Good news and bad news hits Mission India

By December 30, 2003

India (MNN) — Christians interested in teaching Children’s Bible Clubs in India are coming forward in large numbers. The numbers are overwhelming Mission India of Grand Rapids, Mich.

Mission India’s John DeVries says he’s been working in India for 30-years and he’s seen nothing like it. He says, “This past season we’ve trained 70,000 Children’s Bible Club teachers in (a) two year training program. That’s the real good news. The bad news is we had to turn away 215,000 more.” DeVries says, “We lack the funds for bringing them to their localities for training, and we lack the funds for producing that many course materials.”

The 70,000 the were able to train reached out to 3.5 million young people. “We would have had an additional six to eight million children had we had the funds for the training and for the Scripture supplies,” says DeVries.

This is happening despite the increasing amounts of persecution against Christians. DeVries says, “It seems like the higher the risk of persecution the higher the demand grows. We’ve never seen anything like this. The tighter it gets and the rougher it gets the more volunteers come out of the woodwork to want to reach the children.”

$30 can train a teacher. “We figure a dollar per child provides teacher training and materials,” says DeVries. He says, “The teachers usually teach anywhere from 15 to 30 kids.”

Pray that God moves in the hearts of Christians worldwide to help with this financial need.

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