Lord of the Harvest
“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:37
Jaya* is an associate pastor of a church in Chennai, the city known as the gateway to South India. Situated on the Bay of Bengal in the Tamil Nadu province, Chennai is home to approximately 600 Hindu temples, representing the majority religion of the population at 81.3%. However, it also has one of the highest percentage of Christians among all major Indian cities, accounting for 7.6% of the city’s population, due to the introduction of Christianity by Jesus’ apostle Thomas, who is believed to have preached the Gospel in the city between the years 52 CE and 70 CE.
Despite the history of Christianity in Chennai, both Jaya and her husband are first generation Christians. Having themselves been born into Hindu families, they can reach out with sensitivity to their congregation, 90% of which are first generation Christians as well. There is a long history of entanglement of mission and colonialism that still forms part of the Hindu cultural memory, so their vision is to reach people with God’s Gospel of love and to raise up leaders to mentor the new believers they are seeing stream through their doors.
During her Haggai Leader Experience in 2014, God stretched Jaya’s vision for her ministry.
“I felt God pushing me to move out of my comfort zone, reaching out to my nation and nations of the world with the Good News of the Gospel and training people for sharing the Gospel.”
Now, almost a decade later, she thinks of the people she’s been able to reach, like Durga*, a young girl who started attending their Sunday School program at the age of 10. Living in a small house with an alcoholic father, Durga found refuge in the church and came to know God as her safe and loving father. Her life was transformed. She went on to study engineering and IT and has returned to the church as a Sunday school teacher to sow into the next generation.
There’s also the story of a young boy, the brother of one of the congregants, whom the Holy Spirit placed on Jaya’s heart one morning. She sent him a WhatsApp message (a standard form of communication in developing countries, especially India) only to find him contemplating suicide that very day. The conversation that ensued became a turning point in this young boy’s life and he now fills the position of department head of the Sunday school.
The Church is growing in Chennai. So much so that they have had to move to a bigger venue, the acquisition of which has itself been a miracle, proving God’s faithfulness as he gathers the harvest. This has come at a critical time because now, with Jaya’s equipping through Haggai, she has the tools to mentor and equip new leaders as well as train them in evangelism and send them out into the harvest field.
Written by Carolyn Grant
*Names changed to protect security.
Lord of the Harvest
“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:37
Jaya* is an associate pastor of a church in Chennai, the city known as the gateway to South India. Situated on the Bay of Bengal in the Tamil Nadu province, Chennai is home to approximately 600 Hindu temples, representing the majority religion of the population at 81.3%. However, it also has one of the highest percentage of Christians among all major Indian cities, accounting for 7.6% of the city’s population, due to the introduction of Christianity by Jesus’ apostle Thomas, who is believed to have preached the Gospel in the city between the years 52 CE and 70 CE.
Despite the history of Christianity in Chennai, both Jaya and her husband are first generation Christians. Having themselves been born into Hindu families, they can reach out with sensitivity to their congregation, 90% of which are first generation Christians as well. There is a long history of entanglement of mission and colonialism that still forms part of the Hindu cultural memory, so their vision is to reach people with God’s Gospel of love and to raise up leaders to mentor the new believers they are seeing stream through their doors.
During her Haggai Leader Experience in 2014, God stretched Jaya’s vision for her ministry.
“I felt God pushing me to move out of my comfort zone, reaching out to my nation and nations of the world with the Good News of the Gospel and training people for sharing the Gospel.”
Now, almost a decade later, she thinks of the people she’s been able to reach, like Durga*, a young girl who started attending their Sunday School program at the age of 10. Living in a small house with an alcoholic father, Durga found refuge in the church and came to know God as her safe and loving father. Her life was transformed. She went on to study engineering and IT and has returned to the church as a Sunday school teacher to sow into the next generation.
There’s also the story of a young boy, the brother of one of the congregants, whom the Holy Spirit placed on Jaya’s heart one morning. She sent him a WhatsApp message (a standard form of communication in developing countries, especially India) only to find him contemplating suicide that very day. The conversation that ensued became a turning point in this young boy’s life and he now fills the position of department head of the Sunday school.
The Church is growing in Chennai. So much so that they have had to move to a bigger venue, the acquisition of which has itself been a miracle, proving God’s faithfulness as he gathers the harvest. This has come at a critical time because now, with Jaya’s equipping through Haggai, she has the tools to mentor and equip new leaders as well as train them in evangelism and send them out into the harvest field.
Written by Carolyn Grant
*Names changed to protect security.
Lord of the Harvest
“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:37
Jaya* is an associate pastor of a church in Chennai, the city known as the gateway to South India. Situated on the Bay of Bengal in the Tamil Nadu province, Chennai is home to approximately 600 Hindu temples, representing the majority religion of the population at 81.3%. However, it also has one of the highest percentage of Christians among all major Indian cities, accounting for 7.6% of the city’s population, due to the introduction of Christianity by Jesus’ apostle Thomas, who is believed to have preached the Gospel in the city between the years 52 CE and 70 CE.
Despite the history of Christianity in Chennai, both Jaya and her husband are first generation Christians. Having themselves been born into Hindu families, they can reach out with sensitivity to their congregation, 90% of which are first generation Christians as well. There is a long history of entanglement of mission and colonialism that still forms part of the Hindu cultural memory, so their vision is to reach people with God’s Gospel of love and to raise up leaders to mentor the new believers they are seeing stream through their doors.
During her Haggai Leader Experience in 2014, God stretched Jaya’s vision for her ministry.
“I felt God pushing me to move out of my comfort zone, reaching out to my nation and nations of the world with the Good News of the Gospel and training people for sharing the Gospel.”
Now, almost a decade later, she thinks of the people she’s been able to reach, like Durga*, a young girl who started attending their Sunday School program at the age of 10. Living in a small house with an alcoholic father, Durga found refuge in the church and came to know God as her safe and loving father. Her life was transformed. She went on to study engineering and IT and has returned to the church as a Sunday school teacher to sow into the next generation.
There’s also the story of a young boy, the brother of one of the congregants, whom the Holy Spirit placed on Jaya’s heart one morning. She sent him a WhatsApp message (a standard form of communication in developing countries, especially India) only to find him contemplating suicide that very day. The conversation that ensued became a turning point in this young boy’s life and he now fills the position of department head of the Sunday school.
The Church is growing in Chennai. So much so that they have had to move to a bigger venue, the acquisition of which has itself been a miracle, proving God’s faithfulness as he gathers the harvest. This has come at a critical time because now, with Jaya’s equipping through Haggai, she has the tools to mentor and equip new leaders as well as train them in evangelism and send them out into the harvest field.
Written by Carolyn Grant
*Names changed to protect security.
