Report from BHW India Partnership Facilitator 

In January 2018 Bright Hope World ran a summit in Bangalore for all our Indian and Nepalese partners. This was an amazing time which almost every one of our partners attended. In total we had about 40 people from India and Nepal and another nine from New Zealand, England and the USA. 

We prayed this would be a time where our partners met one another (many for the first time), learned from each other, were encouraged in the Lord, and went home inspired to keep serving the Lord in their communities. The Lord answered our prayer. 

It was so encouraging, and inspiring, to listen to every partner share their ministry’s story. From those who have been serving in ministry for 30+ years, to those who have just started in the past 18 months, every story impacted this gathering of believers. 

Running the conference in Bangalore meant I couldn’t visit each of the partners in their own environment and so I am only able to provide a brief update from each of the partnerships. 

Molay and Anita Kanti Das – Barasat, West Bengal 

Molay came to the conference but Anita was not able to attend as the children were about to sit their school exams. He spoke well, told a bit of his story and showed good pictures about the project. The tutoring and children’s ministry is going really well and generating good responses from families.

He is very passionate about the tutoring programme. Children are passing their exams, some for the first time in their lives. The programme is beginning to operate well as it is opening doors into the homes of the children. 

As well as tutoring the children, their VBS programmes are growing and the Christmas programmes were very successful with large numbers of children and parents attending.  

Molay is a very engaging guy and it was great to spend time with him and hear the stories. A lot of his time is taken up with encouraging the people in the little church that meets in their home. Actually, they live in the church building so every time there is a meeting they have to shift everything into their bedroom to make room for the people.

You will see from the prayer points some of the issues he faces as the pastor. Many of their people are elderly and require medical and even food assistance. If there is a need for accommodation the person comes to stay with them. It’s very full on.

When young people become believers they are often kicked out of their families and the pastor's role is to find them employment and eventually a marriage partner and then to host the wedding. 

Prayer Points

1) Pray that many children and their parents connected to the tutoring programme may come to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus 

2) That they will be able to find suitable life partners for the girls who come from Hindu backgrounds

3) There are three young men in the church with no proper job. They are looking at options to try and find a way for them to get jobs and have begun a discussion about getting electric rickshaws to enable them to have income.

4) Some of the Christians are facing opposition from their non-Christian relatives.