Spending the summer of 2007 with my family in India was definitely a blessing. It had been a while since I last saw them about two years ago and so the reunion was a lot more meaningful. One of the reasons Daniel (my classmate) and I visited India was to film the church and their struggle to live out their faith among people who have been known to severely oppose Christianity.

India is a land of many religions and religious people. North India , where we were, is home to many temples and places of pilgrimage for Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism. It is one of the most unreached parts of India as far as the Gospel is concerned. Of the many organizations working to spread the Gospel of the kingdom in India , we got to spend some time following one of them around in their endeavor to proclaim the good news. They're called Cooperative Outreach of India. My dad is a part of this organization and he helped us get a better understanding of the rural church in India , their struggles and their hope.

To give a brief history about COI (Cooperative Outreach of India), it started in 1993 when my dad and group of doctors, nurses, and missionaries with a passion for sharing the gospel of the kingdom of God with those who had never heard it before, got together. They went deep into the snowy Himalayan mountain range to minister to an unreached people group through medical care and showing the Jesus film. With time and God's grace, these camps soon spilled over to other parts of Northern India and God used theses medical camps and the Jesus film to bring people to Himself. As a result, churches began to be planted and more areas began to open, each having needs specific to them. Thus COI found itself doing not only medical camps, but running schools for underprivileged children, reviving and running abandoned hospitals, running tailoring centers for women, and planting churches among many other things.

I remember the days when COI was still in its initial stages; my brother and I were little and we would miss our dad because he would be busy for days on end setting up the structure for the ministry and trying to get it started. But we knew it was all worth it because Jesus' name was being made known to people who would have never known about the Savior if it wasn't for these bunch of people that God was working through. All Glory be to our God!

This summer, Daniel and I visited India to meet and spend time with the people that have come to Christ from out of their traditional beliefs and have boldly declared their faith to their communities. As a result, many have been thrown out of their communities, many have had their lands and possessions seized, some have been beaten, and a few killed. It was heartbreaking but encouraging at the same time to hear their stories of faith. They added a whole new meaning to what it means to “take up the cross and follow Christ.”

We got to film footage, which we are working on editing right now, of some of the new believers sharing their testimonies. These are people that need to be prayed for with stories that need to be told so that God's name may be magnified more and more everyday. I am thankful to get to be part of the ministry God has established through my family.