Local Church Impact in India
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Benjamin Kreps:
Hey everyone. And welcome to the Mark Prater podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of churches to our Executive Director. Happy new year, Mark! They re-upped us for season two. They're allowing us to do it again. It’s amazing! So, we're back. And as I said in the introduction, we are a global family of churches in Sovereign Grace. And you have a wonderful story about a partnership we have in India. Can you fill us in on the story about that?
Mark Prater:
It's a story I just watched this morning via video. Todd Peterson, who is an elder at Cross of Grace Church led by Ricky Alcantar in El Paso, Texas, gave an update about his work in India. Todd is also serving on our Emerging Nations team led by Dave Taylor. And Todd really is our point guy in India. For the last several years, so the last two or three years, I believe, we've been relating to a pastor in a village in Andrha Pradesh region of South East India. His name is Jayaprakash. We call him JP. And the village that he is in, as Todd explained it, is very segregated. And Todd would know, he’s been there. Meaning he said, you can literally see the dividing line in the village where most of the people they are Hindus and they live on one side of the village. And then there's a small group of Christians that sort of live on the other side. And there's a few Muslims. And it's just been a very segregated village.
However, during this pandemic they ran out of food basically. So most of the people that lived there are day laborers. They work each day so they can eat each day. And there was just no food because there was no work. And so, Todd heard about this and interacting with JP, went to the members of Cross of Grace Church. They raised money to be able to send over to JP. JP had enough money that he was able to buy 10 days’ worth of food and put that into bundles and had several of those. I forget how many they gave out. And the Christians in his church went to the Hindu section of the village and just gave out food.
And as a result, some of those Hindus have now come to JP’s church. Todd was saying that JP said, “I don't remember the last time we've had a Hindu and one of our services.” And over the course of the last few months, some of them have heard the gospel and actually been born again and have become Christians, which is a pretty big deal in India. So it's just a great story of how God has used the love of Christ through one of the churches we're relating to in order to reach Hindus with the good news of the gospel.
What's so encouraging about this, too, is that this church is very purposeful about pursuing partnership with Sovereign Grace. So, in the update the other thing Todd said is that JP has been working through our new ordination process. He's done his reading, he's got his papers all written, he'll be taking his exams in March. And if those go well, we could have our first ordained Sovereign Grace elder in India, in the person and pastor of JP. So that's pretty exciting news, both the story and their pursuit of Sovereign Grace.
Benjamin Kreps:
What a wonderful story of what God is doing in India, but also of the ways that we can actually partner across the globe to help with the mission of Jesus in churches all around the world because this isn't the only church. There are other stories like this. But that's a wonderful story. Thanks for sharing. So, as you think about the next year or two, and you look out across what God's doing in our global family of churches, what are you excited and about and anticipating?
Mark Prater:
One of the things I'm excited about is just the point that you just made. Here is a one church in Sovereign Grace—Cross of Grace Church in El Paso, Texas—who is having a global impact just because they have a heart for missions and they are generous people. But I see that across our churches in Sovereign Grace. So one of the things I'm excited about is for all of us to hear more stories that really reflect how one local church is having a global impact. And I think that's just going to happen more and more. And the thing that excites me about it is, I think, for the members of our churches. It gives them the opportunity to feel more connected to our global mission as a family of churches. And that's one of the things we've been talking about on the Leadership Team. How do we tie our members more closely into our mission? So that's one of the things I'm looking forward to because I think that's going to happen in the years to come as we continue to expand globally.
Benjamin Kreps:
Wonderful. And JP Is not the only guy globally who is also going through ordination. There's a number of them. So it will be thrilling as these men come into ordination over the next months and years ahead. And we see God establishing a partnership in Sovereign Grace officially with Sovereign Grace churches across the globe. So shout out to JP if he's watching. God bless you.
Mark Prater:
Yeah. Pray for JP.
Benjamin Kreps:
And thanks for the update, Mark. And we'll talk to you to everyone else real soon. Bye for now.