28 Apr Breaking through in North India: A strategy of ‘moving house churches’
In late February and early March this year, I visited India – to meet some of the co-mission partners and friends whom AsiaCMS work with.
I am always inspired by the passion and commitment of our partners. I cannot tell all their stories, but this is one story – of Eddie and George (not their real names) whom AsiaCMS had supported and worked with since 2018.
Eddie and George live in the foothills of the Himalayas about 200-250 km from the China-Tibet border. Eddie is a pastor, belonging to a high-caste but generally poor and rural ethnic group that are largely scattered over small villages that dot the mountains of this region. Most of these villages are reachable only via four-wheel drive and hiking through the walking trails in the mountains.
Coming to faith at the age of fifteen, Eddie is instrumental in a grass-roots movement that is reaching his people, a previously unreached people group. He help train 50-60 house church leaders that cares for some 4,000-5,000 of his people who have come to faith.
Eddie’s ethnic group is classified as an unreached people group. In the past, a few of this people group have come to faith. But they usually joined existing churches in the towns that are largely attended by migrants from other parts of India. Hence, Eddie’s own people remained unreached for many years.
However, in the last fifteen years, disciples of Christ trained by Eddie, George and others have taken the gospel to the villages, planting numerous house-churches. In different villages, groups of believers would meet together in worship and study of His word. But in more recent years after the covid-19 pandemic, the opposition from religious fundamentalists have worsened. Believers in the villages can no longer freely invite their neighbours to pray together without opposition that at times had turned violent. Eddie and George could no longer freely visit the leaders and believers in different villages like they used to.
So how did they manage with the new constraints?
Eddie introduced me to their current strategy – what he calls “moving house churches.”
No longer able to freely meet, Eddie and George would go on hiking walks into the mountains where they are joined by leaders whom they can contact. In these mountain hikes that last from a few days to perhaps a week, they spend time together in fellowship, prayer, and study of His word. This is where Eddie and George teach, share life together, and impart to these leaders.
Most of these leaders range in age from their late teens to early thirties. Many of them have gone through high school and college. Each leader is responsible to lead between five to ten house churches; with each ‘church’ numbering five to fifteen believers. In total, they number 4,000-5,000 believers scattered over a radius of 50-70 km from where Eddie and George live.
I am amazed at the passion of my friends, Eddie and George. Eddie has three earned masters’ degrees and was offered to do his PhD with a school in the USA. His wife & kids are already in the USA, but he has chosen to stay on – for the sake of his people. George was a radiographer with a hospital and his wife works in an international school. In 2017, George decided to quit his job to assist Edwin, his pastor, in this work of traveling to disciple these native leaders.
Through the last few years, I have seen the challenges that they go through – in ministry, and also in their personal and family lives because of the sacrifices involved. Both of them are in their late 40s and early 50s. I asked Eddie, “How long do you see yourself
doing this – all these regular trips and treks into the mountains?” He responded: “As long as my body allows me..”
Eddie and George are our modern-day Pauls and Barnabas who bring God’s Word to the very edges. They share the gospel, pastor, lead, and disciple followers of Christ in situations where traditional church approaches cannot work. It is truly our privilege (yours and mine) to journey with them and people like them –through our prayers, encouragement and our financial support.
Rev. Chan Nam Chen (PhD)
Executive Director