A Church for a ChurchA church for a church
In the area where we work, there live about 250.000 Dalits, in 50 villages. They do live in extreme poverty. However, thanks to a great sponsor we were able to provide in December 2013 a clean drinking water facility in all of the 50 villages. Besides we have distributed 10.000 water pots for them to collect the clean water. A great improvement for the health of these poor people, because a lot of people used to get and even die because of waterborne diseases. Thanks to this clean water provision this suffering has greatly been reduced. In the same area we have also placed so far over 200 foundlings in 200 adoptive families who have got a piece of land from us to start generating their own income for themselves and their children en their adoptive baby girls. We have received help from Farming Gods Way, an spectacular agricultural method developed by an African Farmer, that has already proved to produce better crops. We are presently training our adoptive parents to apply the farming Gods way principles, so soon they might have a better harvest that will give them a step ahead of others to compete in the local food market. So that will help them to escape the cycle of poverty even faster. But we desire to do more. So we started some education centers for the children. But we also want to provide them with medical care, teaching them hygienic rules, provide them with medical care, medicines, clothes and food in case of need, etc. And for all those Dalits that received Christ as their Savior, and there are thousands, we want to provide them with a place for fellowship and worship. A church so to speak! A great plan But if we want to build, schools, and clinics, and churches, and social care centers in all of these 50 villages, we do need many millions of dollars. This is far beyond our capacity as a small organization. While considering what to do, we got a luminous plan to combine all of these plans so we could save a lot of money. Because when we would build a multifunctional building, it could be a school from Monday to Thursday, it could be a medical practice on Friday and on Saturdays it could be a social center for hygienic education, a meeting place for the elderly, for pregnant woman, etc. Besides it could be a distribution center for medicines, food, clothes and other goods and on Sundays it could be a place of worship for the Christian believers, to study Gods Word en to worship Him. Besides, we also want to provide an clean drinking water provision at the premises of this center for those dwelling nearby, so now they can collect clean water near to the house of the Lord, that provides them also the Living Water. By combining all these social uplifting activities in one place, which is a sigh of good stewardship, we are also catching a few birds in one shot because the investment is used to the max. A great impact The impact of such a Centre on the local community is great and much less of a tread for the religious Hindus than a classical church. Because in de mind of the Hindus, the consider the church as a temple of a foreign god, who is a tread for their own religion. However, when we can break down this wrong concept of thinking, by turning this church in a school, a doctor’s clinic, a medical Centre, a social Centre and a place of help and clean water provision…, then they may get a total different view of the church, for now the church becomes a source of blessing for the local community instead of a treat. So this is e very effective way to impact the local community with the Gospel. |
A remarkable meetingplace
Besides, in India it is a fact that often the women come to Christ first, and then because of their commitment their whole family turn to Christ. And since it is also almost exclusively the job of women to collect water from the well, now these women, meet each other near to the house of the Lord where they can also drink from the Living Water. Now they can meet and share in a natural way and the church is becoming a source of live to the community. So this is a very strategic way of impacting the local community with the Life Giving Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ. What is it going to cost? We have calculated that the cost for such a Centre will be around € 15.000 euros per Centre, while the local partners and the community are willing to provide the plot. But because we want to build such Centers in all of the 50 villages, we still need a budget of € 750.000 euro in total. A huge amount for our small organization and therefore we have considered to seek the help of others churches and have considered a plan we have called: ‘A church for a church’. A church for a church In our country there are churches that have millions in their bank account and besides they do have a building budget of millions of euros. Unfortunately however, these buildings are mostly only used on Sundays. That’s in great contrast with the poverty of our fellow believers in India. So we felt it would be great if we, wealthy churches, would share just a little portion of our budget to help our poor fellow believers in India. If these rich churches would just give a fraction of their budget for a building to help our fellow believers in India to help build their own church, that would solve a great problem. A church for a church so to speak. And this church will be super-economically used to be a source of blessing for the whole community, yet for our fellow believers in particular. A great plan, isn’t?! Churches wanted! So we are seeking 50 churches that want to donate a small amount of their great budget to make a massive impact to help build a church for their fellow believers in India. Besides we would like to build a lasting relationship between the donor church and the receiving church in India. A kind of sister-church relationship so to speak. The new church may as well carry the name of the donor church to express their relationship. For example, when your church is ‘the Good Shepherd Church’ , we may name the church they sponsor ‘the Good Shepherd Church India’ . In this way the church they sponsor becomes their own mission-project in India. It would even be better when the donor church will sent representatives to visit their sister-church in India ones in a while. And thus they might see with their own eyes the great impact they have made in the local community with their investment. What a great plan of inspiration this could be for the donor-church to embrace such a mission project to promote the Gospel of our Lord in India as well as having a great impact on the social development of the local community. Request Therefore I want to ask you, as my fellow ministers, to adopt and sponsor a church in India. If you require more information, you may find a lot of answers at our Q&A-page. However, when you want to discuss things personally, we are more than willing to do so. Awaiting your reply. On behalf of Abba Child Care international. Kind regards and God bless Jaap Dieleman |