This is an article from the November-December 1994 issue: India

India—Is it the Greatest Remaining Challenge?

India—Is it the Greatest Remaining Challenge?

India with her 900 million people, 746 million of whom are Hindu, is probably the toughest nut to crack in the world today when it comes to reaching all of the world's unreached peoples. Although there are more Muslim peoples in the world, Dr. Winter makes the point in his article on page 16 that Hindus are locked in bondage to a demonically inspired religious system that is many steps farther from Christ than that of Muslims. The Muslim theology is much closer to Christian theology than Hinduism is, and therefore Hindus have a much longer way to go to become Christians. The problem is that very few of the missionaries and ministries working in India are actually working with the Hindus. Most are working to build up nominal Christians or to reach tribal peoples where Christianity has been more successful. On top of all this, India has more Muslims than Iran or Bangladesh. According to many mission experts, they are also much easier to reach than those located in the Middle East. We should consider, then, placing more of our efforts on reaching these Muslims first and sending them as missionaries to the Middle East instead of focusing just on sending Western missionaries to the Middle East.

But it doesn't stop there, there are Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and many more varieties of beliefs and ethnic backgrounds. India is an incredibly complex mixture of peoples and religions ranging from white Aryans to oriental Asians. But the good news is that India can be reached if we will each just do our small bit by focusing on one of her unreached peoples.

India is one of the best illustrations of the need for a people-group approach. There is no other way to reach all the people of India without focusing on the people groups within which they live. And the

best way for churches to be involved in reaching these people groups is through the Adopt-A-People movement. Less than one percent of the churches in America could cover all of the 2,000 unreached peoples of India, if they would only step forward to take on the challenge.

Adopt-A-People Advocates Needed In order to reach all of the 11,000 unreached people groups in the world, we need thousands of people who will step forward to spearhead the Adopt-A-People movement in their local churches here in the US and around the world. We call these people Adopt-A-People Advocates. You as one person can have a tremendous impact, right where you are, in reaching one or more of the unreached peoples by focusing the attention of your church and others on "adopting" one of the unreached peoples.

You don't have to be a seminary graduate, but you do need to be committed and willing to persevere in reaching one of the unreached peoples. There is no telling what one person with a vision for one of the unreached peoples can accomplish with God's help. The commitment is not a light one, but the contribution that you can make is enormous. I believe that these Advocates are key to the success of the entire Adopt-A-People movement.

If you are interested in being one of the Adopt-A-People Advocates then please write or call the Mobilization Division here at the US Center. They will be happy to send you information on how you can mobilize your church to Adopt-A-People. You can write them at the address below or call 818-398-2200.

Mobilizing Indians to Reach India. India is important to us at Mission Frontiers for another reason. India is now the place where we are printing and mailing Mission Frontiers for overseas distribution. We are also working to mobilize Indians by sending out MF to 12,000 Indian Christian leaders there in India for just 4 cents for Indian postage. We simply could not afford to do this from the US.

We can do it in 1995 Even though we are saving thousands of dollars by printing and mailing MF in India, we still need faithful supporters to come along side us and help cover our costs. So far this year, we have received 400 gifts of $136.50 or more from our readers along with 500 smaller gifts. We are so very grateful for these gifts but this represents only one person out of one hundred of our readers. As a result, we will not be able to cover all of our expenses this year. But next year is a new opportunity to try again.

If we are to cover our costs in 1995, we will need to double this level of response from you, our readers. If you are one of those who are able to give and have not yet sent in a gift, please consider it. It will be a constant struggle for us to cover our costs year after year until those faithful individuals whom God has blessed will step forward to bless MF. Our policy is that we will gladly send MF to anyone who requests it and is not able to help cover our costs with a donation. But we do request that those who are able, send in a donation to cover our expenses.

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