bible verses, and come to know Jesus.  This year they hope to reach 4 million children.  They state that one out of three children who go through the whole program will become Christian.

             The second program is Adult Literacy.  Mission India trains native Christians to teach adults who can not read or write or do simple math.  Many of them are women who attend the class and then in the evening return home to share with their husband and family what they have learned.  The goal is to be able to read from their Bible in their own language and comprehend what they’ve read.  Thousands of women have come to faith and share that faith with their families.

             The third program is the Institute for Community Transformation, a church planting program.  Saturday we attended Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Chennai, a sister church of our LCMS.  Pastor Selva is training ten church planters.  He has already created five satellite churches so far.  Each person told a moving story of their work among the Hindu population, the resistance they have met and the power of the Lord to bring people to faith.  That Sunday we joined the congregation of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in a village.  Pastor Selva was conducting the service.  At the end he announced that they would be doing Holy Communion.  Without the aid of an organ, the congregation began singing the liturgy in their own language.  All the pastors looked at each other and you could see in their eyes, “We know that tune.”  They were singing DS3, so we joined with them, but in English.  Two different languages, two different peoples, yet joined in Jesus Christ in one song of praise. 

             It was with joy that I saw first hand all three programs.  Especially moving was the Children’s Bible Club.  Eager and joyful faces desiring to know who Jesus was and eager to share the hope they have in Jesus as their Savior.  One family I meet was the Thir-uth-vam family.  Mother, father, and daughter Sheeba are Christians through the work of Mission India.  When they became Christian the family changed their last name, which means “Trinity.”  The daughter caught my eye.  Perhaps it was the missing front teeth of the 2^nd grader, or the eager look on her face, or the glowing smile I saw many times, but I was drawn to this little Christian girl in her lime green and orange dress.  How it pierced my heart when they said that she was quit sick, throwing up blood recently.  I was asked to pray over her, which I gladly did.  Now she is in my daily prayers.  Principal Zimmer told me Wednesday the children of our school want to help her, and they will do a penny war to raise funds for her medical treatment.  Though too poor for medical treatment, she is rich in brothers and sisters in Christ, who care.

             President May said that this would be a life changing experience.  He was right.  I reported to the Board of Deacons what I had experience and the hope we could do something to help this vital program.  They opened their hearts and were lead to say “Amen.” to a program to raise funds. 

            Mission India has sent us $6500 to pass out to our members next Sunday.  That’s right, you will all, at least those who wish to participate, receive a crisp $10 bill in an envelope.  Like the parable of the talents, Mission India wants you to put that $10 to work.  It might be baking cookies, my wife is going to bake and sell bread, others might raise money my selling other things, doing a service to others, losing weight, walking miles, be creative.  In ten weeks, on May 5 and 6, we will collect your talent money to send to Mission India.  The money is ear marked for Children’s Bible Club and Adult Literacy.  Next week Pastor Stock will give you the details again, but I hope and pray that you will find this a wonderful challenge to live the faith.  Please pray for these people and that God would use your talents to do his will.  Amen.

SDG